“It has sunk him, I cannot say how it has sunk him in my opinion. So unlike what a man should be! – None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that disdain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life.”
– Jane Austen
Emma, Chapter 46. Emma expresses her profound disappointment in Frank Churchill, on learning of his secret engagement to Jane Fairfax and keeping the news from everyone including their families. When this news is delivered by Mrs. Weston at Randalls, Emma is shocked by Frank’s deceitfulness. But while she is talking about Frank in telling us what a man should be, she is actually describing Mr. Knightley. She is disparaging Frank because he is the polar opposite of Mr. Knightley, a man of integrity who disdains “trick and littleness.”