 Emma by Jane Austen. Vol. 1. CHAPTER XIII. There could hardly be a happier creature in the world than Mrs. John Knightley in this short visit to Hartfield, going about every morning among her old acquaintance with her five children, and talking over what she had done every evening with her father and sister. She had nothing to wish otherwise, but that the days did not pass so swiftly. It was a delightful visit, perfect in being much too short. In general their evenings were less engaged with friends than their mornings, but one complete dinner engagement, and out of the house too, there was no avoiding, though at Christmas. Mr. Weston would take no denial. They must all dine at Randalls one day. Even Mr. Woodhouse was persuaded to think it a possible thing in preference to a division of the party. How they were all to be conveyed, he would have made a difficulty if he could, but as his son and daughter's carriage and horses were actually at Hartfield, he was not able to make more than a simple question on that head. It hardly amounted to a doubt. Nor did it occupy Emma long enough to convince him that they might, in one of the carriages, find room for Harriet also. Harriet, Mr. Alton, and Mr. Knightley, their own a special set, were the only persons invited to meet them. The hours were to be early, as well as the number's few. Mr. Woodhouse's habits and inclination being consulted in every thing. The evening before this great event, for it was a very great event that Mr. Woodhouse should dine out, on the twenty-fourth of December, had been spent by Harriet at Hartfield, and she had gone home so much and disposed with the cold that, but for her own earnest wish of being nursed by Mrs. Goddard, Emma could not have allowed her to leave the house. Emma called on her the next day, and found her doom already signed with regard to Randalls. She was very feverish, and had a bad sore throat. Mrs. Goddard was full of care and affection, Mr. Perry was talked of, and Harriet herself was too ill and low to resist the authority which excluded her from this delightful engagement, though she could not speak of her loss without many tears. Emma sat with her as long as she could, to attend her in Mrs. Goddard's unavoidable absences, and raise her spirits by representing how much Mr. Elton's would be depressed when he knew her state, and left her at last tolerably comfortable in the sweet dependence of his having a most comfortless visit, and of their all missing her very much. She had not advanced many yards for Mrs. Goddard's door when she was met by Mr. Elton himself, evidently coming towards it, and as they walked on slowly together in conversation about the invalid, of whom he, on the rumour of considerable illness, had been going to inquire, that he might carry some report of her to Hartfield. They were overtaken by Mr. John Knightley, returning from the daily visit to Donwell, with his two eldest boys, whose healthy glowing faces showed all the benefit of a country run, and seemed to ensure a quick despatch of the roast mutton and rice pudding they were hastening home for. They joined company and proceeded together. Emma was just describing the nature of her friend's complaint, a throat very much inflamed, with a great deal of heat about her, a quick loophulse, etc., and she was sorry to find from Mrs. Goddard that Harriet was liable to very bad sore throats, and had often alarmed her with them. Mr. Elton looked all alarmed on the occasion, as he exclaimed, a sore throat! I hope not infectious! I hope not of a putrid infectious sort! Has Perry seen her? Indeed, you should take care of yourself as well as of your friend. Let me entreat you to run no risks. Why does not Perry see her? Emma, who was not really at all frightened herself, tranquilized this excess of apprehension by assurances of Mrs. Goddard's experience and care. But as there must still remain a degree of uneasiness, which she could not wish to reason away, that she would rather feed and assist than not, she added soon afterwards, as if quite another subject. It is so cold, so very cold, and looks and feels so very much like snow, that if it were to any other place or with any other party, I should really try not to go out to-day, and dissuade my father from venturing. But as he has made up his mind, and does not seem to feel the cold himself, I do not like to interfere. As I know it would be so great a disappointment to Mr. and Mrs. Weston. But upon my word, Mr. Elton, in your case I should certainly excuse myself. You appear to me a little hoarse already, and when you consider what demand of voice, and what fatigues to-morrow will bring, I think it would be no more than common prudence to stay at home, and take care of yourself to-night. Mr. Elton looked as if he did not very well know what answer to make, which was exactly the case, for though very much gratified by the kind care of such a fair lady, and not liking to resist any advice of hers, he had not really the least inclination to give up the visit. But Emma, too eager and busy in her own previous conceptions and views to hear him impartially, or see him with clear vision, was very well satisfied with his muttering acknowledgment of its being, very cold, certainly very cold, and walked on, rejoicing in having extricated him from Randalls, and secured him the power of sending to inquire after Harriet every hour of the evening. You do quite right, said she. We will make your apologies to Mr. and Mrs. Weston. But hardly had she so spoken, when she found her brother was civilly offering a seat in his carriage, if the weather were Mr. Elton's only objection. And Mr. Elton actually accepting the offer, with much prompt satisfaction. It was a done thing. Mr. Elton was to go, and never had his broad handsome face expressed more pleasure than at this moment. Never had his smile been stronger, nor his eyes more exalting than when he next looked at her. Well, said she to herself, this is most strange. After I had got him off so well to choose to go into company, and leave Harriet ill behind? Most strange indeed. But there is, I believe, in many men, especially single men, such an inclination, such a passion for dining out. A dinner engagement is so high in the class of their pleasures, their employments, their dignities, almost their duties, that anything gives way to it. And this must be the case with Mr. Elton. A most valuable, amiable, pleasing young man undoubtedly, and very much in love with Harriet. But still, he cannot refuse an invitation. He must dine out wherever he is asked. What a strange thing love is! He can see ready wit in Harriet, but will not dine alone for her. Soon afterwards Mr. Elton quitted them, and she could not but do him the justice of feeling that there was a great deal of sentiment in his manner of naming Harriet at parting. In the tone of his voice, while assuring her that he should call it Mrs. Goddard's, for news of her fair friend, the last thing before he prepared for the happiness of meeting her again, when he hoped to be able to give her a better report, and he sighed and smiled himself off in a way that left the balance of approbation much in his favour. After a few minutes of entire silence between them, John Knightley began with, I never in my life saw a man more intent on being agreeable than Mr. Elton. It is downright labour to him where ladies are concerned. With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works. Mr. Elton's manners are not perfect, replied Emma. But where there is a wish to please, one ought to overlook, and one does overlook a great deal. Where a man does his best with only moderate powers, he will have the advantage over negligent superiority. There is such perfect good temper and goodwill in Mr. Elton as one can up but value. Yes, said Mr. John Knightley presently, with some slinus. He seems to have a great deal of goodwill towards you. Me! she replied with a smile of astonishment. Are you imagining me to be Mr. Elton's object? Such an imagination has crossed me, I owe, Emma, and if it never occurred to you before, you may as well take it into consideration now. Mr. Elton in love with me! What an idea! I do not say it is so, but you will do well to consider whether it is so or not, and to regulate your behaviour accordingly. I think your manners to him encouraging. I speak as a friend, Emma. You had better look about you and ascertain what you do, and what you mean to do. I thank you, but I assure you you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends and nothing more. And she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders, which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are forever falling into, and not very well pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and ignorant and in want of counsel. He said no more. Mr. Woodhouse had so completely made up his mind to the visit that in spite of the increasing coldness he seemed to have no idea of shrinking from it, and said forward at last most punctually with his eldest daughter in his own carriage, with less apparent consciousness of the weather than either of the others. Too full of the wonder of his own going, and the pleasure it was to afford at Randalls to see that it was cold, and too well wrapped up to feel it. The cold, however, was severe, and by the time the second carriage was in motion, a few flakes of snow were finding their way down, and the sky had the appearance of being so overcharged as to want only a milder air to produce a very white world in a very short time. Emma soon saw that her companion was not in the happiest humour. The preparing and the going abroad in such weather, with the sacrifice of his children after dinner, were evils, were disagreeables at least, which Mr. John Knightley did not by any means like. He anticipated nothing in the visit that could be at all worth the purchase, and the whole of their drive to the vicarage was spent by him in expressing his discontent. A man, said he, must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks people to leave their own fireside, and encounter such a day as this for the sake of coming to see him. He must think himself a most agreeable fellow. I could not do such a thing. It is the greatest absurdity, actually snowing at this moment, the folly of not allowing people to be comfortable at home, and the folly of people's not staying comfortably at home when they can. If we were obliged to go out such an evening as this by any call of duty or business, what a hardship we should deem it. And here we are, probably with rather thinner clothing than usual, setting forward voluntarily, without excuse, in defiance of the voice of nature, which tells man in everything given to his view or his feelings to stay at home himself and keep all under shelter that he can. Here we are, setting forward to spend five dull hours in another man's house with nothing to say or hear that was not said and heard yesterday, and may not be said and heard again to-morrow. Going in dismal weather to return probably in worse, four horses and four servants taken out for nothing but to convey five idle, shivering creatures into colder rooms and worse company than they might have had at home. Emma did not find herself equal to give the pleased assent, which no doubt he was in the habit of receiving, to emulate the very true my love, which must have been usually administered by his travelling companion. But she had resolution enough to refrain from making any answer at all. She could not be complying, she dreaded being quarrelsome, her heroism reached only to silence. She allowed him to talk and arranged the glasses and wrapped herself up without opening her lips. They arrived, the carriage turned, the step was let