Austen Said:

Jane Fairfax received attentions from Mrs. Elton which nobody else paid her.

"I hope you did not venture far, Miss Fairfax, this morning, or I am sure you must have been wet.—We scarcely got home in time. I hope you turned directly."

"Yes,"

"there is a likeness. I know what you mean— but Emma's hand is the strongest."

"I do not admire it,"

"It is too small —wants strength. It is like a woman's writing."

he was employed"—

"Oh! when a gallant young man, like Mr. Frank Churchill,"

"writes to a fair lady like Miss Woodhouse, he will, of course, put forth his best."

they are all coming up to town directly, on Mrs. Churchill's account —she has not been well the whole winter, and thinks Enscombe too cold for her—so they are all to move southward without loss of time."

Mrs. Churchill,

has not been able to leave the sofa for a week together.

she complained,

of being too weak to get into her conservatory without having both his arm and his uncle's!

"Yes,"

"it is Randalls that does it all."

"No,"

"that need not be the consequence. Let them be sent to Donwell. I shall certainly be at leisure."

"He had seen a group of old acquaintance in the street as he passed —he had not stopped, he would not stop for more than a word—but he had the vanity to think they would be disappointed if he did not call, and much as he wished to stay longer at Hartfield, he must hurry off."

He was often hoping, intending to come —but was always prevented. His aunt could not bear to have him leave her.

Though much might be fancy, he could not doubt, when he looked back, that she was in a weaker state of health than she had been half a year ago. He did not believe it to proceed from any thing that care and medicine might not remove, or at least that she might not have many years of existence before her;

"I think she must be here soon,"

"I have a great curiosity to see Mrs. Elton, I have heard so much of her. It cannot be long, I think, before she comes."

"I am forgetting that I am not acquainted with her. I have never seen either Mr. or Mrs. Elton. I have no business to put myself forward."

"I will see that there are umbrellas, sir,"

"Miss Bates must not be forgotten:"

"Jane!"—

"That is easy—but Miss Fairfax does not disapprove it, I suppose."

"Not at all."

"Ungrateful!—What do you mean?"

"No, do not tell me— I do not want to know what you mean.—Where is my father?—When are we to begin dancing?"

an engaged man,

it had been unpardonable rudeness;

"They aimed at wounding more than Harriet,"

"Emma, why is it that they are your enemies?"

"She ought not to be angry with you, I suspect, whatever he may be.—To that surmise, you say nothing, of course; but confess, Emma, that you did want him to marry Harriet."

"I shall not scold you. I leave you to your own reflections."

"Not your vain spirit, but your serious spirit.—If one leads you wrong, I am sure the other tells you of it."

"And, in return for your acknowledging so much, I will do you the justice to say, that you would have chosen for him better than he has chosen for himself.—Harriet Smith has some first-rate qualities, which Mrs. Elton is totally without. An unpretending, single-minded, artless girl— infinitely to be preferred by any man of sense and taste to such a woman as Mrs. Elton. I found Harriet more conversable than I expected."

"Whom are you going to dance with?"

"Will you?"

"Brother and sister! no, indeed."

he could not allow himself the pleasure of stopping at Hartfield, as he was to be at home by the middle of the day.

By a most fortunate chance his leaving Highbury had been delayed so as to bring him to her assistance at this critical moment. The pleasantness of the morning had induced him to walk forward, and leave his horses to meet him by another road, a mile or two beyond Highbury— and happening to have borrowed a pair of scissors the night before of Miss Bates, and to have forgotten to restore them, he had been obliged to stop at her door, and go in for a few minutes: he was therefore later than he had intended; and being on foot, was unseen by the whole party till almost close to them. The terror which the woman and boy had been creating in Harriet was then their own portion.

He had left them completely frightened; and Harriet eagerly clinging to him, and hardly able to speak, had just strength enough to reach Hartfield, before her spirits were quite overcome. It was his idea to bring her to Hartfield: he had thought of no other place.

He dared not stay longer than to see her well; these several delays left him not another minute to lose;

the story of Harriet and the gipsies,

That Emma was his object appeared indisputable. Every thing declared it; his own attentions, his father's hints, his mother-in-law's guarded silence; it was all in unison; words, conduct, discretion, and indiscretion, told the same story.

suspect him of some inclination to trifle with Jane Fairfax.

He could not understand it; but there were symptoms of intelligence between them— he thought so at least —symptoms of admiration on his side, which, having once observed, he could not persuade himself to think entirely void of meaning, however he might wish to escape any of Emma's errors of imagination.