- Making fun of Miss Bates is different than all other times we’ve read about Emma’s mistakes: when she wakes up in the morning, Emma still feels rotten.
- She wishes, above all, that she could tell Mr. Knightley how sorry she feels.
- Emma leaves early in the morning to call on Miss Bates.
- She can’t really apologize, but at least she can show that she’s sorry!
- When she gets to the Bates house, the servant lets her in.
- There’s a strange scramble upstairs, though…almost as if people are running away.
- As it turns out, people were running away.
- Jane and Miss Bates, to be precise.
- Feeling even more penitent than before, Emma sits down to talk to Mrs. Bates.
- Eventually Miss Bates comes out of a back room, apologizing that Jane is "ill."
- Miss Bates, quick to forgive, begins chatting with Emma about Highbury gossip.
- Most surprisingly, she tells Emma that Jane has finally accepted the governess position that Mrs. Elton found (and shoved down her throat).
- She’ll work for a friend of the Sucklings.
- Really, it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity.
- Or at least, that’s what Mrs. Elton keeps saying.