down, and Mr. Elton, spruce, black, and smiling, was with them instantly. Emma thought with pleasure of some change of subject. Mr. Elton was all obligation and cheerfulness. He was so very cheerful in his civilities, indeed, that she began to think he must have received a different account of Harriet from what had reached her. She had sent while dressing, and the answer had been much the same, not better. My report for Mrs. Goddard's, said she presently, was not so pleasant as I had hoped. Not better was my answer. His face lengthened immediately, and his voice was the voice of sentiment, as he answered, Oh! no! I am grieved to find. I was on the point of telling you that when I called at Mrs. Goddard's door, which I did the very last thing before I returned to dress, I was told that Miss Smith was not better, by no means better, rather worse, very much grieved and concerned. I had flattered myself that she must be better after such a cordial as I knew had been given her in the morning. Emma smiled and answered, My visit was of use to the nervous part of her complaint, I hope, but not even I can charm away a sore throat. It is a most severe cold, indeed. Mr. Perry has been with her, as you probably heard. Yes, I imagined, that is, I did not. He has been used to her in these complaints, and I hope tomorrow morning will bring us both a more comfortable report. But it is impossible not to feel uneasiness, such a sad loss to our party to-day. Dreadful, exactly so, indeed, she will be missed every moment. This was very proper. The sigh which accompanied it was really estimable, but it should have lasted longer. Emma was rather in dismay when only half a minute afterwards he began to speak of other things, and in a voice of the greatest alacrity and enjoyment. What an excellent device, said he, the use of a sheepskin for carriages. How very comfortable they make it, impossible to feel cold with such precautions. The contrivances of modern days indeed have rendered a gentleman's carriage perfectly complete. One is so fenced and guarded from the weather that not a breath of air can find its way unpermitted. Weather becomes absolutely of no consequence. It is a very cold afternoon, but in this carriage we know nothing of the matter. Ha! snows a little, I see. Yes, said John Knightley, and I think we shall have a good deal of it. Christmas weather, observed Mr. Elton, quite seasonable, and extremely fortunate we may think ourselves that it did not begin yesterday, and prevent the stay's party, which it might very possibly have done, for Mr. Woodhouse would hardly have ventured had there been much snow on the ground, but now it is of no consequence. This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas everybody invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend's house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away till that very day sun-night. Mr. John Knightley looked as if he did not comprehend the pleasure, but said only, coolly, I cannot wish to be snowed up a week at Randalls. At another time Emma might have been amused, but she was too much astonished now at Mr. Elton's spirits for other feelings. Harriet seemed quite forgotten in the expectation of a pleasant party. We are sure of excellent fires, continued he, and everything in the greatest comfort, charming people, Mr. and Mrs. Weston. Mrs. Weston, indeed, is much beyond praise, and he is exactly what one values, so hospitable, and so fond of society. It will be a small party, but where small parties are select they are perhaps the most agreeable of any. Mr. Weston's dining-room does not accommodate more than ten comfortably, and for my part, I would rather, under such circumstances, fall short by two than exceed by two. I think you will agree with me, turning a soft air to Emma. I think I shall certainly have your approbation, though Mr. Knightley perhaps, from being used to the large parties of London, may not quite enter into our feelings. I know nothing of the large parties of London, sir. I never dine with anybody. Indeed, in a tone of wonder and pity, I had no idea that the law had been so great a slavery. Well, sir, the time must come when you will be paid for all this, when you will have little labour and great enjoyment. My first enjoyment, replied John Knightley, as they passed through the sweep-gate, will be to find myself safe at Hartfield again. Some change of countenance was necessary for each gentleman as they walked into Mrs. Weston's drawing-room. Mr. Elton must compose his joyous looks and Mr. John Knightley disperse his ill-humour. Mr. Elton must smile less and Mr. John Knightley more to fit them for the place. Emma only might be, as nature prompted, and show herself just as happy as she was. To her it was real enjoyment to be with the Weston's. Mr. Weston was a great favourite, and there was not a creature in the world to whom she spoke with such unreserve as to his wife, not any one to whom she related with such conviction of being listened to and understood, of being always interesting and always intelligible, the little affairs, arrangements, perplexities and pleasures of her father and herself. She could tell nothing of Hartfield, in which Mrs. Weston had not a lively concern, and half an hour's uninterrupted communication of all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life depends, was one of the first gratifications of each. This was a pleasure which perhaps the whole day's visit might not afford, which certainly did not belong to the present half hour, but the very sight of Mrs. Weston, her smile, her touch, her voice, was grateful to Emma, and she determined to think as little as possible of Mr. Elton's oddities, or of anything else unpleasant, and enjoy all that was enjoyable to the utmost. The misfortune of Harriet's cold had been pretty well gone through before her arrival. Mr. Woodhouse had been safely seated long enough to give the history of it, besides all the history of his own and Isabella's coming, and of Emma's being to follow, and had indeed just got to the end of his satisfaction that James should come and see his daughter, when the others appeared, and Mrs. Weston, who had been almost wholly engrossed by her attentions to him, was able to turn away and welcome her dear Emma. Emma's project of forgetting Mr. Elton for a while made her rather sorry to find, when they had all taken their places, that he was close to her. The difficulty was great of driving his strange insensibility towards Harriet from her mind, while he not only sat at her elbow, but was continually obtruding his happy countenance on her notice, and solicitously addressing her upon every occasion. Instead of forgetting him, his behaviour was such that she could not avoid the internal suggestion of, can it really be, as my brother imagined, can it be possible for this man to be beginning to transfer his affections from Harriet to me? Absurd and insufferable! Yet he would be so anxious for her being perfectly warm, would be so interested about her father, and so delighted with Mrs. Weston, and at last would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge, as seemed terribly like a would-be lover, and made it some effort with her to preserve her good manners. For her own sake she could not be rude, and for Harriet's, in the hope that all would yet turn out right, she was even positively civil. But it was an effort, especially as something was going on amongst the others, in the most overpowering period of Mr. Weston's nonsense, which she particularly wished to listen to. She heard enough to know that Mr. Weston was giving some information about his son. She heard the words, my son, and Frank, and my son, repeated several times over, and, from a few other half-syllables very much suspected, that he was announcing an early visit from his son. But before she could quiet Mr. Elton, the subject was so completely passed that any reviving question from her would have been awkward. Now, it so happened that in spite of Emma's resolution of never marrying, there was something in the name, in the idea of Mr. Frank Churchill, which always interested her. She had frequently thought, especially since his father's marriage with Miss Taylor, that if she were to marry, he was the very person to suit her in age, character, and condition. He seemed by this connection between the families quite to belong to her. She could not but suppose it to be a match that everybody who knew them must think of. That Mr. and Mrs. Weston did think of it, she was very strongly persuaded, and though not meaning to be induced by him or by anybody else, to give up a situation which she believed more replete with good than any she could change it for. She had a great curiosity to see him, a decided intention of finding him pleasant, of being liked by him to a certain degree, and a sort of pleasure in the idea of their being coupled in their friend's imaginations. With such sensations Mr. Elton's civilities were dreadfully ill-timed. But she had the comfort of appearing very polite, while feeling very cross, and of thinking that the rest of the visit could not possibly pass without bringing forward the same information again, or the substance of it, from the open-hearted Mr. Weston. So it proved, for when happily released from Mr. Elton, and seated by Mr. Weston at dinner, he made use of the very first interval in the cares of hospitality, the very first leisure from the saddle of mutton, to say to her, We want only two more to be just the right number. I should like to see two more here, for a pretty little friend, Miss Smith, and my son. And then I should say we were quite complete. I believe you did not hear me telling the others in the drawing-room that we are expecting, Frank. I had a letter from him this morning, and he will be with us within a fortnight. Emma spoke with a very proper degree of pleasure, and fully assented to his proposition of Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Smith making their party quite complete. He has been wanting to come to us, continued Mr. Weston, ever since September. Every letter has been full of it, but he cannot command his own time. He has those to please, who must be pleased, and who, between ourselves, are sometimes to be pleased only by a good many sacrifices. But now I have no doubt of seeing him here about the second week in January. What a very great pleasure it will be to you, and Mrs. Weston is so anxious to be acquainted with him, that she must be almost as happy as yourself. Yes, she would be, but that she thinks there will be another put off. She does not depend upon his coming so much as I do. But she does not know the parties so well as I do. The case you see is—but this is quite between ourselves. I did not mention a syllable of it in the other room. There are secrets in all families, you know. The case is that a party of friends are invited to pay a visit at Enscombe in January, and that Frank's coming depends upon their being put off. If they are not put off, he cannot stir. But I know they will, because it is a family that a certain lady of some consequence at Enscombe has a particular dislike to. And though it is thought necessary to invite them once in two or three years, they always are put off when it comes to the point. I have not the smallest doubt of the issue. I am as confident of seeing Frank here before the middle of January, as I am of being here myself. But your good friend there, nodding towards the upper end of the table, has so few vagaries herself, and has been so little used to them at Hartfield, that she cannot calculate on their effects, as I have been long in the practice of doing. I am sorry there should be anything like doubt in the case, replied Emma, but I am disposed