‘That may be,and I may have seen him fifty times,but without having any idea of his name.A young farmer,whether on horseback or on foot,is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity.The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do.A degree or two lower,and a creditable appearance might interest me;I might hope to be useful to their families in some way or other.But a farmer can need none of my help,and is,therefore,in one sense,as much above my notice,as in every other he is below it.’
‘To be sure.Oh,yes!it is not likely you should ever have observed him;but he knows you very well indeed-I mean by sight.’
‘I have no doubt of his being a very respectable young man.I know,indeed,that he is so,and,as such,wish him well.What do you imagine his age to be?’
‘He was four-and-twenty the 8th of last June,and my birthday is the 23rd-just a fortnight and a day's difference-which is very odd.’
‘Only four-and-twenty.That is too young to settle.His mother is perfectly right not to be in a hurry.They seem very comfortable as they are,and if she were to take any pains to marry him,she would probably repent it.Six years hence,if he could meet with a good sort of young woman in the same rank as his own,with a little money,it might be very desirable.’
‘Six years hence!dear Miss Woodhouse,he would be thirty years old!’
‘Well,and that is as early as most men can afford to marry,who are not born to an independence.Mr Martin,I imagine,has his fortune entirely to make-cannot be at all beforehand with the world.Whatever money he might come into when his father died,whatever his share of the family property,it is,I dare say,all afloat,all employed in his stock,and so forth;and though,with diligence and good luck,he may be rich in time,it is next to impossible that he should have realised anything yet.’
‘To be sure,so it is.But they live very comfortably.They have no indoors man,else they do not want for anything;and Mrs Martin talks of taking a boy another year.’
‘I wish you may not get into a scrape,Harriet,whenever he does marry-I mean,as to being acquainted with his wife;for though his sisters,from a superior education,are not to be altogether objected to,it does not follow that he might marry anybody at all fit for you to notice.The misfortune of your birth ought to make you particularly careful as to your associates.There can be no doubt of your being a gentleman's daughter,and you must support your claim to that station by everything within your own power,or there will be plenty of people who would take pleasure in degrading you.’
‘Yes,to be sure,I suppose there are.But while I visit at Hartfield,and you are so kind to me,Miss Woodhouse,I am not afraid of what anybody can do.’
‘You understand the force of influence pretty well,Harriet;but I would have you so firmly established in good society,as to be independent even of Hartfield and Miss Woodhouse.I want to see you permanently well connected,and to that end it will be advisable to have as few odd acquaintance as may be;and,therefore,I say,that if you should still be in this country when Mr Martin marries,I wish you may not be drawn in by your intimacy with the sisters,to be acquainted with the wife,who will probably be some mere farmer's daughter,without education.’
‘To be sure.Yes.Not that I think Mr Martin would ever marry anybody but what had had some education,and been very well brought up.However,I do not mean to set up my opinion against yours-and I am sure I shall not wish for the acquaintance of his wife.I shall always have a great regard for the Miss Martins,especially Elizabeth,and should be very sorry to give them up,for they are quite as well educated as me.But if he marries a very ignorant vulgar woman,certainly I had better not visit her,if I can help it.’
Emma watched her through the fluctuations of this speech,and saw no alarming symptoms of love.The young man had been the first admirer,but she trusted there was no other hold,and that there would be no serious difficulty,on Harriet's side,to oppose any friendly arrangement of her own.
They met Mr Martin the very next day,as they were walking on the Donwell road.He was on foot,and after looking very respectfully at her,looked with most unfeigned satisfaction at her companion.Emma was not sorry to have such an opportunity of survey;and walking a few yards forward,while they talked together,soon made her quick eye sufficiently acquainted with Mr Robert Martin.His appearance was very neat,and he looked like a sensible young man,but his person had no other advantage:and when he came to be contrasted with gentlemen,she thought he must lose all the ground he had gained in Harriet's inclination.Harriet was not insensible of manner;she had voluntarily noticed her father's gentleness with admiration as well as wonder.Mr Martin looked as if he did not know what manner was.
They remained but a few minutes together,as Miss Woodhouse must not be kept waiting;and Harriet then came running to her with a smiling face,and in a flutter of spirits,which Miss Woodhouse hoped very soon to compose.
‘Only think of our happening to meet him!How very odd.It was quite a chance,he said,that he had not gone round by Randalls.He did not think we ever walked this road.He thought we walked towards Randalls most days.He has not been able to get the Romance of the Forest yet.He was so busy the last time he was at Kingston that he quite forgot it,but he goes again tomorrow.So very odd we should happen to meet!Well,Miss Woodhouse,is he like what you expected?What do you think of him?Do you think him so very plain?’
‘He is very plain,undoubtedly;remarkably plain;but that is nothing compared with his entire want of gentility.I had no right to expect much,and I did not expect much;but I had no idea that he could be so very clownish,so totally without air.I had imagined him,I confess,a degree or two nearer gentility.’
