He does not even foresee any preference."
"But I hope to help him to a preference very soon," she thought, and
added aloud, "Dear, you will stay and dine with us?"
Emily replied that she could not, she was to dine with a neighbour; and
she shortly departed, in possession of the most imprudent speeches John
had ever made (for he was usually most reticent), and she could not
guess of course that one of his assertions time had already falsified.
He _had_ decided on the lady.
While the notion that he must marry had slumbered, his thought that
Emily should be his wife had slumbered also; but that morning, driving
towards Wigfield, he had stopped at his own house to give some orders,
and then had gone up into "Parliament" to fetch out some small
possessions that his twin daughters wanted. There, standing for a moment
to look about him, his eyes had fallen on his throne, and instantly the
image of Emily had recurred to him, and her attitude as she held his
little child. To give a step-mother to his children had always been a
painful thought.
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