The children had been infected with the holiday atmosphere. They were playing boisterously, and Emma and her sister were trying to protect their father from the children’s high spirits.

Further excitement had been caused by a flurry of snow. Unluckily for the children, the flurry soon stopped, and Henry spent the rest of the afternoon asking when it would start again.

The subject affected everyone variously: Isabella was so keen to please her children that I think she would have caused a snowstorm if she could; Mr. Woodhouse was worried that snow would cause all manner of accidents, and decided that the only thing to do if it snowed would be to stay indoors; Emma shared her time between hoping for snow with the children and hoping for a lack of snow with her father. Harriet helped with the children, keeping them away from Mr. Woodhouse, except in small doses. This endeared her to Isabella, and the atmosphere was a happy one.

Even so, I could not help wishing that Harriet was at the Martins". Everyone was kind to her at Hartfield, but at Abbey Mill Farm she would have been someone of consequence, particularly if she had been betrothed to Robert Martin. She would have had a place in her own right, instead of being there as someone’s guest.


Tuesday 22 December

An invitation came from the Westons, inviting me to dinner at Randalls on the 24th. I was about to answer it when John arrived.

"I would have been here earlier, but Isabella has been showing the children to all her friends, and I could not have them until they had returned to Hartfield. It is a pretty thing, when a man may not have his children until his wife has done with them!" he said.

The boys were eager for their riding lesson, and whilst John and I encouraged them, we talked of the Westons" party.

"Isabella and Emma have managed to persuade their father to accept the invitation," he said.

"Have they indeed? They have done well. He does not like to go out at the best of times, and at Christmas, with his family at Hartfield, and snow threatening out of doors, I thought they would find it impossible."

"The Westons have consulted his feelings in everything. The hours are early and the guests few. Besides, I said that if he did not care to go, then Isabella and I must go without him, for we could not snub the Westons. He became so agitated at the thought of treating the Westons with less than their due that he was persuaded, particularly once Isabella had pointed out to him that there would be no difficulty in conveying everyone, as we had our own carriage at Hartfield."

"I mean to go, too."

The boys had finished their lesson, and we walked down to the stream. It had been so cold overnight that it had frozen over. The boys delighted in skating on it in their shoes, and we have promised them that, if the weather holds, we will skate properly tomorrow.

"Do you not miss all this?" I asked John.

"I do, but I would miss my business more, and it holds me in town. I cannot have both, so I am content with visiting you whenever I can."

By the time we returned to Hartfield, the boys were exhausted, and they were able to sit and play quietly by the fireside.

"What good children they are," said Mr. Woodhouse contentedly.

"When they have had Uncle Knightley to wear them out!" said Emma. "It is a good thing he invited them to the Abbey, where they could run about."

"They are lively children. They need to use up their energy, and where better than at their uncle’s house? And what have you been doing?" I asked Emma.

I looked at the drawing by the fire and picked it up. I noticed that it had not been done by Emma, but by her niece.

"This is good. This is very good," I said teasingly to Emma. "I think it is your best work"

Emma laughed.

"I cannot aspire to such greatness. That is Bella’s picture."

"Did you do this?" I asked Bella.

She nodded.

"And what is it?" I asked, looking at the squiggle on the paper. "Is it a castle?"

She shook her head.

"Is it a horse?"

She shook her head again,

"What then?"

"Papa!" she cried.

I looked at it from every direction, and discerned an eye and a mouth.

"A very good likeness. I like it even better than your aunt Emma’s portrait of Papa. You have caught his expression beautifully."

Bella was delighted, and we settled down to a comfortable family evening. Mr. Woodhouse seemed to have accepted our dining at the Westons" as a settled thing, and a few more cheerful conversations on the subject reconciled him to going out on a cold, dark evening.

As I walked home, I found I was looking forward to it.


Wednesday 23 December

I had Horrocks find our skates, so that by the time John joined me with the children, I was ready to take them down to the stream.

