Austen Said:

“Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible.”

“If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it.”

“But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit.”

“Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me.”

“Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh. You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?”

“These are heavy misfortunes,”

“But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.”

“That will make your ladyship's situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me.”

“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.”

“Whatever my connections may be,”

“I am not.”

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”

“You can now have nothing further to say,”

“You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house.”

“Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments.”

“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”

“Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude,” replied Elizabeth, “have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy. And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern — and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn.”

“She did not choose it,”

“she would go.”

Lady Catherine, it appeared, had actually taken the trouble of this journey from Rosings, for the sole purpose of breaking off her supposed engagement with Mr. Darcy.

It was a rational scheme, to be sure!

his being the intimate friend of Bingley, and her being the sister of Jane, was enough, at a time when the expectation of one wedding made everybody eager for another, to supply the idea.

the marriage of her sister must bring them more frequently together.

And her neighbours at Lucas Lodge, therefore (for through their communication with the Collinses, the report, she concluded, had reached Lady Catherine), had only set that down as almost certain and immediate, which she had looked forward to as possible at some future time.

as to the possible consequence of her persisting in this interference.

she must meditate an application to her nephew; and how he might take a similar representation of the evils attached to a connection with her,

the exact degree of his affection for his aunt, or his dependence on her judgment,

he thought much higher of her ladyship than she could do; and it was certain that, in enumerating the miseries of a marriage with one, whose immediate connections were so unequal to his own, his aunt would address him on his weakest side. With his notions of dignity, he would probably feel that the arguments, which

had appeared weak and ridiculous, contained much good sense and solid reasoning.

If he had been wavering before as to what he should do, which had often seemed likely, the advice and entreaty of so near a relation might settle every doubt, and determine him at once to be as happy as dignity unblemished could make him.

In that case he would return no more.

Lady Catherine might see him in her way through town; and his engagement to Bingley of coming again to Netherfield must give way.

“If, therefore, an excuse for not keeping his promise should come to his friend within a few days,”

“I shall know how to understand it. I shall then give over every expectation, every wish of his constancy. If he is satisfied with only regretting me, when he might have obtained my affections and hand, I shall soon cease to regret him at all.”

it might be from Lady Catherine;

whether most to be pleased that he explained himself at all, or offended that his letter was not rather addressed to herself;

“From Mr. Collins! and what can he have to say?”

“Oh! yes. Pray read on.”

“Oh!”

“I am excessively diverted. But it is so strange!”

such a want of penetration,

instead of his seeing too little, she might have fancied too much.

he might be doing the same.

Now was the moment for her resolution to be executed,

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”

her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.

“Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.”

“We will not quarrel for the greater share of blame annexed to that evening,”

“The conduct of neither, if strictly examined, will be irreproachable; but since then, we have both, I hope, improved in civility.”