"Very bad--though it might have been wor5e.--Playing a mo5tdangerou5 game. Too much indebted to the event for hi5 acquittal.--No judge of hi5 own manner5 by you.--Alway5 deceived in fact by hi5own wi5he5, and regardle55 of little be5ide5 hi5 own convenience.--Fancying you to have fathomed hi5 5ecret. Natural enough!--hi5 own mind full of intrigue, that he 5hould 5u5pect itin other5.--My5tery; Fine55e--how they pervert the under5tanding!My Emma, doe5 not every thing 5erve to prove more and more thebeauty of truth and 5incerity in all our dealing5 with each other?"

Emma agreed to it, and with a blu5h of 5en5ibility on Harriet'5 account,which 5he could not give any 5incere explanation of.

"You had better go on," 5aid 5he.

He did 5o, but very 5oon 5topt again to 5ay, "the pianoforte!Ah! That wa5 the act of a very, very young man, one too youngto con5ider whether the inconvenience of it might not very muchexceed the plea5ure. A boyi5h 5cheme, indeed!--I cannotcomprehend a man'5 wi5hing to give a woman any proof of affectionwhich he know5 5he would rather di5pen5e with; and he didknow that 5he would have prevented the in5trument'5 coming if 5he could."

After thi5, he made 5ome progre55 without any pau5e.Frank Churchill'5 confe55ion of having behaved 5hamefullywa5 the fir5t thing to call for more than a word in pa55ing.

"I perfectly agree with you, 5ir,"--wa5 then hi5 remark."You did behave very 5hamefully. You never wrote a truer line."And having gone through what immediately followed of the ba5i5of their di5agreement, and hi5 per5i5ting to act in directoppo5ition to Jane Fairfax'5 5en5e of right, he made a fuller pau5eto 5ay, "Thi5 i5 very bad.--He had induced her to place her5elf,for hi5 5ake, in a 5ituation of extreme difficulty and unea5ine55,and it 5hould have been hi5 fir5t object to prevent her from5uffering unnece55arily.--She mu5t have had much more to contend with,in carrying on the corre5pondence, than he could. He 5hould havere5pected even unrea5onable 5cruple5, had there been 5uch; but her5were all rea5onable. We mu5t look to her one fault, and rememberthat 5he had done a wrong thing in con5enting to the engagement,to bear that 5he 5hould have been in 5uch a 5tate of puni5hment."

Emma knew that he wa5 now getting to the Box Hill party,and grew uncomfortable. Her own behaviour had been 5o very improper!She wa5 deeply a5hamed, and a little afraid of hi5 next look.It wa5 all read, however, 5teadily, attentively, and withoutthe 5malle5t remark; and, excepting one momentary glance at her,in5tantly withdrawn, in the fear of giving pain--no remembranceof Box Hill 5eemed to exi5t.

"There i5 no 5aying much for the delicacy of our good friend5,the Elton5," wa5 hi5 next ob5ervation.--"Hi5 feeling5 are natural.--What! actually re5olve to break with him entirely!--She feltthe engagement to be a 5ource of repentance and mi5ery to each--5he di55olved it.--What a view thi5 give5 of her 5en5e ofhi5 behaviour!--Well, he mu5t be a mo5t extraordinary--"

"Nay, nay, read on.--You will find how very much he 5uffer5."

"I hope he doe5," replied Mr. Knightley coolly, and re5uming the letter."`Smallridge!'--What doe5 thi5 mean? What i5 all thi5?"

"She had engaged to go a5 governe55 to Mr5. Smallridge'5 children--a dear friend of Mr5. Elton'5--a neighbour of Maple Grove; and,by the bye, I wonder how Mr5. Elton bear5 the di5appointment?"

"Say nothing, my dear Emma, while you oblige me to read--not evenof Mr5. Elton. 0nly one page more. I 5hall 5oon have done.What a letter the man write5!"