to side with you, Mr. Weston. If you think he will come, I shall think so too, for you know Enscombe. Yes, I have some right to that knowledge, though I have never been at the place in my life. She is an odd woman. But I never allow myself to speak ill of her on Frank's account, for I do believe her to be very fond of him. I used to think she was not capable of being fond of anybody except herself, but she has always been kind to him, in her way, allowing for little whims and caprices, and expecting everything to be as she likes. And it is no small credit, in my opinion, to him, that he should excite such an affection, for though I would not say it to anybody else, she has no more heart than a stone to people in general, and the devil of a temper. Emma liked the subject so well that she began upon it to Mrs. Weston, very soon after they are moving into the drawing-room, wishing her joy, yet observing that she knew the first meeting must be rather alarming. Mrs. Weston agreed to it, but added that she should be very glad to be secure of undergoing the anxiety of a first meeting at the time talked of. For I cannot depend upon his coming. I cannot be so sanguine as Mr. Weston. I am very much afraid that it will all end in nothing. Mr. Weston, I daresay, has been telling you exactly how the matter stands. Yes, it seems to depend upon nothing but the ill-humour of Mrs. Churchill, which I imagine to be the most certain thing in the world. My Emma! replied Mrs. Weston, smiling. What is the certainty of caprice? Then, turning to Isabella, who had not been attending before, you must know, my dear Mrs. Knightley, that we are by no means so sure of seeing Mr. Frank Churchill in my opinion, as his father thinks. It depends entirely upon his aunt's spirits and pleasure. In short, upon her temper. To you, to my two daughters, I may venture on the truth. Mrs. Churchill rules at Enscombe, and is a very odd-tempered woman, and his coming now depends upon her being willing to spare him. Oh, Mrs. Churchill! Everybody knows Mrs. Churchill, replied Isabella. And I am sure I never think of that poor young man without the greatest compassion. To be constantly living with an ill-tempered person must be dreadful. It is what we happily have never known anything of, but it must be a life of misery. What a blessing that she never had any children! Poor little creatures! How unhappy she would have made them! Emma wished she had been alone with Mrs. Weston. She should then have heard more. Mrs. Weston would speak to her, with a degree of unreserve which she would not hazard with Isabella. And she really believed, would scarcely try to conceal anything relative to the Churchels from her, accepting those views on the young man, of which her own imagination had already given her such instinctive knowledge. But at present there was nothing more to be said. Mr. Woodhouse very soon followed them into the drawing-room. To be sitting long after dinner was a confinement that he could not endure. Neither wine nor conversation was anything to him, and gladly did he move to those with whom he was always comfortable. While he talked to Isabella, however, Emma found an opportunity of saying, And so you do not consider this visit from your son, as by any means certain. I am sorry for it. The introduction must be unpleasant whenever it takes place, and the sooner it could be over the better. Yes, and every delay makes one more apprehensive of other delays. Even if this family, the breath-weights, are put off, I am still afraid that some excuse may be found for disappointing us. I cannot bear to imagine any reluctance on his side, but I am sure there is a great wish on the Churchels to keep him to themselves. There is jealousy. They are jealous, even of his regard for his father. In short, I can feel no dependence on his coming, and I wish Mr. Weston would less sanguine. He ought to come, said Emma. If he could stay only a couple of days, he ought to come. And one can hardly conceive a young man's not having it in his power to do as much as that. A young woman, if she fall into bad hands, may be teased, and kept at a distance from those she wants to be with, but one cannot comprehend a young man's being under such a restraint, as not to be able to spend a week with his father if he likes it. Oh, one ought to be at Enscombe, and know the ways of the family before one decides upon what he can do! replied Mrs. Weston. One ought to use the same caution, perhaps, in judging of the conduct of any one individual of any one family, but Enscombe, I believe, certainly must not be judged by general rules. She is so very unreasonable, and everything gives way to her. But she is so fond of the nephew, he is so very great a favourite. Now, according to my idea of Mrs. Churchill, it would be most natural that while she makes no sacrifice for the comfort of the husband, to whom she owes everything, while she exercises incessant caprice towards him, she should frequently be governed by the nephew, to whom she owes nothing at all. My dearest Emma, do not pretend with your sweet temper to understand a bad one, or to lay down rules for it. You must let it go its own way. I have no doubt of his having, at times, considerable influence, but it may be perfectly impossible for him to know beforehand when it will be. Emma listened, and then coolly said, I shall not be satisfied unless he comes. He may have a great deal of influence on some points, continued Mrs. Weston, and on others very little, and among those, on which she is beyond his reach, it is but too likely, may be, this very circumstance of his coming away from them, to visit us. Emma by Jane Austen. Volume 1, Chapter 15 Mr. Woodhouse was soon ready for his tea, and when he had drank his tea he was quite ready to go home, and it was as much as his three companions could do to entertain away his notice of the lateness of the hour, before the other gentleman appeared. Mr. Weston was chatty and convivial, and no friend to early separations of any sort, but at last the drawing-room party did receive an augmentation. Mr. Elton, in very good spirits, was one of the first to walk in. Mrs. Weston and Emma were sitting together on a sofa. He joined them immediately, and, with scarcely an invitation, seated himself between them. Emma, in good spirits too, from the amusement afforded her mind by the expectation of Mr. Frank Churchill, was willing to forget his late improprieties and be as well satisfied with him as before, and on his making Harriet, his very first subject, was ready to listen with most friendly smiles. He professed himself extremely anxious about her fair friend, her fair, lovely, amiable friend. Did she know, had she heard anything about her since there being at Randalls, he felt much anxiety. He must confess that the nature of her complaint alarmed him considerably. And in this style he talked on for some time very properly, not much attending to any answer, but altogether sufficiently awake to the terror of a bad sore throat, and Emma was quite in charity with him. But at last there seemed a perverse turn. It seemed all at once as if he were more afraid of its being a bad sore throat on her account than on Harriet's, more anxious that she should escape the infection than that there should be no infection in the complaint. He began with great earnestness to entreat her to refrain from visiting the sick chamber again for the present, to entreat her to promise him not to venture into such hazard till he had seen Mr. Perry and learnt his opinion. And though she tried to laugh it off and bring the subject back into its proper course, there was no putting an end to his extreme solicitude about her. She was vexed. It did appear there was no concealing it, exactly like the pretense of being in love with her, instead of Harriet, and in constancy, if real, the most contemptible and abominable, and she had difficulty in behaving with temper. He turned to Mrs. Weston to implore her assistance. Would she not give him her support? Would she not add her persuasions to his to induce Miss Woodhouse not to go to Mrs. Goddard's till it were certain that Miss Smith's disorder had no infection? He could not be satisfied without a promise. Would she not give him her influence in procuring it? So scrupulous for others, he continued, and yet so careless for herself. She wanted me to nurse my cold by staying at home today, and yet will not promise to avoid the danger of catching an ulcerated sore throat herself. Is this fair, Mrs. Weston? Judge between us. Have not I some right to complain? I am sure of your kind support and aid. Emma saw Mrs. Weston's surprise, and felt that it must be great, at an address which, in words and manner, was assuming to himself the right of first interest in her. And as for herself, she was too much provoked and offended to have the power of directly saying anything to the purpose. She could only give him a look, but it was such a look as she thought must restore him to his senses, and then left the sofa, removing to a seat by her sister, and giving her all her attention. She had not time to know how Mr. Alton took the reproof, so rapidly did another subject succeed. For Mr. John Knightley now came into the room from examining the weather, and opened on them all with the information of the ground being covered with snow, and of it still snowing fast, with a strong drifting wind, concluding with these words to Mr. Woodhouse. This will prove a spirited beginning of your winter engagement, sir, something new for your coachmen and horses to be making their way through a storm of snow. Poor Mr. Woodhouse was silent from consternation, but everybody else had something to say. Everybody was either surprised, or not surprised, and had some question to ask, or some comfort to offer. Mrs. Weston and Emma tried earnestly to cheer him, and turn his attention from his son-in-law, who was pursuing his triumph rather unfeelingly. "'I admired your resolution very much, sir,' said he, venturing out in such weather, for, of course, you saw there would be snow very soon. Everybody must have seen the snow coming on. "'I admired your spirit, and I daresay we shall get home very well. Another hour or two snow can hardly make the road impassable, and we are two carriages. If one is blown over in the bleak part of the common field, there will be the other at hand. I daresay we shall be all safe at Hartfield before midnight.' Mr. Weston, with triumph of a different sort, was confessing that he had known it to be snowing some time, but had not said a word, lest it should make Mr. Woodhouse uncomfortable, and be an excuse for his hurrying away. As to there being any quantity of snow fallen, or likely to fall to impede their return, that was a mere joke. He was afraid they would find no difficulty. He wished the road might be impassable, that he might be able to keep them all at Randalls, and with the utmost goodwill was sure that accommodation might be found for everybody, calling on his wife to agree with him, that with the little contrivance everybody might be lodged, which she hardly knew how to do from the consciousness of there being but two spare rooms in the house. Oh, what is to be done, my dear Emma, what is to be done? was Mr. Woodhouse's first exclamation, and all that he could say for some time. To her he looked for comfort, and her assurances of safety, her representation of the excellence of the horses and of James, and of their having so many friends about them, revived him a little. His eldest daughter's alarm was equal to his own. The horror of being blocked up at Randalls, while her children were at Hartfield, was full in her imagination, and fanciing the road to be now just passable for adventurous people, but in a