Esme's friends began to marry, and before long she was the only one still unwed. Esme wanted to fall in love herself, but she never found anyone who measured up to her memory of Carlisle. Esme tried to persuade her father to allow her to pursue a teaching position in the West, but he didn't think it was respectable for a lady to live alone in the wilds. Instead, her father pressured her to accept the son of a family friend who wanted to marry her.