“As a friend.” Emma, that, I fear, is a word… Tell me, Emma. Have I no chance of ever succeeding? My dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be, my dearest, most beloved Emma, tell me at once. I cannot make speeches. If I… if I loved you less,then I might be able to talk about it more, but you…you know what I am. I have… I have lectured you, and I’ve… I’ve blamed you, and… and you have borne it as no other woman in England could have borne it. God knows I have been a very indifferent lover. But you understand me. You-you understand my feelings..
“She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good. But there is nobody hereabouts to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home.”
“I think, there is a little likeness… between myself and Mr. Churchill. If not in disposition then in audacity. We shall both marry people far, far better than ourselves.”