August 11, 2025 • 13 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Volume one, chapter eighteen. Mister Frank Churchill did not come.
When the time proposed drew near, Missus Weston's fears were
justified in the arrival of a letter of excuse. For
the present. He could not be spared to his very
great mortification and regret, but still he looked forward with
the hope of coming to Randall's at no distant period.
(00:22):
Missus Weston was exceedingly disappointed, much more disappointed in fact
than her husband, though her dependence on seeing the young
man had been so much more sober. But a sanguine temper,
though forever expecting more good than occurs, does not always
pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon
flies over the present failure and begins to hope again.
(00:43):
For half an hour, mister Weston was surprised and sorry,
But then he began to perceive that Frank's coming two
or three months later would be a much better plan,
better time of year, better weather, and that he would
be able, without any doubt to stay considerably longer with
them than if he had come sooner. These feelings rapidly
restored his comfort, while Missus Weston, of a more apprehensive disposition,
(01:06):
foresaw nothing but a repetition of excuses and delays, and
after all her concern for what her husband was to suffer,
suffered a great deal more herself. Emma was not at
this time in a state of spirits to care really
about mister Frank Churchill's not coming, except as a disappointment
at Randall's. The acquaintance at present had no charm for her.
(01:26):
She wanted rather to be quiet and out of temptation,
but still as it was desirable that she should appear
in general like her usual self, she took care to
express as much interest in the circumstance and enter as
warmly into mister and missus Weston's disappointment as might naturally
belong to their friendship. She was the first to announce
it to mister Knightley, and exclaimed quite as much as
(01:48):
was necessary, or being acting a part perhaps rather more
at the conduct of the Churchills and keeping him away.
She then proceeded to say a good deal more than
she felt of the advantage of such an addition to
their confined society in Surrey, the pleasure of looking at
somebody new the gala day to Highbury and Tire which
the sight of him would have made, And ending with
(02:09):
reflections on the Churchills, again found herself directly involved in
a disagreement with mister Knightley, and, to her great amusement,
perceived that she was taking the other side of the
question from her real opinion, and making use of missus
Weston's arguments against herself. The Churchills are very likely in fault,
said mister Knightley coolly. But I dare say he might
come if he would. I do not know why you
(02:31):
should say so. He wishes exceedingly to come, but his
aunt and uncle will not spare him. I cannot believe
that he has not the power of coming if he
made a point of it. It is too unlikely for
me to believe it without proof. How odd you are.
What has mister Frank Churchill done to make you suppose
him such an unnatural creature? I am not supposing him
(02:52):
at all an unnatural creature. In suspecting that he may
have learnt to be above his connections and to care
very little for anything but his own pleasure, from living
with those who have always set him the example of it,
it is a great deal more natural than one could
wish that a young man brought up by those who
are proud, luxurious and selfish. Should be proud, luxurious and
selfish too. If Frank Churchill had wanted to see his father,
(03:15):
he would have contrived it between September and January. A
man at his age, what is he, three or four
and twenty, cannot be without the means of doing as
much as that it is impossible. That's easily said and
felt by you, who have always been your own master.
You are the worst judge in the world, mister Knightley,
of the difficulties of dependence. You do not know what
(03:37):
it is to have tempers to manage. It is not
to be conceived that a man of three or four
and twenty should not have liberty of mind or limb
to that amount. He cannot want money, he cannot want leisure.
We know, on the contrary, that he is so much
of both that he is glad to get rid of them.
At the idlest haunts in the kingdom. We hear of
(03:58):
him forever, at some watering place or other. A little
while ago he was at Weymouth. This proves that he
can leave the Churchills. Yes, sometimes he can, and those
times are whenever he thinks it worth his while whenever
there is any temptation of pleasure. It is very unfair
to judge of anybody's conduct without an intimate knowledge of
(04:19):
their situation. Nobody who has not been in the interior
of a family can say what the difficulties of any
individual of that family may be. We ought to be
acquainted with Enscombe and in Missus Churchill's temper, before we
pretend to decide upon what her nephew can do. He
may at times be able to do a great deal
more than he can at others. There is one thing, Emma,
(04:41):
which a man can always do if he chooses, and
that is his duty, not by maneuvering and finessing, but
by vigor and resolution. It is Frank Churchill's duty to
pay this attention to his father. He knows it to
be so by his promises and messages. But if he
wished to do it, it might be done. A man
(05:01):
who felt rightly would say, at once, simply and resolutely,
to Missus Churchill, every sacrifice of mere pleasure, you will
always find me ready to make to your convenience. But
I must go and see my father immediately. I know
he would be hurt by my failing in such a
mark of respect to him on the present occasion, I
shall therefore set off to morrow. If you would say
(05:22):
so to her at once in the tone of decision
becoming a man, there would be no opposition made to
his going, no, said Emma, laughing. But perhaps there might
be some made to his coming back again. Such language
for a young man entirely dependent to use. Nobody but you,
mister Knightley, would imagine it possible. But you have not
an idea of what is requisite in situations directly opposite
(05:45):
to your own. Mister Frank Churchill, to be making such
a speech as that to the uncle and aunt who
have brought him up and are to provide for him,
standing up in the middle of the room, I suppose,
and speaking as loud as he could, how can you
imagine such conduct practicable? Depend upon it, Emma. A sensible
man would find no difficulty in it. He would feel
(06:06):
himself in the right, And the declaration, made, of course,
as a man of sense would make it in a
proper manner, would do him more good, raise him higher,
fix his interests stronger with the people he depended on.
