Emma

“Thank you, thank you.—This is just what I wanted to be assured of.—Oh!
if you knew how much I love every thing that is decided and
open!—Good-bye, good-bye.”




CHAPTER XVII


Mrs. Weston’s friends were all made happy by her safety; and if the
satisfaction of her well-doing could be increased to Emma, it was by
knowing her to be the mother of a little girl. She had been decided in
wishing for a Miss Weston. She would not acknowledge that it was with
any view of making a match for her, hereafter, with either of
Isabella’s sons; but she was convinced that a daughter would suit both
father and mother best. It would be a great comfort to Mr. Weston, as
he grew older—and even Mr. Weston might be growing older ten years
hence—to have his fireside enlivened by the sports and the nonsense,
the freaks and the fancies of a child never banished from home; and
Mrs. Weston—no one could doubt that a daughter would be most to her;
and it would be quite a pity that any one who so well knew how to
teach, should not have their powers in exercise again.

“She has had the advantage, you know, of practising on me,” she
continued—“like La Baronne d’Almane on La Comtesse d’Ostalis, in Madame