Emma, by Jane Austen
Chapter V
“I do no longer understand what your opinion may additionally be, Mrs. Weston,” stated Mr. Knightley, “of this first-rate intimacy between Emma and Harriet Smith, however I suppose it a terrible thing.”
“A horrific thing! Do you absolutely assume it a horrific thing? — why so?”
“I assume they will neither of them do the different any good.”
“You surprize me! Emma ought to do Harriet good: and by means of offering her with a new object of interest, Harriet might also be stated to do Emma good. I have been seeing their intimacy with the best pleasure. How very in a different way we feel! — Not assume they will do every different any good! This will clearly be the commencing of one of our quarrels about Emma, Mr. Knightley.”
“Perhaps you assume I am come on motive to quarrel with you, understanding Weston to be out, and that you need to nonetheless battle your personal battle.”
“Mr. Weston would without doubt aid me, if he had been here, for he thinks precisely as I do on the subject. We have been talking of it solely yesterday, and agreeing how lucky it used to be for Emma, that there have to be such a female in Highbury for her to partner with. Mr. Knightley, I shall no longer permit you to be a honest choose in this case. You are so lots used to stay alone, that you do now not recognize the fee of a companion; and, possibly no man can be a properly decide of the remedy a girl feels in the society of one of her very own sex, after being used to it all her life. I can think about your objection to Harriet Smith. She is no longer the most useful younger lady which Emma’s buddy ought to be. But on the different hand, as Emma needs to see her higher informed, it will be an inducement to her to study greater herself. They will study together. She potential it, I know.”
“Emma has been which means to examine greater ever on the grounds that she used to be twelve years old. I have viewed a amazing many lists of her drawing-up at a range of instances of books that she supposed to study frequently thru — and very appropriate lists they had been — very nicely chosen, and very neatly organized — on occasion alphabetically, and from time to time through some different rule. The listing she drew up when solely fourteen — I have in mind questioning it did her judgment so plenty credit, that I preserved it some time; and I dare say she can also have made out a very precise listing now. But I have finished with waiting for any direction of regular analyzing from Emma. She will by no means publish to any aspect requiring enterprise and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding. Where Miss Taylor failed to stimulate, I may also safely verify that Harriet Smith will do nothing. — You by no means may want to persuade her to examine 1/2 so a whole lot as you wished. — You comprehend you should not.”
“I dare say,” spoke back Mrs. Weston, smiling, “that I concept so then — however considering the fact that we have parted, I can by no means take into account Emma’s omitting to do any aspect I wished.”
“There is infrequently any wanting to refresh such a reminiscence as that,”— stated Mr. Knightley, feelingly; and for a second or two he had done. “But I,” he quickly added, “who have had no such appeal thrown over my senses, have to nevertheless see, hear, and remember. Emma is spoiled through being the cleverest of her family. At ten years old, she had the misfortune of being in a position to reply questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen. She was once continually rapid and assured: Isabella sluggish and diffident. And ever on the grounds that she was once twelve, Emma has been mistress of the residence and of you all. In her mom she misplaced the solely character capable to cope with her. She inherits her mother’s talents, and need to have been beneath subjection to her.”
“I must have been sorry, Mr. Knightley, to be established on your recommendation, had I quitted Mr. Woodhouse’s household and desired any other situation; I do no longer suppose you would have spoken a suitable phrase for me to any body. I am positive you usually idea me unfit for the workplace I held.”
“Yes,” stated he, smiling. “You are higher positioned here; very match for a wife, however no longer at all for a governess. But you had been getting ready your self to be an high-quality spouse all the time you had been at Hartfield. You would possibly now not provide Emma such a whole schooling as your powers would appear to promise; however you have been receiving a very properly schooling from her, on the very fabric matrimonial factor of submitting your personal will, and doing as you have been bid; and if Weston had requested me to suggest him a wife, I must truly have named Miss Taylor.”
“Thank you. There will be very little advantage in making a proper spouse to such a man as Mr. Weston.”
“Why, to personal the truth, I am afraid you are instead thrown away, and that with each and every disposition to bear, there will be nothing to be borne. We will no longer despair, however. Weston can also develop move from the wantonness of comfort, or his son may additionally plague him.”
“I hope no longer that. — It is now not likely. No, Mr. Knightley, do no longer foretell vexation from that quarter.”
“Not I, indeed. I solely title possibilities. I do now not fake to Emma’s genius for foretelling and guessing. I hope, with all my heart, the younger man may additionally be a Weston in merit, and a Churchill in fortune. — But Harriet Smith — I have now not 1/2 completed about Harriet Smith. I suppose her the very worst type of partner that Emma may want to perchance have. She is aware of nothing herself, and appears upon Emma as understanding each thing. She is a flatterer in all her ways; and so plenty the worse, due to the fact undesigned. Her lack of knowledge is hourly flattery. How can Emma think about she has any element to study herself, whilst Harriet is providing such a pleasant inferiority? And as for Harriet, I will task to say that she can't acquire through the acquaintance. Hartfield will solely put her out of conceit with all the different locations she belongs to. She will develop simply sophisticated ample to be uncomfortable with these amongst whom start and instances have positioned her home. I am a good deal improper if Emma’s doctrines supply any electricity of mind, or have a tendency at all to make a female adapt herself rationally to the types of her state of affairs in life. — They solely supply a little polish.”
