Austen Said:

said Harriet, quite satisfied,

Voices approached the shop —or rather one voice and two ladies: Mrs. Weston and Miss Bates met them at the door.

said the latter,

Emma would be

and they did at last move out of the shop, with no farther delay from Miss Bates than,

said she, beginning again when they were all in the street.

Emma wondered on what, of all the medley, she would fix.

Miss Bates had just done as Patty opened the door; and her visitors walked upstairs without having any regular narration to attend to, pursued only by the sounds of her desultory good-will.

The appearance of the little sitting-room as they entered, was tranquillity itself; Mrs. Bates, deprived of her usual employment, slumbering on one side of the fire, Frank Churchill, at a table near her, most deedily occupied about her spectacles, and Jane Fairfax, standing with her back to them, intent on her pianoforte.

Busy as he was, however, the young man was yet able to shew a most happy countenance on seeing Emma again.

said he, in rather a low voice,

said Mrs. Weston,

he replied,

He contrived that she should be seated by him; and was sufficiently employed in looking out the best baked apple for her, and trying to make her help or advise him in his work, till Jane Fairfax was quite ready to sit down to the pianoforte again. That she was not immediately ready,

Emma did suspect

to arise from the state of her nerves;

and Emma could not but pity such feelings, whatever their origin, and could not but resolve never to expose them to her neighbour again.

At last Jane began, and though the first bars were feebly given, the powers of the instrument were gradually done full justice to. Mrs. Weston had been delighted before, and was delighted again; Emma joined her in all her praise; and

with every proper discrimination,

was pronounced

said Frank Churchill, with a smile at Emma,

Jane did not look round. She was not obliged to hear. Mrs. Weston had been speaking to her at the same moment.

said Emma, in a whisper;

He shook his head with a smile, and looked as if he had very little doubt and very little mercy. Soon afterwards he began again,

He paused. She could not but hear; she could not avoid answering,

said she, in a voice of forced calmness,

(to Mrs. Bates,)

He was very warmly thanked both by mother and daughter; to escape a little from the latter,

he

went to the pianoforte, and

begged

Miss Fairfax, who was still sitting at it,

said he,

She played.

She looked up at him for a moment, coloured deeply, and played something else. He took some music from a chair near the pianoforte, and turning to Emma, said,

Emma wished he would be less pointed, yet could not help being amused; and when on glancing her eye towards Jane Fairfax she caught the remains of a smile, when she saw that with all the deep blush of consciousness, there had been a smile of secret delight, she had less scruple in the amusement, and much less compunction with respect to her.—

He brought all the music to her, and they looked it over together.—Emma took the opportunity of whispering,

Shortly afterwards Miss Bates, passing near the window, descried Mr. Knightley on horse-back not far off.

She was in the adjoining chamber while she still spoke, and opening the casement there, immediately called Mr. Knightley's attention, and every syllable of their conversation was as distinctly heard by the others, as if it had passed within the same apartment.

So began Miss Bates; and Mr. Knightley seemed determined to be heard in his turn, for most resolutely and commandingly did he say,

And Miss Bates was obliged to give a direct answer before he would hear her in any thing else. The listeners were amused; and Mrs. Weston gave Emma a look of particular meaning. But Emma still shook her head in steady scepticism.

He cut her short with,

said he, in a deliberating manner,

(raising his voice still more)

(returning to the room,)

said Jane,

Emma found

and on examining watches, so much of the morning was perceived to be gone, that Mrs. Weston and her companion taking leave also, could allow themselves only to walk with the two young ladies to Hartfield gates, before they set off for Randalls.

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively, without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind;—but when a beginning is made —when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt— it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.

Frank Churchill had danced once at Highbury, and longed to dance again; and the last half-hour of an evening which Mr. Woodhouse was persuaded to spend with his daughter at Randalls, was passed by the two young people in schemes on the subject. Frank's was the first idea; and his the greatest zeal in pursuing it; for the lady was the best judge of the difficulties, and the most solicitous for accommodation and appearance. But still she had inclination enough for shewing people again how delightfully Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse danced— for doing that in which she need not blush to compare herself with Jane Fairfax— and even for simple dancing itself, without any of the wicked aids of vanity —to assist him first in pacing out the room they were in to see what it could be made to hold—and then in taking the dimensions of the other parlour, in the hope of discovering, in spite of all that Mr. Weston could say of their exactly equal size, that it was a little the largest.