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Frank writes Miss Taylor and Mr Weston a letter of congratulations on their marriage, and they talk about it for weeks 😭😭😭

They’re hoping, based on the letter, that he might even come visit them!!! 😭😭😭

“Emma, well as she knew her father, was sometimes taken by surprize at his being still able to pity "poor Miss Taylor," when they left her at Randalls in the centre of every domestic comfort” — I snorted out loud 😆

Mr Woodhouse is afraid of wedding cake 😐

OH Mr Perry, his health and humours guy, once told him that cake is not necessarily good for you and should be indulged in moderation, so Mr Woodhouse took it upon himself to guard everyone at the wedding from the grave and dire threat of cake-borne ill health.

Mr Woodhouse is doing everything short of slapping wedding cake out of people’s hands at this wedding 😭😭😭

Mr Woodhouse please sit down

LMAO the chapter concludes with Mr Woodhouse devoutly refusing to acknowledge that all of Mr Perry’s children definitely had some wedding cake

Chapter 3 — Mr Woodhouse likes the company of a small circle of friends, and he makes them all come to him. Mr Woodhouse is me.

I bought WiFi on this plane ride to do this.

It is so sweet that Emma seems to keep Mr Woodhouse occupied and in the company of friends at very little effort to himself.

Ooh never mind, the WiFi is real brittle

Mr Eston lives alone? My first impulse is to think of that as a little odd. I’m also of the impression that he’s kinda young.

OH I see. We’re doing a Mean Girls-style tour of the cafeteria, and we’re finding out who Mr Woodhouse sits with at lunch. So first we’re introduced to young Mr Eston, who lives alone, for some reason, apparently reluctantly. Then it’s a trio of ladies.

OH thank you. This is very helpful. I made the mistake of assuming the servants were also people. bsky.app/profile/cdrl...

Anyway, three ladies also hang out a lot with the Woodhouses. They’re carted back and forth so often that Mr Woodhouse completely takes for granted what an endeavor that is, but if it happened only once a year he would get it.

I’m getting the sense that Mr Woodhouse is very gently daffy.

Mrs Bates is an old vicar’s old widow who is very old, and she lives with her daughter, Miss Bates, who is not Old-old, but she is old enough that it’s an impediment to her prospects. Also Miss Bates is mid in every respect, except that she is incredibly convivial, which people seem to like.

I feel like the book is giving us a foil to Emma in Miss Bates. They’re both affable, but Emma is young, pretty, clever, and rich. Miss Bates is middle-aged, plain, not especially sharp, and has no money.

But Miss Bates is so overwhelmingly affable and good-natures that people love her in spite of her being aggressively mid, and I can’t decide if that’s a little mean on the part of the book.

Now we have Mrs Goddard, who runs a school, but not a very good school. She is also very mid, but very kindly and caring to her students. Okay, so this really is the world as Emma sees it in the narrative.

You should know that Jane Austen was highly - HIGHLY - judgmental about girl's finishing schools. She manages to insult them in every book. So, in a backhand kind of way, saying that this wasn't a very good school (thus not snooty or full of socialites) but with a kind headmistress is high praise!

MISS TAYLOR IS MRS WESTON, FINALLY!!! Good job, Woodhouses. I assume this means they’re briskly trotting through the stages of grief toward a dull, warm acceptance.

LMAO Mrs Goddard asks if she can bring a young Miss Smith to the card-table gathering at the Woodhouses, to which Emma graciously approves, and here we find out that Emma finds the gatherings very boring.