 very pleasant people they seem to be. I like them extremely. Mr. Weston
seems an excellent creature - quite a first-rate favourite with me already, I
assure you. And she appears so truly good - there is something so motherly and
kind-hearted about her, that it wins upon one directly. She was your governess,
I think?«
    Emma was almost too much astonished to answer; but Mrs. Elton hardly waited
for the affirmative before she went on.
    »Having understood as much, I was rather astonished to find her so very
lady-like! But she is really quite the gentlewoman.«
    »Mrs. Weston's manners,« said Emma, »were always particularly good. Their
propriety, simplicity, and elegance, would make them the safest model for any
young woman.«
    »And who do you think came in while we were there?«
    Emma was quite at a loss. The tone implied some old acquaintance - and how
could she possibly guess?
    »Knightley!« continued Mrs. Elton; - »Knightley himself! - Was not it lucky?
- for, not being within when he called the other day, I had never seen him
before; and of course, as so particular a friend of Mr. E.'s, I had a great
curiosity. My friend Knightley had been so often mentioned, that I was really
impatient to see him; and I must do my caro sposo the justice to say that he
need not be ashamed of his friend. Knightley is quite the gentleman. I like him
very much. Decidedly, I think, a very gentleman-like man.«
    Happily it was now time to be gone. They were off; and Emma could breathe.
    »Insufferable woman!« was her immediate exclamation. »Worse than I had
supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley! - I could not have believed it.
Knightley! - never seen him in her life before, and call him Knightley! - and
discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, vulgar being, with her Mr.
E., and her caro sposo, and her resources, and all her airs of pert pretension
and under-bred finery. Actually to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman! I
doubt whether he will return the compliment, and discover her to be a lady. I
could not have believed it! And to propose that she and I should unite to form a
musical club! One would fancy we were bosom friends! And Mrs. Weston! -
Astonished that the person who had
