The emphasis in these chapters is upon clearing up matters in regard to Frank, and this is done primarily through his letter and the reaction to it by Emma and George. One sidelight to George's reading the letter is the forecast of what the domestic situation will be for him and Emma: It will obviously be comfortable and lively, a true meeting of minds and hearts with just enough difference thrown in for interesting variety. While an answer is found to the problem of Mr. Woodhouse as an obstacle to marriage, Emma's private problem of Harriet, of whose affection for him George knows nothing, continues. Superb novelist as she is, Miss Austen keeps a suspenseful facet of the plot developing to help support the leisureliness of her exploratory denouement. At the end of Chapter XV there is a faint and almost nostalgic echo of Emma's original willful desire to maneuver someone into marriage when she thinks it is too much to hope Harriet could love three men in one year.
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