Emma is ready for bed, her hair curled and the maid sent away. She can now evaluate the evening's events and consider "the evil to Harriet." She wonders "How she could have been so deceived!" and reviews all the events in connection with Harriet, including the earlier caution that George Knightley had given. Concluding that Mr. Elton has no real affection for herself and wants only to enrich himself through her as an heiress of thirty thousand pounds, she is obliged in honesty to admit that her complaisance, courtesy, and attention might have led him to misunderstand her. Granting that the first and worst error lay at her door, she is ashamed and resolves "to do such things no more." She turns her thoughts to Harriet again and within a moment wonders about soothing her friend's disappointment by making William Coxe the object of new intrigue, but he is an unendurable, pert young lawyer. Blushing and laughing at her own relapse, Emma goes to bed with nothing settled.
The next morning she is more disposed for comfort, especially when the sight of much snow on the ground informs her that she, Harriet, and Mr. Elton will be kept "quite asunder at present." In fact, though it is Christmas Day, she cannot get to church. Because of further snow and freezes, the confinement extends for days and only George Knightley, "whom no weather could keep entirely from them," ventures outdoors. Since John is cleared of the ill humor which he had at Randalls, having her sister's family in the house is a matter of pure pleasure for Emma—or would be if the coming explanation with Harriet did not hang over her like an evil thing.
