Page:Austen - Emma, vol. I, 1816.djvu/66

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likely you should ever have observed him—but he knows you very well indeed—I mean by sight."

"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 birth-day is the 23rd—just a fortnight and a day's difference! which is very odd!"

"Only four-and-twenty. That is too young to settle. His mother is perfectly right not to be in a hurry. They seem very comfortable as they are, and if she were to take any pains to marry him, she would probably repent it. Six years hence, if he could meet with a good sort of young woman in the same rank as his own, with a little money, it might be very desirable."

"Six years hence! Dear Miss Woodhouse, he would be thirty years old!"

"Well,