Chapter 11
Now that Emma's family is soon to arrive at Hartfield, she is obliged to leave Harriet and Mr. Elton to their own devices. It is the family's first visit in many months, as they had spent recent holidays by the sea. Mr. Woodhouse allowed himself much anxiety both on the subject of such bathing trips, and on the long distance the family had traveled.
A loving and devoted wife, Isabella was closest to her father in temperament. She too had the constant ear of her local doctor, Mr. Wingfield, and she and Mr. Woodhouse compared the opinions of their respective physicians. Her husband, Mr. John Knightley, was a good and clever man.
He put up with his wife's neurotic hobby, but he could sometimes be cross. Emma felt him to be too rude and overbearing to her father. Really he just had little patience for indulging Mr. Woodhouse and his irrational fears. Unlike any others, Mr. John Knightley tried to talk Mr. Woodhouse out of his illogical fears or complaints. The topic switches to Frank Churchill, and Mr. Knightley disapproves of how the boy lives away from his father. He suggests that Mr. Weston did not mind much, being too used to the lush life of a bachelor. Emma, angry at the insult to Miss Taylor's husband, holds her tongue for the sake of family civility.
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