That would have been too dreadful!-What an escape!-Dear Miss Woodhouse, I would not give up the pleasure and honour of being intimate with you for any thing in the world."
"Indeed, Harriet, it would have been a severe pang to lose you; but it must have been. You would have thrown yourself out of all good society. I must have given you up."
"Dear me!-How should I ever have borne it! It would have killed me never to come to Hartfield any more!"
"Dear affectionate creature!-You banished to Abbey-Mill Farm!-You confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar all your life!
I wonder how the young man could have the assurance to ask it.
He must have a pretty good opinion of himself."
"I do not think he is conceited either, in general," said Harriet, her conscience opposing such censure; "at least, he is very good natured, and I shall always feel much obliged to him, and have a great regard for– but that is quite a different thing from-and you know, though he may like me, it does not follow that I should-and certainly I must confess that since my visiting here I have seen people-and if one comes to compare them, person and manners, there is no comparison at all, one is so very handsome and agreeable.
However, I do really think Mr. Martin a very amiable young man, and have a great opinion of him; and his being so much attached to me-and his writing such a letter-but as to leaving you, it is what I would not do upon any consideration."
"Thank you, thank you, my own sweet little friend. We will not be parted. A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter."
"Oh no;-and it is but a short letter too."