Welcome to sleep stories with Steph your go-to podcast.
That offers you a calm and relaxing transition.
Into a great night's sleep.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Close your eyes.
And feel yourself sink into the support beneath you.
And let all the worries of the day go.
Drift away.
This is your time.
And your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose.
And let it out with a long sigh.
That's it!
There is nothing you need to be doing now.
And know where you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter 14 Some change of countenance was necessary for each gentleman as they walked into Mrs Weston's drawing room.
Mr Elton must compose his joyous looks and Mr John Knightley disperse his ill humour.
Mr Elton must smile less and Mr John Knightley more to fit them for the place.
Emma only might as nature prompted and show herself just as happy as she was.
To her,
It was a real enjoyment to be with the Westerns.
Mr Weston was such a great favourite and there was not a creature in the world to whom she spoke with such unreserve as to his wife.
Not anyone to whom she related with such conviction of being listened to and understood.
Of being always interesting and always intelligible.
The little affairs,
Arrangements,
Perplexities and pleasures of her father and herself.
She could tell nothing of Hartfield in which Mrs.
Weston had not a lively concern,
And half an hour's uninterrupted communication of all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life depends was one of the first gratifications of each.
This was a pleasure which perhaps the whole day's visit might not afford.
Which certainly did not belong to the present half hour.
But the very sight of Mrs.
Weston,
Her smile,
Her touch,
Her voice,
Was grateful to Emma.
And she determined to think of as little as possible of Mr Elton's oddities.
Or of anything else unpleasant.
And enjoy all that was enjoyable to the utmost.
The misfortune of Harriet's cold had been pretty well gone before her arrival.
Mr.
Woodhouse had been safely seated long enough to give the history of it,
Besides all the history of his own and Isabella's coming,
And of Emma's being to follow,
And had indeed just got to the end of his satisfaction that James should come and see his daughter,
When others appeared,
And Mrs.
Weston,
Who'd been most wholly engrossed by her attentions to him,
Was able to turn away and welcome her dearest Emma.
Emma's project of forgetting Mr Elton for a while made her rather sorry to find,
When they'd all taken their places,
He was close to her.
The difficulty was great of driving his strange insensibility towards Harriet from her mind.
While he not only sat at her elbow,
But was continually obtruding his happy countenance on her notice.
And solicitously addressing her upon every occasion.
Instead of forgetting him,
His behaviour was such that she could not avoid the internal suggestion of,
Can it really be as my brother imagined?
Can it be possible for this man to be beginning to transfer his affections from Harriet to me?
Absurd and insufferable.
Yet he would be so anxious for her being perfectly warm,
Would be so interested about her father and so delighted with Mrs Weston.
And at last would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge.
It seemed terrible,
Like a would-be lover.
And made it some effort with her to preserve her good manners.
For her own sake she could not be rude,
And for Harriet's,
In the hope that all would yet turn out right.
She was even positively civil.
But it was an effort,
Especially as something was going on amongst the others in the most over-empowering period of Mr Elton's nonsense,
Which he particularly wished to listen to.
She heard enough to know Mr Weston was giving some information about his son.
She heard the words my son and Frank and my son repeated several times.
And from a few other half-syllables very much suspected he was announcing an early visit from his son.
But before she could quiet Mr Elton,
The subject was so completely passed that any reviving question from her would have been awkward.
Now it so happened that in spite of Emma's resolution of never marrying,
There was something in the name,
In the idea of Mr Frank Churchill which always interested her.
She had frequently thought,
Especially since his father's marriage with Miss Taylor,
If she were to marry,
He was the very person to suit her age,
Character and condition.
He seemed by this connection between the families quite to belong to her.
She could not but suppose it to be a match that everyone who knew them must think of.
That Mr and Mrs Weston did think of it,
She was strongly persuaded.
And though not meaning to be induced by him or anyone else to give up a situation which she believed more replete with good than any she could change it for,
She had a great curiosity to see him,
A decided intention of finding him pleasant,
Of being liked by him to a certain degree,
And a sort of pleasure in the idea that they're being coupled in their friend's imagination.
With such sensations,
Mr Elson's civilities were dreadfully out-timed.
But Emma had the comfort of appearing very polite while feeling very cross,
And of thinking the rest of the visit could not possibly pass without bringing forward the same information again,
Or the substance of it,
From the open-hearted Mr Weston.
So it proved.
For when happily released from Mr Elton and seated by Mr Weston at dinner He made use of the very first interval in the cares of hospitality the very first leisure from the saddle of a mutton to say.
.
.
We only want two more to be just the right number.
I should like to see two more here.
Your pretty little friend Miss Smith and my son.
And then I should say we were quite complete.
I believe you did not hear me telling the others in the drawing room we were expecting Frank?
I had a letter from him this morning and he will be with us within a fortnight.
Emma spoke with a very proper degree of pleasure and fully assented to his proposition of Mr Frank Churchill and Miss Smith,
Making their party quite complete.
He has been wanting to come to us,
Continued Mr Weston,
Ever since September.
Every letter has been full of it.
But he cannot command his own time.
He has to do to please who must be pleased,
And who are sometimes to be pleased only by a good many sacrifices.
But now I shall have no doubt of seeing him here about the second week in January.
What a very great pleasure it will be to you,
And Mrs Weston is so anxious to be equated with him,
That she must almost be as happy as yourself,
" said Emma.
Yeah,
She would be.
But that she thinks there will be another put-off.
She does not depend upon him coming as much as I do.
But she does not know all the parties so well as I do.
The cases you see.
