Emma heard her mother afterward in a low voice telling their father the story she had just heard from her daughters, and giving Mrs. Grayson as authority.
“The less she says about it the better,” drily remarked Mr. Appleton.
“You remember, my dear,” continued his wife, “that affair of her sister.”
“To be sure,” he replied. “A bad business. I always wondered how they got over it.”
And then Mr. and Mrs. Appleton had a long, comfortable, cosy talk, in which things long past and forgotten were brought to life, as the old couple warmed up in their reminiscences of “old times.” Emma soon tired, and gave up trying to keep the thread of grandmothers and great-aunts, particularly as her father and mother frequently confounded the present with the past generation, and she found that the “young Tom Somebody,” that they were talking of, was now the “old Tom,” of present times; the “young Tom” being a middle-aged man, with a Tom junior treading fast on his heels.
Charlotte and Emma were now talking over their morning visiters, and Emma again spoke with some warmth of Mrs. Willing’s remarks on Mrs. Norton, who happened to be Emma’s particular admiration, her extravagance being, in her opinion, “very natural.”
“I can conceive,” she added, “of people’s
‘Compounding sins they are inclined for,
By damning those they have no mind for,’
but to abuse people for doing what you are doing yourself, is rather too much.”