August 5, 2025 • 18 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Volume one, chapter twelve. Mister Knightley was to dine with them,
rather against the inclination of mister Woodhouse, who did not
like that any one should share with him in Isabella's
first day. Emma's sense of right, however, had decided it,
and besides the consideration of what was due to each brother,
she had particular pleasure from the circumstance of the late
(00:22):
disagreement between mister Knightley and herself in procuring him the
proper invitation. She hoped they might now become friends again.
She thought it was time to make up. Making up
indeed would not do. She certainly had not been in
the wrong, and he would never own that he had.
Concession must be out of the question. But it was
(00:42):
time to appear to forget that they had ever quarreled,
and she hoped it might rather assist the restoration of
friendship that when he came into the room she had
one of the children with her, the youngest, a nice
little girl about eight months old, who was now making
her first visit to Hartfield, and very happy to be
danced in her aunt's arms. It did assist, for though
(01:03):
he began with grave looks and short questions, He was
soon led on to talk of them all in the
usual way, and to take the child out of her arms.
With all the unceremoniousness of perfect amity. Emma felt they
were friends again, and the conviction giving her at first
great satisfaction and then a little sauciness. She could not
help saying, as he was admiring the baby, what a
(01:26):
comfort it is that we think alike about our nephews
and nieces. As to men and women, our opinions are
sometimes very different. But with regard to these children, I
observe we never disagree. If you are as much guided
by nature in your estimate of men and women, and
as little under the power of fancy and women in
(01:46):
your dealings with them as you are where these children
are concerned, we might always think alike. Oh, to be sure,
our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong, Yes,
said he, smiling, and reason good. I was sixteen years
old when you were born. A material difference, then, she replied,
(02:09):
And no doubt you are much my superior in judgment
at that period of our lives. But does not the
lapse of one and twenty years bring our understandings a
good deal nearer, Yes, a good deal nearer, but still
not near enough to give me a chance of being right.
If we think differently, I have still the advantage of
(02:31):
you by sixteen years experience, and by not being a
pretty young woman and a spoiled child. Come, my dear Emma,
let us be friends and say no more about it.
Tell your aunt, little Emma that she ought to set
you a better example than to be renewing old grievances,
and that if she were not wrong before, she is
now that's true, she cried, very true, little Emma. Grow
(02:56):
up a better woman than your aunt. Be infinitely cleverer,
and not half so conceited. Now, mister Knightley, a word
or two more than I have done. As far as
good intentions went, we were both right, and I must
say that no effects on my side of the argument
have yet proved wrong. I only want to know that
mister Martin is not very very bitterly disappointed. A man
(03:18):
cannot be more so, was his short full answer. Ah, indeed,
I am very sorry. Come shake hands with me. This
had just taken place, and with great cordiality, when John
Knightley made his appearance. And how do you do George
and John, how are you succeeded? In the true English style,
(03:42):
burying under a calmness that seemed all but indifference the
real attachment which would have led either of them, if requisite,
to do everything for the good of the other. The
evening was quiet and conversible, as mister Woodhouse declined cards
entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella,
and the little party made two natural divisions. On one side,
(04:03):
he and his daughter, on the other, the two mister Knightleys,
their subjects totally distinct or very rarely mixing, and Emma
only occasionally joining in one or the other. The brothers
talked of their own concerns and pursuits, but principally of
those of the elder, whose temper was by much the
most communicative, and who was always the greater talker. As
(04:24):
a magistrate he had generally some point of law to
consult John about, or at least some curious anecdote to give.
And as a farmer, as keeping in hand the home
farm at Donwell, he had to tell what every field
was to bear next year, and to give all such
local information as could not fail of being interesting to
a brother whose home it had equally been the longest
(04:45):
part of his life, and whose attachments were strong. The
plan of a drain, the change of a fence, the
felling of a tree, and the destination of every acre
for wheat, turnips or spring corn was entered into with
as much equality of interest by John as his cooler
manners rendered possible, And if his willing brother ever left
him anything to inquire about, his inquiries even approached a
(05:08):
tone of eagerness. While they were thus comfortably occupied, mister
Woodhouse was enjoying a full flow of happy regrets and
fearful affection with his daughter. My poor dear Isabella, said
he fondly, taking her hand and interrupting for a few
moments her busy labors for some one of her five children.
