This was too loud a call for a compliment to be passed by, and Mr. Weston, with a very good grace, immediately exclaimed,

“My dear madam!  Nobody but yourself could imagine such a thing possible.  Not heard of you!—­I believe Mrs. Weston’s letters lately have been full of very little else than Mrs. Elton.”

He had done his duty and could return to his son.

“When Frank left us,” continued he, “it was quite uncertain when we might see him again, which makes this day’s news doubly welcome.  It has been completely unexpected.  That is, I always had a strong persuasion he would be here again soon, I was sure something favourable would turn up—­but nobody believed me.  He and Mrs. Weston were both dreadfully desponding. `How could he contrive to come?  And how could it be supposed that his uncle and aunt would spare him again?’ and so forth—­I always felt that something would happen in our favour; and so it has, you see.  I have observed, Mrs. Elton, in the course of my life, that if things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.”

“Very true, Mr. Weston, perfectly true.  It is just what I used to say to a certain gentleman in company in the days of courtship, when, because things did not go quite right, did not proceed with all the rapidity which suited his feelings, he was apt to be in despair, and exclaim that he was sure at this rate it would be May before Hymen’s saffron robe would be put on for us.  Oh! the pains I have been at to dispel those gloomy ideas and give him cheerfuller views!  The carriage—­we had disappointments about the carriage;—­one morning, I remember, he came to me quite in despair.”

She was stopped by a slight fit of coughing, and Mr. Weston instantly seized the opportunity of going on.

“You were mentioning May.  May is the very month which Mrs. Churchill is ordered, or has ordered herself, to spend in some warmer place than Enscombe—­in short, to spend in London; so that we have the agreeable prospect of frequent visits from Frank the whole spring—­ precisely the season of the year which one should have chosen for it:  days almost at the longest; weather genial and pleasant, always inviting one out, and never too hot for exercise.  When he was here before, we made the best of it; but there was a good deal of wet, damp, cheerless weather; there always is in February, you know, and we could not do half that we intended.  Now will be the time.  This will be complete enjoyment; and I do not know, Mrs. Elton, whether the uncertainty of our meetings, the sort of constant expectation there will be of his coming in to-day or to-morrow, and at any hour, may not be more friendly to happiness than having him actually in the house.  I think it is so.  I think it is the state of mind which gives most spirit and delight.  I hope you will be pleased with my son; but you must not expect a prodigy.  He is generally thought a fine young man, but do not expect a prodigy.  Mrs. Weston’s partiality for him is very great, and, as you may suppose, most gratifying to me.  She thinks nobody equal to him.”