Emma

in general should be put under requisition. Mr. Elton was the only one
whose assistance she asked. He was invited to contribute any really
good enigmas, charades, or conundrums that he might recollect; and she
had the pleasure of seeing him most intently at work with his
recollections; and at the same time, as she could perceive, most
earnestly careful that nothing ungallant, nothing that did not breathe
a compliment to the sex should pass his lips. They owed to him their
two or three politest puzzles; and the joy and exultation with which at
last he recalled, and rather sentimentally recited, that well-known
charade,

My first doth affliction denote,
    Which my second is destin’d to feel
And my whole is the best antidote
    That affliction to soften and heal.—


made her quite sorry to acknowledge that they had transcribed it some
pages ago already.

“Why will not you write one yourself for us, Mr. Elton?” said she;
“that is the only security for its freshness; and nothing could be
easier to you.”

“Oh no! he had never written, hardly ever, any thing of the kind in his
life. The stupidest fellow! He was afraid not even Miss Woodhouse”—he
stopt a moment—“or Miss Smith could inspire him.”