“Mr. Martin, I suppose, is not a man of information beyond the line of his own business? He does not read?” asked Emma.
“Oh yes! – that is, no – I do not know – but I believe he has read a good deal. He reads the Agricultural Reports[29], and some other books that lay in one of the window seats. But sometimes, before we went to cards, he would read something aloud out of the Elegant Extracts[30], very entertaining. And I know he has read the Vicar of Wakefield[31]. He never read the Romance of the Forest[32], nor The Children of the Abbey. He had never heard of such books before I mentioned them.”
The next question was —
“What sort of looking man is Mr. Martin?”
“Oh! not handsome – not at all handsome. But did you never see him? He comes to Highbury often. He has passed you very often.”
“That may be, and I may have seen him fifty times, but without having any idea of his name. A young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, is the last person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do. I have no doubt of his being a very respectable young man. I know, indeed, that he is so, and, as such, wish him well. What do you imagine his age to be?”
“He was four-and-twenty the 8th of last June, and my birthday is the 23rd just a fortnight and a day’s difference – which is very odd.”
“Only four-and-twenty. That is too young to marry, I think. Six years after, if he could meet with a young woman in the same rank as his own, with a little money, it might be very desirable.”
“Six years after! Dear Miss Woodhouse, he would be thirty years old!”
“Well, and that is as early as most men can afford to marry. Mr. Martin, I imagine, is not rich at all.”
“To be sure, so it is. But they live very comfortably.”
“I wish you may not get into a scrape[33], Harriet, whenever he does marry; – I mean, as to being acquainted with his wife. The misfortune of your birth ought to make you particularly careful as to your associates. There can be no doubt of your being a gentleman’s daughter, and you must support your claim to that station by everything, or there will be plenty of people who would take pleasure in degrading you.”
“Yes, to be sure, I suppose there are. But while I visit at Hartfield, and you are so kind to me, Miss Woodhouse, I am not afraid of what anybody can do.”
“Dear Harriet, I would have you so firmly established in good society. I want to see you permanently well connected.”
Emma saw no alarming symptoms of love. The young man had been the first admirer and no more, and that there would be no serious difficulty, on Harriet’s side, to oppose any friendly arrangement of her own.
They met Mr. Martin the very next day, as they were walking on the Donwell road. He was on foot, and after looking very respectfully at her, looked with most unfeigned satisfaction at her companion. Robert Martin’s appearance was very neat, and he looked like a sensible young man, but his person had no other advantage.
They remained but a few minutes together; and Harriet then came running to Emma with a smiling face.
“How very odd! It was quite a chance, he said, that he had not gone round by Randalls. He did not think we ever walked this road. He thought we walked towards Randalls most days. He has not been able to get the Romance of the Forest yet. Well, Miss Woodhouse, what do you think of him?”
“He is very plain, undoubtedly – remarkably plain: – but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility[34]. I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish.”
“To be sure,” said Harriet, “he is not so genteel as real gentlemen.”
“I think, Harriet, at Hartfield, you have seen well educated, well bred[35] men. I should be surprized if, after seeing them, you could be in company with Mr. Martin again without perceiving him to be a very inferior creature. I am sure you must have been struck by his awkward look and abrupt manner.”
“Certainly, he is not like Mr. Knightley. I see the difference plain enough.”
“Mr. Knightley’s air is so remarkably good that it is not fair to compare Mr. Martin with him. But he is not the only gentleman you have been lately used to. What about Mr. Weston and Mr. Elton? Compare Mr. Martin with either of them. Compare their manner of carrying themselves; of walking; of speaking; of being silent. You must see the difference.”
“Oh yes! – there is a great difference. But Mr. Weston is almost an old man. Mr. Weston must be between forty and fifty.”
“Which makes his good manners the more valuable. The older a person grows, Harriet, the more important it is that their manners should not be bad. What is passable in youth is detestable in later age. Mr. Martin is now awkward and abrupt; what will he be at Mr. Weston’s time of life?”
“There is no saying, indeed,” replied Harriet rather solemnly.
“But there may be pretty good guessing. He will be a completely gross, vulgar farmer, totally inattentive to appearances, and thinking of nothing but profit and loss.”
“Will he, indeed? That will be very bad.”
“I think his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb us. But, perhaps, Mr. Elton’s manners are superior to Mr. Knightley’s or Mr. Weston’s. They have more gentleness. There is an openness, a quickness, almost a bluntness in Mr. Weston, which everybody likes in him. I think a young man might be very safely recommended to take Mr. Elton as a model. Mr. Elton is good-humoured, cheerful, obliging, and gentle. It strikes me that his manners are softer than they used to be. If he means anything, it must be to please you. Did not I tell you what he said of you the other day?”
She then repeated some warm personal praise which she had drawn from Mr. Elton; and Harriet blushed and smiled, and said she had always thought Mr. Elton very agreeable.
Emma thought that Mr. Elton was the very person for driving the young farmer out of Harriet’s head. She thought it would be an excellent match – desirable, natural, and probable. The longer she considered it, the greater was her sense of its expediency. Mr. Elton’s situation was most suitable, quite the gentleman himself, and without low connexions. He had a comfortable home for her, and Emma imagined a very sufficient income; for though the vicarage of Highbury was not large, he was known to have some independent property; and she thought very highly of him as a good-humoured, well-meaning, respectable young man, without any deficiency of useful understanding or knowledge of the world.
Chapter V
“I do not know what your opinion may be, Mrs. Weston,” said Mr. Knightley, “of this great intimacy between Emma and Harriet Smith, but I think it a bad thing.”
“A bad thing! Do you really think it a bad thing? – why so?”
“I think they will neither of them do the other any good.”
“You surprize me! Emma must do Harriet good, Harriet may be said to do Emma good. I have been seeing their intimacy with the greatest pleasure. This will certainly be the beginning of one of our quarrels about Emma, Mr. Knightley.”
“Perhaps you think I am come on purpose to quarrel with you.”
“Mr. Weston would undoubtedly support me, if he were here. We were speaking of it only yesterday, and agreeing how fortunate it was for Emma, that there should be such a girl in Highbury for her to associate with. Mr. Knightley, you are so much used to live alone, that you do not