Emily's Quest was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is the third book in the Emily series, coming after Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs. This synopsis was written by Celeste Lawrenson in an attempt to help the reader of the other two books find out what happens without having to read Emily's Quest, for it is profoundly depressing in itself. If the reader of this synopsis wishes to read Emily's Quest it is available in most libraries and online.
Emily's Quest Synopsis
Emily was back at New Moon after refusing the offer to go to New York, and although she did not regret her decision, it was going to be lonely. Ilse Burnley had gone to the School of Literature and Expression in Montreal. Perry Miller was studying law in an office in Charlottetown. Teddy Kent was going as well, to the School of Design in Montreal. On the evening before he left Emily walked with him in the New Moon garden.
“Look at that star, Teddy,” she said, “Vega of the Lyre. I want you to promise me that whenever you see that star you'll remember that I'm believing in you—hard.”
“Let's promise each other,” said Teddy, “that whenever we see that star we'll always think of each other—always.”
“I promise,” said Emily, thrilled. She loved to have Teddy look at her like that.
That was in the autumn, and the winter passed mildly. Emily had plenty of acceptances from magazines and publishers. Teddy wrote often—delightful letters. Dean came home from Florida. Emily always gave her writings to him to read, although he didn't seem so enamoured by her writing as he had when she was a child.
Spring came. Teddy and Ilse wouldn't be coming home that summer. Andrew Murray got married—to a nice girl of whom Aunt Addie entirely approved.
Then Mr. Carpenter became ill. He got worse and worse, and finally one morning at two o'clock Aunt Elizabeth woke Emily. Mr. Carpenter wanted her, and so Emily sat by his side until he died. His last words were,
“Emily. Beware—of—italics.”
The years after Mr. Carpenter's death passed quietly for Emily. No Teddy—no Ilse—no Mr. Carpenter. Perry only very occasionally. Of course in the summer there was Dean. And then she fell in love—with a man named Aylmer Vincent whom she met at a dinner party. Things were wildly happy for six weeks, and then she fell out of love and that was that.
Teddy had stopped writing letters to her. He and Ilse were coming home for the summer, but Teddy did not call for her in Lofty John's bush. Instead he and Ilse arrived and all three talked in the sitting room. They stayed for two weeks and Emily was glad when those two weeks were over and life returned to normal.
One night Emily stumbled across the outline she had written for the book A Seller of Dreams. The old fire came back and she wrote furiously, finally coming up with a finished book late one night six weeks later. She sent it out to publisher after publisher with no results. At last she decided to give it to Dean and ask him to tell her what he thought of it. If he said it was good then it must be, since he didn't care for her stories at all. But Dean came back and said it was no good.
Emily felt like she'd been dealt a death blow. In a craze of grief she burned the manuscript. Then she repented of it at once. In her regret she ran to the stairs and slipped on some knitting of Aunt Laura's. She was found in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, the scissors in her foot.
Emily spent all winter in bed. Blood poisoning set in and she almost lost her foot. She did not know what she would have done without Dean. By May, when she could finally walk, she felt so much older that she finally accepted Dean's hints at marriage.
Then everything was busy and happy. Everyone had a different opinion about the match, and Emily had a lot of work to defend Dean. But sometimes a person's comments would shake her confidence and she felt a little apprehensive about it.
Aunt Elizabeth wouldn't let them get married until Emily turned twenty, so they had to wait until the next year. Dean, to Emily's delight, bought the disappointed house, and they spent that summer painting and furnishing it. Dean had a myriad of things that he had collected on his travels, which he put into it. There came a day in November when everything was ready in the little house. Dean gave Emily the key and it was boarded up for the winter.
One evening in April Emily slipped out for a walk. She had had a letter from Ilse saying Teddy was coming home; sailing on the Flavian. She wished that it could have been all settled before he came. She went to the disappointed house and unlocked it. She sat in an armchair, feeling like a prisoner. Then she fell asleep and dreamt she saw Teddy. He was standing at a ticket window. She knew he was in some sort of danger.
“Teddy—come.” She drifted back—away—on into the darkness and he followed. Then she was back in the chair again.
Then the news came that the Flavian had sank. Panicked, she went to Mrs. Kent and asked if Teddy had been on it. Mrs. Kent was appalled, but she said no, he wasn't. Then Emily got a letter from Teddy telling her of his strange experience as he was buying the ticket to go on the Flavian.
