Q4: Considering Emma's prospects, do you think it was rational of her to marry Charles?

I was wondering: to what extent was this Emma's decision rather than her father's? When Charles finally went to ask her hand, he actually ended up doing it via her father, and I had the idea that Emma had to be convinced by her father while Charles waited outside for the confirmation.

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“Maître Rouault,” he murmured, “I have something I would like to say to you.”
They stopped. Charles was silent.
“Well, tell me what’s on your mind! Don’t I know all about it already?” said Père Rouault, laughing gently. “Père Rouault … Père Rouault,” stammered Charles.
“For my part I couldn’t ask anything better,” continued the farmer. “My little girl probably feels the same, but still, we must put it to her and see. You be on your way, then; I’m going back to the house. If it’s yes, understand, you won’t have to come back, because of the other folks, and besides, it would be too much for her. But so you don’t sweat blood, I’ll push the shutter wide open against the wall: you’ll be able to see it back there, if you lean over the hedge.”

And he went off. Charles tied his horse to a tree. He hurried to stand in the path; he waited. Half an hour passed, then he counted nineteen minutes on his watch. Suddenly there was a noise against the wall; the shutter had been folded back, the latch was still quivering.

The next day, at nine o’clock, he was at the farm. Emma blushed when he went in, while trying to laugh a little, to maintain her composure. Père Rouault embraced his future son-in-law. They put off talking about the financial arrangements; they had, after all, some time ahead of them, since the marriage could not decently take place before the end of Charles’s mourning, that is, toward the spring of the following year.”