Miss Watson

“ Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldn’t stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, “Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry;” and “Don’t scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight;” and pretty soon she would say, “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don’t you try to behave?” ”

“ I do not much think she is like any of the family _but_ Miss Watson; but I am very sure there is no resemblance between her and Sam."
This matter was settled, and they went to dinner.
"Your father, Miss Emma, is one of my oldest friends," said Mr. Edwards, as he helped her to wine, when they were drawn round the fire to enjoy their dessert. "We must drink to his better health. It is a great concern to me, I assure you, that he should be such an invalid. I know nobody who likes a game of cards, in a social way, better than he does, and very few people that play a fairer rubber. ”

“ On the third day after the ball, as Nanny, at five minutes before three, was beginning to bustle into the parlour with the tray and the knife-case, she was suddenly called to the front door by the sound of as smart a rap as the end of a riding-whip could give; and though charged by Miss Watson to let nobody in, returned in half a minute with a look of awkward dismay to hold the parlour door open for Lord Osborne and Tom Musgrave. The surprise of the young ladies may be imagined. ”

“ It is a far better plan to tell Miss Jenkins that she looks like an angel in the sky, when sitting in her blue pew, or to hint to old Mrs. Adams, that the crimson moreen gives quite a juvenile glow to her complexion."
"In short," said Emma, gravely, "to encourage people's weaknesses in order to gain their good will."
"Precisely so—it is the only way to live at peace with all the world; at least, the world of Croydon; why should I risk their repose and mine, by voluntarily encountering them on their hobbies. Follow my advice, my dear Miss Watson, and make the best of those you meet with here." ”

“ If you wanted to take a drive with Miss Watson, why did you not take her in your curricle, Gordon?"
"Because, my good fellow," replied the baronet; "the curricle being uncovered, would have exposed us to the rain; you had better trust to me, Miss Watson, and let me lift you out—the step is very awkward for a lady—gently, now, there, you are safe," as he set her down within the porch, "I hope you are none the worse for your expedition. ”

“ Do you ride?"
"No, my lord."
"I wonder every lady does not; a woman never looks better than on horseback."
"But every woman may not have the inclination, or the means."
"If they knew how much it became them, they would all have the inclination; and I fancy, Miss Watson, when once they had the inclination, the means would soon follow."
"Your lordship thinks we always have our own way. _That_ is a point on which ladies and gentlemen have long disagreed; but without pretending to decide it, I may say that there are some circumstances which even _women_ cannot control. ”

“ Mr. Watson was a very retiring, quiet little man, awed into obscurity by his wife. After a long and persistent effort to interest him in conversation, I was compelled to give it up, and to leave him smiling blankly, with his gaze directed toward the Argand burner.
Mrs. Watson was immense in every sense of the word. Her moral and mental dimensions were awe-inspiring; and she delivered what I afterwards found, on reflection, to be very commonplace [88] utterances in a style in which unction, dogmatism, self-satisfaction, and finality were predominant. ”

“ Watson's sisters," said Jane laconically.
"Ah I remember—poor things, orphans—Miss Margaret I beg your pardon, I ought to have known you—I believe it was the black gown deceived me—elegant—black always looks well—and Miss Margaret's slender figure sets it off to advantage. What a sweet pretty face," (eyeing Emma) "really you must be quite proud of your new sisters, Mrs. Watson. Now I don't know anything pleasanter than a pretty face—it's so cheerful—all three so remarkably good-looking too—they are not the least like you, Mrs. Watson." ”

“ Watson, said she, I am going to introduce a lady whose brightest charms will soon be visible to you.—The best man in the world! whisper'd she, putting my hand in his;—which hand I could not avoid putting to my lips.—Thank you, Miss Warley, said her Ladyship, we all revere this gentleman.—Mr. Watson was affected, some drops stole from their dark prisons, and he bless'd me as if I had been his daughter:—my pleasure was exquisite,—it seem'd as if I had receiv'd the benediction of an angel. ”

“ A very pretty thing indeed, Miss Emma Watson—a very pretty thing, that you are to be fancying yourself too grand and too great to walk out with my child—want a servant sent after you, do you—I wonder what your ladyship will want next—upon my word, for such a little saucy minx as you, to be giving yourself such airs, is rather too good, I must say. ”

“ It was so extraordinary, so incredible, so unheard of, that a young woman like Elizabeth Watson—not so very young—for she was at least thirty, they said, if not more—who had never been handsome, and was now decidedly faded—without money, for every one knew she was dependent on her brother—in short, with none of the requisites for matrimony, except a pleasing person, an amiable and unselfish disposition, good temper, and a most affectionate heart, that such a girl should have presumed to try for George Millar's hand! ”

“ I could do very well single for my own part; a little company, and a pleasant ball now and then, would be enough for me, if one could be young forever; but my father cannot provide for us, and it is very bad to grow old and be poor and laughed at. I have lost Purvis, it is true; but very few people marry their first loves. I should not refuse a man because he was not Purvis. Not that I can ever quite forgive Penelope."
Emma shook her head in acquiescence.
"Penelope, however, has had her troubles," continued Miss Watson. ”

“ I tell you, Watson, I've only known her these few weeks, but from the first I just felt that she was made for me, and she, too—she was happy when she was with me, and that I'll swear. There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words. ”

“ Put her down the well at once. Humanity calls upon us to do it. Why should she awaken to a sense of her disappointment, Watson? Put her down at once, and she will never awaken at all to a sense of anything."
"Very well. Come on, business is business."
"You—you don't want me?"
"Don't I," said Watson, bending his shaggy brows upon him, and looking extra hideous on account of a large black patch over one eye, which he bore as a relict of his encounter with Tobias. "Don't I? Hark you, Fogg; if you won't come and help me to do it, you shall have it to do by yourself, without me at all." ”