state that admitted no delay, she was eager to have it settled, that her father and Emma should remain at Randalls, while she and her husband set forward instantly through all the possible accumulations of drifted snow that might impede them. You had better order the carriage directly, my love, said she. I daresay we shall be able to get along, if we set off directly, and if we do not come to anything very bad, I can get out and walk. I am not at all afraid. I should not monger into walking half the way. I could change my shoes, you know, the moment I got home. And it is not the sort of thing that gives me cold." Indeed, replied he. Then, my dear Isabella, it is the most extraordinary sort of thing in the world, for in general everything does give you cold. Walk home. You are pritally shod for walking home, my dear, say. It will be bad enough for the horses. Isabella turned to Mrs. Weston for her approbation of the plan. Mrs. Weston could only approve. Isabella then went to Emma, but Emma could not so entirely give up the hope of there being all able to get away. And they were still discussing the point when Mr. Knightley, who had left the room immediately after his brother's first report of the snow, came back again and told them that he had been out of doors to examine, and could answer for there not being the smallest difficulty in their getting home whenever they liked it, either now or an hour hence. He had gone beyond the sweep, some way along the Highbury Road. The snow was nowhere above half an inch deep, in many places, hardly enough to whiten the ground. A very few flakes were falling at present, but the clouds were parting, and there was every appearance of its being soon over. He had seen the coachmen, and they both agreed with him in there being nothing to apprehend. To Isabella the relief of such tidings was very great, and they were scarcely less acceptable to Emma on her father's account, who was immediately set as much at ease on the subject as his nervous constitution allowed. But the alarm that had been raised could not be appeased, so as to admit of any comfort for him while he continued at Randalls. He was satisfied of there being no present danger in returning home, but no assurances could convince him that it was safe to stay. And while the others were variously urging and recommending, Mr. Knightley and Emma settled it in a few brief sentences thus. Your father will not be easy. Why do not you go? I am ready, if the others are. Shall I ring the bell? Yes, do. And the bell was rung, and the carriage is spoken for. A few minutes more, and Emma hoped to see one troublesome companion deposited in his own house, to get sober and cool, and the other recover his temper and happiness when this visit of hardship were over. The carriage came, and Mr. Woodhouse, always the first object on such occasions, was carefully attended to his own by Mr. Knightley and Mr. Weston. But not all that either could say could prevent some renewal of alarm at the sight of the snow which had actually fallen, and the discovery of a much darker night than he had been prepared for. He was afraid they should have a very bad drive. He was afraid poor Isabella would not like it, and there would be poor Emma in the carriage behind. He did not know what they had best do. They must keep as much together as they could. And James was talked to, and given a charge to go very slow and wait for the other carriage. Isabella stepped in after her father. John Knightley, forgetting that he did not belong to their party, stepped in after his wife very naturally, so that Emma found, on being escorted and followed into the second carriage by Mr. Elton, that the door was to be lawfully shut on them, and that they were to have a tet-a-tet drive. It would not have been the awkwardness of a moment. It would have been rather a pleasure, previous to the suspicions of this very day. She could have talked to him of Harriet, and the three-quarters of a mile would have seemed but one. But now she would rather it had not happened. She believed he had been drinking too much of Mr. Weston's good wine, and felt sure that he would want to be talking nonsense. To restrain him as much as might be, by her own manners, she was immediately preparing to speak with exquisite calmness and gravity of the weather and the night, but scarcely had she begun, scarcely had they passed the sweet gate and joined the other carriage, then she found her subject cut up, her hand seized, her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her, availing himself of the precious opportunity, declaring sentiments which must be already well known, hoping, fearing, adoring, ready to die if she refused him, but flattering himself that his ardent attachment and unequaled love and unexampled passion could not fail of having some effect, and in short very much resolved on being seriously accepted as soon as possible. It really was so. Without scruple, without apology, without much apparent diffidence, Mr. Elton, the lover of Harriet, was professing himself her lover. She tried to stop him, but vainly. He would go on and say it all. Angry as she was, the thought of the moment made her resolve to restrain herself when she did speak. She felt that half this folly must be drunkenness, and therefore could hope that it might belong only to the passing hour. Accordingly, with a mixture of the serious and the playful, which she hoped would best suit his half-and-half state, she replied, I am very much astonished, Mr. Elton. This to me! You forget yourself. You take me for my friend. Any message to Miss Smith I shall be happy to deliver, but no more of this to me, if you please. Miss Smith! Message to Miss Smith! What could she possibly mean? And he repeated her words with such assurance of accent, such boastful pretense of amazement, that she could not help replying with quickness. Mr. Elton, this is the most extraordinary conduct, and I can account for it only in one way. You are not yourself, or you could not speak either to me or of Harriet in such a manner. Command yourself enough to say no more, and I will endeavor to forget it. But Mr. Elton had only drunk wine enough to elevate his spirits, not at all to confuse his intellects. He perfectly knew his own meaning, and having warmly protested against her suspicion as most injurious, and slightly touched upon his respect for Miss Smith as her friend, but acknowledging his wonder that Miss Smith should be mentioned at all, he resumed the subject of his own passion, and was very urgent for a favourable answer. As she thought less of his inebriity, she thought more of his inconstancy and presumption, and with fewer struggles for politeness replied, It is impossible for me to doubt any longer. You have made yourself too clear. Mr. Elton, my astonishment is much beyond anything I can express. After such behaviour, as I have witnessed during the last month to Miss Smith, such attentions as I have been in the daily habit of observing, to be addressing me in this manner, this is an unsteadiness of character, indeed which I had not supposed possible. Believe me, sir, I am far, very far from gratified in being the object of such professions. Good Heaven! cried Mr. Elton. What can be the meaning of this? Miss Smith! I never thought of Miss Smith in the whole course of my existence. Never paid her any attentions, but as your friend. Never cared whether she would doubt her alive, but as your friend. If she has fancied otherwise, her own wishes have misled her, and I am very sorry, extremely sorry. But Miss Smith, indeed! Oh, Miss Woodhouse! Who can think of Miss Smith when Miss Woodhouse is near? No, upon my honour there is no unsteadiness of character. I have thought only of you. I protest against having paid the smallest attention to anyone else. Everything that I have said or done for many weeks past has been with the sole view of marking my adoration of yourself. You cannot really seriously doubt it. No! in an accent meant to be insinuating. I am sure you have seen and misunderstood me. It would be impossible to say what Emma felt on hearing this, which of all her unpleasant sensations was uppermost. She was too completely overpowered to be immediately able to reply, and two moments of silence being ample encouragement for Mr. Elton's sanguine state of mind, he tried to take her hand again as he joyously exclaimed, Charming Miss Woodhouse! Allow me to interpret this interesting silence. It confesses that you have long understood me. No, sir! cried Emma. It confesses no such thing. So far from having long understood you, I have been in a most complete error with respect to your views till this moment. As to myself, I am very sorry that you should have been giving way to any feelings. Nothing could be farther from my wishes. Your attachment to my friend Harriet, your pursuit of her, pursuit it appeared, gave me great pleasure, and I have been very earnestly wishing you success. But had I supposed that she were not your attraction to Hartfield, I should certainly have thought you judged ill in making your visit so frequent. Am I to believe that you have never sought to recommend yourself particularly to Miss Smith, that you have never thought seriously of her? Never, madam! cried he, affronted in his turn. Never I assure you. I think seriously of Miss Smith. Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl, and I should be happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well, and no doubt there are men who might not object to—everybody has their level—but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need not so totally despair of an equal alliance, as to be addressing myself to Miss Smith. No, madam! My visits to Hartfield have been for yourself only, and the encouragement I received—encouragement! I give you encouragement? Sir, you have been entirely mistaken in supposing it. I have seen you only as the admirer of my friend. In no other light could you have been more to me than a common acquaintance. I am exceedingly sorry, but it is well that the mistake ends where it does. Had the same behaviour continued, Miss Smith might have been led into a misconception of your views, not being aware, probably, any more than myself of the very great inequality which you are so sensible of. But as it is, the disappointment is single, and I trust will not be lasting. I have no thoughts of matrimony at present. He was too angry to say another word. Her manner too decided to invite supplication. And in this state of swelling resentment and mutually deep mortification, they had to continue together a few minutes longer, for the fears of Mr. Woodhouse had confined them to a foot pace. If there had not been so much anger, there would have been desperate awkwardness. But their straightforward emotions left no room for the little zig-zags of embarrassment. Without knowing when the carriage turned into a vicarage lane or when it stopped, they found themselves all at once at the door of his house, and he was out before another syllable passed. Emma then felt it indispensable to wish him a good night. The compliment was just returned coldly and proudly, and under indescribable irritation of spirits, she was then conveyed to Hartfield. There she was welcomed with the utmost delight by her father, who had been trembling for the dangers of a solitary drive from vicarage lane, turning a corner which he could never bear to think of, and in strange hands a mere common coachman, no James, and there it seemed as if her return only were wanted to make everything go well. For Mr. John Knightley, ashamed of his ill humour, was now all kindness and attention, and so particularly solicitous for the comfort of her father, as to seem, if not quite ready, to join him