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IX . Aunt March Settles the Question Beth woke up the next morning and saw her mother’s face beside her bed . She smiled , held her mother’s hand and went back to sleep . Mrs March would not leave her for a moment . Later that day Amy was brought home from Aunt March’s house , and she had a long , happy talk with her mother about the lessons she had learned there . That evening Jo told her mother about Meg’s glove and Mr Brooke . “ I know , ” said Mrs March . “ Mr Brooke told us himself in Washington . He was so good to poor Father that we couldn’t refuse him . He loves Meg , but he wants to earn a comfortable home before he asks her to marry him . He is a good young man , Jo , and he is very poor . ” “ I knew it ! ” cried Jo . “ I wish I could marry Meg myself and keep her safe in the family . ” Mrs March smiled , but she was serious too . “ Meg is only seventeen , ” she said . “ Your father and I have agreed that she shall not marry before twenty . If she and John love each other , they can wait and test their love by doing so . ” A few days later Meg received a love letter in the Post Office . It seemed to come from Mr Brooke , and she had written a timid answer . But Mr Brooke had never sent a letter at all . It was Laurie’s idea of a joke . When Mrs March found out , she was seriously displeased , and Laurie was sincerely ashamed . Meg forgave him , but she said that she would never trust a letter again . Then Laurie went home , and his grandfather was so angry that he wanted to shake him . Laurie refused to explain what he had done , because he had promised Mrs March to keep the secret . He shut himself up in his room and threatened to run away . In the end Jo went over and made peace between them . She made the old gentleman write an apology to his grandson , and he did it , laughing at himself a little . Christmas came , and it was a very different Christmas from the last one . Beth was much better . She lay at the window in her mother’s red dressing gown and looked at a funny snow maiden which Jo and Laurie had built in the garden . Everybody had presents . Mr Laurence and Laurie had sent flowers and fruit , and Meg had a silk dress from her father . Then Laurie opened the parlour door and said in a strange , breathless voice , “ Here’s another Christmas present for the March family . ” Behind him stood a tall man wrapped up to the eyes , who leaned on the arm of another tall man . It was Mr March , and Mr Brooke was helping him . For several minutes everybody seemed to lose their wits . Mr March was hidden in the arms of four loving pairs . Jo nearly fainted , Mr Brooke kissed Meg entirely by mistake , as he later explained , and Amy fell over a stool and did not stop to get up . Beth ran straight into her father’s arms . After the dinner that evening Mr March praised each of his daughters . Meg’s hands were rough now from work , but he was prouder of them than of her old white hands . Jo was less wild and more gentle , Amy had learned to think of others , and Beth , he said , was dearer than ever .
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