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“That Mr. Elton should really be in love with me, me, of all people! And he, the most handsome man that ever was, and a man that everybody looks up to, quite like Mr. Knightley! And so excellent in the Church! Dear me! When I look back to the first time I saw him! How little did I think!”
“This is an alliance which, whoever – whatever your friends may be, must be agreeable to them, provided at least they have common sense. If they are anxious to see you happily married, here is a man whose amiable character gives every assurance of it.”
“Yes, very true. How nicely you talk; I love to hear you. You understand everything. You and Mr. Elton are one as clever as the other.”
Chapter X
Though now the middle of December, there had yet been no weather to prevent the young ladies from tolerably regular exercise; and Emma had a charitable visit to pay to a poor sick family, who lived a little way out of Highbury.
Their road was down Vicarage Lane[47], containing the blessed abode of Mr. Elton. Emma’s remark was —
“There it is. There you will go some day.”
Harriet’s was —
“Oh, what a sweet house! – How beautiful! – There are the yellow curtains that Miss Nash admires so much.”
“I do not often walk this way now,” said Emma, as they proceeded, “but then there will be an inducement.”
Harriet said,
“I do so wonder, Miss Woodhouse, that you should not be married, or going to be married! so charming as you are!”
Emma laughed, and replied,
“If I am charming, Harriet, it is not quite enough to marry; I must find other people charming – one other person at least. And I am not only, not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of ever marrying at all.”
“Ah! – so you say; but I cannot believe it.”
“I must see somebody very superior to anyone I have seen yet, to be tempted; Mr. Elton, you know, is out of the question: and I do not wish to see any such person. I would rather not be tempted. If I were to marry, I must expect to repent it.”
“Dear me! – it is so odd to hear a woman talk so!”
“I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine. Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; consequence I do not want: I believe few married women are half as much mistress of their husband’s house as I am of Hartfield; and never, never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important in any man’s eyes as I am in my father’s.”
“But then, to be an old maid at last, like Miss Bates!”
“That is a terrible image, Harriet; and if I thought I should ever be like Miss Bates! so silly – so satisfied – so smiling – so undistinguishing and unfastidious – and so apt to tell everything relative to everybody about me, I would marry tomorrow.”
“But still, you will be an old maid! and that’s so dreadful!”
“Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid! A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! But a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else. This does not apply, however, to Miss Bates; she is only too good natured and too silly to suit me; but, in general, she is very much to the taste of everybody, though single and though poor. Poverty certainly has not contracted her mind.”
“Dear me! but what shall you do? how shall you employ yourself when you grow old?”
“If I know myself, Harriet, mine is an active, busy mind, with a great many independent resources; and I do not perceive why I should be more in want of employment at forty or fifty than one-and-twenty. Woman’s usual occupations will be as open to me then as they are now. If I draw less, I shall read more; if I give up music, I shall take to carpet-work. I shall be very well off, with all the children of a sister I love so much, to care about. My nephews and nieces! – I shall often have a niece with me.”
“Do you know Miss Bates’s niece? That is, I know you must have seen her a hundred times – but are you acquainted?”
“Oh! yes; Jane Fairfax[48]. Every letter from her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round and round again. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires me to death.”
Harriet could just answer, “Oh! yes, yes,” before Mr. Elton joined them. They now walked on together quietly, when a sudden resolution of getting Harriet into the house, made Emma find something wrong about her boot. She broke the lace off short, and dexterously throwing it into a ditch, was presently obliged to entreat them to stop.
“Part of my lace is gone,” said she, “and I do not know how I am to contrive. I really am a most troublesome companion to you both. Mr. Elton, I must beg leave to stop at your house, and ask your housekeeper for a bit of ribboon or string, or anything just to keep my boot on.”
Mr. Elton looked all happiness at this proposition; and nothing could exceed his alertness and attention in conducting them into his house. The room they were taken into was the one he chiefly occupied, and it was another with which it immediately communicated; the door between them was open, and Emma passed into it with the housekeeper to receive her assistance. She was obliged to leave the door ajar as she found it; but she fully intended that Mr. Elton should close it. It was not closed, however, it still remained ajar. For ten minutes she could hear nothing but herself. She was then obliged to be finished, and make her appearance.
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