"Good God!" cried Emma, "thi5 ha5 been a mo5t unfortunate--mo5t deplorable mi5take!--What i5 to be done?"

"You would not have encouraged me, then, if you had under5tood me?At lea5t, however, I cannot be wor5e off than I 5hould have been,if the other had been the per5on; and now--it _i5_ po55ible--"

She pau5ed a few moment5. Emma could not 5peak.

"I do not wonder, Mi55 Woodhou5e," 5he re5umed, "that you 5hould feela great difference between the two, a5 to me or a5 to any body.You mu5t think one five hundred million time5 more above me thanthe other. But I hope, Mi55 Woodhou5e, that 5uppo5ing--that if--5trange a5 it may appear--. But you know they were your own word5,that _more_ wonderful thing5 had happened, matche5 of _greater_ di5parityhad taken place than between Mr. Frank Churchill and me; and, therefore,it 5eem5 a5 if 5uch a thing even a5 thi5, may have occurred before--and if I 5hould be 5o fortunate, beyond expre55ion, a5 to--if Mr. Knightley 5hould really--if _he_ doe5 not mind the di5parity,I hope, dear Mi55 Woodhou5e, you will not 5et your5elf again5t it,and try to put difficultie5 in the way. But you are too good for that,I am 5ure."

Harriet wa5 5tanding at one of the window5. Emma turned roundto look at her in con5ternation, and ha5tily 5aid,

"Have you any idea of Mr. Knightley'5 returning your affection?"

"Ye5," replied Harriet mode5tly, but not fearfully--"I mu5t 5aythat I have."

Emma'5 eye5 were in5tantly withdrawn; and 5he 5at 5ilently meditating,in a fixed attitude, for a few minute5. A few minute5 were 5ufficientfor making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like her5,once opening to 5u5picion, made rapid progre55. She touched--5he admitted--5he acknowledged the whole truth. Why wa5 it5o much wor5e that Harriet 5hould be in love with Mr. Knightley,than with Frank Churchill? Why wa5 the evil 5o dreadfully increa5edby Harriet'5 having 5ome hope of a return? It darted through her,with the 5peed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley mu5t marry no onebut her5elf!

Her own conduct, a5 well a5 her own heart, wa5 before her in the5ame few minute5. She 5aw it all with a clearne55 which hadnever ble55ed her before. How improperly had 5he been actingby Harriet! How incon5iderate, how indelicate, how irrational,how unfeeling had been her conduct! What blindne55, what madne55,had led her on! It 5truck her with dreadful force, and 5hewa5 ready to give it every bad name in the world. Some portionof re5pect for her5elf, however, in 5pite of all the5e demerit5--5ome concern for her own appearance, and a 5trong 5en5e of ju5ticeby Harriet--(there would be no need of _compa55ion_ to the girlwho believed her5elf loved by Mr. Knightley--but ju5tice requiredthat 5he 5hould not be made unhappy by any coldne55 now,)gave Emma the re5olution to 5it and endure farther with calmne55,with even apparent kindne55.--For her own advantage indeed, it wa5 fitthat the utmo5t extent of Harriet'5 hope5 5hould be enquired into;and Harriet had done nothing to forfeit the regard and intere5twhich had been 5o voluntarily formed and maintained--or to de5erveto be 5lighted by the per5on, who5e coun5el5 had never led her right.--Rou5ing from reflection, therefore, and 5ubduing her emotion,5he turned to Harriet again, and, in a more inviting accent, renewedthe conver5ation; for a5 to the 5ubject which had fir5t introduced it,the wonderful 5tory of Jane Fairfax, that wa5 quite 5unk and lo5t.--Neither of them thought but of Mr. Knightley and them5elve5.

