A picnic is held at Box hill where Emma and Frank get very flirtatious. Emma also scores cheap points at Miss Bates' expense, wounding her,and George gives her a severe telling-off for being insensitive and snobbish. Frank's bullying aunt, who has always been his patron rather than Mr. Weston, dies and Frank reveals that he and Jane have been engaged for several months but kept it secret for fear of the aunt's disapproval. Emma is shocked at Frank's deceit.She also sees the error of her ways in organizing others' lives and encourages Harriet to go after her first love, Robert Martin, preparing herself for a life as a singleton and feeling alone when George goes to London "to learn to be indifferent." However he returns, admitting it was the wrong place to forget Emma and proposes to her. She accepts, and even her neurotic old father is won over.
