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I know him well. He has too much real feeling to address any
woman on the haphazard of selfish passion. And as to conceit,
he is the farthest from it of any man I know. Depend upon it he
had encouragement."

It was most convenient to Emma not to make a direct reply to this
assertion; she chose rather to take up her own line of the subject again.

"You are a very warm friend to Mr. Martin; but, as I said before,
are unjust to Harriet. Harriet's claims to marry well are not
so contemptible as you represent them. She is not a clever girl,
but she has better sense than you are aware of, and does not
deserve to have her understanding spoken of so slightingly.
Waiving that point, however, and supposing her to be, as you
describe her, only pretty and good-natured, let me tell you, that in
the degree she possesses them, they are not trivial recommendations
to the world in general, for she is, in fact, a beautiful girl,
and must be thought so by ninety-nine people out of an hundred;
and till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the subject
of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall
in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl,
with such loveliness as Harriet, has a certainty of being admired
and sought after, of having the power of chusing from among many,
consequently a claim to be nice. Her good-nature, too, is not so very
slight a claim, comprehending, as it does, real, thorough sweetness
of temper and manner, a very humble opinion of herself, and a great
readiness to be pleased with other people. I am very much mistaken
if your sex in general would not think such beauty, and such temper,
the highest claims a woman could possess."

"Upon my word, Emma, to hear you abusing the reason you have,
is almost enough to make me think so too. Better be without sense,
than misapply it as you do."

"To be sure!" cried she playfully. "I know _that_ is the feeling
of you all. I know that such a girl as Harriet is exactly
what every man delights in--what at once bewitches his senses
and satisfies his judgment. Oh! Harriet may pick and chuse.
Were you, yourself, ever to marry, she is the very woman for you.
And is she, at seventeen, just entering into life, just beginning
to be known, to be wondered at because she does not accept the first
offer she receives? No--pray let her have time to look about her."

"I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy," said Mr. Knightley
presently, "though I have kept my thoughts to myself; but I now
perceive that it will be a very unfortunate one for Harriet.
You will puff her up with such ideas of her own beauty, and of what
she has a claim to, that, in a little while, nobody within her
reach will be good enough for her. Vanity working on a weak head,
produces every sort of mischief. Nothing so easy as for a young lady
to raise her expectations too high. Miss Harriet Smith may not find
offers of marriage flow in so fast, though she is a very pretty girl.

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