[Emma] Becoming Jane Fairfax

John Knightley is going to be a father again.

After receiving a letter from his brother, Mr. Knightley learned the good news. At the same time, John also asked him for help, asking him to come to London to help with some things, because John was busy taking care of his pregnant wife and four children at home. □ Lack of skills.

After two days of coming, Knightley quickly dealt with the matter, but before he planned to return to Highbury, he met Jane Fairfax on the way to the post office to post the letter.

When Wei Lai met Knightley, she suddenly realized that Highbury had quietly become a hometown in her heart. On the streets of London, she suddenly felt a strong nostalgia.

"I am very glad to see Mr. Knightley in London, and I miss Highbury very much. How are Miss Woodhouse and Harriet?"

Mr. Knightley was also happy to see Jane: "They are all very well, and Miss Bates and Mrs. Bates are also very well. I think you know that I visited them specially before I came to London, and I just received your letter. Misses and Mrs. Bates miss you very much, and so do Emma and Miss Smith, and everyone in Highbury misses you very much. You see, Miss Fairfax, we have been talking for so long on the high road, it is really inappropriate , and I still have some things to do, I wonder if you are free to visit my brother's house tomorrow?"

Knightley suddenly invited, and Wei Lai was a little stunned for a moment: "Tomorrow? Of course, I am very happy."

"Then it's settled." Mr. Knightley bowed gentlemanly, said goodbye to the two ladies, and turned away.

As soon as Knightley left, Mrs. Dixon couldn't control her gossip: "Who is this Mr. Knightley? He looks handsome and gentlemanly. Although he is a little older, is he married? "

Wei Lai felt that Mrs. Dixon could meet Emma, ​​and they would be able to happily exchange their experience in matchmaking.

"Mr. Knightley is not yet married."

Mrs. Dixon's eyes lit up.

Wei Lai laughed: "Alice, I know what you're thinking, but I want to tell you that Mr. Knightley and I are just ordinary friends. It's impossible for him to like me."

"Why? Jane, don't think so!" said Mrs. Dixon. "Although I don't know this Mr. Knightley, I can see that he must be well-educated, clean-born, and well-to-do. Gentleman, maybe you don't feel it yourself, but as an outsider, I can see clearly that he has an unusual expression when he talks to you. You believe me, it is not an ordinary expression between friends. I guess he has a crush on you, I My guesses are always accurate."

Wei Lai was not in a hurry to refute Mrs. Dixon's words. She thought about it carefully. Knightley's expression when he invited him to John's house was a little subtle, but she was sure that it was definitely not love.

"Jane, do you agree with me?" Mrs. Dixon smiled mockingly.

Wei Lai patted her arm lightly: "Impossible, I can tell you clearly that Mr. Knightley has his own heart, and he likes the daughter of a squire in Highbury. She is young, beautiful, lively, and The family background is comparable."

Mrs. Dixon was disappointed: "That's it... I thought... Then why did you agree to his invitation?"

Wei Lai spread his hands helplessly: "Who told Mrs. Baker to stay in London for another day?"

----

In the evening, Wei Lai finally had the inspiration to write again. She buried her head at her desk and wrote half of the story in a hurry. Her eyes were sore and she was about to take a break before continuing when Mrs. Dixon knocked on the door.

"Jane, are you asleep?"

In the silent night, Mrs. Dixon's voice seemed very ethereal. Wei Lai was so frightened that her heart trembled. Before she had time to put away the manuscript paper, she pushed the door open and walked in: "Your room door is unlocked, I knew You haven't slept yet, hey, what's that?"

Wei Lai grabbed the manuscript paper, pretended to be calm and folded it twice, and then stuffed it into the drawer: "It's a letter to my aunt and grandma."

Mrs. Dixon looked into the drawer curiously: "You used to show me your letters to Highbury before, and asked me to help you with your sentences. Can't you show me?"

You used to have this hobby.

Wei Lai blocked the drawer: "I'm sorry, Alice, I can't show you this time. Oh, by the way, is there anything you can do to find me?"

Mrs. Dixon was wearing a dark red pajamas, her hair was draped over her shoulders, and her face was deeply tired. She yawned and sat on Wei Lai's bed: "Jane, I will sleep with you tonight .”

"Huh?" Wei Lai disliked sleeping with other people the most, "Did you quarrel with Mr. Dixon?"

Mrs. Dixon shook her head blankly: "No, we are fine. Why, don't you want to? We used to lie on the same bed and chat."

"But, that was before." Wei Lai really didn't want to sleep with others, she tried to persuade Mrs. Dixon to go back to her room, "Look, you and Mr. Dixon are already married, and As a newlywed, you abandon your husband in the cold winter night, can you bear it?"