in a basin of gruel, perfectly sensible of its being exceedingly wholesome, and the day was concluding in peace and comfort to all the little party except herself. But her mind had never been in such perturbation, and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet Emma by Jane Austen Volume 1 Chapter 16 The hair was curled, and the maid sent away, and Emma sat down to think and be miserable. It was a wretched business indeed, such an overthrow of everything she had been wishing for, such a development of everything most unwelcome. Such a blow for Harriet! That was the worst of all. Every part of it brought pain and humiliation of some sort or other, but compared with the evil to Harriet all was light, and she would gladly have submitted to feel yet more mistaken, more in error, more disgraced by misjudgment than she actually was, could the effects of her blunders have been confined to herself? If I had not persuaded Harriet into liking the man, I could have borne anything. He might have doubled his presumption to me, but poor Harriet! How could she have been so deceived? He protested that he had never thought seriously of Harriet. Never! She looked back as well as she could, but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she supposed, and made everything bend to it. His manners, however, must have been unmarked, wavering, dubious, or she could not have been so misled. The picture! How eager he had been about the picture! And the charade! And at hundred other circumstances! How clearly they had seemed to point at Harriet! To be sure, the charade with its ready wit! But then, the soft eyes! In fact, it suited neither. It was a jumble without taste or truth. Who could have seen through such thick-headed nonsense? Certainly she had often, especially of late, thought his manners to herself unnecessarily galant. But it had passed as his way, as a mere error of judgment, of knowledge, of taste, as one proof among others that he had not always lived in the best society. That with all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting. But till this very day she had never for an instant suspected it to mean anything but grateful respect to her as Harriet's friend. To Mr. John Knightley was she indebted for her first idea on the subject, for the first start of its possibility. There was no denying that those brothers had penetration. She remembered what Mr. Knightley had once said to her about Mr. Elton, the caution he had given, the conviction he had professed that Mr. Elton would never marry indiscreetly, and blushed to think how much truer knowledge of his character had been there shown than any she had reached herself. It was dreadfully mortifying, but Mr. Elton was proving himself, in many respects, the very reverse of what she had meant and believed him. Proud, assuming, conceited, very full of his own claims, and little concerned about the feelings of others. Contrary to the usual course of things, Mr. Elton's wanting to pay his addresses to her had sunk him in her opinion. His professions and his proposals did him no service. She thought nothing of his attachment, and was insulted by his hopes. He wanted to marry well, and having the arrogance to raise his eyes to her, pretended to be in love, but she was perfectly easy as to his not suffering any disappointment that need be cared for. There had been no real affection either in his language or manners. Size and fine words had been given in abundance, but she could hardly devise any set of expressions or fancy any tone of voice less allied with real love. She need not trouble herself to pity him. He only wanted to aggrandise and enrich himself, and if Miss Woodhouse of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds, were not quite so easily obtained as he had fancied, he would soon try for Miss somebody else with twenty or with ten. But that he should talk of encouragement should consider her as aware of his views, accepting his attentions, meaning in short to marry him, should suppose himself her equal in connection or mind, look down upon her friend, so well understanding the gradations of rank below him, and be so blind to what rose above as to fancy himself showing no presumption in addressing her, it was most provoking. Perhaps it was not fair to expect him to feel how very much he was her inferior in talent and all the elegancies of mind. The very want of such equality might prevent his perception of it, but he must know that in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. He must know that the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family, and that the Alton's were nobody. The landed property of Hartfield certainly was inconsiderable, being but a sort of notch in the Donwell Abbey estate, to which all the rest of Highbury belonged. But their fortune, from other sources, was such as to make them scarcely secondary to Donwell Abbey itself in every other kind of consequence. And the Woodhouses had long held a high place in the consideration of the neighbourhood, which Mr. Alton had first entered not two years ago to make his way as he could, without any alliances but in trade, or anything to recommend him to notice but his situation and his civility. But he had fancied her in love with him. That evidently must have been his dependence. And after raving a little about the seeming incongruity of gentle manners and a conceited head, Emma was obliged in common honesty to stop and admit that her own behaviour to him had been so complacent and obliging, so full of courtesy and attention, as, supposing her real motive unperceived, might warrant a man of ordinary observation and delicacy, like Mr. Alton, infancing himself a very decided favourite. If she had so misinterpreted his feelings, she had little right to wonder that he, with self-interest to blind him, should have mistaken hers. The first error and the worst lay at her door. It was foolish, it was wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together. It was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what ought to be serious, a trick of what ought to be simple. She was quite concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things no more. Here have I, said she, actually talked poor Harriet into being very much attached to this man. She might never have thought of him but for me, and certainly never would have thought of him with hope, had I not assured her of his attachment. For she is as modest and humble as I used to think him. Oh, that I had been satisfied with persuading her not to accept young Martin. There I was quite right. That was well done of me. But there I should have stopped, and left the rest to time and chance. I was introducing her into good company, and giving her the opportunity of pleasing someone worth having. I ought not to have attempted more. But now, poor girl, her peace is cut up for some time. I have been but half a friend to her, and if she were not to feel this disappointment so very much, I am sure I have not an idea of anybody else who would be at all desirable for her. William Cox? Oh, no, I could not endure William Cox, a pert young lawyer. She stopped to blush and laugh at her own relapse, and then resumed a more serious, more dispiriting cogitation upon what had been, and might be, and must be. The distressing explanation she had to make to Harriet, and all that poor Harriet would be suffering, with the awkwardness of future meetings, the difficulties of continuing or discontinuing the acquaintance, of subduing feelings, concealing resentment, and avoiding a clat, were enough to occupy her in most unmerthful reflections some time longer, and she went to bed at last with nothing settled but the conviction of her having blundered most dreadfully. To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma's, though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits. The youth and cheerfulness of mourning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation, and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope. Emma got up on the morrow, more disposed for comfort than she had gone to bed, more ready to see alleviations of the evil before her, and to depend on getting tolerably out of it. It was a great consolation that Mr. Elton should not be really in love with her, or so particularly amiable as to make it shocking to disappoint him. That Harriet's nature should not be of that superior sort in which the feelings are most acute and retentive, and that there could be no necessity for anybodies knowing what had passed except the three principles, and especially for her father's being given a moment's uneasiness about it. These were very cheering thoughts, and the sight of a great deal of snow on the ground did her further service, for anything was welcome that might justify their all three being quite asunder at present. The weather was most favourable for her, though Christmas day she could not go to church. Mr. Woodhouse would have been miserable had his daughter attempted it, and she was therefore safe from either exciting or receiving unpleasant and most unsuitable ideas. The ground covered with snow, and the atmosphere in that unsettled state between frost and thaw, which is of all others the most unfriendly for exercise every morning beginning in rain or snow, and every evening setting into freeze, she was for many days a most honourable prisoner. No intercourse with Harriet possible but by note, no church for her on Sunday any more than on Christmas day, and no need to find excuses for Mr. Elton's absenting himself. It was weather which might fairly confine everybody at home, and though she hoped and believed him to be really taking comfort in some society or other, it was very pleasant to have her father so well satisfied with his being all alone in his own house, too wise to stir out, and to hear him say to Mr. Knightley, whom no weather could keep entirely from them. Ah, Mr. Knightley, why do not you stay at home like poor Mr. Elton? These days of confinement would have been, but for her private perplexities, remarkably comfortable, as such seclusion exactly suited her brother, whose feelings must always be of great importance to his companions. And he had, besides, so thoroughly cleared off his ill-humoured randles that his amoebleness never failed him during the rest of his stay at Hartfield. He was always agreeable and obliging, and speaking pleasantly of everybody. But with all the hopes of cheerfulness, and all the present comfort of delay, there was still such an evil hanging over her in the hour of explanation with Harriet, as made it impossible for Emma to be ever perfectly at ease. End of Chapter 16 Recorded in Toronto, Ontario by Moira Fogarty, April 2009 Emma by Jane Austen, Volume 1, Chapter 17 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Moira Fogarty. Emma by Jane Austen, Volume 1, Chapter 17 Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley were not detained long at Hartfield. The weather soon improved enough for those to move who must move, and Mr. Woodhouse having, as usual, tried to persuade his daughter to stay behind with all her children, was obliged to see the whole party set off, and return to his lamentations over the destiny of poor Isabella. Which poor Isabella, passing her life with those she doted on, full of their merits, blind to their faults, and always innocently busy, might have been a model of right feminine happiness. The evening of the very day on which they went brought a note from Mr. Elton to Mr. Woodhouse. A long, civil, ceremonious note to say with Mr. Elton's best compliments, that he was proposing to leave Highbury the following morning in his way to Bath, where, in compliance with the pressing entreaties of some friends, he