(05:29):
How long it is, how terribly long since you were here,
and how tired you must be off to your journey.
You must go to bed early, my dear, and I
recommend a little gruel to you before you go. You
and I will have a nice basin of gruel together,
My dear Emma, suppose we all have a little gruel.
(05:50):
Emma could not suppose any such thing, knowing as she
did that both the mister Knightleys were as unpersuadable on
that article as herself, and two basins only were ordered.
After a little more discourse in praise of Gruel, with
some wondering at its not being taken every evening by everybody,
he proceeded to say, with an air of grave reflection,
(06:10):
it was an awkward business, my dear, your spending the
autumn at south End instead of coming here. I never
had much opinion of the sea air. Mister Wingfield most
strenuously recommended it, sir, or we should not have gone.
He recommended it for all the children, but particularly for
the weakness and little Bella's throat, both sea air and bathing. Ah,
(06:34):
my dear, but Perry had many doubts about the sea
doing her any good. And as to myself, I have
been long perfectly convinced, though perhaps I never told you
so before, that the sea is very rarely of use
to any body. I am sure it almost killed me once.
Come Come, cried Emma, feeling this to be an unsafe subject,
(06:56):
I must beg you not to talk of the sea.
It makes me envious and miserable, I, who have never
seen it. South End is prohibited if you please, my
dear Isabella, I have not heard you make one inquiry
about mister Perry yet, and he never forgets you. Oh, good,
mister Perry. How is he, sir? Why? Pretty well, but
(07:18):
not quite well. Poor Perry is bilious, and he has
not time to take care of himself, he tells me
he has not time to take care of himself, which
is very sad. But he is always wanted all round
the country. I suppose there is not a man in
such practice anywhere, But then there is not so clever
a man anywhere. And missus Perry and the children, how
(07:41):
are they do the children grow? I have a great
regard for mister Perry. I hope he will be calling soon.
He will be so pleased to see my little ones.
I hope he will be here to morrow, for I
have a question or two to ask him about myself
of some consequence. And my dear, whenever he comes, you
had better let him look at the little Bella's throat. Oh,
(08:03):
my dear sir, her throat is so much better that
I have hardly any uneasiness about it. Either bathing has
been of the greatest service to her, or else it
is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of mister Wingfield's,
which we have been applying at times ever since August.
It is not very likely, my dear, that bathing should
have been of use to her. And if I had
(08:24):
known you were wanting an embrocation, I would have spoken
to you. Seem to me to have forgotten Missus and
miss Bates, said Emma, I have not heard one inquiry
after them. Oh, the good Bates is. I am quite
ashamed of myself. But you mention them in most of
your letters. I hope they are quite well. Good old
Missus Bates. I will call upon her to morrow and
(08:47):
take my children. They are always so pleased to see
my children. And that excellent miss Bates, such thorough worthy people.
How are they, sir? Why pretty well, my dear, upon
the whole. But poor Missus Bates had a bad cold
about a month ago. How sorry I am, But colds
(09:07):
were never so prevalent as they have been this autumn.
Mister Wingfield told me that he has never known them
more general or heavy, except when it has been quite
an influenza. That has been a good deal of the case,
my dear, But not to the degree you mention Perry
says that colds have been very general, but not so
heavy as he has very often known them in November.
(09:28):
Perry does not call it altogether a sickly season. No,
I do not know that mister Wingfield considers it very sickly,
except ah, my poor dear child. The truth is that
in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is
healthy in London. Nobody can be. It is a dreadful
(09:49):
thing to have you forced to live there so far
off and the air so bad. No, indeed, we are
not at all in a bad air. Our part of
London is be very superior to most others. You must
not confound us with London in general, my dear sir.
The neighborhood of Brunswick Square is very different from almost
all the rest. We are so very airy. I should
(10:12):
be unwilling I own to live in any other part
of the town. There is hardly any other that I
could be so satisfied to have my children in. But
we are so remarkably airy. Mister Wingfield thinks the vicinity
of Brunswick Square decidedly the most favorable as to air. Oh,
my dear, it is not like Hartfield. You make the
(10:32):
best of it. But after you have been a week
at Hartfield, you are all of you different creatures. You
do not look the same now. I cannot say that
I think you are any of you looking well at present.
