{"id":"01KJRRE0M7ZQNY6DZ087G75HKZ","cid":"bafkreiahxdk4dshk65fg4fga4wkfmf5ok2npowwmarblst3uv4iqcu4ycq","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":50813,"char_start":42895,"chunk_index":6,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1980,"label":"as she will think it an act of kindness, if you de","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"as she will think it an act of kindness, if you decline the office, I\r\nwill take it on myself.”\r\n\r\nThe girls stared at their father. Mrs. Bennet said only, “Nonsense,\r\nnonsense!”\r\n\r\n“What can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation?” cried he. “Do\r\nyou consider the forms of introduction, and the stress that is laid on\r\nthem, as nonsense? I cannot quite agree with you _there_. What say you,\r\nMary? For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read\r\ngreat books, and make extracts.”\r\n\r\nMary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.\r\n\r\n“While Mary is adjusting her ideas,” he continued, “let us return to Mr.\r\nBingley.”\r\n\r\n“I am sick of Mr. Bingley,” cried his wife.\r\n\r\n“I am sorry to hear _that_; but why did you not tell me so before? If I\r\nhad known as much this morning, I certainly would not have called on\r\nhim. It is very unlucky; but as I have actually paid the visit, we\r\ncannot escape the acquaintance now.”\r\n\r\nThe astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished--that of Mrs.\r\nBennet perhaps surpassing the rest; though when the first tumult of joy\r\nwas over, she began to declare that it was what she had expected all the\r\nwhile.\r\n\r\n“How good it was in you, my dear Mr. Bennet! But I knew I should\r\npersuade you at last. I was sure you loved your girls too well to\r\nneglect such an acquaintance. Well, how pleased I am! And it is such a\r\ngood joke, too, that you should have gone this morning, and never said a\r\nword about it till now.”\r\n\r\n“Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,” said Mr. Bennet; and,\r\nas he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife.\r\n\r\n“What an excellent father you have, girls,” said she, when the door was\r\nshut. “I do not know how you will ever make him amends for his kindness;\r\nor me either, for that matter. At our time of life, it is not so\r\npleasant, I can tell you, to be making new acquaintances every day; but\r\nfor your sakes we would do anything. Lydia, my love, though you _are_\r\nthe youngest, I dare say Mr. Bingley will dance with you at the next\r\nball.”\r\n\r\n“Oh,” said Lydia, stoutly, “I am not afraid; for though I _am_ the\r\nyoungest, I’m the tallest.”\r\n\r\nThe rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how soon he would\r\nreturn Mr. Bennet’s visit, and determining when they should ask him to\r\ndinner.\r\n\r\n[Illustration: “I’m the tallest”]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “He rode a black horse”\r\n]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER III.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nNot all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of her five\r\ndaughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw from her\r\nhusband any satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley. They attacked him\r\nin various ways, with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and\r\ndistant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all; and they were at\r\nlast obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour,\r\nLady Lucas. Her report was highly favourable. Sir William had been\r\ndelighted with him. He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely\r\nagreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next assembly\r\nwith a large party. Nothing could be more delightful! To be fond of\r\ndancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively\r\nhopes of Mr. Bingley’s heart were entertained.\r\n\r\n“If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield,”\r\nsaid Mrs. Bennet to her husband, “and all the others equally well\r\nmarried, I shall have nothing to wish for.”\r\n\r\nIn a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennet’s visit, and sat about ten\r\nminutes with him in his library. He had entertained hopes of being\r\nadmitted to a sight of the young ladies, of whose beauty he had heard\r\nmuch; but he saw only the father. The ladies were somewhat more\r\nfortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining, from an upper\r\nwindow, that he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse.\r\n\r\nAn invitation to dinner was soon afterwards despatched; and already had\r\nMrs. Bennet planned the courses that were to do credit to her\r\nhousekeeping, when an answer arrived which deferred it all. Mr. Bingley\r\nwas obliged to be in town the following day, and consequently unable to\r\naccept the honour of their invitation, etc. Mrs. Bennet was quite\r\ndisconcerted. She could not imagine what business he could have in town\r\nso soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to fear that\r\nhe might always be flying about from one place to another, and never\r\nsettled at Netherfield as he ought to be. Lady Lucas quieted her fears a\r\nlittle by starting the idea of his\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “When the Party entered”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\nbeing gone to London only to get a large party for the ball; and a\r\nreport soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and\r\nseven gentlemen with him to the assembly. The girls grieved over such a\r\nnumber of ladies; but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing\r\nthat, instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from London,\r\nhis five sisters and a cousin. And when the party entered the\r\nassembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr. Bingley, his\r\ntwo sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man.\r\n\r\nMr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike: he had a pleasant\r\ncountenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women,\r\nwith an air of decided fashion. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely\r\nlooked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention\r\nof the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and\r\nthe report, which was in general circulation within five minutes after\r\nhis entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen\r\npronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was\r\nmuch handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great\r\nadmiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust\r\nwhich turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be\r\nproud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his\r\nlarge estate in Derbyshire could save him from having a most forbidding,\r\ndisagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his\r\nfriend.\r\n\r\nMr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal\r\npeople in the room: he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance,\r\nwas angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one\r\nhimself at Netherfield. Such amiable qualities must speak for\r\nthemselves. What a contrast between him and his friend! Mr. Darcy danced\r\nonly once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being\r\nintroduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in\r\nwalking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party.\r\nHis character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in\r\nthe world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again.\r\nAmongst the most violent against him was Mrs. Bennet, whose dislike of\r\nhis general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his\r\nhaving slighted one of her daughters.\r\n\r\nElizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit\r\ndown for two dances; and during part of that time, Mr. Darcy had been\r\nstanding near enough for her to overhear a conversation between him and\r\nMr. Bingley, who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his\r\nfriend to join it.\r\n\r\n“Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance. I hate to see you\r\nstanding about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better\r\ndance.”\r\n\r\n“I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am\r\nparticularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it\r\nwould be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not\r\nanother woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to\r\nstand up with.”\r\n\r\n“I would not be so fastidious as you are,” cried Bingley, “for a\r\nkingdom!"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREY5YH5B23QR8XCHZSM2R","peer_label":"mr bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6J1B27DVQGPM70W7C2","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYV208WKH1DBMN82KS8F","peer_label":"netherfield","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSAVKDMJ2BZEZTPX3RP","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZV6WTA35TXZE8HBZF4X","peer_label":"miss bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY5S38CP9RKK4A7C9TCQ","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY5SSJCQ67QYG0XTG9A8","peer_label":"mr bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY4KCKYKYTFBWSNR6EZ0","peer_label":"kitty bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6RHWPTVXJ7SHB3NE6F","peer_label":"lydia bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY63WYEJRTN7FS2QXC2P","peer_label":"mary bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSVN4TB8RA79TBS9W98","peer_label":"chapter iii","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYTMYM5H9026MPV0AJMX","peer_label":"sir william lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSX336MNFYYQ2MPNB60","peer_label":"lady lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYZ36C2F9Z4KP5F6ANMZ","peer_label":"london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZ9ES6JCT32MXQCVR11Y","peer_label":"mr hurst","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZE4MTY540KMV82YTDGM","peer_label":"mrs hurst","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZH1WA49EQP66J0ZHR6G","peer_label":"derbyshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:34.694Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.191Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:35.636Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}