Ch7:6(Emma) Ch8:5(1Mr Woodhouse,2Mr Knightley,2Emma) Ch9:1(Emma) Ch10:1(Emma) Ch11:1 (Mr John Knightley) Ch12:0 (Mr Perry)
Chapter7: Mr Martin's secreting his proposal in his sisters' package is deceptive, but not dishonest. As Reeba has pointed out, he must have decided to camouflage his letter before he left home. I wonder if he was influenced by any apprehension of the threat Emma posed to his suit, or if he just wanted to allow Harriet a little privacy to decide to burn or announce it (we have already seen, with the handsome letter from Mr Churchill, that letters in Highbury are treated as public property).
Emma stops short of undervaluing Mr Martin's efforts as "a natural talent for" writing, but not of asserting the equally unlikely allegation that Harriet will express herself "very properly, I am sure". She pretends to misunderstand Harriet's "and what shall I do?". Her assertion "There is no danger of your not being intelligible", would be false even if she were to leave the finding of the proper words to Harriet. "I shall not give you any advice" is promptly followed by "I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she should refuse him, and bracketed with "but do not imagine that I wish to influence you."
The whole of the "Harriet, do not deceive yourself" speech is obviously intended to deceive, but I am not sure there is anything in it that Emma believes to be false -- except the "Not for the world,...,would I advise you either way", when she knows her own bias perfectly well, and has already stated it indirectly at least three times.
When Harriet concludes that she has "really almost made up my mind", Emma tells her she is "so completely decided I have no hesitation in approving". This would be a lie if Emma believes Harriet to be still undecided, but I am not completely sure she does. Living with Mr Woodhouse must make firming up a feeble resolve second nature to Emma, and Emma doesn't consider Harriet's feelings for Mr Martin to be very deep ("the girl would could be gratified by a Robert Martin's riding about the country to get walnuts for her, might very well be conquered by Mr Elton's admiration"), and when she asks "whom are you thinking of?" she interprets Harriet's silence according to her own wishes, so maybe she imagines she is confirming Harriet's decision rather than reversing it.
However, there are three statements she uses to consolidate this decision: "I could not have visited Mrs Robert Martin, of Abbey-Mill Farm." -If her dear friend happened to become Mrs Robert Martin of Abbey-Mill Farm, she may decide to visit if she wishes - just as an Anne Elliot may visit a Mrs Smith;"You would have thrown yourself out of all good society."- the only member of Harriet's current society that couldn't bring themselves to go the extra mile to Abbey-Mill Farm are Emma and her father, at Emma's choice;"confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar all your life!" -after reading Mr Martin's letter, and supposing his sisters to have helped him form it, Emma is under no illusion as to Mr Martin's literacy and delicacy of feeling when she trots out this old lie again.
Chapter 8: Begins with Mr Woodhouse politely lying to Mr Knightley "I treat you without ceremony" and Mr Knightley politely lying back "I am going this moment myself"
What Mr Knightley tells Emma is not lies, but chauvinism - when he says "In good hands she will turn out to be a valuable woman.", as if Harriet had no more moral conscience or independence of mind than a beast of the field, I cannot wonder at Emma crying out sarcastically "A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.". Worse, when Mr Knightley finds that Harriet has refused Robert Martin, his triumphant "I was convinced he could not do better. I praised the fair lady, too" becomes " I felt that as to fortune, in all probability he might do much better; and that as to a rational companion or useful helpmate, he could not do worse." The plea "I could not reason so to a man in love" does not change the fact that one of these statements must be untrue- either Mr Martin or Emma has not been given his honest opinion of the merits of the match, and I would guess from his excuse that it was Mr Martin.
How can he defend himself when Emma claims "I am very much mistaken if your sex in general would not think such beauty, and such temper, the highest claims a woman could possess", and he has had no better arguments to offer when he commends Harriet to Mr Martin? With an ad-hominem attack on Emma, of course. His secondary arguments are clearer: "Men of sense ...do not want silly wives", and he "never hear[d] better sense from any one than Robert Martin", but he is not ready to do Harriet the justice necessary to form a logical corollary beyond "Robert Martin has no great loss - if he can but think so". Badly done, Mr Knightley!
