What you see depends on where you sit. I think these are some of the funniest lines of "Emma".

They came from Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much, you know, Mr. Weston. One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound: but nothing more is positively known of the Tupmans, though a good many things I assure you are suspected; and yet by their manners they evidently think themselves equal even to my brother, Mr. Suckling, who happens to be one of their nearest neighbours. It is infinitely too bad. Mr. Suckling who has been eleven years a resident at Maple Grove, and whose father had it before him -- I believe, at least -- I am almost sure that old Mr. Suckling had completed the purchase before his death."