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disaster. But she had been his first love and five years later when he got back from his voyage, he thought about her again. He even went so far as to send her flowers. He heard from the family grapevine that his gift left her speechless. She was miserable; her marriage was loveless.
    Now, in July 1838, as he headed toward Maer, he knew that the woman he married would have to be one who would not fight his passion for beetles and beaks of finches. He had loved natural history since he was a boy; he wrote late in life, “my love of natural science has been steady and ardent.” He didn’t want a wife who would fight him for attention; but he also couldn’t bear the thought of an unhappy marriage. Maybe it would all work out with Emma—if she didn’t mind his nose, and if he managed to conceal his religious doubts.
    When Charles arrived at the beautiful stone house of Maer, Emma and Elizabeth were preparing for a charity bazaar. Charles helped them choose dishes and knickknacks, and clean them for sale. But he thought most of the things were quite ugly. He teased them and told them he did not think they would make much money selling such horrid items. He refused to buy anything unless the honor of his family demanded he do so. The Wedgwood women were not offended. They enjoyed him very much for his charm and high spirits as well as for his forthrightness and openness.
    One evening during the visit, Charles pulled Emma into the library—where she had spent many hours reading history, philosophy, French, and her favorite novels (she loved Jane Austen). Charles and Emma had an intimate talk, a “goose,” as they called it, by the fire. A man and a woman alone by the fire was a sure sign of something. They talked quietly for a long time, but Charles did not bring up the subject of marriage.
    Emma felt that if they saw more of each other, Charles would really like her. But she had no idea that he was thinking about proposing to her. Unlike the young women in the novels of Jane Austen, Emma Wedgwood was not mooning over Charles or plotting for a marriage. No one else was plotting on her behalf, either. Back when she had received those four or five marriage proposals, she had gotten “quite weary of it” One of the men who proposed, a curate who lived near Maer, was so upset when she turned him down that he walked Elizabeth around and around the pond in tears, asking what Emma thought was wrong with him. He was just not good enough to tear Emma away from her life at Maer. Nor were the others. It would take a special man to pry Emma away from home.

 
    Chapter 5
    Little Miss Slip-Slop
    Â 
    I love Maer much too well not to be glad
always when I come home.
    â€”F ANNY W EDGWOOD, FROM G ENEVA,
TO HER MOTHER , J ANUARY 1827
    Â 
    W hen he got back to London, Charles received a note from Emma, reporting on the success of the bazaar. He answered her, “My dear Emma, Many thanks for the news of the Bazaar, and for Elizabeth’s purchases…I am glad to hear there were some few uglier things at the Bazaar than those you took.” In newly industrialized England, riding the trains was an adventure and an unpredictable thing, so he reported on his trip. “I was altogether disappointed with the railroad—it was so rough and so much plague with the many changes.”
    And then he let his heart show a little. “This Marlborough St is a forlorn place.—We have no ducks here, much less geese, and as for that sentimental fat goose we ate over the Library fire,—the like of it seldom turns up.—I feel the same spiteful joy at hearing you have had no other geese.”
    He continued, “Pray remember I consider myself invited to Maer, the next time I come down into the country.—in fact, I think I have been so often that I have a kind of vested right, so see me you will, and we will have another goose.”
    But what did he mean when he said that their