The gipsies did not wait for the operations of justice; they took themselves off in a hurry.  The young ladies of Highbury might have walked again in safety before their panic began, and the whole history dwindled soon into a matter of little importance but to Emma and her nephews:—­in her imagination it maintained its ground, and Henry and John were still asking every day for the story of Harriet and the gipsies, and still tenaciously setting her right if she varied in the slightest particular from the original recital.

CHAPTER IV

A very few days had passed after this adventure, when Harriet came one morning to Emma with a small parcel in her hand, and after sitting down and hesitating, thus began: 

“Miss Woodhouse—­if you are at leisure—­I have something that I should like to tell you—­a sort of confession to make—­and then, you know, it will be over.”

Emma was a good deal surprized; but begged her to speak.  There was a seriousness in Harriet’s manner which prepared her, quite as much as her words, for something more than ordinary.

“It is my duty, and I am sure it is my wish,” she continued, “to have no reserves with you on this subject.  As I am happily quite an altered creature in one respect, it is very fit that you should have the satisfaction of knowing it.  I do not want to say more than is necessary—­I am too much ashamed of having given way as I have done, and I dare say you understand me.”

“Yes,” said Emma, “I hope I do.”

“How I could so long a time be fancying myself! . . .” cried Harriet, warmly.  “It seems like madness!  I can see nothing at all extraordinary in him now.—­I do not care whether I meet him or not—­except that of the two I had rather not see him—­ and indeed I would go any distance round to avoid him—­but I do not envy his wife in the least; I neither admire her nor envy her, as I have done:  she is very charming, I dare say, and all that, but I think her very ill-tempered and disagreeable—­I shall never forget her look the other night!—­However, I assure you, Miss Woodhouse, I wish her no evil.—­No, let them be ever so happy together, it will not give me another moment’s pang:  and to convince you that I have been speaking truth, I am now going to destroy—­what I ought to have destroyed long ago—­what I ought never to have kept—­ I know that very well (blushing as she spoke).—­However, now I will destroy it all—­and it is my particular wish to do it in your presence, that you may see how rational I am grown.  Cannot you guess what this parcel holds?” said she, with a conscious look.

“Not the least in the world.—­Did he ever give you any thing?”

“No—­I cannot call them gifts; but they are things that I have valued very much.”

She held the parcel towards her, and Emma read the words Most precious treasures on the top.  Her curiosity was greatly excited.  Harriet unfolded the parcel, and she looked on with impatience.  Within abundance of silver paper was a pretty little Tunbridge-ware box, which Harriet opened:  it was well lined with the softest cotton; but, excepting the cotton, Emma saw only a small piece of court-plaister.