Эмма / Emma

But sometimes, before we went to cards, he would read something aloud out of the Elegant Extracts[30 - Elegant Extracts – В«Р?звлечения РёР· изящной словесности»], very entertaining. And I know he has read the Vicar of Wakefield[31 - Vicar of Wakefield – «Векфилдский священник»]. He never read the Romance of the Forest[32 - Romance of the Forest – «Лесной роман»], nor The Children of the Abbey. He had never heard of such books before I mentioned them.

”

The next question was —

“What sort of looking man is Mr. Martin?”

“Oh! not handsome – not at all handsome. But did you never see him? He comes to Highbury often. He has passed you very often.”

“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 last person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do.

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 marry, I think. Six years after, if he could meet with a young woman in the same rank as his own, with a little money, it might be very desirable.

”

“Six years after! Dear Miss Woodhouse, he would be thirty years old!”

“Well, and that is as early as most men can afford to marry. Mr. Martin, I imagine, is not rich at all.”

“To be sure, so it is. But they live very comfortably.”

“I wish you may not get into a scrape[33 - get into a scrape – попасть в неловкое пложение], Harriet, whenever he does marry; – I mean, as to being acquainted with his wife.

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, 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.