being nosy. Let us turn the conversation around and suppose that Jane Fairfax is also a fantasist and has an "open temper". For some obscure reason she has an interest in Mr Weston's welfare and she has long disliked Miss Taylor for having had a much easier time as a governess than Jane probably will. She harbours suspicions that Miss Taylor was having a romance with Mr Knightley and only married Mr Weston because Mr Knightley failed to propose and Mr Weston did and she wanted an establishment . (Jane's "evidence" for this is in having learned from her Aunt Hetty that Mr Knightley was not at the Weston/Taylor wedding, having "obviously" absented himself rather than see his Anne marry another - this is of course ridiculous, but has about as much substance as the facts on which Emma has based her Jane/Dixon fantasy). So Jane tries to find out Emma's opinion of the suitability of the match, whether it is generally approved, who was at the wedding and who wasn't, in the hope of proving her theories. How do you think Emma would like that? Do you think she would answer with more than generalities - in fact, do you think she wouldn't stonewall?