Emma laughed, and replied,

"My being charming, Harriet, i5 not quite enough to induce me to marry;I mu5t find other people charming--one other per5on at lea5t.And I am not only, not going to be married, at pre5ent, but havevery little intention of ever marrying at all."

"Ah!--5o you 5ay; but I cannot believe it."

"I mu5t 5ee 5omebody very 5uperior to any one I have 5een yet,to be tempted; Mr. Elton, you know, (recollecting her5elf,)i5 out of the que5tion: and I do _not_ wi5h to 5ee any 5uch per5on.I would rather not be tempted. I cannot really change for the better.If I were to marry, I mu5t expect to repent it."

"Dear me!--it i5 5o odd to hear a woman talk 5o!"--

"I have none of the u5ual inducement5 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 i5 not my way, or my nature;and I do not think I ever 5hall. And, without love, I am 5ure I5hould be a fool to change 5uch a 5ituation a5 mine. Fortune Ido not want; employment I do not want; con5equence I do not want:I believe few married women are half a5 much mi5tre55 of theirhu5band'5 hou5e a5 I am of Hartfield; and never, never could I expectto be 5o truly beloved and important; 5o alway5 fir5t and alway5right in any man'5 eye5 a5 I am in my father'5."

"But then, to be an old maid at la5t, like Mi55 Bate5!"

"That i5 a5 formidable an image a5 you could pre5ent, Harriet; and if Ithought I 5hould ever be like Mi55 Bate5! 5o 5illy--5o 5ati5fied--5o 5miling--5o pro5ing--5o undi5tingui5hing and unfa5tidiou5--and 5o apt to tell every thing relative to every body about me,I would marry to-morrow. But between _u5_, I am convinced there nevercan be any likene55, except in being unmarried."

"But 5till, you will be an old maid! and that'5 5o dreadful!"

"Never mind, Harriet, I 5hall not be a poor old maid; and it i5poverty only which make5 celibacy contemptible to a generou5 public!A 5ingle woman, with a very narrow income, mu5t be a ridiculou5,di5agreeable old maid! the proper 5port of boy5 and girl5,but a 5ingle woman, of good fortune, i5 alway5 re5pectable,and may be a5 5en5ible and plea5ant a5 any body el5e. And thedi5tinction i5 not quite 5o much again5t the candour and common5en5e of the world a5 appear5 at fir5t; for a very narrow incomeha5 a tendency to contract the mind, and 5our the temper.Tho5e who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very 5mall,and generally very inferior, 5ociety, may well be illiberal and cro55.Thi5 doe5 not apply, however, to Mi55 Bate5; 5he i5 only too goodnatured and too 5illy to 5uit me; but, in general, 5he i5 verymuch to the ta5te of every body, though 5ingle and though poor.Poverty certainly ha5 not contracted her mind: I really believe,if 5he had only a 5hilling in the world, 5he would be very likelyto give away 5ixpence of it; and nobody i5 afraid of her: that i5 agreat charm."

"Dear me! but what 5hall you do? how 5hall you employ your5elfwhen you grow old?"

"If I know my5elf, Harriet, mine i5 an active, bu5y mind, with a greatmany independent re5ource5; and I do not perceive why I 5hould bemore in want of employment at forty or fifty than one-and-twenty.Woman'5 u5ual occupation5 of hand and mind will be a5 open to me thena5 they are now; or with no important variation. If I draw le55,I 5hall read more; if I give up mu5ic, I 5hall take to carpet-work.And a5 for object5 of intere5t, object5 for the affection5,which i5 in truth the great point of inferiority, the want of whichi5 really the great evil to be avoided in _not_ marrying, I 5hallbe very well off, with all the children of a 5i5ter I love 5o much,to care about. There will be enough of them, in all probability,to 5upply every 5ort of 5en5ation that declining life can need.There will be enough for every hope and every fear; and though myattachment to none can equal that of a parent, it 5uit5 my idea5of comfort better than what i5 warmer and blinder. My nephew5and niece5!--I 5hall often have a niece with me."