CHAPTER FIVE

"I do not know your opinion, Mrs Weston," said Mr George Knightley, "of this friendship between Emma and Harriet Smith, but I think it a bad thing."

"How very different you and I feel. Emma will help Harriet."

"Emma is the cleverest in her family. Emma at ten years old could answer questions her seventeen-year-old sister, Isabella, could not. Harriet Smith knows nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as knowing everything. How can Emma learn anything herself?"

"Mr Knightley, I believe I can trust Emma to make the right decisions. Where Emma makes an error once, she is in the right a hundred times."

"I have a true interest in Emma, so I worry about her new friendship with Harriet Smith."

"So do I," said Mrs Weston, gently.

"She always declares she will never marry, but I would like to see Emma in love."

"At the present," said Mrs Weston, "I would not recommend marriage for Emma, or Mr Woodhouse would be so upset."

(end of section)