I am sorry to hear you say so, sir, but
I assure you, excepting those little nervous headaches and palpitations,
which I am never entirely free from anywhere, I am
(10:55):
quite well myself. And if the children were rather pale
before they went to bed, it was only because they
were a little more tired than usual from their journey
and the happiness of coming. I hope you will think
better of their looks to morrow, For I assure you
mister Wingfield told me that he did not believe he
had ever sent us off altogether in such good case.
I trust at least that you do not think mister
(11:16):
Knightley looking ill, turning her eyes with affectionate anxiety towards
her husband middling, my dear, I cannot compliment you. I
think mister John Knightley very far from looking well. What
is the matter, sir? Do you speak to me? Cried
mister John Knightley, hearing his own name. I am sorry
to find my love that my father does not think
(11:38):
you looking well, but I hope it is only from
being a little fatigued. I could have wished, however, as
you know that you had seen mister Wingfield before you
left home. My dear Isabella, exclaimed he hastily, pray, do
not concern yourself about my looks. Be satisfied with doctoring
and coddling yourself and the children, and let me look
as I choose. I did not thoroughly understand what you
(12:00):
were telling. Your brother, cried Emma, about your friend mister
Graham's intending to have a bailiff from Scotland to look
after his new estate. What will it answer? Will not
the old prejudice be too strong? And she talked in
this way so long and successfully, that when forced to
give her attention again to her father and sister, she
had nothing worse to hear than Isabella's kind inquiry after
(12:21):
Jane Fairfax. And Jane Fairfax, though no great favored with
her in general, she was at that moment very happy
to assist in praising that sweet, amiable Jane Fairfax. Said
missus John Knightley, it is so long since I have
seen her, except now and then for a moment accidentally
in town. What happiness it must be to her good
(12:42):
old grandmother an excellent aunt when she comes to visit them.
I always regret excessively on dear Emma's account that she
cannot be more at Highbury. But now their daughter is married,
I suppose Colonel and missus Campbell will not be able
to part with her at all. She would be such
a delightful companion for Emma. Mister Woodhouse agreed to it all,
(13:02):
but added, our little friend Harriet Smith, however, is just
such another kind of pretty young person you will like Harriet.
Emma could not have a better companion than Harriet. I
am most happy to hear it. But only Jane Fairfax
one knows, to be so very accomplished and superior, and
exactly Emma's age. This topic was discussed very happily, and
(13:26):
others succeeded of similar moment and passed away with similar harmony.
But the evening did not close without a little return
of agitation. The Gruel came and supplied a great deal
to be said, much praise and many comments, undoubting decision
of its wholesomeness for every constitution, and pretty severe Philippics
upon the many houses where it was never met with tolerable.
(13:47):
But unfortunately, among the failures which the daughter had to instance,
the most recent, and therefore most prominent, was in her
own cook at South End, a young woman hired for
the time, who had never been able to understand what
she meant by a basin of nice, smooth gruel, thin
but not too thin. Often as she had wished for
and ordered it, she had never been able to get
(14:07):
anything tolerable. Here was a dangerous opening, ah, said mister Woodhouse,
shaking his head and fixing his eyes on her with
tender concern. The ejaculation in Emma's ear expressed, AH, there
is no end of the sad consequences of your going
to South End. It does not bear talking of. And
(14:28):
for a little while she hoped he would not talk
of it, and that a silent rumination might suffice to
restore him to the relish of his own smooth gruel.
After an interval of some minutes, however, he began with,
I shall always be very sorry that you went to
the sea this autumn instead of coming here. But why
should you be sorry, sir? I assure you it give
(14:49):
the children a great deal of good. And moreover, if
you must go to the sea, it had better not
have been to South End. South End is a very
unhealthy place. Perry was surprised to hear you had fixed
upon South End. I know there is such an idea
with many people. But indeed it is quite a mistake, sir.
(15:09):
We all had our health perfectly well there, never found
the least inconvenience from the mud. And mister Wingfield says,
it is entirely a mistake to suppose the place unhealthy.
And I am sure he may be depended upon, for
he thoroughly understands the nature of the air, and his
own brother and family have been there repeatedly. You should
have gone to Chromer, my dear, if you went anywhere.
(15:32):
Perry was a week at Chromer once, and he holds
it to be the best of all the sea bathing places.
A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air.
