More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old.
Where shall we see a better daughter, or a kinder sister, or a truer friend?
“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and that is, his duty; not by manœuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.
Do not defer it. What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
“Ah! there is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort. Nobody can be more devoted to home than I am.
“The post-office is a wonderful establishment!” said she.—“The regularity and dispatch of it! If one thinks of all that it has to do, and all that it does so well, it is really astonishing!”
John Knightley only was in mute astonishment.—That a man who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day of business in London, should set off again, and walk half-a-mile to another man’s house, for the sake of being in mixed company till bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply.
“Whom are you going to dance with?” asked Mr. Knightley. She hesitated a moment, and then replied, “With you, if you will ask me.” “Will you?”
It was a sweet view—sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive.
but you must allow, that what is good and what is ridiculous are most unfortunately blended in her.”
Never had she felt so agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was most forcibly struck.
It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!
Her own conduct, as well as her own heart, was before her in the same few minutes. She saw it all with a clearness which had never blessed her before.
How long had Mr. Knightley been so dear to her, as every feeling declared him now to be? When had his influence, such influence begun?—When