“ Emma spent the greater part of the next day in her father's room. It was much more agreeable to her than the drawing-room; and Elizabeth, with all her good qualities, was not equal to her as a nurse, and really loved society and conversation, or rather chit-chat, so much as to be very glad to believe her sister's assertion, that she took pleasure in attending on her father. Mr. Watson, though indolent and self-indulgent, was a scholar, and enjoyed the pursuits of literature when not attended by too much labour. ”

“ When a man instead of sleeping runneth away, the potion was ill mingled, I doubt, mistress Watson—drove him crazy perchance.'
'She who waked him when he ought to have slept hath to bear the blame, not I, my lord.'
'Thou shouldst, I say, have kept better watch. But tell me whom meanest thou by that same SHE?'
'She who was found in his chamber, my lord,' said mistress Watson, compressing her lips, as if, come what might, she would stand on the foundation of the truth. ”

“ I replied simply, “and I am willing.”
“You are a good man,” she remarked softly, and passed out into the hall. In the pretty drawing-room she stopped and looked at me. “I will accept your offer,” she said. “You shall take it away. Have you any money? Stay, here is a sovereign, which will suffice perhaps.” She pressed a piece of gold into my hands, and feverishly turned away. At the door she paused, and took a step again towards me. “There is a chest that stands in the hall,” she whispered, her eyes straining eagerly into mine, her pallid face bent close to me. ”

“ They were the steps of a man. It could not be Penelope. It must be Samuel. The door opened, and displayed Tom Musgrave in the wrap of a traveller. He had been in London, and was now on his way home, and he had come half-a-mile out of his road merely to call for ten minutes at Stanton. He loved to take people by surprise with sudden visits at extraordinary seasons, and, in the present instance, had had the additional motive of being able to tell the Miss Watsons, whom he depended on finding sitting quietly employed after tea, that he was going home to an eight-o'clock dinner. ”

“ Robert Watson was standing over the fire talking to a gloomy, dark-browed young man, a stranger to Emma, who seemed to consider that in conferring the favor of his bodily presence on the Watsons, he was doing them so great an honor, that there was no occasion for him to trouble himself with any further efforts, and that the absence of mind in which he ostentatiously indulged, was due to his own dignity, impaired, or at least endangered by the situation in which he had suffered himself to be placed. ”

“ He was sure that his heart was buried with Dorothea, and it was his duty to console and soothe this poor girl with fraternal solicitude. Suddenly she sprang from him.
"No, no," she cried between her sobs; "your arms have been about her; her head has rested on you. Oh, my God, Frank! Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't I realise? You have given me nothing—I only have the remnants. You are divided between me and the dead."
"No, no, no," he urged softly; "you are overwrought; you are foolish, Marion. This is being morbid." He would not deny that re-arisen love. ”

“ But I ran him to the door and filluped him out into the hall, and then, returning, found her ladyship fair rolling on the couch with laughter.
“O Ryder, dear!” she cried, “you are an uncommon entertainment. Faith, you capture my heart.”
But here again there was an interposition upon us; for Miss came hastily into the room with a billet for her ladyship.
“O Gemini!” cries her ladyship. “Foh, what is this? You interrupt us. I want not your bills. Lord, you should ha’ seen my Sir Paul with Sir Charles here. Troth, there’s comedy left in life.” ”

“ Watson, with an air of great satisfaction, "I hope I can see through people a little. If there is one quality I pride myself on, it is my penetration. I am blessed, I acknowledge, with a singular facility for discerning characters, and what I think I must say. I speak my feelings almost unconsciously!"
"You are a wonderfully clever creature, Jane; I am sure I never knew any one to be compared to you; but, as to Emma, I think it's her intimacy with the Osbornes that has set her up so abominably ”

“ Watson, smiling graciously.
"Do you, George?" cried the young lady; "no, no, he considers me, without exception, the most troublesome of all his encumbrances; a charge which he is always trying to get rid of, by inducing some one else to undertake it. There is no telling you the pains he is at to throw the burden on some other unhappy man." ”

“ Watson a visit before leaving the house, and in answer to his gentle tap at the door, received an invitation to enter, which brought him into an extremely untidy and heated parlour. Jane was sitting over the fire with her feet on the fender, her gown turned up over her knees, and her petticoat emitting a strong smell of scorching, which almost overpowered him. ”

“ Sometimes he felt so lonely that he could not read, and then he sat looking into the fire hour after hour in bitter wretchedness.
He had spent three months in London now, and except for that one Sunday at Hampstead had never talked to anyone but his fellow-clerks. One evening Watson asked him to dinner at a restaurant and they went to a music-hall together; but he felt shy and uncomfortable. Watson talked all the time of things he did not care about, and while he looked upon Watson as a Philistine he could not help admiring him. ”

“ Watson’s theories on life and marriage are particularly characteristic:
“I would rather do anything than be a teacher at a school. I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never have. I should not like marrying a disagreeable man any more than yourself; but I do not think there are many very disagreeable men; I think I could like any good-humoured man with a comfortable income. I suppose my aunt brought you up to be rather refined.”
Emma Watson, in fact, like all Jane Austen’s heroines, shines by comparison with the rest of her family. ”

“ There is none other whom her dainty gaieties so become. She has in truth sedater moments as in this picture; but I am assured that her eyes go no further than the eyes of her happy sisters, her lips whisper nothing more. This visage of shy solemnity is not most notable of her, and yet I love its mute expression even as I love her speaking face. Her winsome smile in life possesses all my idle hours; her sober gaze from out the mellow canvas moves me to draw a little nearer to her through my daily work. Her gaiety is sweet to me, yet somehow I prefer her picture to be grave and quiet. ”