Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 33
Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place. No, never. Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter.
“If you believed it impossible to be true,” said Elizabeth, colouring with astonishment and disdain, “I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it?”
“At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted.”
“Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family,” said Elizabeth coolly, “will be rather a confirmation of it; if, indeed, such a report is in existence.”
“If! do you then pretend to be ignorant of it? Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves? Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad?”
“I never heard that it was.”
“And can you likewise declare, that there is no foundation for it?”
“I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask questions, which I shall not choose to answer.”
“This is not to be borne. Miss Bennet, I insist on being satisfied. Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of marriage?”
“Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible.”
“It ought to be so; it must be so, while he retains the use of his reason. But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatu ation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.”
“If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it.”
“Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world, and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns.”
“But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit.”
ELIZABETH WAS EXCESSIVELY discomposed by Lady Cat’s ill-natured and unprovoked attack and could not refrain from some anxiety about her ladyship’s influence on Mr. Darcy. How seriously, she wondered, did he depend on the advice of his alpha aunt, or rely upon her counsel? Did he, too, fear that Elizabeth would pollute the splendid woods of Pemberley?
If I don’t see him at Longbourn again, she said to herself, I will know how to understand it.
The next morning, Mr. Bennet called Elizabeth into his library. He was amusing himself in batting a letter from Mr. Collins around the rug and kicking it with his paws. He invited Elizabeth to join in the fun.
The contents of the letter offered less sport for Elizabeth. Mr. Collins wrote to warn Lizzy against making a match with Mr. Darcy, as Lady Cat disapproved so strenuously.
“Mr. Darcy,” wrote Mr. Collins, “possesses every thing a cat desires: splendid scratching trees, acres of soft dirt to dig in, noble pedigree. Yet in spite of all these temptations, let me warn my cousin Elizabeth, and yourself,” he continued, “of the evils you may incur by a precipitate closure with this noble cat’s advances, which of course, you will be inclined to take immediate advantage of.”
He was amusing himself in batting a letter from Mr. Collins around the rug.
“Mr. Darcy!” marveled Mr. Bennet, “Who never looks at any female but to criticize a crooked tail or tattered ear, and who probably never looked at you in his life! It is admirable!”
Mr. Collins went on to express surprise that Mr. Bennet had welcomed Lydia and Wickham to Longbourn.
“You ought certainly to forgive them, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing,” he wrote.
“And he calls that forgiveness!” her father exclaimed.
Elizabeth recalled how her father had forgiven Kitty when she threw up a hair ball on the drawing room rug, and Mary when she scratched a favorite sofa to shreds, and could rejoice in her father’s benevolence as well as his humor, though never had the latter been directed in a manner so scarcely agreeable to her.
“‘Your daughter Elizabeth [Mr. Collins’s letter continued], it is presumed, will not long bear the name of Bennet, after her elder sister has resigned it, and the chosen partner of her fate, may be reasonably looked up to, as one of the most illustrious personages in this land.’
“Can you possibly guess, Lizzy, who is meant by this? ‘This young gentleman is blessed in a peculiar way, with every thing the heart of mortal can most desire,—splendid property, noble kindred, and extensive patronage. Yet in spite of all these temptations, let me warn my cousin Elizabeth, and yourself, of what evils you may incur, by a precipitate closure with this gentleman’s proposals, which, of course, you will be inclined to take immediate advantage of.’
“Have you any idea, Lizzy, who this gentleman is? But now it comes out.”
“‘My motive for cautioning you, is as follows. We have reason to imagine that his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, does not look on the match with a friendly eye.’
“Mr. Darcy, you see, is the man!”
ELIZABETH