By what I understand, you might have had lodgings there,
quite away from the sea, a quarter of a mile off,
very comfortable. You should have consulted Perry. But my dear sir,
(15:54):
the difference of the journey. Only consider how great it
would have been an hundred miles, perhaps s instead to forty Ah,
my dear, as Perry says, where health is at stake,
nothing else should be considered. And if one is to travel,
there is not much to choose between forty miles and
an hundred. Better not move at all, Better stay in
(16:14):
London altogether than travel forty miles to get into a
worse air. That is just what Perry said. It seemed
to him a very ill judged measure. Emma's attempts to
stop her father had been vain, and when he had
reached such a point as this, she could not wonder
at her brother in law's breaking out. Mister Perry said he,
in a voice of very strong displeasure, would do as
(16:36):
well to keep his opinion till it is asked for
what does he make in any of his business to
wonder at what I do at my taking my family
to one part of the coast or another, I may
be allowed, I hope the use of my judgment as
well as mister Perry. I want his directions no more
than his drugs. He paused, and growing cooler in a moment,
added with only sarcastic dryness. If mister Perry can tell
(16:59):
me how to convey a wife and five children a
distance of one hundred and thirty miles, with no greater
expense or inconvenience than a distance of forty I should
be as willing to prefer Cromer to south End as
he could himself. True true, cried mister Knightley, with most
ready interposition. Very true. That's a consideration indeed. But John,
as to what I was telling you of my idea
(17:20):
of moving the path to Langham, of turning it more
to the right, that it may not cut through the
home meadows, I cannot conceive any difficulty. I should not
attempt it if it were to be the means of
inconvenience to the Highbury people. But if you call to
mind exactly the present line of the path, the only
way of proving it, however, will be to turn to
our maps. I shall see you at the abbey tomorrow morning,
I hope, and then we will look them over, and
(17:42):
you shall give me your opinion. Mister Woodhouse was rather
agitated by such harsh reflections on his friend Perry, to
whom he had in fact, though unconsciously, been attributing many
of his own feelings and expressions. But the soothing attentions
of his daughter as gradually removed the present evil, and
the immediate alertness of one brother and better recollections of
the other, prevented any renewal of it. End of Chapter twelve,
Volume one, chapter twelve. Mister Knightley was to dine with them,
rather against the inclination of mister Woodhouse, who did not
like that any one should share with him in Isabella's
first day. Emma's sense of right, however, had decided it,
and besides the consideration of what was due to each brother,
she had particular pleasure from the circumstance of the late
(00:22):
disagreement between mister Knightley and herself in procuring him the
proper invitation. She hoped they might now become friends again.
She thought it was time to make up. Making up
indeed would not do. She certainly had not been in
the wrong, and he would never own that he had.
Concession must be out of the question. But it was
(00:42):
time to appear to forget that they had ever quarreled,
and she hoped it might rather assist the restoration of
friendship that when he came into the room she had
one of the children with her, the youngest, a nice
little girl about eight months old, who was now making
her first visit to Hartfield, and very happy to be
danced in her aunt's arms. It did assist, for though
(01:03):
he began with grave looks and short questions, He was
soon led on to talk of them all in the
usual way, and to take the child out of her arms.
With all the unceremoniousness of perfect amity. Emma felt they
were friends again, and the conviction giving her at first
great satisfaction and then a little sauciness. She could not
help saying, as he was admiring the baby, what a
(01:26):
comfort it is that we think alike about our nephews
and nieces. As to men and women, our opinions are
sometimes very different. But with regard to these children, I
observe we never disagree. If you are as much guided
by nature in your estimate of men and women, and
as little under the power of fancy and women in
(01:46):
your dealings with them as you are where these children
are concerned, we might always think alike. Oh, to be sure,
our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong, Yes,
said he, smiling, and reason good. I was sixteen years
old when you were born. A material difference, then, she replied,
(02:09):
And no doubt you are much my superior in judgment
at that period of our lives. But does not the
lapse of one and twenty years bring our understandings a
good deal nearer, Yes, a good deal nearer, but still
not near enough to give me a chance of being right.
If we think differently, I have still the advantage of
(02:31):
you by sixteen years experience, and by not being a
pretty young woman and a spoiled child. Come, my dear Emma,
let us be friends and say no more about it.
