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Jane arrived soon after . She was very elegant , with a fine figure and deep grey eyes , and Emma could not help admiring her . But she did not like her . Jane was too quiet , too careful and too cold , and she never seemed to speak freely about anything at all . Mr Knightley had once said that Emma disliked Jane because she saw in her the clever , gifted young woman that she wanted people to think she was herself . Emma had laughed at the idea , but it was true that Jane played and sang far better than Emma did , and that everyone praised her for it . Jane had met Frank Churchill at Weymouth that autumn , and Emma asked her about him with great interest . “ Is he handsome ? ” “ I believe he is generally thought so . ” “ Is he pleasant ? Is he clever ? What kind of young man is he ? ” “ He is thought to have very pleasant manners , but it is hard to judge a man after so short an acquaintance . ” Emma could get nothing more out of her , and she went home annoyed . Such coldness , she told herself , must be hiding something . Soon afterwards there was news that astonished the whole of Highbury . Mr Elton was going to be married . In just four weeks at Bath he had won a Miss Augusta Hawkins , who was said to have ten thousand pounds , and everybody talked of nothing else . Emma felt that Mr Elton had recovered from his broken heart remarkably quickly . Harriet was deeply upset when she heard the news , but there was soon another trouble . Harriet happened to meet Robert Martin and his sister at Ford’s , the village shop , where she had gone to wait for the rain to stop . They were very kind to her . Elizabeth Martin spoke to her warmly , and Robert followed her out into the street to tell her the best way home without getting wet . “ He was so kind ! ” said Harriet , half crying . “ Oh , Miss Woodhouse , I felt so very uncomfortable and so very sorry ! ” Emma did not know what to say . She saw now that the Martins were good people , but she still believed that she had acted for the best . VIII . Frank Churchill At last Frank Churchill came . He had put off his visit many times , because his aunt , Mrs Churchill , was always ill or unhappy and could not spare him . Mr Weston had explained more than once that she was a very difficult woman . But now he had come , and he arrived a whole day earlier than anyone expected . He was a very handsome young man of twenty - three , tall and lively , with his father’s easy , open manner . He talked well about everything , and he praised everything he saw : Highbury , Randalls and , above all , his father’s new wife . Mrs Weston was charmed with him , and Emma was charmed as well . He came to Hartfield the next morning . He was so polite to Mr Woodhouse , so interested in the old house and so cheerful about the village that Emma could find no fault in him at all . He even asked whether there were any balls in Highbury , and he said that a ball would be the most delightful thing in the world .
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