Concession must be out of the question; but it was time to appear to forget that they had ever quarrelled; and she hoped it might rather assist the restoration of friendship, that when he came into the room she had one of the children with her--the youngest, a nice little girl about eight months old, who was now making her first visit to Hartfield, and very happy to be danced about in her aunt's arms.

It did assist; for though he began with grave looks and short questions, he was soon led on to talk of them all in the usual way, and to take the child out of her arms with all the unceremoniousness of perfect amity.

Emma felt they were friends again; and the conviction giving her at first great satisfaction, and then a little sauciness, she could not help saying, as he was admiring the baby, "What a comfort it is, that we think alike about our nephews and nieces.
As to men and women, our opinions are sometimes very different; but with regard to these children, I observe we never disagree." "If you were as much guided by nature in your estimate of men and women, and as little under the power of fancy and whim in your dealings with them, as you are where these children are concerned, we might always think alike." "To be sure--our discordancies must always arise from my being in the wrong." "Yes," said he, smiling--"and reason good.

I was sixteen years old when you were born." "A material difference then," she replied--"and no doubt you were much my superior in judgment at that period of our lives; but does not the lapse of one-and-twenty years bring our understandings a good deal nearer ?" "Yes--a good deal _nearer_." "But still, not near enough to give me a chance of being right, if we think differently." "I have still the advantage of you by sixteen years' experience, and by not being a pretty young woman and a spoiled child.

Come, my dear Emma, let us be friends, and say no more about it.