had engaged to spend a few weeks, and very much regretted the impossibility he was under from various circumstances of weather and business, of taking a personal leave of Mr. Woodhouse, of whose friendly civilities he should ever retain a grateful sense, and had Mr. Woodhouse any commands, should be happy to attend to them. Emma was most agreeably surprised. Mr. Elton's absence, just at this time, was the very thing to be desired. She admired him for contriving it, though not able to give him much credit for the manner in which it was announced. Resentment could not have been more plainly spoken than in a civility to her father, from which she was so pointedly excluded. She had not even a share in his opening compliments. Her name was not mentioned. And there was so striking a change in all this, and such an ill-judged solemnity of leave-taking in his graceful acknowledgments, as she thought at first could not escape her father's suspicion. It did, however. Her father was quite taken up with the surprise of so sudden a journey, and his fears that Mr. Elton might never get safely to the end of it, and saw nothing extraordinary in his language. It was a very useful note, for it supplied them with fresh matter for thought and conversation during the rest of their lonely evening. Mr. Woodhouse talked over his alarms, and Emma was in spirits to persuade them away with all her usual promptitude. She now resolved to keep Harriet no longer in the dark. She had reason to believe her nearly recovered from her cold, and it was desirable that she should have as much time as possible for getting the better of her other complaint before the gentleman's return. She went to Mrs. Goddard's accordingly the very next day to undergo the necessary penance of communication, and a severe one it was. She had to destroy all the hopes which she had been so industriously feeding, to appear in the ungracious character of the one preferred, and acknowledge herself grossly mistaken and misjudging in all her ideas on one subject, all her observations, all her convictions, all her prophecies for the last six weeks. The confession completely renewed her first shame, and the sight of Harriet's tears made her think that she should never be in charity with herself again. Harriet bore the intelligence very well, blaming nobody, and in everything testifying such an ingenuousness of disposition and lowly opinion of herself, as must appear with particular advantage at that moment to her friend. Emma was in the humour to value simplicity and modesty to the utmost, and all that was amiable, all that ought to be attaching, seemed on Harriet's side, not her own. Harriet did not consider herself as having anything to complain of. The affection of such a man as Mr. Elton would have been too great a distinction. She could never have deserved him, and nobody but so partial and kind a friend as Miss Woodhouse would have thought it possible. Her tears fell abundantly, but her grief was so truly artless that no dignity could have made it more respectable in Emma's eyes, and she listened to her and tried to console her with all her heart and understanding. Really, for the time convinced that Harriet was the superior creature of the two, and that to resemble her would be more for her own welfare and happiness than all that genius or intelligence could do. It was rather too late in the day to set about being simple-minded and ignorant, but she left her with every previous resolution confirmed of being humble and discreet, and repressing imagination all the rest of her life. Her second duty now, inferior only to her father's claims, was to promote Harriet's comfort and endeavour to prove her own affection in some better method than by matchmaking. She got her to Hartfield, and showed her the most unvarying kindness, striving to occupy and amuse her, and by books and conversation, to drive Mr. Elton from her thoughts. Time, she knew, must be allowed for this being thoroughly done, and she could suppose herself but an indifferent judge of such matters in general, and very inadequate to sympathise in an attachment to Mr. Elton in particular. But it seemed to her reasonable that at Harriet's age, and with the entire extinction of all hope, such a progress might be made towards a state of composure by the time of Mr. Elton's return, as to allow them all to meet again in the common routine of acquaintance, without any danger of betraying sentiments or increasing them. Harriet did think him all perfection, and maintained the non-existence of anybody equal to him in person or goodness, and did, in truth, prove herself more resolutely in love than Emma had foreseen. But yet it appeared to her so natural, so inevitable, to strive against an inclination of that sort unrequited, that she could not comprehend its continuing very long in equal force. If Mr. Elton, on his return, made his own indifference as evident and indubitable as she could not doubt he would anxiously do, she could not imagine Harriet's persisting to place her happiness in the sight or the recollection of him. They're being fixed, so absolutely fixed, in the same place, was bad for each, for all three. Not one of them had the power of removal, or of affecting any material change of society. They must encounter each other, and make the best of it. Harriet was rather unfortunate in the tone of her companions at Mrs. Goddard's, Mr. Elton being the adoration of all the teachers and great girls in the school, and it must be at heart-field only, that she could have any chance of hearing him spoken of, with cooling moderation or repellent truth. Where the wound had been given, there must be the cure found, if anywhere, and Emma felt that till she saw her in the way of cure, there could be no true peace for herself. END OF CHAPTER XVII. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Emma by Jane Austen. Volume 1, Chapter 18. Mr. Frank Churchill did not come. When the time proposed drew near, Mrs. Weston's fears were justified in the arrival of a letter of excuse. For the present he could not be spared to his very great mortification and regret, but still he looked forward with the hope of coming to Randall's at no distant period. Mrs. Weston was exceedingly disappointed. Much more disappointed, in fact, than her husband, though her dependence on seeing the young men had been so much more sober. But a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon flies over the present failure and begins to hope again. For half an hour Mr. Weston was surprised and sorry. But then he began to perceive that Frank's coming two or three months later would be a much better plan, better time of year, better weather, and that he would be able without any doubt to stay considerably longer with them than if he had come sooner. These feelings rapidly restored his comfort, while Mrs. Weston, of a more apprehensive disposition, for saw nothing but a repetition of excuses and delays, and after all her concern for what her husband was to suffer, suffered a great deal more herself. Emma was not at this time in a state of spirits to care really about Mr. Frank Churchill's not coming, except as a disappointment at Randall's. The acquaintance at present had no charm for her. She wanted, rather, to be quiet and out of temptation. But still, as it was desirable that she should appear, in general, like her usual self, she took care to express as much interest in the circumstance, and enters warmly into Mr. and Mrs. Weston's disappointment, as might naturally belong to their friendship. She was the first to announce it to Mr. Knightley, and exclaimed quite as much as was necessary, or, being acting apart, perhaps rather more, at the conduct of the Churchels, in keeping him away. She then proceeded to say a good deal more than she felt, of the advantage of such an addition to their confined society in Surrey. The pleasure of looking at somebody new, the gala day to hybrid hire, which the sight of him would have made, and ending with reflections on the Churchels again, found herself directly involved in a disagreement with Mr. Knightley, and, to her great amusement, perceived that she was taking the other side of the question from her real opinion, and making use of Mrs. Weston's arguments against herself. The Churchels are very likely in fault, said Mr. Knightley coolly, but I dare say he might come if he would. I do not know why you should say so. He wishes exceedingly to come, but his uncle and aunt will not spare him. I cannot believe that he has not the power of coming, if he made a point of it. It is too unlikely for me to believe it without proof. How odd you are! What has Mr. Frank Churchill done to make you suppose him such an unnatural creature? I am not supposing him at all an unnatural creature, in suspecting that he may have learned to be above his connections, and to care very little for anything but his own pleasure, from living with those who have always set him the example of it. It is a great deal more natural than one could wish that a young man, brought up by those who are proud, luxurious, and selfish, should be proud, luxurious, and selfish too. If Frank Churchill had wanted to see his father, he would have contrived it between September and January. A man at his age, what is he? Three or four and twenty? Cannot be without the means of doing as much as that. It is impossible. Well, that's easily said, and easily felt by you, who have always been your own master. You are the worst judge in the world, Mr. Knightley, of the difficulties of dependence. You do not know what it is to have tempers to manage. It is not to be conceived that a man of three or four and twenty should not have liberty of mind or limb to that amount. He cannot want money, he cannot want leisure. We know on the contrary that he has so much of both that he is glad to get rid of them at the idlest haunts in the kingdom. We hear of him for ever at some watering-place or other. A little while ago he was at Weymouth. This proves that he can leave the Churchels. Yes, sometimes he can, and those times are whenever he thinks it worth his while, whenever there is any temptation of pleasure. It is very unfair to judge of anybody's conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation. Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be. We ought to be acquainted with Enscombe, and with Mrs. Churchels' temper, before we pretend to decide upon what her nephew can do. He may at times be able to do a great deal more than he can at others. There is one thing Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty. Not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigor and resolution. It is Frank Churchels' duty to pay this attention to his father. He knows it to be so, by his promises and messages. But if he wished to do it, it might be done. A man, who felt rightly, would say at once, simply and resolutely, to Mrs. Churchels, every sacrifice of mere pleasure you will always find me ready to make to your convenience, but I must go and see my father immediately. I know he would be hurt by my failing in such a mark of respect to him on the present occasion. I shall therefore set off to-morrow. If he would say so to her at once, in the tone of decision becoming a man, there would be no opposition made to his going. No, said Emma laughing. But perhaps there might be some made to his coming back again. Such language for a young man entirely dependent to use! Nobody but you, Mr. Knightley, would imagine it possible. But you have not an idea of what is requisite in situations directly opposite to your own. Mr. Frank Churchels, to be making such a speech as that, to the uncle and aunt who have brought him up, and are to provide for him, standing up in the middle of the room, I suppose, and speaking as loud as he could. How can you imagine such conduct practicable? Depend upon it, Emma. A sensible man would find no difficulty in it. He would feel himself in the right, and the declaration, made, of course, as a man of sense would make it, in a proper manner, would do him more good, raise him higher, fix his interest stronger with the people he depended on, than all that a line of shifts and expedience can ever do. Respect would be added to affection. They would feel that they could trust him, that the nephew who had done rightly by his father would do rightly by them. For they know, as well as he does, as well as all the world must know, that he ought to pay this visit to his father. And while meanly exerting their power to delay it, are in their hearts not thinking the better of him for submitting to their whims. Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody. If he would act in this sort of manner on principle, consistently, regularly, their little minds would bend to his. Oh! I rather doubt that. You are very fond of bending little minds, but where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great ones. I can imagine that if you, as you are, Mr. Knightley, were to be transported and placed all at once in Mr. Frank Churchill's situation, you would be able to say and do just what you have been recommending for him, and it might have a very good effect. The Churchells might not have a word to say in return, but then you would have no habits of early obedience and long observance to break through. To him who has, it might not be so easy to burst forth at once into perfect independence and set all their claims on his gratitude and regard at naught. He may have a strong a sense of what would be right, as you can have, without being so equal under particular circumstances to act up to it. Then it would not be so strong a sense, if it failed to produce equal exertion, it could not be an equal conviction. Oh! the difference of situation and habit! I wish you would try to understand what an amiable young man may be likely to feel in directly opposing those whom as a child and boy he has been looking up to all his life. Our amiable young man is a very weak young man, if this be the first occasion of his carrying through a resolution to do right against the will of others. It ought to have been a habit with him by this time of following his duty instead of consulting expediency. I can allow for the fears of the child, but not of the man. As he became rational, he ought to have roused himself and shaken off all that was unworthy in their authority. He ought to have opposed the first attempt on their side to make him slight his father. Had he begun as he ought there would have been no difficulty now. Oh! we shall never agree about him! cried Emma, but that is nothing extraordinary. I have not the least idea of his being a weak young man. I feel sure that he is not. Mr. Weston would not be blind to folly, though in his own son. But he is very likely to have a more yielding, complying, mild disposition than would suit your notions of man's perfection. I daresay he has, and though it may cut him off from some advantages, it will secure him many others. Yes, all the advantages of sitting still when he ought to move, and of leading a life of mere idle pleasure, and fancying himself extremely expert in finding excuses for it. He can sit down and write a fine, flourishing letter, full of professions and falsehoods, and persuade himself that he has hit upon the very best method in the world of preserving peace at home and preventing his father's having any right to complain. His letters disgust me. Your feelings are singular. They seem to satisfy everybody else. I suspect they do not satisfy Mrs. Weston. They hardly can satisfy a woman of her good sense and quick feelings. Standing in a mother's place, but without a mother's affection to blind her, it is on her account the detention to Randall's is doubly due, and she must doubly feel the omission. Had she been a person of consequence herself, he would have come, I daresay, and it would not have signified whether he did or no. Can you think your friend behind hand in these sort of considerations? Do you suppose she does not often say all this to herself? No. Emma, your amiable young man, can be amiable only in French, not in English. He may be very amable, have very good manners, and be very agreeable, but he can have no English delicacy towards the feelings of other people. Nothing really amiable about him. You seem determined to think ill of him. Me? Not at all, replied Mr. Knightley, rather displeased. I do not want to think ill of him. I should be as ready to acknowledge his merits as any other man, but I hear of none, except what are merely personal, that he is well grown and good-looking with smooth, plausible manners. Well, if he have nothing else to recommend him he will be a treasure at Highbury. We do not often look upon fine young men, well bred and agreeable. We must not be nice and ask for all the virtues into the bargain. Cannot you imagine, Mr. Knightley, what a sensation his coming will produce. There will be but one subject throughout the parishes of Donwell and Highbury, but one interest, one object of curiosity. It will be all Mr. Frank Churchill. We shall think and speak of nobody else. You will excuse my being so much overpowered. If I find him conversable I shall be glad of his acquaintance, but if he is only a chattering coxcomb he will not occupy much of my time or thoughts. My idea of him is that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of everybody, and has the power as well as the wish of being universally agreeable. To you he will talk of farming, to me, of drawing or music, and so on to everybody, having that general information on all subjects, which will enable him to follow the lead, or take the lead, just as propriety may require, and to speak extremely well on each. That is my idea of him. And mine, said Mr. Knightley warmly, is that if he turn out anything like it he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing. What, at three and twenty to be the king of his company, the great man, the practised politician, who is to read everybody's character, and make everybody's talents conduced to the display as his own superiority, to be dispensing his flatteries round, that he may make all appear like fools compared with himself? My dear Emma, your own good sense could not endure such a puppy when it came to the point. I will say no more about him, cried Emma, you turn everything to evil. We are both prejudiced, you against, I for him, and we have no chance of agreeing till he is really here. Prejudiced, I am not prejudiced, but I am very much, and without being at all ashamed of it, my love for Mr. and Mrs. Weston gives me a decided prejudice in his favour. He is a person I never think of from one month's end to another, said Mr. Knightley, with a degree of vexation which made Emma immediately talk of something else, though she could not comprehend why he should be angry. To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind which she was always used to acknowledge in him. For with all the high opinion of himself, which she had often laid to his charge, she had never before, for a moment supposed, it could make him unjust to the merit of another. End of Chapter 18 and End of Volume 1 Recorded in Toronto, Ontario by Moira Fogarty. April 2009 Emma by Jane Austen. Volume 2, Chapter 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Moira Fogarty. Emma by Jane Austen. Volume 2, Chapter 1 Emma and Harriet had been walking together one morning, and, in Emma's opinion, had been talking enough of Mr. Elton for that day. She could not think that Harriet's solace or her own sins required more, and she was therefore industriously getting rid of the subject as they returned. But it burst out again when she thought she had succeeded, and after speaking some time of what the poor must suffer in winter, and receiving no other answer than a very plaintive, Mr. Elton is so good to the poor! She found something else must be done. They were just approaching the house where lived Mrs. and Miss Bates. She determined to call upon them and seek safety in numbers. There was always sufficient reason for such an attention. Mrs. and Miss Bates loved to be called on, and she knew she was considered by the very few who presumed ever to see imperfection in her, as rather negligent in that respect, and as not contributing what she ought to the stock of their scanty comforts. She had had many a hint from Mr. Knightley, and some from her own heart as to her deficiency, but none were equal to counteract the persuasion of its being very disagreeable, a waste of time, tiresome women, and all the horror of being in danger of falling in with the second rate and third rate of hybrary, who were calling on them for ever, and therefore she seldom went near them. But now she made the sudden resolution of not passing their door without going in, observing, as she proposed it to Harriet, that as well as she could calculate, they were just now quite safe from any letter from Jane Fairfax. The house belonged to people in business. Mrs. and Miss Bates occupied the drawing-room floor, and there, in the very moderate-sized apartment, which was everything to them. The visitors were most cordially and even gratefully welcomed. The quiet, neat old lady, who with her knitting was seated in the warmest corner, wanting even to give up her place to Miss Woodhouse, and her more active, talking daughter, almost ready to overpower them with care and kindness, thanks for their visit, solicitude for their shoes, anxious inquiries after Mr. Woodhouse's health, cheerful communications about her mother's, and sweet cake from the buffet. Mrs. Cole had just been there, just called in for ten minutes, and had been so good as to sit an hour with them, and she had taken a piece of cake, and been so kind as to say she liked it very much, and therefore she hoped Miss Woodhouse and Miss Smith would do them the favour to eat a piece, too. The mention of the Coles was sure to be followed by that of Mr. Elton. There was intimacy between them, and Mr. Cole had heard from Mr. Elton since his going away. Emma knew what was coming. They must have the letter over again, and settle how long he had been gone, and how much he was engaged in company, and what a favourite he was wherever he went, and how full of the master of ceremonies ball had been, and she went through it very well, with all the interest and all the commendation that could be requisite, and always putting forward to prevent Harriet's being obliged to say a word. This she had been prepared for when she entered the house, but meant, having once talked him handsomely over, to be no farther incommodated by any troublesome topic, and to wander at large amongst all the mistresses and misses of Highbury, and their card-parties. She had not been prepared to have Jane Fairfax exceed Mr. Elton, but he was actually hurried off by Miss Bates. She jumped away from him at last abruptly to the Coles to usher in a letter from her niece. Oh, yes, Mr. Elton I understand, certainly as to dancing. Mrs. Cole was telling me that dancing at the rooms at Bath was—Mrs. Cole was so kind as to sit some time with us, talking of Jane, for as soon as she came in she began inquiring after her. Jane is so very great a favourite there. Whenever she is with us, Mrs. Cole does not know how to show her kindness enough, and I must say that Jane deserves it as much as anybody can. And so she began inquiring after her directly, saying, I know you cannot have heard from Jane lately, because it is not her time for writing. And