Of course she could not marry Dean now. It would hurt him dreadfully, but she could not. Emily told Dean that she could not marry him when they met at the disappointed house after he came back from Montreal. Dean took it well—he even thanked her for that last happy summer. But then as he was about to go he said that he had lied about her book, A Seller of Dreams. He said it was good after all. Emily did not feel so bad about refusing him when she found out that he had caused her to burn a good book!
When Perry Miller heard that the engagement was off, he came at once to New Moon and proposed to Emily again. Emily refused him with scorn. Ilse had told her that she loved Perry. Perry didn't seem to know Ilse existed.
Emily began to write again, for she had given it up ever since the night she burned her book. Writing helped her to survive.
Then one July evening she heard the old whistle in Lofty John's bush. She dashed down and spent a pleasant evening with Teddy, feeling that everything was going to be all right again. Once more Vega of the Lyre was a good star.
Ilse came too, and they spent a happy month together. But—! It didn't seem quite so unreserved—she wasn't so certain of Teddy's commitment. Perry proposed to her once more, but this time Emily told him that if he ever mentioned the subject again she would no longer be friends with him.
Ilse told Emily that Teddy had flirted with the girls in Montreal. Emily was taken aback by this news, and so when Teddy came and sat beside her one morning by the Blair Water and put his hand over hers she stood up and excused herself, reasoning that she would not be flattered like the girls in Montreal.
And when at a dance he hung out with Ilse more than he did her, she just about gave up on him.
Then he left on short notice and didn't say good-bye. He left a letter, but it only contained a poem she had wanted to read. And Ilse got a letter, probably with more in it. Emily felt angry. She wished she had not gone so quickly when he whistled for her—now she would not go at all.
That following summer, the one Emily was twenty two, Teddy and Ilse did not come home. Dean was away for good. Emily had countless men coming around, talking to her, and asking her to marry them. James Wallace, Jack Bannistar, Harold Conway, Rod Dunbar, Larry Dix, Mark Greaves, Jasper Frost, Graham Mitchell, even a Japanese Prince. But all these Emily snubbed, although the Murrays were very anxious that she marry some of them, and very anxious that she not marry others.
One day that fall, when Emily was nearly twenty three, she found the lost diamond. It was buried in the mud around the summer house and it stuck to Emily's shoe. The Murrays decided Emily should have it. That very day Aunt Elizabeth fell and broke her leg. She had to lie in bed, and New Moon hitched itself along without her.
One evening Emily came to Aunt Elizabeth and asked if she might read her a short story she'd written—pure comedy. Aunt Elizabeth said she might—it would take her mind off her leg. Emily did, and every day she wrote more to the story, reading the next chapter in the evenings to Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura and Cousin Jimmy. They declared it wonderful—the characters came alive in their minds. Finally when Aunt Elizabeth could walk once more the book was finished—Emily called it The Moral of the Rose.
She sent it out to three publishers one after another, and all refused it. Frustrated, Emily put it away and forgot about it.
That summer no one came home—not Teddy, not Ilse. Emily's Aunts and Cousin Jimmy seemed to be growing old. There was talk of selling New Moon—of changing it. Emily felt like there was no more of her life left to live—that she was destined to spend the rest of it writing stories by her lonesome. Sometimes she thought fondly of death.
On her twenty fourth birthday Emily opened and read the letter she had written “from herself at fourteen to herself at twenty four.” It was a happy, foolish, girlish letter, and it made her feel worse than ever. But then Cousin Jimmy came and brought her a letter—a thin letter. It was from Wareham Publishing Company, and it notified her that they accepted her book as a fine piece of work and were going to print it. Emily was dumbfounded. How had they gotten her book?
“I sent it to them,” Cousin Jimmy explained. And they had accepted it!
Teddy and Ilse were coming home for ten days that summer—they always seemed to come together. Emily wished she could go away. When one evening she heard the whistle in Lofty John's bush she did not go. Teddy and Ilse came the next day, in Teddy's new car. How radiant Ilse looked! Teddy looked nice too, but somewhat detached. The days they spent together were fun, but awkward.
