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If E for Harriet, apossible for her to be really cured of her attachhtley, and really able to accept anotherthat she had to suffer from the recurrence of any such uncertainty A very few days brought the party fro one hour alone with Harriet, than she became perfectly satisfied--unaccountable as it was!--that Robert Martin had thoroughly supplanted Mr Knightley, and was now for all her views of happiness

Harriet was a little distressed--did look a little foolish at first: but having once owned that she had been presumptuous and silly, and self-deceived, before, her pain and confusion seemed to die aith the words, and leave her without a care for the past, and with the fullest exultation in the present and future; for, as to her friend's approbation, Em her with the ratulations-- Harriet wasat Astley's, and the dinner the next day; she could dwell on it all with the utht

But what did such particulars explain?-- The fact was, as Ee, that Harriet had always liked Robert Martin; and that his continuing to love her had been irresistible--Beyond this, it ible to Emiving her fresh reason for thinking so--Harriet's parentage becahter of a tradesh to afford her the comfortable h to have alished for concealentility which Emma had formerly been so ready to vouch for!-- It was likely to be as untainted, perhaps, as the blood offor Mr Knightley--or for the Churchills--or even for Mr Elton!-- The stain of illegitimacy, unbleached by nobility or wealth, would have been a stain indeed

No objection was raised on the father's side; the young man was treated liberally; it was all as it should be: and as Emma became acquainted with Robert Martin, as now introduced at Hartfield, she fully acknowledged in him all the appearance of sense and worth which could bid fairest for her little friend She had no doubt of Harriet's happiness with any good-tempered man; but with him, and in the home he offered, there would be the hope of more, of security, stability, and improvement She would be placed in the midst of those who loved her, and who had better sense than herself; retired enough for safety, and occupied enough for cheerfulness She would be never led into temptation, nor left for it to find her out She would be respectable and happy; and Emma admitted her to be the luckiest creature in the world, to have created so steady and persevering an affection in such a man;--or, if not quite the luckiest, to yield only to herself