Page:A memoir of Jane Austen (Fourth Edition).pdf/327

 Robert, who has got a good wife and six thousand pounds?’

‘We must not all expect to be individually lucky,’ replied Emma. ‘The luck of one member of a family is luck to all.'

‘Mine is all to come, I am sure,’ said Elizabeth, giving another sigh to the remembrance of Purvis. ‘1 have been unlucky enough; and I cannot say much for you, as my aunt married again so foolishly. Well, you will have a good ball, I daresay. The next turning will bring us to the turnpike: you may see the church-tower over the hedge, and the White Hart is close by it. I shall long to know what you think of Tom Musgrave.’

Such were the last audible sounds of Miss Watson's voice, before they passed through the turnpike-gate, and entered on the pitching of the town, the jumbling and noise of which made further conversation most thoroughly undesirable. The old mare trotted heavily on, wanting no direction of the reins to take the right turning, and making only one blunder, in proposing to stop at the milliner’s, before she drew up towards Mr. Edwards’ door. Mr. Edwards lived in the best house in the street, and the best in the place, if Mr. Tomlinson, the banker, might be indulged in calling his newly-erected house at the end of the tawn, with a shrubbery and sweep, in the country.

Mr. Edwards’ house was higher than most of its neighbours, with four windows on each side the door ; the windows guarded by posts and chains, and the door approached by a flight of stone steps.