when I immediately said, but indeed we have, we had a letter this very morning. I do not know that I ever saw anybody more surprised. Have you, upon your honour, said she? Well, that is quite unexpected. Do let me hear what she says. Emma's politeness was at hand directly, to say with smiling interest. Have you heard from Miss Fairfax so lately? I am extremely happy. I hope she is well. Oh, thank you, you are so kind, replied the happily deceived aunt, while eagerly hunting for the letter. Oh, here it is. I was sure it could not be far off, but I had put my huswife upon it, you see, without being aware, and so it was quite hid. But I had it in my hand so very lately, that I was almost sure it must be on the table. I was reading it to Mrs. Cole, and since she went away, I was reading it again to my mother, for it is such a pleasure to her, a letter from Jane, that she can never hear it often enough. So I knew it could not be far off, and here it is, only just under my huswife. And since you are so kind as to wish to hear what she says. Oh, but first of all, I really must, in justice to Jane, apologise for her writing so short a letter, only two pages, you see, hardly two, and in general she fills the whole paper and crosses half. My mother often wonders that I can make it out so well. She often says, when the letter is first opened, well, Hetty, now I think you will be put to it to make out all that checker work, don't you, Mom? And then I tell her, I am sure she would contrive to make it out herself, if she had nobody to do it for her, every word of it. I am sure she would pour over it till she had made out every word. And indeed, though my mother's eyes are not so good as they were, she can see amazingly well still, thank God, with the help of spectacles. It is such a blessing. My mother's a really very good indeed. Jane often says when she is here, I am sure, Grandmama, you must have had very strong eyes to see as you do, and so much fine work as you have done too. I only wish my eyes may last me as well. All this, spoken extremely fast, obliged Miss Bates to stop for breath, and Emma said something very civil about the excellence of Miss Fairfax's handwriting. Oh, you are extremely kind! replied Miss Bates, highly gratified. You, who are such a judge, and write so beautifully yourself, I am sure there is nobody's praise that could give us so much pleasure as Miss Woodhouse's. My mother does not hear. She is a little deaf, you know. Mom, addressing her, do you hear what Miss Woodhouse is so obliging to say about Jane's handwriting? And Emma had the advantage of hearing her own silly compliment repeated twice over before the good old lady could comprehend it. She was pondering in the meanwhile upon the possibility, without seeming very rude, of making her escape from Jane Fairfax's letter, and had almost resolved on hurrying away directly under some slight excuse, when Miss Bates turned to her again, and seized her attention. My mother's deafness is very trifling, you see, just nothing at all. By only raising my voice, and saying anything two or three times over, she is sure to hear. But then she is used to my voice, but it is very remarkable that she should always hear Jane better than she does me. Jane speaks so distinct. However, she will not find her grandma at all deafer than she was two years ago, which is saying a great deal at my mother's time of life. And it really is full two years, you know, since she was here. We never were so long without seeing her before, and as I was telling Mrs. Cole, we shall hardly know how to make enough of her now. Are you expecting Miss Fairfax here soon? Oh yes, next week! Indeed! That must be a very great pleasure. Thank you, you are very kind. Yes, next week. Everybody is so surprised, and everybody says the same obliging things. I am sure she will be as happy to see her friends at Highbury, as they can be to see her. Yes, Friday or Saturday, she cannot say which, because Colonel Campbell will be wanting the carriage himself one of those days. So very good of them to send her the whole way. But they always do, you know. Oh yes, Friday or Saturday next. That is what she writes about. That is the reason of her writing out of rule, as we call it. For in the Common Course, we should not have heard from her before next Tuesday or Wednesday. Yes, so I imagined. I was afraid there could be little chance of my hearing anything of Miss Fairfax today. Oh, so obliging of you! No, we should not have heard, if it had not been for this particular circumstance of her being come here so soon. My mother is so delighted, for she is to be three months with us at least. Three months? She says so positively, as I am going to have the pleasure of reading to you. The case is you see that the Campbells are going to Ireland. Mrs. Dixon has persuaded her father and mother to come over and see her directly. They had not intended to go over till the summer, but she is so impatient to see them again. For till she married last October, she was never away from them so much as a week, which must make it very strange to be in different kingdoms, I was going to say, but however different countries. And so, she wrote a very urgent letter to her mother, or her father. I declare I do not know which it was, but we shall see presently in Jane's letter. Wrote in Mr. Dixon's name, as well as her own, to press their coming over directly, and they would give them the meeting in Dublin, and take them back to their country seat. Bally Craig, a beautiful place, I fancy. Jane has heard a great deal of its beauty, for Mr. Dixon, I mean. I do not know that she ever heard about it from anybody else, but it was very natural, you know, that he should like to speak of his own place while he was paying his addresses. And as Jane used to be very often walking out with them, for Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were very particular about their daughters not walking out often with only Mr. Dixon, for which I do not at all blame them. Of course, she heard everything he might be telling Miss Campbell about his own home in Ireland, and I think she wrote his word that he had shown them some drawings of the place, views that he had taken himself. He is a most amiable, charming young man, I believe. Jane was quite longing to go to Ireland from his account of things. At this moment, an ingenious and animating suspicion entering Emma's brain with regard to Jane Fairfax, this charming Mr. Dixon, and the not going to Ireland, she said, with the insidious design of Father Discovery, You must feel it very fortunate that Miss Fairfax should be allowed to come to you at such a time. Considering the very particular friendship between her and Mrs. Dixon, you could hardly have expected her to be excused from a company in Colonel and Mrs. Campbell. Oh, very true, very true indeed, the very thing that we have always been rather afraid of, for we should not have liked to have her at such a distance from us, for months together, not able to come if anything was to happen. But you see, everything turns out for the best, they want her. Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, excessively to come over with Colonel and Mrs. Campbell, quite depend upon it. Nothing can be more kind or pressing than their joint invitation, Jane says, as you will hear presently. Mr. Dixon does not seem in the least backward in any attention. He is a most charming young man. Ever since the service he rendered Jane at Weymouth, when they were out in that party on the water, and she, by the sudden whirling round of something or other among the sales, would have been dashed into the sea at once, and actually was all but gone, if he had not, that the greatest presence of mind called hold of her habit. I can never think of it without trembling. But ever since we had the history of that day I have been so fond of Mr. Dixon. But in spite of all her friend's urgency, and her own wish of seeing Ireland, Miss Fairfax prefers devoting the time to you and Mrs. Bates? Yes, entirely her own doing, entirely her own choice, and Colonel and Mrs. Campbell think she does quite right, just what they should recommend, and indeed they particularly wish her to try her native air, as she has not been quite so well as usual lately. Oh, I am concerned to hear of it. I think they judge wisely. But Mrs. Dixon must be very much disappointed. Mrs. Dixon, I understand, has no remarkable degree of personal beauty, is not by any means to be compared with Miss Fairfax. Oh, no, you are very obliging to say such things, but certainly not. There is no comparison between them. Miss Campbell always was absolutely plain, but extremely elegant, and amiable. Yes, that, of course. Oh, Jane caught a bad cold, poor thing, so long ago as the 7th of November, as I am going to read to you, and has never been well since. A long time is not it for a cold to hang upon her. She never mentioned it before, because she would not alarm us, just like her, so considerate. But, however, she is so far from well that her kind friends, the Campbells, think she had better come home, and try an air that always agrees with her. And they have no doubt that three or four months at Highbury will entirely cure her. And it is certainly a great deal better that she should come here than go to Ireland, if she is unwell. Nobody could nurse her as we should do. It appears to me the most desirable arrangement in the world. And so she is to come to us next Friday or Saturday, and the Campbells leave town in their way to Holyhead the one day following, as you will find from Jane's letter. So sudden, you may guess, dear Miss Woodhouse, what a flurry it has thrown me in, if it was not for the drawback of her illness. But I am afraid we must expect to see her grown thin, and looking very poorly. I must tell you what an unlucky thing happened to me as to that. I always make a point of reading Jane's letters through to myself first, before I read them aloud to my mother, you know, for fear of there being anything in them to distress her. Jane desired me to do it, so I always do. And so I began today with my usual caution. But no sooner did I come to the mention of her being unwell than I burst out quite frightened with, bless me, poor Jane is ill, which my mother, being on the watch, heard distinctly, and was sadly alarmed at. However, when I read on, I found it was not near so bad as I had fancied at first, and I make so light of it now to her that she does not think much about it. But I cannot imagine how I could be so off my guard. If Jane does not get well soon, we will call him Mr. Perry. The expense shall not be thought of, and though he is so liberal and so fond of Jane that I daresay he would not mean to charge anything for attendance, we could not suffer it to be so, you know. He has a wife and family to maintain, and is not to be giving away his time. Well, now, I have just given you a hint of what Jane writes about. We will turn to her letter, and I am sure she tells her own story a great deal better than I can tell it for her. I am afraid we must be running away, said Emma, glancing at Harriet and beginning to rise. My father will be expecting us. I had no intention. I thought I had no power of staying more than five minutes when I first entered the house. I merely called because I would not pass the door without inquiring after Mrs. Bates. But I have been so pleasantly detained. Now, however, we must wish you and Mrs. Bates good morning. And not all that could be urged to detain her succeeded. She regained the street, happy in this, that though much had been forced on her against her will, though she had, in fact, heard the whole substance of Jane Fairfax's letter, she had been able to escape the letter itself.