given me the assurance I require."
"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."
"Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged,
I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister's infamous
elopement. I know it all; that the young man's marrying her was a patched-up business, at the
expence of your father and uncles. And is such a girl to be my nephew's sister? Is her husband, is
the son of his late father's steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth!—of what are you
thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
"You can now have nothing farther to say," she resentfully answered. "You have insulted me in
every possible method. I must beg to return to the house."
And she rose as she spoke. Lady Catherine rose also, and they turned back. Her ladyship was
highly incensed.
"You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do
you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?"
"Lady Catherine, I have nothing farther to say. You know my sentiments."
"You are then resolved to have him?"
"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."
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"It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honour, and
gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the
contempt of the world."
"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."
"And this is your real opinion! This is your final resolve! Very well. I shall now know how to
act. Do not imagine, Miss Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I
hoped to find you reasonable; but, depend upon it, I will carry my point."
In this manner Lady Catherine talked on, till they were at the door of the carriage, when, turning
hastily round, she added, "I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your
mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased."
Elizabeth made no answer; and without attempting to persuade her ladyship to return into the
house, walked quietly into it herself. She heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded up
stairs. Her mother impatiently met her at the door of the dressing-room, to ask why Lady
Catherine would not come in again and rest herself.
"She did not choose it," said her daughter, "she would go."
"She is a very fine-looking woman! and her calling here was prodigiously civil! for she only
came, I suppose, to tell us the Collinses were well. She is on her road somewhere, I dare say, and
so, passing through Meryton, thought she might as well call on you. I suppose she had nothing
particular to say to you, Lizzy?"
Elizabeth was forced to give into a little falsehood here; for to acknowledge the substance of
their conversation was impossible.
Chapter 57
The discomposure of spirits which this extraordinary visit threw Elizabeth into, could not be
easily overcome; nor could she, for many hours, learn to think of it less than incessantly. Lady
Catherine, it appeared, had actually taken the trouble of this journey from Rosings, for the sole
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purpose of breaking off her supposed engagement with Mr. Darcy. It was a rational scheme, to
be sure! but from what the report of their engagement could originate, Elizabeth was at a loss to
imagine; till she recollected that 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. She had not herself forgotten to feel that 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.
In revolving Lady Catherine's expressions, however, she could not help feeling some uneasiness
as to the possible consequence of her persisting in this interference. From what she had said of
her resolution to prevent their marriage, it occurred to Elizabeth that 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, she dared not pronounce. She knew not the exact degree of his affection
for his aunt, or his dependence on her judgment, but it was natural to suppose that 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 to Elizabeth 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," she added, "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