"My dear Emma, as long as he thinks so, it is so; but if he really
loves Jane Fairfax--"
"Nonsense! He does not care about Jane Fairfax. In the way
of love, I am sure he does not. He would do any good to her,
or her family; but--"
"Well," said Mrs. Weston, laughing, "perhaps the greatest good he
could do them, would be to give Jane such a respectable home."
"If it would be good to her, I am sure it would be evil to himself;
a very shameful and degrading connexion. How would he bear to have
Miss Bates belonging to him?--To have her haunting the Abbey,
and thanking him all day long for his great kindness in marrying Jane?--
`So very kind and obliging!--But he always had been such a very
kind neighbour!' And then fly off, through half a sentence,
to her mother's old petticoat. `Not that it was such a very old
petticoat either--for still it would last a great while--and, indeed,
she must thankfully say that their petticoats were all very strong.'"
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