About this story
On Box Hill a joke about Miss Bates's three dull things goes home like a dart, and Mr Knightley calls it badly done to your face. The amends are made at the cottage; the reward is a garden proposal that cannot make speeches. Fifty-five chapters carry a first claimed match to the smallest wedding of the year.
Who you’ll meet
George Knightley, who has ridden a mile through rain to congratulate the bride and not the matchmaker, arguing across the hearth with Mr Woodhouse, the anxious old man who is mourning a governess who moved half a mile away.
How it opens
The wedding carriage had vanished beyond Hartfield before the rain began.
Miss Taylor's empty work basket remained beside the drawing-room hearth.
Mr WoodhousePoor Miss Taylor. I wish she had not gone away.
Choose
Mrs Weston will visit us nearly every day.
Mr Weston has gained more than Hartfield lost.
We shall invite them before the cake is gone.