Than all that a line of shifts and expedients can
ever do, respect would be added to affection. They would
feel that they could trust him, that the nephew who
(06:28):
done rightly by his father, would do rightly by them,
for they know as well as he does, as well
as all the world must know, that he ought to
pay this visit to his father, And while meanly exerting
their power to delay it, are in their hearts not
thinking the better of him for submitting to their whims.
Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody. If he
(06:48):
would act in this sort of manner on principle consistently regularly,
their little minds would bend to his. I rather doubt
that you are very fond of bending little minds. But
where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I
think they have a knack of swelling out till they
are quite as unmanageable as great ones. I can imagine
(07:10):
that if you, as you are, mister Knightley, were to
be transported and placed all at once in mister Frank
Churchill's situation, you would be able to say and do
just what you have been recommending for him, and it
might have a very good effect. The Churchills might not
have a word to say in return, but then you
would have no habits of early obedience and long observance
(07:30):
to break through to him who has it might not
be so easy to burst forth at once into perfect
independence and set all their claims on his gratitude and
regard it nought. He may have as strong a sense
of what would be right as you can have without
being so equal under particular circumstances to act up to it.
Then it would not be so strong a sense if
(07:52):
it failed to produce equal exertion, it could not be
an equal conviction. Oh, the difference of situation and habit.
I wish she would try to understand what an amiable
young man may be likely to feel in directly opposing
those whom, as child and boy he has been looking
up to all his life. Our amiable young man is
a very weak young man. If this be the first
(08:14):
occasion of his carrying through a resolution to do right
against the will of others, it ought to have been
a habit with him by this time, of following his
duty instead of consulting expediency. I can allow for the
fears of the child, but not of the man. As
he became rational, he ought to have roused himself and
shaken off all that was unworthy in their authority. He
ought to have opposed the first attempt on their side
(08:36):
to make him slight his father. Had he begun as
he ought, there would be no difficulty. Now we shall
never agree about him, cried Emma. But that is nothing extraordinary.
I have not the least idea of his being a
weak young man. I feel sure that he is not.
Mister Weston would not be blind to folly though in
his own son. But he is very likely to have
(08:57):
a more yielding, complying, mild disposition than would suit your
notions of a man's perfection. I dare say he has.
And though it may cut him off from some advantages,
it will secure him many others. Yes, all the advantages
of sitting still when he ought to move, and of
leading a life of mere idle pleasure, and fancying himself
(09:18):
extremely expert in finding excuses for it. He can sit
down and write a fine, flourishing letter full of professions
and falsehoods, and persuade himself that he has hit upon
the very best method in the world of preserving peace
at home and preventing his father's having any right to complain.
Has let us disgust me. Your feelings are singular. They
(09:39):
seem to satisfy everybody else. I suspect they do not
satisfy missus Western. They hardly can satisfy a woman of
her good sense and quick feelings standing in a mother's place,
but without a mother's affection to blind her. It is
on her account that attention to Randall's as doubly do,
and she must doubly feel the omission. Had she been
(09:59):
a person of consequence herself, he would have come, I
dare say, and it would not have signified whether he
did or no. Can you think your friend behindhand in
these sort of considerations? Do you suppose she does not
often say all this to herself? No, Emma, your amiable
young man can be amiable only in French, not in English.
He may be very ammable, have very good manners, and
(10:21):
be very agreeable, but he can have no English delicacy
toward the feelings of other people. Nothing really amiable about him.