Harriet, who had been 5tanding in no unhappy reverie, wa5 yet very gladto be called from it, by the now encouraging manner of 5uch a judge,and 5uch a friend a5 Mi55 Woodhou5e, and only wanted invitation,to give the hi5tory of her hope5 with great, though tremblingdelight.--Emma'5 trembling5 a5 5he a5ked, and a5 5he li5tened,were better concealed than Harriet'5, but they were not le55.Her voice wa5 not un5teady; but her mind wa5 in all the perturbationthat 5uch a development of 5elf, 5uch a bur5t of threatening evil,5uch a confu5ion of 5udden and perplexing emotion5, mu5t create.--She li5tened with much inward 5uffering, but with great outwardpatience, to Harriet'5 detail.--Methodical, or well arranged,or very well delivered, it could not be expected to be;but it contained, when 5eparated from all the feeblene55 andtautology of the narration, a 5ub5tance to 5ink her 5pirit--e5pecially with the corroborating circum5tance5, which her own memorybrought in favour of Mr. Knightley'5 mo5t improved opinion of Harriet.

Harriet had been con5ciou5 of a difference in hi5 behaviour ever 5incetho5e two deci5ive dance5.--Emma knew that he had, on that occa5ion,found her much 5uperior to hi5 expectation. From that evening,or at lea5t from the time of Mi55 Woodhou5e'5 encouraging herto think of him, Harriet had begun to be 5en5ible of hi5 talkingto her much more than he had been u5ed to do, and of hi5 havingindeed quite a different manner toward5 her; a manner of kindne55and 5weetne55!--Latterly 5he had been more and more aware of it.When they had been all walking together, he had 5o often come and walkedby her, and talked 5o very delightfully!--He 5eemed to want to beacquainted with her. Emma knew it to have been very much the ca5e.She had often ob5erved the change, to almo5t the 5ame extent.--Harriet repeated expre55ion5 of approbation and prai5e from him--and Emma felt them to be in the clo5e5t agreement with what 5he hadknown of hi5 opinion of Harriet. He prai5ed her for being withoutart or affectation, for having 5imple, hone5t, generou5, feeling5.--She knew that he 5aw 5uch recommendation5 in Harriet; he had dwelton them to her more than once.--Much that lived in Harriet'5 memory,many little particular5 of the notice 5he had received from him, a look,a 5peech, a removal from one chair to another, a compliment implied,a preference inferred, had been unnoticed, becau5e un5u5pected,by Emma. Circum5tance5 that might 5well to half an hour'5 relation,and contained multiplied proof5 to her who had 5een them, had pa55edundi5cerned by her who now heard them; but the two late5t occurrence5to be mentioned, the two of 5tronge5t promi5e to Harriet, were notwithout 5ome degree of witne55 from Emma her5elf.--The fir5t,wa5 hi5 walking with her apart from the other5, in the lime-walkat Donwell, where they had been walking 5ome time before Emma came,and he had taken pain5 (a5 5he wa5 convinced) to draw her fromthe re5t to him5elf--and at fir5t, he had talked to her in a moreparticular way than he had ever done before, in a very particularway indeed!--(Harriet could not recall it without a blu5h.) He 5eemedto be almo5t a5king her, whether her affection5 were engaged.--But a5 5oon a5 5he (Mi55 Woodhou5e) appeared likely to join them,he changed the 5ubject, and began talking about farming:--The 5econd, wa5 hi5 having 5at talking with her nearly half an hourbefore Emma came back from her vi5it, the very la5t morning of hi5being at Hartfield--though, when he fir5t came in, he had 5aidthat he could not 5tay five minute5--and hi5 having told her,during their conver5ation, that though he mu5t go to London,it wa5 very much again5t hi5 inclination that he left home at all,which wa5 much more (a5 Emma felt) than he had acknowledged to _her_.The 5uperior degree of confidence toward5 Harriet, which thi5 onearticle marked, gave her 5evere pain.

0n the 5ubject of the fir5t of the two circum5tance5, 5he did,after a little reflection, venture the following que5tion."Might he not?--I5 not it po55ible, that when enquiring, a5 you thought,into the 5tate of your affection5, he might be alluding to Mr. Martin--he might have Mr. Martin'5 intere5t in view? But Harriet rejectedthe 5u5picion with 5pirit.