To be sure, the charade, with its "ready wit"-- but then the "soft eyes"-- in fact it suited neither; it was a jumble without taste or truth.

Who could have seen through such thick-headed nonsense?
Certainly she had often, especially of late, thought his manners to herself unnecessarily gallant; but it had passed as his way, as a mere error of judgment, of knowledge, of taste, as one proof among others that he had not always lived in the best society, that with all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting; but, till this very day, she had never, for an instant, suspected it to mean any thing but grateful respect to her as Harriet's friend.
To Mr.John Knightley was she indebted for her first idea on the subject, for the first start of its possibility.

There was no denying that those brothers had penetration.

She remembered what Mr.Knightley had once said to her about Mr.Elton, the caution he had given, the conviction he had professed that Mr.Elton would never marry indiscreetly; and blushed to think how much truer a knowledge of his character had been there shewn than any she had reached herself.

It was dreadfully mortifying; but Mr.Elton was proving himself, in many respects, the very reverse of what she had meant and believed him; proud, assuming, conceited; very full of his own claims, and little concerned about the feelings of others.
Contrary to the usual course of things, Mr.Elton's wanting to pay his addresses to her had sunk him in her opinion.