; but nobody else -«
    »Upon my word,« said Emma, »I begin to doubt my having any such talent. Can
you seriously ask me, Harriet, whether I imagined him attached to another woman
at the very time that I was - tacitly, if not openly - encouraging you to give
way to your own feelings? - I never had the slightest suspicion, till within the
last hour, of Mr. Frank Churchill's having the least regard for Jane Fairfax.
You may be very sure that if I had, I should have cautioned you accordingly.«
    »Me!« cried Harriet, colouring, and astonished. »Why should you caution me?
- You do not think I care about Mr. Frank Churchill.«
    »I am delighted to hear you speak so stoutly on the subject,« replied Emma,
smiling; »but you do not mean to deny that there was a time - and not very
distant either - when you gave me reason to understand that you did care about
him?«
    »Him! - never, never. Dear Miss Woodhouse, how could you so mistake me?«
turning away distressed.
    »Harriet!« cried Emma, after a moment's pause - »What do you mean? - Good
Heaven! what do you mean? - Mistake you! - Am I to suppose then? -«
    She could not speak another word. - Her voice was lost; and she sat down,
waiting in great terror till Harriet should answer.
    Harriet, who was standing at some distance, and with face turned from her,
did not immediately say any thing; and when she did speak, it was in a voice
nearly as agitated as Emma's.
    »I should not have thought it possible,« she began, »that you could have
misunderstood me! I know we agreed never to name him - but considering how
infinitely superior he is to every body else, I should not have thought it
possible that I could be supposed to mean any other person. Mr. Frank Churchill,
indeed! I do not know who would ever look at him in the company of the other. I
hope I have a better taste than to think of Mr. Frank Churchill, who is like
nobody by his side. And that you should have been so mistaken, is amazing! - I
am sure, but for believing that you entirely approved and meant to encourage me
in my attachment, I should have considered it at first too great a presumption
almost, to dare to think of him. At first,