You seem determined to think ill of him. Me not
at all, replied mister Knightley, rather displeased. I do not
want to think ill of him. I should be as
ready to acknowledge his merits as any other man. But
(10:42):
I hear of none except what are merely personal. That
he is well grown and good looking, with smooth, plausible manners. Well,
if he have nothing else to recommend him, he will
be a treasure at hibury. We did not often look
upon fine young men, well bred and agreeable. We must
not be nice and ask for all the virtues into
the bargain. Cannot you imagine, mister Knightley, what a sensation
(11:06):
his coming will produce. There will be but one subject
throughout the parishes of Donwell in Highbury, and one interest,
one object of curiosity. It will be all mister Frank Churchill.
We shall think and speak of nobody else. You will
excuse my being so much overpowered. If I find him conversible,
I shall be glad of his acquaintance, But if he
(11:27):
is only a chattering coxcomb, he will not occupy much
of my time or thoughts. My idea of him is
that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of everybody,
and has the power as well as the wish, of
being universally agreeable to you. He will talk of farming
to me, of drawing, or music, and so on to everybody,
having that general information on all subjects which will enable
(11:50):
him to follow the lead or take the lead, just
as propriety may require, and to speak extremely well on each.
That is my idea of him, and mine, said mister
Knightley warmly, is that if he turn out anything like it,
he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing what at
three and twenty do be the king of his company?
(12:12):
The great man, the practiced politician, who is to read
everybody's character and make everybody's talents conduced to the display
of his own superiority, to be dispensing his flatteries around
that he may make all appear like fools compared with himself.
My dear Emma, your own good sense could not endure
such a puppy. When it came to the point, I
(12:34):
will say no more about him, said Emma, you turn
everything to evil. We are both prejudiced, you against I
for him, and we have no chance of agreeing till
he is really here. Prejudiced. I am not prejudiced, but
I am very much and without being atall ashamed of it,
my love for mister and missus Western gives me a
(12:55):
decided prejudice in his favor. He is a person whom
I never think from one month's end to another, said
mister Knightley, with a degree of vexation, which made Emma
immediately talk of something else. Though she could not comprehend
why he should be angry to take a dislike to
a young man only because he appeared to be of
a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality
(13:18):
of mind which he was always used to acknowledge in him.
For with all the high opinion of himself which she
had often laid to his charge, she had never before
for a moment supposed it could make him unjust to
the merit of another. End of Chapter eighteen, end of
Volume one.
Volume one, chapter eighteen. Mister Frank Churchill did not come.
When the time proposed drew near, Missus Weston's fears were
justified in the arrival of a letter of excuse. For
the present. He could not be spared to his very
great mortification and regret, but still he looked forward with
the hope of coming to Randall's at no distant period.
(00:22):
Missus Weston was exceedingly disappointed, much more disappointed in fact
than her husband, though her dependence on seeing the young
man had been so much more sober. But a sanguine temper,
though forever expecting more good than occurs, does not always
pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. It soon
flies over the present failure and begins to hope again.
(00:43):
For half an hour, mister Weston was surprised and sorry,
But then he began to perceive that Frank's coming two
or three months later would be a much better plan,
better time of year, better weather, and that he would
be able, without any doubt to stay considerably longer with
them than if he had come sooner. These feelings rapidly
restored his comfort, while Missus Weston, of a more apprehensive disposition,
(01:06):
foresaw nothing but a repetition of excuses and delays, and
after all her concern for what her husband was to suffer,
suffered a great deal more herself. Emma was not at
this time in a state of spirits to care really
about mister Frank Churchill's not coming, except as a disappointment
at Randall's. The acquaintance at present had no charm for her.
(01:26):
She wanted rather to be quiet and out of temptation,
but still as it was desirable that she should appear
in general like her usual self, she took care to
express as much interest in the circumstance and enter as
warmly into mister and missus Weston's disappointment as might naturally
belong to their friendship. She was the first to announce
it to mister Knightley, and exclaimed quite as much as
(01:48):
was necessary, or being acting a part perhaps rather more
at the conduct of the Churchills and keeping him away.
She then proceeded to say a good deal more than
she felt of the advantage of such an addition to
their confined society in Surrey, the pleasure of looking at
somebody new the gala day to Highbury and Tire which
the sight of him would have made, And ending with
(02:09):
reflections on the Churchills, again found herself directly involved in
a disagreement with mister Knightley, and, to her great amusement,
perceived that she was taking the other side of the
question from her real opinion, and making use of missus
Weston's arguments against herself. The Churchills are very likely in fault,
said mister Knightley coolly. But I dare say he might
come if he would. I do not know why you
(02:31):
should say so. He wishes exceedingly to come, but his
aunt and uncle will not spare him. I cannot believe
that he has not the power of coming if he
made a point of it. It is too unlikely for
me to believe it without proof. How odd you are.
