Austen Said:

letting them know that the whole party was asked to dine at Rosings the next day.

“I confess,”

“that I should not have been at all surprised by her ladyship's asking us on Sunday to drink tea and spend the evening at Rosings. I rather expected, from my knowledge of her affability, that it would happen. But who could have foreseen such an attention as this? Who could have imagined that we should receive an invitation to dine there (an invitation, moreover, including the whole party) so immediately after your arrival!”

“I am the less surprised at what has happened,”

“from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are, which my situation in life has allowed me to acquire. About the court, such instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon.”

“Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest — there is no occasion for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved.”

recommend their being quick, as Lady Catherine very much objected to be kept waiting for her dinner.

to give her opinion of all that she had seen at Rosings,

what an honour they might expect,

“I may thank you, Eliza, for this piece of civility. Mr. Darcy would never have come so soon to wait upon me.”

“We are speaking of music, madam,”

“I assure you, madam,”

“that she does not need such advice. She practises very constantly.”

having promised to play to him;

“Pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of,”

“I should like to know how he behaves among strangers.”

“I can answer your question,”

“without applying to him. It is because he will not give himself the trouble.”

“What can be the meaning of this ?”

“My dear, Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he would never have called on us in this familiar way.”

He certainly looked at her friend a great deal, but the expression of that look was disputable. It was an earnest, stedfast gaze,

whether there were much admiration in it, and sometimes it seemed nothing but absence of mind.

it admitted not of a doubt,

all her friend's dislike would vanish, if she could suppose him to be in her power.

He was beyond comparison the most pleasant man; he certainly admired her, and his situation in life was most eligible; but, to counterbalance these advantages, Mr. Darcy had considerable patronage in the church, and his cousin could have none at all.

“I have been making the tour of the park,”

“as I generally do every year, and intend to close it with a call at the Parsonage. Are you going much farther?”

“Yes — if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases.”

“He likes to have his own way very well,”

“But so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it than many others, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence.”

“These are home questions — and perhaps I cannot say that I have experienced many hardships of that nature. But in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from the want of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like.”

“Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money.”

“No,”

“that is an advantage which he must divide with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship of Miss Darcy.”

why she supposed Miss Darcy likely to give them any uneasiness,

“I know them a little. Their brother is a pleasant gentlemanlike man — he is a great friend of Darcy's.”

“Care of him! Yes, I really believe Darcy does take care of him in those points where he most wants care. From something that he told me in our journey hither, I have reason to think Bingley very much indebted to him. But I ought to beg his pardon, for I have no right to suppose that Bingley was the person meant. It was all conjecture.”

“It is a circumstance which Darcy of course could not wish to be generally known, because if it were to get round to the lady's family, it would be an unpleasant thing.”

“And remember that I have not much reason for supposing it to be Bingley. What he told me was merely this: that he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without mentioning names or any other particulars, and I only suspected it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into a scrape of that sort, and from knowing them to have been together the whole of last summer.”

“I understood that there were some very strong objections against the lady.”

“He did not talk to me of his own arts,”

“He only told me what I have now told you.”

“You are rather disposed to call his interference officious?”

“That is not an unnatural surmise,”

“but it is a lessening of the honour of my cousin's triumph very sadly.”

the two gentlemen from Rosings had each called during her absence; Mr. Darcy, only for a few minutes, to take leave — but that Colonel Fitzwilliam had been sitting with them at least an hour, hoping for her return, and almost resolving to walk after her till she could be found.

“I know not, Miss Elizabeth,”

“whether Mrs. Collins has yet expressed her sense of your kindness in coming to us; but I am very certain you will not leave the house without receiving her thanks for it. The favor of your company has been much felt, I assure you. We know how little there is to tempt anyone to our humble abode. Our plain manner of living, our small rooms and few domestics, and the little we see of the world, must make Hunsford extremely dull to a young lady like yourself; but I hope you will believe us grateful for the condescension, and that we have done everything in our power to prevent your spending your time unpleasantly.”

“It gives me great pleasure to hear that you have passed your time not disagreeably. We have certainly done our best; and most fortunately having it in our power to introduce you to very superior society, and, from our connection with Rosings, the frequent means of varying the humble home scene, I think we may flatter ourselves that your Hunsford visit cannot have been entirely irksome. Our situation with regard to Lady Catherine's family is indeed the sort of extraordinary advantage and blessing which few can boast. You see on what a footing we are. You see how continually we are engaged there. In truth I must acknowledge that, with all the disadvantages of this humble parsonage, I should not think anyone abiding in it an object of compassion, while they are sharers of our intimacy at Rosings.”

his best respects to all her family,