
Augusta?«
    »With all my heart. I am really tired of exploring so long on one spot.
Come, Jane, take my other arm.«
    Jane declined it, however, and the husband and wife walked off. »Happy
couple!« said Frank Churchill, as soon as they were out of hearing: - »How well
they suit one another! - Very lucky - marrying as they did, upon an acquaintance
formed only in a public place! - They only knew each other, I think, a few weeks
in Bath! Peculiarly lucky! - for as to any real knowledge of a person's
disposition that Bath, or any public place, can give - it is all nothing; there
can be no knowledge. It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their
own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of
that, it is all guess and luck - and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man
has committed himself on a short aquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his
life!«
    Miss Fairfax, who had seldom spoken before, except among her own
confederates, spoke now.
    »Such things do occur, undoubtedly.« - She was stopped by a cough. Frank
Churchill turned towards her to listen.
    »You were speaking,« said he, gravely. She recovered her voice.
    »I was only going to observe, that though such unfortunate circumstances do
sometimes occur both to men and women, I cannot imagine them to be very
frequent. A hasty and imprudent attachment may arise - but there is generally
time to recover from it afterwards. I would be understood to mean, that it can
be only weak, irresolute characters, (whose happiness must be always at the
mercy of chance,) who will suffer an unfortunate acquaintance to be an
inconvenience, an oppression for ever.«
    He made no answer; merely looked, and bowed in submission; and soon
afterwards said, in a lively tone,
    »Well, I have so little confidence in my own judgment, that whenever I
marry, I hope somebody will choose my wife for me. Will you? (turning to Emma.)
Will you choose a wife for me? - I am sure I should like any body fixed on by
you. You provide for the family, you know, (with a smile at his father). Find
somebody for me. I am in no hurry. Adopt her, educate her.«
    »And make her like myself.«
    »
