Chapter 4 — CHAPTER IV

Tom Bertram had of late spent so little of his time at home that he could be
only nominally missed; and Lady Bertram was soon astonished to find how very
well they did even without his father, how well Edmund could supply his place
in carving, talking to the steward, writing to the attorney, settling with the
servants, and equally saving her from all possible fatigue or exertion in every
particular but that of directing her letters.

The earliest intelligence of the travellers’ safe arrival at Antigua,
after a favourable voyage, was received; though not before Mrs. Norris had been
indulging in very dreadful fears, and trying to make Edmund participate them
whenever she could get him alone; and as she depended on being the first person
made acquainted with any fatal catastrophe, she had already arranged the manner
of breaking it to all the others, when Sir Thomas’s assurances of their
both being alive and well made it necessary to lay by her agitation and
affectionate preparatory speeches for a while.