A party of friends are invited to pay a visit at Enscombe in January.
I didn't mention it a syllable in the other room.
There are secrets in all families,
You know.
Frank's coming depends upon them being put off.
If they're not put off,
He cannot stir.
But I know they will,
Because it's a family that a certain lady of some consequence at Enscombe has a particular dislike to.
And though it's thought necessary to invite them once in two or three years,
They're always put off when it comes to the point.
I have not the smallest doubt of the issue.
I am as confident of seeing Frank here before the middle of January as I am of being here myself.
But you're good friend there.
Nodding towards the upper end of the table.
There's so very few vagaries herself,
And has been so little use to them at Hartfield,
That she cannot calculate on their effects,
As I have been long in the practice of doing.
I'm sorry there should be anything like doubt in the case,
Replied Emma,
But I'm disposed to side with you,
Mr Weston.
If you think he will come,
I shall think so too,
For you know Enscombe.
Yes,
I have some right to that knowledge,
Though I've never been in the place in my life.
She's an odd woman.
But I never allow myself to speak ill of her on Frank's account,
For I do believe her to be very fond of him.
I used to think she was not capable of being fond of anybody except herself.
But she's always been very kind to him in her way.
And it's no small credit,
In my opinion,
To him that he should excite such defection.
For though I would not say it to anyone else,
She has no more heart than a stone to people in general,
And the devil of a temper.
Emma liked this subject so well,
She began upon it to Mrs Weston very soon after their moving into the drawing room.
Mrs.
Weston agreed to the meeting,
But added she should be very glad to be secure of undergoing the anxiety of a first meeting at the time talked of.
I cannot depend upon his coming.
I cannot be so sanguine as Mr.
Weston.
I'm very much afraid it will all end in nothing.
Mr Western Ideas here has been telling you exactly how the matter stands.
Yes,
It seems to depend upon nothing but the ill humour of Mrs Churchill,
Which I imagine to be the most certain thing in the world.
My Emma.
Replied Mrs Weston,
Smiling.
What's the certainty of Caprice?
Then turning to Isabella,
Who had not been attending before.
You must know,
My dear Mrs Lightly,
That we are in no means of securing Mr Frank Churchill,
As his father thinks.
It depends entirely upon his aunt's spirits and pleasure,
In short,
Upon her temper.
To you,
My two daughters,
I may venture on the truth.
Mrs.
Churchill rules at Enscombe,
And she's a very old-tempered woman,
And his coming now depends upon her being willing to spare him.
Oh,
Mrs.
Churchill,
Everybody knows Mrs.
Churchill,
" replied Isabella.
I'm sure I never think of that poor young man without the greatest compassion.
To be constantly living with an ill-tempered person must be dreadful.
It is what we happily have never known anything of,
But it must be a life of misery.
What a blessing,
She never had any children.
Poor little creatures,
How unhappy she would have made them.
Emma wished she had been alone with Mrs Weston.
She should then have heard more.
Mrs Weston would speak to her with a degree of en reserve,
Which she would not hazard with Isabella.
And she really believed would scarcely try to conceal anything relative to the Churchills from her,
Excepting those views on the young man of which her own imagination had already given her such extinctive knowledge.
But at present there was nothing more to be said.
Mr.
Woodhouse very soon followed them into the drawing room.
To be sitting long after dinner was a confinement he could not endure.
Neither wine nor conversation was anything,
And gladly did he move to those with whom he was always comfortable.
While he talked to Isabella,
However,
Emma found an opportunity of saying.
.
.
And so you do not consider this visit from your son as by any means certain?
I'm sorry for it.
The introduction must be unpleasant whenever it takes place and the sooner it could be over the better.
Yes,
And every delay makes one more apprehensive of other delays.
Even if this family the Braithwaites are put off,
I am still afraid some excuse may be found for disappointing us.
I cannot bear to imagine any reluctance on his side.
But I'm sure there's a great wish on the Churchills to keep them to themselves.
There is jealousy,
You know.
Jealous even of his regard for his father.
In short,
I can feel no dependence on his coming and I wish Mr Weston were less sanguine.
He ought to come,
Said Emma.
If he could stay only a couple of days,
He ought to come.
And one can hardly conceive a young man's not having it in his power to do as much as that.
A young woman,
If she falls into bad hands,
May be teased and kept at a distance from those she wants to be with.
But one cannot comprehend a young man's being under such restraint as not to be able to spend a week with his father if he likes it.
One ought to be at Enscombe,
Replied Mrs Weston,
And know the ways of the family before one decides upon what he can do.
One ought to use the same caution perhaps in judging of the conduct of any one individual,
Of any one family.
But Enske may believe certainly must not be judged by general rules.
She is so very unreasonable and everything gives way to her.
But she's so fond of her nephew.
He's so great a favourite.
According to my idea of Mrs Churchill,
It would be most natural that while she makes no sacrifice for the comfort of the husband to whom she owes everything,
While she exercises an incessant caprice towards him.
She should frequently be governed by the nephew to whom she owes nothing at all.
My dearest Emma.
Do not pretend with your sweet temper to understand a bad one or to lay down rules for it.
You must let it go its own way.
I have no doubt of his having at times considerable influence,
But it may be perfectly impossible for him to know it beforehand when it will be.
Ever listen to this?
" then Coolie said.
I shall not be satisfied unless he comes.
He may have a great deal of influence on some points,
" continued Mrs.
Weston,
And on others very little,
And among those on which she is beyond his reach.
It is but too likely,
Maybe this very circumstance of his coming away from them to visit us.