What has mister Frank Churchill done to make you suppose
him such an unnatural creature? I am not supposing him
(02:52):
at all an unnatural creature. In suspecting that he may
have learnt to be above his connections and to care
very little for anything but his own pleasure, from living
with those who have always set him the example of it,
it is a great deal more natural than one could
wish that a young man brought up by those who
are proud, luxurious and selfish. Should be proud, luxurious and
selfish too. If Frank Churchill had wanted to see his father,
(03:15):
he would have contrived it between September and January. A
man at his age, what is he, three or four
and twenty, cannot be without the means of doing as
much as that it is impossible. That's easily said and
felt by you, who have always been your own master.
You are the worst judge in the world, mister Knightley,
of the difficulties of dependence. You do not know what
(03:37):
it is to have tempers to manage. It is not
to be conceived that a man of three or four
and twenty should not have liberty of mind or limb
to that amount. He cannot want money, he cannot want leisure.
We know, on the contrary, that he is so much
of both that he is glad to get rid of them.
At the idlest haunts in the kingdom. We hear of
(03:58):
him forever, at some watering place or other. A little
while ago he was at Weymouth. This proves that he
can leave the Churchills. Yes, sometimes he can, and those
times are whenever he thinks it worth his while whenever
there is any temptation of pleasure. It is very unfair
to judge of anybody's conduct without an intimate knowledge of
(04:19):
their situation. Nobody who has not been in the interior
of a family can say what the difficulties of any
individual of that family may be. We ought to be
acquainted with Enscombe and in Missus Churchill's temper, before we
pretend to decide upon what her nephew can do. He
may at times be able to do a great deal
more than he can at others. There is one thing, Emma,
(04:41):
which a man can always do if he chooses, and
that is his duty, not by maneuvering and finessing, but
by vigor and resolution. It is Frank Churchill's duty to
pay this attention to his father. He knows it to
be so by his promises and messages. But if he
wished to do it, it might be done. A man
(05:01):
who felt rightly would say, at once, simply and resolutely,
to Missus Churchill, every sacrifice of mere pleasure, you will
always find me ready to make to your convenience. But
I must go and see my father immediately. I know
he would be hurt by my failing in such a
mark of respect to him on the present occasion, I
shall therefore set off to morrow. If you would say
(05:22):
so to her at once in the tone of decision
becoming a man, there would be no opposition made to
his going, no, said Emma, laughing. But perhaps there might
be some made to his coming back again. Such language
for a young man entirely dependent to use. Nobody but you,
mister Knightley, would imagine it possible. But you have not
an idea of what is requisite in situations directly opposite
(05:45):
to your own. Mister Frank Churchill, to be making such
a speech as that to the uncle and aunt who
have brought him up and are to provide for him,
standing up in the middle of the room, I suppose,
and speaking as loud as he could, how can you
imagine such conduct practicable? Depend upon it, Emma. A sensible
man would find no difficulty in it. He would feel
(06:06):
himself in the right, And the declaration, made, of course,
as a man of sense would make it in a
proper manner, would do him more good, raise him higher,
fix his interests stronger with the people he depended on.
Than all that a line of shifts and expedients can
ever do, respect would be added to affection. They would
feel that they could trust him, that the nephew who
(06:28):
done rightly by his father, would do rightly by them,
for they know as well as he does, as well
as all the world must know, that he ought to
pay this visit to his father, And while meanly exerting
their power to delay it, are in their hearts not
thinking the better of him for submitting to their whims.
Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody. If he
(06:48):
would act in this sort of manner on principle consistently regularly,
their little minds would bend to his. I rather doubt
that you are very fond of bending little minds. But
where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I
think they have a knack of swelling out till they
are quite as unmanageable as great ones. I can imagine
(07:10):
that if you, as you are, mister Knightley, were to
be transported and placed all at once in mister Frank
Churchill's situation, you would be able to say and do
just what you have been recommending for him, and it
might have a very good effect. The Churchills might not
have a word to say in return, but then you
would have no habits of early obedience and long observance
(07:30):
to break through to him who has it might not
be so easy to burst forth at once into perfect
independence and set all their claims on his gratitude and
regard it nought. He may have as strong a sense
of what would be right as you can have without
being so equal under particular circumstances to act up to it.
Then it would not be so strong a sense if
(07:52):
it failed to produce equal exertion, it could not be
an equal conviction. Oh, the difference of situation and habit.
