... missed the point entirely. Maybe that was my own fault, since I indulged my habit of starting my comments with half the initial commentary, as I likewise did just now. Not wanting to overload the subject line, I split it in a possibly unfortunate place?

The rest of my introduction started with the two words, "...and Emma", making an introductory comment (in my mind, at least), "So, I look up every early reference I can find to Jane and Emma, and what do I find?"

The point of my message, of course, was that we're told explicitly that Emma disliked Jane from childhood, and that Jane could not be reasonably expected to have missed this dislike, nor could she be expected not to feel the slight and react accordingly.

Likewise, up to now we hear of Jane almost exclusively by way of Emma's thoughts, so even had I wanted to avoid Emma's thoughts, I couldn't have.

Finally, we aren't vouchsafed the specific questions Emma asked; we're only told that she tried diligently to get information from Jane, who as diligently said nothing informative; and that the next day she disappoints Mr. Knightley with the revelation that, rather than being friendly, she had been pressing diligently, and had been as diligently rebuffed. Personally, I give Jane extremely high marks for circumspect behavior. And I give Mr. Knightley high marks for diligently trying to convince Emma to behave better, even though he's too anxious to believe the best of her.