Chapter XVII

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 more with all her children, was obliged to see the whole party set off, and return to his lamentations over the destiny of poor Isabella.

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 he had engaged to spend a few weeks.”

Emma was most agreeably surprized. Mr. Elton’s absence just at this time was the very thing to be desired. She now resolved to keep Harriet no longer in the dark. She went to Mrs. Goddard’s the very next day. She had to destroy all the hopes which she had been so industriously feeding – and acknowledge herself grossly mistaken and misjudging in all her ideas.

Harriet heard the news calmly, blaming nobody. She 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 never could have deserved him and nobody but Miss Woodhouse would have thought it possible.

Chapter XVIII

Mr. Frank Churchill did not come. He sent a letter of excuse. He could not arrive, to his “very great mortification and regret; but still he looked forward with the hope of coming to Randalls at no distant period.”

Mrs. Weston was exceedingly disappointed – much more disappointed, in fact, than her husband. For half an hour Mr. Weston was surprized 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 longer with them than if he had come sooner.

Emma did not care really about Mr. Frank Churchill’s not coming. The acquaintance at present had no charm for her. She wanted, rather, to be quiet, and out of temptation.

She was the first to announce it to Mr. Knightley.

“I dare say,” said Mr. Knightley, coolly; “that he might come if he would.”

“I do not know why you should say so. He wishes to come; but I think his uncle and aunt will not allow him.”

“I cannot believe that he has not the power of coming. 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. 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 come between September and January.”

“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.”

“I cannot understand that a man of three or four-and-twenty should not have liberty. He has money, he has leisure. We know that a little while ago, he was at Weymouth. This proves that he can leave the Churchills.”

“Yes, sometimes he can.”

“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chooses, and that is, his duty. It is Frank Churchill’s 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.”

“I rather doubt that. 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.”

“Our amiable young man is a very weak young man. It ought to have been a habit with him by this time, of following his duty. I can allow for the fears of the child, but not of the man.”

“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.”

“He is 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. His letters disgust me.”

“They seem to satisfy everybody else.”

“I suspect they do not satisfy Mrs. Weston. They hardly can satisfy a woman of her good sense. No, Emma, your amiable young man can be amiable only in French, not in English. He may be very ‘amiable,’ 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.”

“I will say no more about him,” cried Emma, “you turn everything to evil. We are both prejudiced; you against, I for him.”

“Prejudiced! I am not prejudiced.”

“But I am very much. My love for Mr. and Mrs. Weston gives me a decided prejudice in his favour.”

“He is a person I never think of,” said Mr. Knightley, and Emma immediately talk of something else, though she could not comprehend why he should be angry.

Part II

Chapter I

Emma and Harriet had been walking together one morning, and, in Emma’s opinion, had been talking enough of Mr. Elton for that day. They were just approaching the house where lived Mrs. and Miss Bates. Emma determined to call upon them. She could calculate, they were just now quite safe from any letter from Jane Fairfax.

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, and her more active, talking daughter. Emma had not been prepared to listen about Jane Fairfax, but she was actually spoken of.

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?”

“Thank you. You are so kind!” replied the happily deceived aunt. “Oh! Here it is, a letter from Jane! It really is full two years, you know, since she was here. We never were so long without seeing her before.”

“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 surprized; and everybody says the same 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. 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.”

“No, we should not have heard, if it had not been for this particular circumstance, of her coming here so soon. My mother is so delighted! For she will stay three months with us. 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. 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! And 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. Nobody could nurse her, as we should do.”

“It is the most desirable arrangement in the world.”

“And so she is coming to us next Friday or Saturday, as you will find from Jane’s letter. So sudden! You may guess, dear Miss Woodhouse, what a flurry it has thrown me in! 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 to stay 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. Now, however, we must wish you and Mrs. Bates good morning.”

And Emma regained the street, she was happy that she had been able to escape the letter itself.

Chapter II

Jane Fairfax was an orphan, the only child of Mrs. Bates’s youngest daughter. By birth she belonged to Highbury: and at three years old, on losing her mother, she became the property, the charge, the consolation, the foundling of her grandmother and aunt. But the compassionate feelings of a friend of her father gave a change to her destiny. This was Colonel Campbell, who had very highly regarded Fairfax, as an excellent officer and most deserving young man. Some years passed away from the death of poor Fairfax. When Campbell returned, he found the child and took notice of her. He was a married man, with only one living child, a girl, about Jane’s age: and Jane became their guest, paying them long visits and growing a favourite with all; and before she was nine years old, his daughter’s great fondness for her, and his own wish of being a real friend, united to produce an offer from Colonel Campbell of undertaking the whole charge of her education. It was accepted; and from that period Jane had belonged to Colonel Campbell’s family, and had lived with them entirely, only visiting her grandmother from time to time.

Such was Jane Fairfax’s history. She had fallen into good hands, known nothing but kindness from the Campbells, and been given an excellent education. Living constantly with right-minded and well-informed people, her heart and understanding had received every advantage of discipline and culture.

They continued to live together till the marriage of Miss Campbell, who engaged the affections of Mr. Dixon, a young man, rich and agreeable, almost as soon as they were acquainted; and was eligibly and happily settled, while Jane Fairfax had yet her bread to earn.

So Jane was coming to Highbury; to spend, perhaps, her last months of perfect liberty. Emma was sorry; to see a person she did not like through three long months! Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be herself.

Anyway, Jane Fairfax was very elegant, remarkably elegant; her height was pretty, just such as almost everybody would think tall, and nobody could think very tall; her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin. Her eyes, deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eyebrows, had never been denied their praise. It was a style of beauty, of which elegance was the reigning character.