nted with his own claims as you can be with Harriet's; and I
am convinced that he does not mean to throw himself away."

But despite this warning from Mr. George Knightley, despite a hint
dropped by Mr. John Knightley, when he and his wife and children came to
stop with the Woodhouses for Christmas--a hint to the effect that his
sister-in-law would do well to consider whether Mr. Elton was not in
love with _her_--Emma continued quite as ardent in her new friendship
and in her hopes.

As to herself, she told Harriet that she was not going to be married at
present, and had very little intention of ever marrying at all; though
when Harriet reminded her of Miss Bates, who was the daughter of a
former vicar of Highbury and lived in a very small way with her mother,
a very old lady almost past everything but tea and quadrille, she
confessed that if she thought she would ever be like Miss Bates, "so
silly, so satisfied, so smiling, so prosing, so undistinguishing, so
unfastidious, and so garrulous," she would marry to-morrow.

But Mr. Elton was unaware of Emma having thought of making such a
self-denying ordinance; and so one night when the Woodhouses and the
Knightleys were returning home from a party at Randalls he took
advantage of his being alone in a carriage with her to propose to her,
seeming never to doubt his being accepted. When he learned, however, for
whom his hand had been destined, he became very indignant and
contemptuous.

"Never, madam!" cried he. "Never, I assure you! _I_ think seriously of
Miss Smith! Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be
happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well; and, no
doubt, there are men who might not object to--Everybody has their level;
but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss. I need
not so totally despair of an equal alliance as to be addressing myself
to Miss Smith! No, madam; my visits to Hatfield have been for yourself
only."

Needless to say, Emma refused him, and they parted on terms of mutually
deep mortification. Fortunately, the task of enlightening Harriet as to
the state of Mr. Elton's feelings proved less troublesome than Emma had
expected it to be. Harriet's tears fell abundantly, but otherwise she
bore the intelligence very meekly and well.

_III.--Emma's Schemes in a Tangle_

As if to make up for the absence of Mr. Elton, who went to spend a few
weeks in Bath, in an endeavour to cure his wounded a