Not that Emma's arguments are so scrupulous - "There can scarcely be a doubt that her father is a gentleman." has a sly humour in it, as a truth, but it is not consistent with the equally unlikely belief that "there will be plenty of people who would take pleasure in degrading you"(4) -- Emma is quite aware of the doubts, and sees marriage to a gentleman as a means of overcoming them. "I have done with match-making indeed." is a bare-faced lie -- even her dissatisfaction is partly due to the fear of being outplayed by Mr Martin. Harriet's return might cause her to gloss over a great deal of what Harriet has to retail, but not us... he,"their best player", had been never known to miss whistclub night - Whistclub night! This institution is, I presume, the Highbury equivalent of Brooks or Whites. While its hebdomadal existence might prevent the fortunes made and lost at its tables being infamously vast or vicious, and its obscurity might guarantee it greater exclusivity than the London clubs, it seems a sordid establishment, and Mr Elton's supremacy in it is more what one would expect from a greedy grasper of small sums than a vicar with an independent fortune, domestic inclinations, and a large parish to manage. Note also jilted Mr Perry's quote - there must be "a lady in the case" from the Bull in Gay's Hare and Many Friends. I guess it is about 150 years too early to talk about Highbury memes, but not Highbury matchmaking. Miss Nash seems to have as much interest as Emma in Mr Elton's courtship.
Chapter 9: Mr Elton's claim to be "The stupidest fellow!" is an invitation for contradiction, not a lie. Emma assures him "Nothing could be easier for you", but she is not an unbiased judge of literacy, or sense - Mr Martin has never given her just cause for offense, but, in spite of her need to laughable at his parade and sentimental recitation, she never labels Mr Elton clownish, nor doubts his literary abilities. Still, not quite lies.
Mr Elton knows the "charade, which a friend of his had addressed to a young lady" is an untruth,but he does not intend to deceive Emma, and "The speech was more to Emma than to Harriet" . As Harriet is not the person addressed, we cannot say he has lied to her, even if she was deceived, which she is not (but "in a tremor, and could not touch it" - such a silly girl!)
Of the charade itself, Emma thinks it "A very proper compliment" although her praise of its literary merit is only a tepid "I never read one more to the purpose, certainly" Like Harriet, I think the charade is one of the cleverest I have read, even if slavery and "Woman, lovely woman, reigns alone" are not the image 'courtship' might bring to every mind, and, with her sailor brothers, Jane Austen would know the first verse should end "Behold her there, the monarch of the seas".
Talking about fools, specifically "addressing our conduct to fools", Emma's list of reasons for congratulation show that she is still arguing with Mr Knightley in her head when he is not there to address or even refer to. It's not very nice (Harriet's friends the Martins might not rejoice, without being fools) but it is not a lie.
The only definite lie I can find is Emma's "Dropt, we suppose, by a fairy", leading us on to Garrick and Isabella, and the Knightleys, and "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other." ostensibly comparing Mr Woodhouse's pleasures to his nephews', but really another indirect reflection on her fight with Mr Knightley, and on the battle of the sexes generally (and for the modern reader, on the 2011 Superbowl ... thanks, Myretta, for alerting us to this on Twitter.)
Chapter Ten: At the risk of being twitted as Queen of the Mah8rs, I suspect even Emma's charity is the result of scheming intentions. Her claim that "I do not often walk this way now" and Mr Elton's lurking in his favorite parlour rather than strolling down roads more often travelled, makes me suspect that Emma first heard hint of the poor families distress from Mr Elton very recently, that they have each been more motivated "to meet in a charitable scheme" than to perform any charitable act. To be fair, though, if Emma's notions of charity are not well-formed, at least her conduct is - unlike Mr Elton who, as the parish officer primarily responsible for relief of the poor, does not quite manage to see the poor himself. Despicable, but still, the only lie I find in this chapter is "I do not know how I am to contrive", from Emma, who obviously does.
Chapter Eleven: Only one falsehood here - from Mr John Knightley, of all people, about Isabella being "married long enough to see the convenience of putting all the Mr Westons aside as much as she can." - in a joke.
Isabella's claim "I never could think well of any body who proposed such a thing [as taking a child away from his parents] to any body else." seems a little unusual - normally the blame for such things is levelled at the actors rather than the proposers, at the parent who would willingly give up a child, rather than the foster parents who would willingly nurture him.
Chapter Twelve: No lies, although Mr Perry is again set up - "better stay in London altogether than travel forty miles to get into a worse air" is quite true, and not a reflection on any one's health or judgement.