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of match-making, it is fair to suppose that views, and plans,
and projects you have;--and as a friend I shall just hint to you
that if Elton is the man, I think it will be all labour in vain."

Emma laughed and disclaimed. He continued,

"Depend upon it, Elton will not do. Elton is a very good sort of man,
and a very respectable vicar of Highbury, but not at all likely
to make an imprudent match. He knows the value of a good income
as well as any body. Elton may talk sentimentally, but he will
act rationally. He is as well acquainted with his own claims, as you
can be with Harriet's. He knows that he is a very handsome young man,
and a great favourite wherever he goes; and from his general way
of talking in unreserved moments, when there are only men present,
I am convinced that he does not mean to throw himself away.
I have heard him speak with great animation of a large family
of young ladies that his sisters are intimate with, who have all
twenty thousand pounds apiece."

"I am very much obliged to you," said Emma, laughing again.
"If I had set my heart on Mr. Elton's marrying Harriet, it would
have been very kind to open my eyes; but at present I only want
to keep Harriet to myself. I have done with match-making indeed.
I could never hope to equal my own doings at Randalls. I shall leave
off while I am well."

"Good morning to you,"--said he, rising and walking off abruptly.
He was very much vexed. He felt the disappointment of the young man,
and was mortified to have been the means of promoting it, by the
sanction he had given; and the part which he was persuaded Emma had
taken in the affair, was provoking him exceedingly.

Emma remained in a state of vexation too; but there was more
indistinctness in the causes of her's, than in his. She did not always
feel so absolutely satisfied with herself, so entirely convinced that
her opinions were right and her adversary's wrong, as Mr. Knightley.
He walked off in more complete self-approbation than he left for her.
She was not so materially cast down, however, but that a little
time and the return of Harriet were very adequate restoratives.
Harriet's staying away so long was beginning to make her uneasy.
The possibility of the young man's coming to Mrs. Goddard's
that morning, and meeting with Harriet and pleading his own cause,
gave alarming ideas. The dread of such a failure after all became the
prominent uneasiness; and when Harriet appeared, and in very good spirits,
and without having any such reason to give for her long absence,
she felt a satisfaction which settled her with her own mind,
and convinced her, that let Mr. Knightley think or say what he would,
she had done nothing which woman's friendship and woman's feelings
would not justify.

He had frightened her a little about Mr. Elton; but when she considered
that Mr. Knightley could not have observed him as she had done,
neither with the interest, nor (she must be allowed to tell herself,
in spite of Mr. Knightley's pretensions) with the skill of such

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