John and I showed the boys how to fasten the skates, helping them as they needed it, and then we all ventured on to the ice. The weather was perfect for our enterprise. The air was cold, but not biting, and a weak sun shone down on our faces. The exercise was invigorating, so that we all returned to Hartfield with hearty appetites.

After taking tea, Emma proposed charades. Isabella fell in with the suggestion readily enough. Harriet seemed lethargic, but was compliant. The children went up to the attic with Emma and Isabella, and came down with an armful of clothes. There was great hilarity as Bella put on an old dress of Isabella’s, which was far too big for her, and walked round in her mother’s shoes, which were also far too large. In vain did Emma, Harriet and Isabella try to persuade her to part with her treasures, and tempt her with other, more suitable, clothes!

The children were too young to understand much of it, but they liked dressing up, and the rest of the party enjoyed the game.

The first charade took us some time to guess. It began with Isabella and the children sitting down, throwing something through the air. A great deal of laughter was produced by our false guesses, until John guessed that they were fishing, and we arrived, by circuitous route, at "river-bank". A moment’s further thought showed us the word was simply "bank". Emma then came in dressed as a queen.

Mr. Woodhouse could offer no guesses, being more concerned with Emma’s beauty, and for myself I had to agree, for I have always found her face and form to be more pleasing than any other I have ever seen.

I could not immediately see the significance, until I thought again of the first syllable, and realized the word was "bank-note", with Emma being a woman of note.

By the time the game was over, it was obvious why Harriet was so lethargic. She was suffering from a cold. She said that she must return to Mrs. Goddard’s, and Emma would not hear of it, saying she could not allow her friend to leave the house. But Harriet begged to be allowed to be nursed by Mrs. Goddard, so the carriage was sent for, and Harriet was conveyed home.

Mr. Woodhouse was anxious all evening, hoping Harriet might not take a turn for the worse, but offering tragic tales of colds that had turned to pneumonia, leading to early graves. Isabella watched her children anxiously, lest one of them should have also taken cold. She and her father argued about the cures recommended by their respective physicians, and Emma sensibly decided to take the children up to the nursery. John and I retreated behind our newspapers, and let Isabella and her father have their argument in peace.


Thursday 24 December

John had an opportunity to warn Emma about Elton’s attentions today, though whether she has taken the hint he does not know. He chanced to meet them both this morning, when he was returning from the Abbey with the boys. Emma seemed very solicitous of Elton, John told me, which alarmed me, until I had heard the full tale. She had tried to persuade him that he had a cold, and that he should not go to the Westons this evening as he was not well enough.

"Elton did not know what to say," said John. "He had no sign of a cold that I could see, yet he did not want to contradict her."

"I see her purpose! She wanted him to spend the evening thinking of her little friend, and perhaps calling in at Mrs. Goddard’s to ask after Miss Smith, instead of dining at Randalls."

"I thought you said that Elton was in love with Emma, not Harriet?" asked John with a frown.

"Not in love. I said his ambition tended in that direction. But they are at cross-purposes. Emma’s ambitions are in a different quarter. She thinks that he will marry her friend."

"What! The parlour boarder?"

"Yes."

"Has Emma taken leave of her senses?" he asked.

"The girl is pretty."

"And so are a hundred other girls. He has only to go to Brighton, or Bath, to find plenty of well-born, pretty young ladies with a handsome dowry, who would not turn down a handsome vicar."

I brought him back to the point, asking if he had warned Emma, and learning that he had.

"And what did she reply?" I asked.

"That I was mistaken. That she and Mr. Elton were friends and nothing more."

"Foolish girl! Well, she has been warned. If he proposes now, at least it will not take her entirely by surprise."

"He will not get a chance tonight," John said. "I have offered to take him in my carriage. And once at the Westons he will get no time alone with her."

I was reassured. Even so, I had followed Emma’s progress with such interest, for so many years, that I was curious to know what the evening would bring.