I wish she would try to understand what an amiable
young man may be likely to feel in directly opposing
those whom, as child and boy he has been looking
up to all his life. Our amiable young man is
a very weak young man. If this be the first
(08:14):
occasion of his carrying through a resolution to do right
against the will of others, it ought to have been
a habit with him by this time, of following his
duty instead of consulting expediency. I can allow for the
fears of the child, but not of the man. As
he became rational, he ought to have roused himself and
shaken off all that was unworthy in their authority. He
ought to have opposed the first attempt on their side
(08:36):
to make him slight his father. Had he begun as
he ought, there would be no difficulty. Now we shall
never agree about him, cried Emma. But that is nothing extraordinary.
I have not the least idea of his being a
weak young man. I feel sure that he is not.
Mister Weston would not be blind to folly though in
his own son. But he is very likely to have
(08:57):
a more yielding, complying, mild disposition than would suit your
notions of a man's perfection. I dare say he has.
And though it may cut him off from some advantages,
it will secure him many others. Yes, all the advantages
of sitting still when he ought to move, and of
leading a life of mere idle pleasure, and fancying himself
(09:18):
extremely expert in finding excuses for it. He can sit
down and write a fine, flourishing letter full of professions
and falsehoods, and persuade himself that he has hit upon
the very best method in the world of preserving peace
at home and preventing his father's having any right to complain.
Has let us disgust me. Your feelings are singular. They
(09:39):
seem to satisfy everybody else. I suspect they do not
satisfy missus Western. They hardly can satisfy a woman of
her good sense and quick feelings standing in a mother's place,
but without a mother's affection to blind her. It is
on her account that attention to Randall's as doubly do,
and she must doubly feel the omission. Had she been
(09:59):
a person of consequence herself, he would have come, I
dare say, and it would not have signified whether he
did or no. Can you think your friend behindhand in
these sort of considerations? Do you suppose she does not
often say all this to herself? No, Emma, your amiable
young man can be amiable only in French, not in English.
He may be very ammable, have very good manners, and
(10:21):
be very agreeable, but he can have no English delicacy
toward the feelings of other people. Nothing really amiable about him.
You seem determined to think ill of him. Me not
at all, replied mister Knightley, rather displeased. I do not
want to think ill of him. I should be as
ready to acknowledge his merits as any other man. But
(10:42):
I hear of none except what are merely personal. That
he is well grown and good looking, with smooth, plausible manners. Well,
if he have nothing else to recommend him, he will
be a treasure at hibury. We did not often look
upon fine young men, well bred and agreeable. We must
not be nice and ask for all the virtues into
the bargain. Cannot you imagine, mister Knightley, what a sensation
(11:06):
his coming will produce. There will be but one subject
throughout the parishes of Donwell in Highbury, and one interest,
one object of curiosity. It will be all mister Frank Churchill.
We shall think and speak of nobody else. You will
excuse my being so much overpowered. If I find him conversible,
I shall be glad of his acquaintance, But if he
(11:27):
is only a chattering coxcomb, he will not occupy much
of my time or thoughts. My idea of him is
that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of everybody,
and has the power as well as the wish, of
being universally agreeable to you. He will talk of farming
to me, of drawing, or music, and so on to everybody,
having that general information on all subjects which will enable
(11:50):
him to follow the lead or take the lead, just
as propriety may require, and to speak extremely well on each.
That is my idea of him, and mine, said mister
Knightley warmly, is that if he turn out anything like it,
he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing what at
three and twenty do be the king of his company?
(12:12):
The great man, the practiced politician, who is to read
everybody's character and make everybody's talents conduced to the display
of his own superiority, to be dispensing his flatteries around
that he may make all appear like fools compared with himself.
My dear Emma, your own good sense could not endure
such a puppy. When it came to the point, I
(12:34):
will say no more about him, said Emma, you turn
everything to evil. We are both prejudiced, you against I
for him, and we have no chance of agreeing till
he is really here. Prejudiced. I am not prejudiced, but
I am very much and without being atall ashamed of it,
my love for mister and missus Western gives me a
(12:55):
decided prejudice in his favor. He is a person whom
I never think from one month's end to another, said
mister Knightley, with a degree of vexation, which made Emma
immediately talk of something else. Though she could not comprehend
why he should be angry to take a dislike to
a young man only because he appeared to be of
a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality
(13:18):
of mind which he was always used to acknowledge in him.
For with all the high opinion of himself which she
had often laid to his charge, she had never before
for a moment supposed it could make him unjust to
the merit of another. End of Chapter eighteen, end of
Volume one.
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Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!