The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë [cheapest way to read ebooks txt] 📗

of a suitable age, to whom I would more willingly resign her than yourself, or who would be more likely to appreciate her worth and make her truly happy, as far as I can tell.”

Of course I was delighted with the compliment, and hoped to show her that she was not mistaken in her favourable judgment.

“I have, however, one request to offer,” continued she. “It seems I am still to look on Staningley as my home: I wish you to make it yours likewise, for Helen is attached to the place and to me⁠—as I am to her. There are painful associations connected with Grassdale, which she cannot easily overcome; and I shall not molest you with my company or interference here: I am a very quiet person, and shall keep my own apartments, and attend to my own concerns, and only see you now and then.”

Of course I most readily consented to this; and we lived in the greatest harmony with our dear aunt until the day of her death, which melancholy event took place a few years after⁠—melancholy, not to herself (for it came quietly upon her, and she was glad to reach her journey’s end), but only to the few loving friends and grateful dependents she left behind.

To return, however, to my own affairs: I was married in summer, on a glorious August morning. It took the whole eight months, and all Helen’s kindness and goodness to boot, to overcome my mother’s prejudices against my bride-elect, and to reconcile her to the idea of my leaving Linden Grange and living so far away. Yet she was gratified at her son’s good fortune after all, and proudly attributed it all to his own superior merits and endowments. I bequeathed the farm to Fergus, with better hopes of its prosperity than I should have had a year ago under similar circumstances; for he had lately fallen in love with the Vicar of L⁠⸺’s eldest daughter⁠—a lady whose superiority had roused his latent virtues, and stimulated him to the most surprising exertions, not only to gain her affection and esteem, and to obtain a fortune sufficient to aspire to her hand, but to render himself worthy of her, in his own eyes, as well as in those of her parents; and in the end he was successful, as you already know. As for myself, I need not tell you how happily my Helen and I have lived together, and how blessed we still are in each other’s society, and in the promising young scions that are growing up about us. We are just now looking forward to the advent of you and Rose, for the time of your annual visit draws nigh, when you must leave your dusty, smoky, noisy, toiling, striving city for a season of invigorating relaxation and social retirement with us.

Till then, farewell,

Gilbert Markham.

Staningley: June 10th, 1827.

Colophon

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
was published in 1848 by
Anne Brontë.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Grigg,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1997 by
David Price
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Widow of a Painter,
a painting completed in 1870 by
Kate Bisschop-Swift.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
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