“I am to hear from him soon,” continued Mrs. Weston.  “He told me at parting, that he should soon write; and he spoke in a manner which seemed to promise me many particulars that could not be given now.  Let us wait, therefore, for this letter.  It may bring many extenuations.  It may make many things intelligible and excusable which now are not to be understood.  Don’t let us be severe, don’t let us be in a hurry to condemn him.  Let us have patience.  I must love him; and now that I am satisfied on one point, the one material point, I am sincerely anxious for its all turning out well, and ready to hope that it may.  They must both have suffered a great deal under such a system of secresy and concealment.”

“His sufferings,” replied Emma dryly, “do not appear to have done him much harm.  Well, and how did Mr. Churchill take it?”

“Most favourably for his nephew—­gave his consent with scarcely a difficulty.  Conceive what the events of a week have done in that family!  While poor Mrs. Churchill lived, I suppose there could not have been a hope, a chance, a possibility;—­but scarcely are her remains at rest in the family vault, than her husband is persuaded to act exactly opposite to what she would have required.  What a blessing it is, when undue influence does not survive the grave!—­ He gave his consent with very little persuasion.”

“Ah!” thought Emma, “he would have done as much for Harriet.”

“This was settled last night, and Frank was off with the light this morning.  He stopped at Highbury, at the Bates’s, I fancy, some time—­and then came on hither; but was in such a hurry to get back to his uncle, to whom he is just now more necessary than ever, that, as I tell you, he could stay with us but a quarter of an hour.—­ He was very much agitated—­very much, indeed—­to a degree that made him appear quite a different creature from any thing I had ever seen him before.—­In addition to all the rest, there had been the shock of finding her so very unwell, which he had had no previous suspicion of—­ and there was every appearance of his having been feeling a great deal.”

“And do you really believe the affair to have been carrying on with such perfect secresy?—­The Campbells, the Dixons, did none of them know of the engagement?”

Emma could not speak the name of Dixon without a little blush.

“None; not one.  He positively said that it had been known to no being in the world but their two selves.”

“Well,” said Emma, “I suppose we shall gradually grow reconciled to the idea, and I wish them very happy.  But I shall always think it a very abominable sort of proceeding.  What has it been but a system of hypocrisy and deceit,—­espionage, and treachery?—­ To come among us with professions of openness and simplicity; and such a league in secret to judge us all!—­Here have we been, the whole winter and spring, completely duped, fancying ourselves all on an equal footing of truth and honour, with two people in the midst of us who may have been carrying round, comparing and sitting in judgment on sentiments and words that were never meant for both to hear.—­They must take the consequence, if they have heard each other spoken of in a way not perfectly agreeable!”