Chapter 5
‘I do not know what your opinion may be,Mrs Weston,’said Mr Knightley,‘of this great intimacy between Emma and Harriet Smith,but I think it a bad thing.’
‘A bad thing!Do you really think it a bad thing?why so?’
‘I think they will neither of them do the other any good.’
‘You surprise me!Emma must do Harriet good;and by supplying her with a new object of interest,Harriet may be said to do Emma good.I have been seeing their intimacy with the greatest pleasure.How very differently we feel!Not think they will do each other any good!This will certainly be the beginning of one of our quarrels about Emma,Mr Knightley.’
‘Perhaps you think I am come on purpose to quarrel with you,knowing Weston to be out,and that you must still fight your own battle.’
‘Mr Weston would undoubtedly support me,if he were here,for he thinks exactly as I do on the subject.We were speaking of it only yesterday,and agreeing how fortunate it was for Emma that there should be such a girl in Highbury for her to associate with.Mr Knightley,I shall not allow you to be a fair judge in this case.You are so much used to live alone,that you do not know the value of a companion;and,perhaps,no man can be a good judge of the comfort a woman feels in the society of one of her own sex,after being wed to it all her life.I can imagine your objection to Harriet Smith.She is not the superior young woman which Emma's friends ought to be.But,on the other hand,as Emma wants to see her better informed,it will be an inducement to her to read more herself.They will read together.She means it,I know.’
‘Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old.I have seen a great many lists of her drawing-up,at various times,of books that she meant to read regularly through-and very good lists they were,very well chosen,and very neatly arranged-sometimes alphabetically,and sometimes by some other rule.The list she drew up when only fourteen-I remember thinking it did her judgement so much credit,that I preserved it some time,and I dare say she may have made out a very good list now.But I have done with expecting any course of steady reading from Emma.She will never submit to anything requiring industry and patience,and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.Where Miss Taylor failed to stimulate,I may safely affirm that Harriet Smith will do nothing.You never could persuade her to read half so much as you wished.You know you could not.’
‘I dare say,’replied Mrs Weston smiling,‘that I thought so then;but since we have parted,I can never remember Emma omitting to do anything I wished.’
‘There is hardly any desiring to refresh such a memory as that,’said Mr Knightley feelingly;and for a moment or two he had done.‘But I,’he soon added,‘who have had no such charm thrown over my sense,must still see,hear,and remember.Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family.At ten years old she had the misfortune of being able to answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen.She was always quick and assured;Isabella slow and diffident.And ever since she was twelve,Emma has been mistress of the house and of you all.In her mother she lost the only person able to cope with her.She inherits her mother's talents,and must have been under subjection to her.’
‘I should have been sorry,Mr Knightley,to be dependent on your recommendation,had I quitted Mr Woodhouse's family and wanted another situation;I do not think you would have spoken a good word for me to anybody.I am sure you always thought me unfit for the office I held.’
‘Yes,’said he,smiling.‘You are better placed here-very fit for a wife,but not at all for a governess.But you were preparing yourself to be an excellent wife all the time you were at Hartfield.You might not give Emma such a complete education as your powers would seem to promise;but you were receiving a very good education from her,on the very material matrimonial point of submitting your own will,and doing as you were bid;and if Weston had asked me to recommend him a wife,I should certainly have named Miss Taylor.’
‘Thank you.There will be very little merit in making a good wife to such a man as Mr Weston.’
‘Why,to own the truth,I am afraid you are rather thrown away,and that with every disposition to bear,there will be nothing to be borne.We will not despair,however.Weston may grow cross from the wantonness of comfort,or his son may plague him.’
‘I hope not that.It is not likely.No,Mr Knightley,do not foretell vexation from that quarter.’
‘Not I,indeed.I only name possibilities.I do not pretend to Emma's genius for foretelling and guessing.I hope,with all my heart,the young man may be a Weston in merit,and a Churchill in fortune.But Harriet Smith-I have not half done about Harriet Smith.I think her the very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have.She knows nothing herself,and looks upon Emma as knowing everything.She is a flatterer in all her ways;and so much the worse,because undesigned.Her ignorance is hourly flattery.How can Emma imagine she has anything to learn herself while Harriet is presenting such a delightful inferiority?And as for Harriet,I will venture to say that she cannot gain by the acquaintance.Hartfield will only put her out of conceit with all the other places she belongs to.She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home.I am much mistaken if Emma's doctrines give any strength of mind,or tend at all to make a girl adapt herself rationally to the varieties of her situation in life.They only give a little polish.’
‘I either depend more upon Emma's good sense than you do,or am more anxious for her present comfort;for I cannot lament the acquaintance.How well she looked last night!’
‘Oh,you would rather talk of her person than her mind,would you?Very well;I shall not attempt to deny Emma's being pretty.’
