Agnes Grey: Chapter 25: Conclusion Summary & Analysis

Over breakfast, Agnes’s mother notices how flustered Agnes looks. Agnes collects herself and tells her mother that she ran into Mr. Weston, the former curate of Horton, on the seashore. She and Mr. Weston had a brief conversation, and Mr. Weston asked whether he could call on Agnes’s mother. Agnes asks whether that’s all right. Her mother says yes and asks what Mr. Weston is like. Agnes describes him as “very respectable.” Mr. Weston visits the next day. He and Agnes’s mother get on very well. After he leaves, Agnes’s mother asks why Agnes didn’t talk more. Agnes claims that it was because Mr. Weston was visiting her mother, not her.

Mr. Weston begins visiting Agnes and her mother several times a week and becomes their close family friend. One evening, he asks Agnes to walk with him. As they walk along the coast, Mr. Weston first looks very serious and then very happy. He tells Agnes that, having met all the ladies in his parish, he only wants Agnes as his life companion—and asks her for her response. Agnes asks whether he’s serious, and he asks in return whether he’d joke about something like that. Then Agnes says she needs her mother’s permission. Mr. Weston says he has already received her mother’s permission and asks whether Agnes has any more objections. Agnes says no. Mr. Weston asks whether that means she loves him—and she says she does.

A few weeks after, Agnes’s mother finds another teacher’s assistant, and Agnes marries Mr. Weston. She has yet to regret her decision. Though she and Mr. Weston have encountered troubles, they support each other through them. Their main worry is separation by death—but religious hope for the afterlife will support them through that trial too. They have a son and two daughters, whom Agnes homeschools, and they live adequately on Mr. Weston’s modest income by being frugal and not trying to keep up with any rich neighbors. Thus, Agnes’s story ends.