Back to contents page
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Chapter 56
One morning, about a week after
Bingley's engagement with Jane had been formed, as he and the females
of the
family were sitting together in the dining room, their attention was
suddenly
drawn to the window, by the sound of a carriage; and they perceived a chaise
and four driving up the lawn. It was too early in the morning for
visitors, and
besides, the equipage did not answer to that of any of their
neighbours. The
horses were post; and neither the carriage,
nor the livery of the
servant who
preceded it, were familiar to them.
As
it was certain, however, that somebody was coming, Bingley instantly
prevailed
on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion, and walk
away
with him into the shrubbery. They both set off, and the conjectures of
the
remaining three continued, though with little satisfaction, till the
door was
thrown open and their visitor entered.
It was Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
They were of course all
intending to be
surprised; but their astonishment was beyond their expectation; and on
the part
of Mrs. Bennet and Kitty, though she was perfectly unknown to them,
even
inferior to what Elizabeth
felt.
She entered the room
with an air more
than usually ungracious, made no other reply to Elizabeth's
salutation than a slight
inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a word. Elizabeth
had mentioned her name to her
mother on her ladyship's entrance, though no request of introduction
had been
made.
Mrs. Bennet, all
amazement, though
flattered by having a guest of such high importance, received her with
the
utmost politeness. After
sitting for a
moment in silence, she said very stiffly to Elizabeth,
"I hope you are well,
Miss
Bennet. That lady,
I suppose, is your
mother."
Elizabeth replied
very concisely that she was.
"And that I suppose is
one of your
sisters."
"Yes, madam," said Mrs.
Bennet,
delighted to speak to a Lady Catherine.
"She is my youngest girl but one.
My youngest of all is lately married, and my eldest
is somewhere about
the grounds, walking with a young man who, I believe, will soon become
a part
of the family."
"You have a very small park
here," returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.
"It is nothing in
comparison of
Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than
Sir
William Lucas's."
"This must be a most
inconvenient
sitting room for the evening, in summer; the windows are full west."
Mrs. Bennet assured her
that they never
sat there after dinner, and then added,
"May I take the liberty
of asking
your ladyship whether you left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well."
"Yes, very well. I saw them the night
before last."
Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter
for her from Charlotte,
as it seemed
the only probable motive for her calling.
But no letter appeared, and she was completely
puzzled.
Mrs. Bennet, with great
civility, begged
her ladyship to take some refreshment; but Lady Catherine very
resolutely, and
not very politely, declined eating any thing; and then, rising up, said
to Elizabeth,
"Miss Bennet, there
seemed to be a
prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your
lawn. I should be
glad to take a
turn in it, if you
will favour me with your company."
"Go, my dear," cried her
mother, "and shew her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be
pleased with the hermitage."
Elizabeth obeyed,
and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest
down
stairs. As they
passed through the hall,
Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining-parlour and
drawing-room, and
pronouncing them, after a short survey, to be decent looking rooms,
walked on.
Her carriage remained at
the door, and Elizabeth
saw that her waiting-woman was in it. They
proceeded
in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse; Elizabeth
was determined to make no effort
for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent
and
disagreeable.
"How could I ever think
her like
her nephew?" said she, as she looked in her face.
As soon as they entered
the copse, Lady
Catherine began in the following manner: --
"You can be at no loss,
Miss
Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither.
Your own heart, your own conscience, must
tell you why I come."
Elizabeth looked
with unaffected astonishment.
"Indeed, you are
mistaken,
Madam. I have not
been at all able to
account for the honour of seeing you here."
"Miss Bennet," replied
her
ladyship, in an angry tone, "you ought to know, that I am not to be
trifled with. But
however insincere you
may choose to be, you shall not find me so. My character has ever been
celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such
moment as
this, I shall certainly not depart from it.
A report of a most alarming nature reached me two
days ago. I was
told that not only your sister was on
the point of being most advantageously married, but that you, that Miss
Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all likelihood, be soon afterwards united
to my
nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy.
Though
I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him
so much
as to suppose the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting
off for
this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you."
"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
infatuation, 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."
"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.
Now what have you to say?"
"Only this; that if he
is so, you
can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me."
Lady Catherine hesitated
for a moment,
and then replied,
"The engagement between
them is of
a peculiar kind. From
their infancy,
they have been intended for each other.
It was the favourite wish of his mother, as well as
of her's. While in
their cradles, we planned the union:
and now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be
accomplished in
their marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of
no
importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family! Do you pay no regard to
the wishes of his
friends? To his tacit engagement with Miss De Bourgh?
Are you lost to every feeling of propriety
and delicacy? Have
you not heard me say
that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin?"
"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?"
"Because honour,
decorum, prudence,
nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect
to be
noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the
inclinations
of all. You will be
censured, slighted,
and despised, by every one connected with him.
Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will
never even be mentioned
by any of us."
"These are heavy
misfortunes,"
replied Elizabeth. "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."
"Obstinate, headstrong
girl! I am ashamed
of you! Is this
your gratitude for my attentions to
you last spring? Is
nothing due to me on
that score? Let us
sit down. You are
to understand, Miss Bennet, that I
came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose; nor
will I be
dissuaded from it. I
have not been used
to submit to any person's whims. I have not been in the habit of
brooking
disappointment."
"That will make your
ladyship's
situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me."
"I will not be
interrupted. Hear
me in silence. My
daughter and my nephew are formed for each
other. They are
descended, on the maternal
side, from the same noble line; and, on the father's, from respectable,
honourable, and ancient -- though untitled -- families.
Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They
are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their
respective
houses; and what is to divide them?
The
upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or
fortune. Is this to
be endured! But it
must not, shall not be. If
you were sensible of your own good, you
would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up."
"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."
"True.
You are a gentleman's daughter.
But who was your mother?
Who are your uncles and aunts?
Do not imagine me ignorant of their
condition."
"Whatever my connections
may
be," said Elizabeth,
"if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you."
"Tell me once for all,
are you
engaged to him?"
Though Elizabeth
would not, for the mere purpose of
obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but
say,
after a moment's deliberation,
"I am not."
Lady Catherine seemed
pleased.
"And will you promise
me, never to
enter into such an engagement?"
"I will make no promise
of the
kind."
"Miss Bennet I am
shocked and
astonished. I
expected to find a more
reasonable young woman. But
do not
deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede.
I shall not go away till you have 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."
"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.
Next
chapter
Back
to contents page
|