One day in late November Emily got a letter and a parcel in the mail. How exited New Moon was when she opened the parcel and out came her book! Even Aunt Elizabeth was proud. That evening Emily read the letter—from Ilse. The news stunned her. She was getting married to Teddy. Ilse wrote that she did not love Teddy, but he had gotten to be a habit with her. She was very exited and said that Emily must be the bridesmaid. Emily felt sick. Could things have been different, if she had gone to Teddy when he called her?
Life went on, in spite of its dreadfulness. There were even some bits that weren't entirely bad. The opinions about Emily's book, The Moral of the Rose, were many and varied. She was not sure what to make of them when they all contradicted each other. Ilse wrote many letters, all with more new plans for her upcoming wedding. One evening Emily was walking past the Tansy Patch when Mrs. Kent came out and asked her in. The two women became friends, as the ones whom Teddy had forgotten for Ilse.
Ilse came home in May, a gay, bubbling, laughing Ilse. She talked all the time. When it was two weeks to the wedding Emily went over to the Tansy Patch to return a book Mrs. Kent had lent her. A letter fell out, and when Emily saw Mrs. Kent next she told Emily about herself.
Mrs. Kent was married to a man with whom she was furiously in love. When her dress caught fire and scarred her face she began to draw into herself and was afraid her husband did not love her. Then Mr. Kent went away and got ill and died. Mrs. Kent, sure that her husband had died hating her, clung to Teddy—he was all she had left. The letter Emily had found was from Mr. Kent just before he died saying that he did still love her. After Mrs. Kent told Emily the story she said something else.
“Two years ago, when Teddy had to leave so suddenly, he wrote you a letter. I—I burned it.” Emily could not say a word. Mrs. Kent continued. “I read what was in it. It said that he loved you and if you loved him to write to him, but if you didn't not to write at all. I burned the letter and sent the envelope with just the poem. Can you ever forgive me?”
Emily, amid a whirl of emotions, felt glad. Teddy had loved her. That made a difference. But—if only she had gotten that letter!
Teddy came. Emily was caught up in the whirl of gaiety, but she was weary of it all, and wished for it all to be over so she could get back to normal life. The day of the wedding everything seemed like a nightmare. Ilse had been seen three nights before driving with Perry Miller, and Blair Water was much scandalized. Emily helped her dress in her bedroom. Downstairs relatives from all over the country were flooding in. Emily was trying to facilitate them all when Aunt Ida Mitchell came in breathlessly.
“Oh,” she gasped. “You won't believe it! That poor Perry Miller—you know him? Such a clever young chap—was killed in a motor accident about an hour ago.” Emily stifled a shriek and glanced at Ilse's door. It was slightly ajar. When she went in the veil was on the floor and Ilse was gone—out the window, no doubt.
All the wedding guests had to be entertained while someone went to retrieve Ilse. But she would not come. She was by Perry's bedside—he was not killed, only badly hurt—and she declared she would not marry anyone else. The day was a disaster. Teddy left the next day for Montreal—no doubt pretty mad at Ilse. Ilse, on the other hand, was fine. She came and told Emily all about it a couple days later. She was married to Perry the next summer.
Things went on, but it was hard for Emily. All the sorrow and anguish that had filled her life was gone, and it felt empty. The years slipped by. Mrs. Kent went to live with Teddy in Montreal. Emily would go and visit Perry and Ilse in Charlottetown often. Mrs. Kent died.
Then, one evening in June, it came. That old, old whistle floated up to Emily's window. She went, and Teddy was there. It was as if all those years had never happened; there had never been any misunderstanding. They hashed it out.
Teddy said it had appeared that she had been trying to reject him. That night on the Tomorrow Road after high school she had complained of the night air just as he was getting up the courage to propose. Then he had heard about her and Aylmer Vincent. When he heard about her illness he was nearly wild—especially when people told him that she was spending all her time with Dean and would probably marry him if she got better. And then she was going to—that was awful. But then she had saved him from going on the Flavian, and he knew he had to try again. But she had shaken him off that morning by the Blair Water, and then she never answered his letter.
“Emily, why didn't you?” he asked. Emily told him what his mother had done. Teddy was shocked.
“And then I was too proud to go that time when you called me,” Emily said. Oh, well. It was turning out all right in the end.
There was a quiet bridal at new moon, and Dean gave Emily the disappointed house as a wedding present. So she was to set up house there after all. But if only it could have all worked out without any misunderstandings!