“It is only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it is all guess and luck – and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest of his life!”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 43. At the Box Hill outing Frank Churchill makes this statement about men marrying in haste. He warns of the danger of wedding a woman without first getting to know her in her natural environment, among family and friends. His comments are ostensively about the Eltons, saying how lucky they are that they suit one another. But they are also part of Frank’s secret language and a taunt aimed at Jane. He implies that he got engaged too quickly and now wants out. For Frank is secretly engaged to Jane, something he goes to great pains to disguise and hide from family and friends. An upset Jane responds briefly to his taunt, is stopped by a cough, then recovers her voice. And in their secret coded argument she gives as good as she gets: “It can be only weak, irresolute characters, (whose happiness must be always at the mercy of chance,) who will suffer an unfortunate acquaintance to be an inconvenience, an oppression for ever.”