Farida's Blog

The most exciting and happy changes have taken place at Norhbrook Hall as of late. My brother has finally overcome his shockingly tenacious tendency to dislike Margaret and confessed his love! It would have been quite as shocking have we not all been witnesses to his growing affection for her these past months. They are to be married as soon as Mr. Stockley is ordained — he is, naturally, to conduct the ceremony.

And, speaking of matrimonial alliances, I have found myself a husband without so much as setting foot outside the house — something I am exceedingly proud of, as you understand. Mama always insisted that I would never find one if I was to sit and wait and yet all this sitting and waiting worked out splendidly, wouldn’t you say?

Of course, I did not expect to be a bride at nine and twenty and I am as shocked as every other person of my acquaintance, who had long since believed that I am to die a spinster. Nevertheless, we are to be married shortly and I am very pleased that I am going to continue a close neighbour to my dear brother and Margaret, now that we are such excellent friends.

I always wanted to make Margaret’s acquaintance — I confess I was curious to see for myself if she was as wicked as James assured us she was — and it was quite monstrous of James not to let her come to stay with us for ever so long. Yet I had no idea that Margaret’s coming to Northbrook would in fact change my life. It was quite fortunate that she should have such a nice gentleman friend and that he should not be in love with her as James professed him to be.

James seems to have a very poor understanding of what is going on around him and always comes to the wrong conclusions. I suppose as his sister it is my duty to inform him of this particular shortcoming, or he shall continue under the impression that he doesn’t have any.

I was always of an opinion that James’s negative attitude towards Margaret was greatly exaggerated. If one was to trust his judgment it appeared that all of the faults of the Fairfax family settled with the younger sister, while all the virtues belonged to the elder. To give James credit, I concede that the latter assumption was correct and Isabella was indeed as perfect as a mortal soul could possibly be.

But I suppose that if one of the sisters is a perfection, then the other must be burdened with the cross of wickidness. For instance, in the Westfield family this lot fell onto me. However, I am happy to say that both Margaret and I managed to overcome the urge to follow the path of vice and reformed our ways until it was too late.

But we have another example: the Stockley siblings and Catherine Stockley, who decided to follow it to the end. As a result we are all now in the state of great unease with Catherine, no doubt, having a mighty laugh at our expense as we are trying to save Mr. Linton from her latest scheme.