Mrs. Dixon stood up from the bed, locked on Wei Lai's face as if looking at a stranger.

"Alice, what are you looking at?" Wei Lai was a little hairy at seeing her.

Mrs. Dixon thought for a while and said, "Jane, I think you are different from before."

!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

See it?

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Wei Lai's back: "What's the difference? Does it look like it?"

"No, I just feel that when you come back this time, I feel that you have changed, and you have changed from the inside. But I can't say exactly what has changed. Take the fact that Mrs. Baker wants to ask you to be a tutor this time. Well, in the past, when you encountered such a thing, you would never tell me, let alone ask me to find a way, even if you were very unwilling, you would obey your mother. But now, you are different. "

Jane is an orphan girl, so of course she will live cautiously. No matter how good Colonel Campbell and his wife treat her, her surname is not Campbell. She has to remind herself of her identity all the time.But it's different now, she has her own means of earning money, and she doesn't intend to be attached to the Campbell's family, so she naturally wants to be more free.

"People will always change when they grow up, and it's not surprising that I have changed." Wei Lai sat next to her, and the two leaned against the wall, hugging their knees, wrapped in a quilt, and talking next to each other.

The candlelight in the room was very bright, and Mrs. Dixon turned her face to look at Jane. The candlelight reflected Jane's face red, and there seemed to be a light in Jane's eyes that she had never seen before.But Mrs. Dixon could not help feeling sad when she thought that her friend, who was born so beautiful, so wise, and so many talents, had to succumb to reality and become a governess.

"Jane, are you really not going to Ireland with me?"

"You are so persistent." Wei Lai laughed, "Okay, I promise you, when you get pregnant, I will definitely go to Ireland to see you, how about it?"

"But if I'm pregnant, I won't have the energy to give you any more balls."

Looking at Mrs. Dixon, Wei Lai thought of her former friends, and unconsciously said in a very soft voice: "I went to Ireland to see you, not to the ball. There is no ball, Highbury There is also."

"What's the matter, I just wanted to find happiness for you, and I held the dance party, when the time comes—" She paused as she spoke.

Wei Lai understood what she meant: "Are you afraid that I will already be a tutor by then?"

"Yes, of course I am worried." Mrs. Dixon was a little dissatisfied with Jane's indifferent attitude towards her future, "I am serious this time, I think you should go to Ireland with me, and I promise to find you a good husband."

Mrs. Dixon may not be a matchmaker, but she has to worry about Jane.Mrs. Dixon could nudge her to go to Ireland with her five times a day, but this time she was especially serious.

Wei Lai also told her very seriously: "Sorry, I won't go to Ireland for the time being."

"But Jane..." Mrs. Dixon stood up anxiously.

"Alice, did you ever think that I would find a job and support myself?" Wei Lai looked up at her.

Mrs. Dixon was taken aback, and immediately sat down again: "Family teacher? Didn't you say you don't want to?"

"I mean jobs other than tutoring." Wei Lai said vaguely.

Mrs. Dixon didn't understand: "Besides the tutor? What else? Jane, you don't mean to go out to work like a man... Jane, are you serious?"

Mrs. Dixon looked at her as if she was looking at some monster. Only then did Wei Lai realize that her psychological quality was not that strong, and she couldn't stand it.

"I mean if."

"Impossible," Mrs. Dixon denied emphatically. "Jane, I don't know where you got your idea, but I will tell you it's a very strange idea. I know there are people in Manchester and Liverpool." Female worker, do you know what a female worker is? Some factories are short of manpower and will recruit women to work. This is a female worker. These poor women do the same work as men, but they get very little money. These are true Yes, Mr. Dixon told me that his friend runs a textile factory in Manchester. And the environment there is very bad, the cotton flying all over the sky is easily inhaled into the lungs of people. I heard that some The female worker died before the age of 30. Only women from very poor backgrounds are willing to work as a female worker. Jane, do you want to live like this? I disagree, you should marry a man who doesn't let you worry about life, leisurely It's a man's job to live a lifetime, not a job!"

Mrs. Dixon's eyes turned red as she spoke, and she looked like she was about to cry. Wei Lai hurriedly comforted her: "Of course not, I'm cranky, you know I love cranky, Alice, don't cry, I don't It's time to say these words, sorry, I was wrong. It's getting late, I'll accompany you to wash your face and then come back to sleep. "

Wei Lai didn't expect her words to stimulate Mrs. Dixon so much. She cried intermittently until midnight and woke up the Campbells. The next day, they asked why Mrs. Dixon was crying. Wei Lai first For the first time, I felt an indescribable sense of powerlessness.