Tell your aunt, little Emma that she ought to set
you a better example than to be renewing old grievances,
and that if she were not wrong before, she is
now that's true, she cried, very true, little Emma. Grow
(02:56):
up a better woman than your aunt. Be infinitely cleverer,
and not half so conceited. Now, mister Knightley, a word
or two more than I have done. As far as
good intentions went, we were both right, and I must
say that no effects on my side of the argument
have yet proved wrong. I only want to know that
mister Martin is not very very bitterly disappointed. A man
(03:18):
cannot be more so, was his short full answer. Ah, indeed,
I am very sorry. Come shake hands with me. This
had just taken place, and with great cordiality, when John
Knightley made his appearance. And how do you do George
and John, how are you succeeded? In the true English style,
(03:42):
burying under a calmness that seemed all but indifference the
real attachment which would have led either of them, if requisite,
to do everything for the good of the other. The
evening was quiet and conversible, as mister Woodhouse declined cards
entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella,
and the little party made two natural divisions. On one side,
(04:03):
he and his daughter, on the other, the two mister Knightleys,
their subjects totally distinct or very rarely mixing, and Emma
only occasionally joining in one or the other. The brothers
talked of their own concerns and pursuits, but principally of
those of the elder, whose temper was by much the
most communicative, and who was always the greater talker. As
(04:24):
a magistrate he had generally some point of law to
consult John about, or at least some curious anecdote to give.
And as a farmer, as keeping in hand the home
farm at Donwell, he had to tell what every field
was to bear next year, and to give all such
local information as could not fail of being interesting to
a brother whose home it had equally been the longest
(04:45):
part of his life, and whose attachments were strong. The
plan of a drain, the change of a fence, the
felling of a tree, and the destination of every acre
for wheat, turnips or spring corn was entered into with
as much equality of interest by John as his cooler
manners rendered possible, And if his willing brother ever left
him anything to inquire about, his inquiries even approached a
(05:08):
tone of eagerness. While they were thus comfortably occupied, mister
Woodhouse was enjoying a full flow of happy regrets and
fearful affection with his daughter. My poor dear Isabella, said
he fondly, taking her hand and interrupting for a few
moments her busy labors for some one of her five children.
(05:29):
How long it is, how terribly long since you were here,
and how tired you must be off to your journey.
You must go to bed early, my dear, and I
recommend a little gruel to you before you go. You
and I will have a nice basin of gruel together,
My dear Emma, suppose we all have a little gruel.
(05:50):
Emma could not suppose any such thing, knowing as she
did that both the mister Knightleys were as unpersuadable on
that article as herself, and two basins only were ordered.
After a little more discourse in praise of Gruel, with
some wondering at its not being taken every evening by everybody,
he proceeded to say, with an air of grave reflection,
(06:10):
it was an awkward business, my dear, your spending the
autumn at south End instead of coming here. I never
had much opinion of the sea air. Mister Wingfield most
strenuously recommended it, sir, or we should not have gone.
He recommended it for all the children, but particularly for
the weakness and little Bella's throat, both sea air and bathing. Ah,
(06:34):
my dear, but Perry had many doubts about the sea
doing her any good. And as to myself, I have
been long perfectly convinced, though perhaps I never told you
so before, that the sea is very rarely of use
to any body. I am sure it almost killed me once.
Come Come, cried Emma, feeling this to be an unsafe subject,
(06:56):
I must beg you not to talk of the sea.
It makes me envious and miserable, I, who have never
seen it. South End is prohibited if you please, my
dear Isabella, I have not heard you make one inquiry
about mister Perry yet, and he never forgets you. Oh, good,
mister Perry. How is he, sir? Why? Pretty well, but
(07:18):
not quite well. Poor Perry is bilious, and he has
not time to take care of himself, he tells me
he has not time to take care of himself, which
is very sad. But he is always wanted all round
the country. I suppose there is not a man in
such practice anywhere, But then there is not so clever
a man anywhere. And missus Perry and the children, how
(07:41):
are they do the children grow? I have a great
regard for mister Perry. I hope he will be calling soon.
He will be so pleased to see my little ones.
I hope he will be here to morrow, for I
have a question or two to ask him about myself
of some consequence. And my dear, whenever he comes, you
had better let him look at the little Bella's throat. Oh,
(08:03):
my dear sir, her throat is so much better that
I have hardly any uneasiness about it. Either bathing has
been of the greatest service to her, or else it
is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of mister Wingfield's,
which we have been applying at times ever since August.
