, as he added, in a more broken and subdued accent,
»The feelings of the warmest friendship - Indignation - Abominable scoundrel!« -
And in a louder, steadier tone, he concluded with, »He will soon be gone. They
will soon be in Yorkshire. I am sorry for her. She deserves a better fate.«
    Emma understood him; and as soon as she could recover from the flutter of
pleasure, excited by such tender consideration, replied,
    »You are very kind - but you are mistaken - and I must set you right. - I am
not in want of that sort of compassion. My blindness to what was going on, led
me to act by them in a way that I must always be ashamed of, and I was very
foolishly tempted to say and do many things which may well lay me open to
unpleasant conjectures, but I have no other reason to regret that I was not in
the secret earlier.«
    »Emma!« cried he, looking eagerly at her, »are you, indeed?« - but checking
himself - »No, no, I understand you - forgive me - I am pleased that you can say
even so much. - He is no object of regret, indeed! and it will not be very long,
I hope, before that becomes the acknowledgment of more than your reason. -
Fortunate that your affections were not farther entangled! - I could never, I
confess, from your manners, assure myself as to the degree of what you felt - I
could only be certain that there was a preference - and a preference which I
never believed him to deserve. - He is a disgrace to the name of man. - And is
he to be rewarded with that sweet young woman? - Jane, Jane, you will be a
miserable creature.«
    »Mr. Knightley,« said Emma, trying to be lively, but really confused - »I am
in a very extraordinary situation. I cannot let you continue in your error; and
yet, perhaps, since my manners gave such an impression, I have as much reason to
be ashamed of confessing that I never have been at all attached to the person we
are speaking of, as it might be natural for a woman to feel in confessing
exactly the reverse. - But I never have.«
    He listened in perfect silence. She wished him to speak, but he would not.
She supposed she must say more before she were entitled to his clemency; but it
was a hard case to be obliged still to lower herself