In this state of suspense they were befriended, not by any sudden illumination of Mr. Woodhouse’s mind, or any wonderful change of his nervous system, but by the operation of the same system in another way.—­ Mrs. Weston’s poultry-house was robbed one night of all her turkeys—­ evidently by the ingenuity of man.  Other poultry-yards in the neighbourhood also suffered.—­Pilfering was housebreaking to Mr. Woodhouse’s fears.—­He was very uneasy; and but for the sense of his son-in-law’s protection, would have been under wretched alarm every night of his life.  The strength, resolution, and presence of mind of the Mr. Knightleys, commanded his fullest dependence.  While either of them protected him and his, Hartfield was safe.—­ But Mr. John Knightley must be in London again by the end of the first week in November.

The result of this distress was, that, with a much more voluntary, cheerful consent than his daughter had ever presumed to hope for at the moment, she was able to fix her wedding-day—­and Mr. Elton was called on, within a month from the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Martin, to join the hands of Mr. Knightley and Miss Woodhouse.

The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own.—­“Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business!—­Selina would stare when she heard of it.”—­But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.

FINIS