we shall
think and speak of nobody else.«
    »You will excuse my being so much overpowered. If I find him conversible, I
shall be glad of his acquaintance; but if he is only a chattering coxcomb, he
will not occupy much of my time or thoughts.«
    »My idea of him is, that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of every
body, and has the power as well as the wish of being universally agreeable. To
you, he will talk of farming; to me, of drawing or music; and so on to every
body, having that general information on all subjects which will enable him to
follow the lead, or take the lead, just as propriety may require, and to speak
extremely well on each; that is my idea of him.«
    »And mine,« said Mr. Knightley warmly, »is, that if he turn out any thing
like it, he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing! What! at
three-and-twenty to be the king of his company - the great man - the practised
politician, who is to read every body's character, and make every body's talents
conduce to the display of his own superiority; to be dispensing his flatteries
around, that he may make all appear like fools compared with himself! My dear
Emma, your own good sense could not endure such a puppy when it came to the
point.«
    »I will say no more about him,« cried Emma, »you turn every thing to evil.
We are both prejudiced; you against, I for him; and we have no chance of
agreeing till he is really here.«
    »Prejudiced! I am not prejudiced.«
    »But I am very much, and without being at all ashamed of it. My love for Mr.
and Mrs. Weston gives me a decided prejudice in his favour.«
    »He is a person I never think of from one month's end to another,« said Mr.
Knightley, with a degree of vexation, which made Emma immediately talk of
something else, though she could not comprehend why he should be angry.
    To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a
different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind
which she was always used to acknowledge in him; for with all the high opinion
of himself, which she had often laid to his charge, she had never before for a
moment supposed it could make him unjust to the merit of another.
 

                                   Volume II

                                   Chapter