The Art of Defending People We've Never Met — Emma

Frank Churchill sends a letter of excuse instead of coming to Randalls. Mrs. Weston is deeply disappointed while Mr. Weston, after half an hour, decides delay means better weather and a longer visit later. Emma does not care much about meeting Frank herself but performs warm sympathy for her friends and praises the letter's polite style to Mrs. Weston.

She tells Mr. Knightley and complains against the Churchills, then praises Frank's coming visit as a great day for Highbury until Knightley insists Frank could come if he really chose to. Their long debate pits duty and independence against dependence and soft tempers. Emma laughs at Knightley's imagined speech to Mrs. Churchill but keeps defending a man she has never met because love for the Westons pushes her to do it.

Knightley calls Frank's letters empty professions and says he can be charming only in French, not English. He claims he never thinks of Frank at all and that Emma argues Mrs. Weston's side against her real view. Emma drops the subject, then wonders whether Knightley's pride has made him unfair to another man's good qualities for the first time in her memory. She had thought Knightley always judged men fairly until now.