It is not very likely, my dear, that bathing should
have been of use to her. And if I had
(08:24):
known you were wanting an embrocation, I would have spoken
to you. Seem to me to have forgotten Missus and
miss Bates, said Emma, I have not heard one inquiry
after them. Oh, the good Bates is. I am quite
ashamed of myself. But you mention them in most of
your letters. I hope they are quite well. Good old
Missus Bates. I will call upon her to morrow and
(08:47):
take my children. They are always so pleased to see
my children. And that excellent miss Bates, such thorough worthy people.
How are they, sir? Why pretty well, my dear, upon
the whole. But poor Missus Bates had a bad cold
about a month ago. How sorry I am, But colds
(09:07):
were never so prevalent as they have been this autumn.
Mister Wingfield told me that he has never known them
more general or heavy, except when it has been quite
an influenza. That has been a good deal of the case,
my dear, But not to the degree you mention Perry
says that colds have been very general, but not so
heavy as he has very often known them in November.
(09:28):
Perry does not call it altogether a sickly season. No,
I do not know that mister Wingfield considers it very sickly,
except ah, my poor dear child. The truth is that
in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is
healthy in London. Nobody can be. It is a dreadful
(09:49):
thing to have you forced to live there so far
off and the air so bad. No, indeed, we are
not at all in a bad air. Our part of
London is be very superior to most others. You must
not confound us with London in general, my dear sir.
The neighborhood of Brunswick Square is very different from almost
all the rest. We are so very airy. I should
(10:12):
be unwilling I own to live in any other part
of the town. There is hardly any other that I
could be so satisfied to have my children in. But
we are so remarkably airy. Mister Wingfield thinks the vicinity
of Brunswick Square decidedly the most favorable as to air. Oh,
my dear, it is not like Hartfield. You make the
(10:32):
best of it. But after you have been a week
at Hartfield, you are all of you different creatures. You
do not look the same now. I cannot say that
I think you are any of you looking well at present.
I am sorry to hear you say so, sir, but
I assure you, excepting those little nervous headaches and palpitations,
which I am never entirely free from anywhere, I am
(10:55):
quite well myself. And if the children were rather pale
before they went to bed, it was only because they
were a little more tired than usual from their journey
and the happiness of coming. I hope you will think
better of their looks to morrow, For I assure you
mister Wingfield told me that he did not believe he
had ever sent us off altogether in such good case.
I trust at least that you do not think mister
(11:16):
Knightley looking ill, turning her eyes with affectionate anxiety towards
her husband middling, my dear, I cannot compliment you. I
think mister John Knightley very far from looking well. What
is the matter, sir? Do you speak to me? Cried
mister John Knightley, hearing his own name. I am sorry
to find my love that my father does not think
(11:38):
you looking well, but I hope it is only from
being a little fatigued. I could have wished, however, as
you know that you had seen mister Wingfield before you
left home. My dear Isabella, exclaimed he hastily, pray, do
not concern yourself about my looks. Be satisfied with doctoring
and coddling yourself and the children, and let me look
as I choose. I did not thoroughly understand what you
(12:00):
were telling. Your brother, cried Emma, about your friend mister
Graham's intending to have a bailiff from Scotland to look
after his new estate. What will it answer? Will not
the old prejudice be too strong? And she talked in
this way so long and successfully, that when forced to
give her attention again to her father and sister, she
had nothing worse to hear than Isabella's kind inquiry after
(12:21):
Jane Fairfax. And Jane Fairfax, though no great favored with
her in general, she was at that moment very happy
to assist in praising that sweet, amiable Jane Fairfax. Said
missus John Knightley, it is so long since I have
seen her, except now and then for a moment accidentally
in town. What happiness it must be to her good
(12:42):
old grandmother an excellent aunt when she comes to visit them.
I always regret excessively on dear Emma's account that she
cannot be more at Highbury. But now their daughter is married,
I suppose Colonel and missus Campbell will not be able
to part with her at all. She would be such
a delightful companion for Emma. Mister Woodhouse agreed to it all,
(13:02):
but added, our little friend Harriet Smith, however, is just
such another kind of pretty young person you will like Harriet.
