Chapter 3
Mr Woodhouse was fond of society in his own way.He liked very much to have his friends come and see him;and from various united causes,from his long residence at Hartfield,and his good nature,from his fortune,his house,and his daughter,he could command the visits of his own little circle,in a great measure,as he liked.He had not much intercourse with any families beyond that circle;his horror of late hours,and large dinner-parties,made him unfit for any acquaintance but such as would visit him on his own terms.Fortunately for him,Highbury,including Randalls in the same parish,and Donwell Abbey in the parish adjoining,the seat of Mr Knightley,comprehended many such.Not unfrequently,through Emma's persuasion,he had some of the chosen and the best to dine with him:but evening parties were what he preferred;and,unless he fancied himself at any time unequal to company,there was scarcely an evening in the week in which Emma could not make up a card-table for him.
Real,long-standing regard brought the Westons and Mr Knightley;and by Mr Elton,a young man living alone without liking it,the privilege of exchanging any vacant evening of his own blank solitude for the elegancies and society of Mr Woodhouse's drawing-room,and the smiles of his lovely daughter,was in no danger of being thrown away.
After these came a second set:among the most come-at-able of whom were Mrs and Miss Bates,and Mrs Goddard,three ladies almost always at the service of an invitation from Hartfield,and who were fetched and carried home so often,that Mr Woodhouse thought it no hardship for either James or the horses.Had it taken place only once a year,it would have been a grievance.
Mrs Bates,the widow of a former vicar of Highbury,was a very old lady,almost past everything but tea and quadrille.She lived with her single daughter in a very small way,and was considered with all the regard and respect which a harmless old lady,under such untoward circumstances,can excite.Her daughter enjoyed a most uncommon degree of popularity for a woman neither young,handsome,rich,nor married.Miss Bates stood in the very worst predicament in the world for having much of the public favour;and she had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself,or frighten those who might hate her into outward respect.She had never boasted either beauty or cleverness.Her youth had passed without distinction,and her middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother,and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible.And yet she was a happy woman,and a woman whom no one named without goodwill.It was her own universal goodwill and contented temper which worked such wonders.She loved everybody,was interested in everybody's happiness,quicksighted to everybody's merits;thought herself a most fortunate creature,and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother,and so many good neighbours and friends,and a home that wanted for nothing.The simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature,her contented and grateful spirit,were a recommendation to everybody,and a mine of felicity to herself.She was a great talker upon little matters,which exactly suited Mr Woodhouse,full of trivial communications and harmless gossip.
Mrs Goddard was the mistress of a school-not of a seminary,or an establishment,or anything which professed,in long sentences of refined nonsense,to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality,upon new principles and new systems-and where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity-but a real,honest,old-fashioned boarding-school,where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price,and where girls might be sent to be out of the way,and scramble themselves into a little education,without any danger of coming back prodigies.Mrs Goddard's school was in high repute-and very deservedly;for Highbury was reckoned a particularly healthy spot:she had an ample house and garden,gave the children plenty of wholesome food,let them run about a great deal in the summer,and in winter dressed their chilblains with her own hands.It was no wonder that a train of twenty young couples now walked after her to church.She was a plain,motherly kind of woman,who had worked hard in her youth,and now thought herself entitled to the occasional holiday of a tea-visit;and having formerly owed much to Mr Woodhouse's kindness,felt his particular claim on her to leave her neat parlour,hung round with fancy work,whenever she could,and win or lose a few sixpences by his fireside.
These were the ladies whom Emma found herself very frequently able to collect;and happy was she,for her father's sake,in the power;though,as far as she was herself concerned,it was no remedy for the absence of Mrs Weston.She was delighted to see her father look comfortable,and very much pleased with herself for contriving things so well;but the quiet prosings of three such women made her feel that every evening so spent was indeed one of the long evenings she had fearfully anticipated.
As she sat one morning,looking forward to exactly such a dose of the present day,a note was brought from Mrs Goddard requesting,in most respectful terms,to be allowed to bring Miss Smith with her:a most welcome request;for Miss Smith was a girl of seventeen,whom Emma knew very well by sight,and had long felt an interest in,on account of her beauty.A very gracious invitation was returned,and the evening no longer dreaded by the fair mistress of the mansion.
