Emma is the self-professed queen of match-making at Highbury. Having foreseen the Miss Taylor-Mr Weston connection, she decides that Harriet must marry Mr Elton rather than Robert Martin, and that Jane Fairfax is in love with her best friend's husband, Mr Dixon.
When it comes to Frank Churchill, "[s]he (Emma) was his object, and everybody must perceive it" (26) and Emma likes the idea, though she does not mean to marry him, or anybody else.
But it is not just Emma who sees the signs of romance everywhere:
Mr and Mrs Weston also see Frank and Emma as future husband and wife (can't find the reference right now, but it's in the text somewhere).
Based on Chapters 7, 8 and 10, Miss Nash of Mrs Goddard's school would no doubt have said yes had Mr Elton proposed to her. She talks about Mr Elton, admires his yellow curtains (10) and at the end of Ch. 8 Harriet informs Emma of what Miss Nash has told her about Mr Perry seeing Mr Elton on his way to London (not the best sentence I ever made, but there you are...) and the paragraph ends with this:
"Miss Nash had told her all this, and had talked a great deal more about Mr. Elton; and said, looking so very significantly at her, "that she did not pretend to understand what his business might be, but she only knew that any woman whom Mr. Elton could prefer, she should think the luckiest woman in the world; for, beyond a doubt, Mr. Elton had not his equal for beauty or agreeableness."
In Chapter 21 Miss Bates lets on that there have been rumours around Highbury about Mr Elton and Miss Woodhouse.
"A Miss Hawkins. Well, I had always rather fancied it would be some young lady hereabouts; not that I ever -- Mrs. Cole once whispered to me -- but I immediately said, 'No, Mr. Elton is a most worthy young man -- but' -- In short, I do not think I am particularly quick at those sort of discoveries. I do not pretend to it. What is before me, I see. At the same time, nobody could wonder if Mr. Elton should have aspired -- Miss Woodhouse lets me chatter on, so good-humouredly. She knows I would not offend for the world."
In Chapter 26, Mrs Weston suspects that Mr Knightley might have feelings for Jane Fairfax, though Emma denies this.
In Chapter 27, Harriet tells Emma that Robert Martin had dinner with the Coxes "last Saturday" and that "[t]hey talked a great deal about him, especially Anne Cox. I do not know what she meant, but she asked me if I thought I should go and stay there again next summer (...) She said he was very agreeable the day he dined there. He sat by her at dinner. Miss Nash thinks either of the Coxes would be very glad to marry him." (27)
If Harriet can't have him, one of the Coxes will..
Did I miss any romantic aspirations?
So, is there something in the water at Highbury since people enjoy match-making so much? Is it because marriage was so important to most women that they see the signs of romance all around them? Or is it simply that they all share Emma's view: "It is the greatest amusement in the world!" (1)