Emma could not have a better companion than Harriet. I
am most happy to hear it. But only Jane Fairfax
one knows, to be so very accomplished and superior, and
exactly Emma's age. This topic was discussed very happily, and
(13:26):
others succeeded of similar moment and passed away with similar harmony.
But the evening did not close without a little return
of agitation. The Gruel came and supplied a great deal
to be said, much praise and many comments, undoubting decision
of its wholesomeness for every constitution, and pretty severe Philippics
upon the many houses where it was never met with tolerable.
(13:47):
But unfortunately, among the failures which the daughter had to instance,
the most recent, and therefore most prominent, was in her
own cook at South End, a young woman hired for
the time, who had never been able to understand what
she meant by a basin of nice, smooth gruel, thin
but not too thin. Often as she had wished for
and ordered it, she had never been able to get
(14:07):
anything tolerable. Here was a dangerous opening, ah, said mister Woodhouse,
shaking his head and fixing his eyes on her with
tender concern. The ejaculation in Emma's ear expressed, AH, there
is no end of the sad consequences of your going
to South End. It does not bear talking of. And
(14:28):
for a little while she hoped he would not talk
of it, and that a silent rumination might suffice to
restore him to the relish of his own smooth gruel.
After an interval of some minutes, however, he began with,
I shall always be very sorry that you went to
the sea this autumn instead of coming here. But why
should you be sorry, sir? I assure you it give
(14:49):
the children a great deal of good. And moreover, if
you must go to the sea, it had better not
have been to South End. South End is a very
unhealthy place. Perry was surprised to hear you had fixed
upon South End. I know there is such an idea
with many people. But indeed it is quite a mistake, sir.
(15:09):
We all had our health perfectly well there, never found
the least inconvenience from the mud. And mister Wingfield says,
it is entirely a mistake to suppose the place unhealthy.
And I am sure he may be depended upon, for
he thoroughly understands the nature of the air, and his
own brother and family have been there repeatedly. You should
have gone to Chromer, my dear, if you went anywhere.
(15:32):
Perry was a week at Chromer once, and he holds
it to be the best of all the sea bathing places.
A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air.
By what I understand, you might have had lodgings there,
quite away from the sea, a quarter of a mile off,
very comfortable. You should have consulted Perry. But my dear sir,
(15:54):
the difference of the journey. Only consider how great it
would have been an hundred miles, perhaps s instead to forty Ah,
my dear, as Perry says, where health is at stake,
nothing else should be considered. And if one is to travel,
there is not much to choose between forty miles and
an hundred. Better not move at all, Better stay in
(16:14):
London altogether than travel forty miles to get into a
worse air. That is just what Perry said. It seemed
to him a very ill judged measure. Emma's attempts to
stop her father had been vain, and when he had
reached such a point as this, she could not wonder
at her brother in law's breaking out. Mister Perry said he,
in a voice of very strong displeasure, would do as
(16:36):
well to keep his opinion till it is asked for
what does he make in any of his business to
wonder at what I do at my taking my family
to one part of the coast or another, I may
be allowed, I hope the use of my judgment as
well as mister Perry. I want his directions no more
than his drugs. He paused, and growing cooler in a moment,
added with only sarcastic dryness. If mister Perry can tell
(16:59):
me how to convey a wife and five children a
distance of one hundred and thirty miles, with no greater
expense or inconvenience than a distance of forty I should
be as willing to prefer Cromer to south End as
he could himself. True true, cried mister Knightley, with most
ready interposition. Very true. That's a consideration indeed. But John,
as to what I was telling you of my idea
(17:20):
of moving the path to Langham, of turning it more
to the right, that it may not cut through the
home meadows, I cannot conceive any difficulty. I should not
attempt it if it were to be the means of
inconvenience to the Highbury people. But if you call to
mind exactly the present line of the path, the only
way of proving it, however, will be to turn to
our maps. I shall see you at the abbey tomorrow morning,
I hope, and then we will look them over, and
(17:42):
you shall give me your opinion. Mister Woodhouse was rather
agitated by such harsh reflections on his friend Perry, to
whom he had in fact, though unconsciously, been attributing many
of his own feelings and expressions. But the soothing attentions
of his daughter as gradually removed the present evil, and
the immediate alertness of one brother and better recollections of
the other, prevented any renewal of it. End of Chapter twelve,
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