In real life I think that Miss Bates would have me running through the hills, and I have huge sympathy for Emma not having snapped up to this point (also for the fact that she and Jane Fairfax are obviously never going to be friends for understandable reasons on each side). But I like her very much as a character in Highbury, perhaps partly - as with much of Emma - because she was fun when I was doing it for A-level, but also in later reads.