When the ladies return to the drawing room after dinner, they make two distinct parties, for Augusta slights Emma and takes Jane aside to discuss finding a situation as governess for her. Jane insists that she does not want to look for a position yet, but Augusta is determined to be of help and rattles on until the men join the ladies. At that moment Mr. Weston, returned from his business trip, joins the party, to the astonishment of John, who cannot understand a man who, after a long day of business, will leave his warm home to come out on a cold, sleety April evening just for socializing. Mr. Weston was expected, of course, but he also has news of Frank, whose letter to Mrs. Weston the husband has opened. That Frank will soon be coming again pleases Mrs. Weston, displeases George and Mr. Woodhouse, and makes Emma weigh her feelings and "the degree of her agitation, which she rather thought was considerable."
Moving on to give the news to Augusta, who has not yet met Frank, Mr. Weston states the details.
Because of Mrs. Churchill's illness, about which he has his doubts, all the Churchills will be coming for a stay in London the very next month and Frank will be able to make the sixteen-mile trip to Highbury quite often. John, who must leave for home early the next morning, turns to Emma to say that she must not spoil his two boys and must send them home if they prove troublesome. When she says that cannot possibly happen, he knowingly mentions her being so "much more engaged with company than you used to be . . . The difference which Randalls, Randalls alone makes in your goings-on, is very great." George cries that the boys can be sent to Donwell, that he has leisure. In reply Emma offers a spirited self-defense against the charge of frequent new social engagements and insists that she is at home much more than George. This is apparently the reaction that George wants, for "Mr. Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile; and succeeded without difficulty, upon Mrs. Elton's beginning to talk to him."
