Emma

anxious to be acquainted with him, that she must be almost as happy as
yourself.”

“Yes, she would be, but that she thinks there will be another put-off.
She does not depend upon his coming so much as I do: but she does not
know the parties so well as I do. The case, you see, is—(but this is
quite between ourselves: I did not mention a syllable of it in the
other room. There are secrets in all families, you know)—The case is,
that a party of friends are invited to pay a visit at Enscombe in
January; and that Frank’s coming depends upon their being put off. If
they are not put off, he cannot stir. But I know they will, because it
is a family that a certain lady, of some consequence, at Enscombe, has
a particular dislike to: and though it is thought necessary to invite
them once in two or three years, they always are put off when it comes
to the point. I have not the smallest doubt of the issue. I am as
confident of seeing Frank here before the middle of January, as I am of
being here myself: but your good friend there (nodding towards the
upper end of the table) has so few vagaries herself, and has been so
little used to them at Hartfield, that she cannot calculate on their