{"id":"01KJRRE0MCCZWZPPYFZAKNC4T4","cid":"bafkreibfzfpczrulroqvcgj7hp5ezfou52evulbjmdeiqqcfed2qj24shy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":86551,"char_start":78557,"chunk_index":11,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1999,"label":"cannot wonder at his complaisance; for who would o","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"cannot wonder at his complaisance; for who would object to such a\r\npartner?”\r\n\r\nElizabeth looked archly, and turned away. Her resistance had not injured\r\nher with the gentleman, and he was thinking of her with some\r\ncomplacency, when thus accosted by Miss Bingley,--\r\n\r\n“I can guess the subject of your reverie.”\r\n\r\n“I should imagine not.”\r\n\r\n“You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many\r\nevenings in this manner,--in such society; and, indeed, I am quite of\r\nyour opinion. I was never more annoyed! The insipidity, and yet the\r\nnoise--the nothingness, and yet the self-importance, of all these\r\npeople! What would I give to hear your strictures on them!”\r\n\r\n“Your conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more\r\nagreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure\r\nwhich a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”\r\n\r\nMiss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired he\r\nwould tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such reflections.\r\nMr. Darcy replied, with great intrepidity,--\r\n\r\n“Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”\r\n\r\n“Miss Elizabeth Bennet!” repeated Miss Bingley. “I am all astonishment.\r\nHow long has she been such a favourite? and pray when am I to wish you\r\njoy?”\r\n\r\n“That is exactly the question which I expected you to ask. A lady’s\r\nimagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love\r\nto matrimony, in a moment. I knew you would be wishing me joy.”\r\n\r\n“Nay, if you are so serious about it, I shall consider the matter as\r\nabsolutely settled. You will have a charming mother-in-law, indeed, and\r\nof course she will be always at Pemberley with you.”\r\n\r\nHe listened to her with perfect indifference, while she chose to\r\nentertain herself in this manner; and as his composure convinced her\r\nthat all was safe, her wit flowed along.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “A note for Miss Bennet”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER VII.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nMr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two\r\nthousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed,\r\nin default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother’s\r\nfortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply\r\nthe deficiency of his. Her father had been an attorney in Meryton, and\r\nhad left her four thousand pounds.\r\n\r\nShe had a sister married to a Mr. Philips, who had been a clerk to their\r\nfather and succeeded him in the business, and a brother settled in\r\nLondon in a respectable line of trade.\r\n\r\nThe village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton; a most\r\nconvenient distance for the young ladies, who were usually tempted\r\nthither three or four times a week, to pay their duty to their aunt, and\r\nto a milliner’s shop just over the way. The two youngest of the family,\r\nCatherine and Lydia, were particularly frequent in these attentions:\r\ntheir minds were more vacant than their sisters’, and when nothing\r\nbetter offered, a walk to Meryton was necessary to amuse their morning\r\nhours and furnish conversation for the evening; and, however bare of\r\nnews the country in general might be, they always contrived to learn\r\nsome from their aunt. At present, indeed, they were well supplied both\r\nwith news and happiness by the recent arrival of a militia regiment in\r\nthe neighbourhood; it was to remain the whole winter, and Meryton was\r\nthe head-quarters.\r\n\r\nTheir visits to Mrs. Philips were now productive of the most interesting\r\nintelligence. Every day added something to their knowledge of the\r\nofficers’ names and connections. Their lodgings were not long a secret,\r\nand at length they began to know the officers themselves. Mr. Philips\r\nvisited them all, and this opened to his nieces a source of felicity\r\nunknown before. They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr.\r\nBingley’s large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their\r\nmother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of\r\nan ensign.\r\n\r\nAfter listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr.\r\nBennet coolly observed,--\r\n\r\n“From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two\r\nof the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but\r\nI am now convinced.”\r\n\r\nCatherine was disconcerted, and made no answer; but Lydia, with perfect\r\nindifference, continued to express her admiration of Captain Carter, and\r\nher hope of seeing him in the course of the day, as he was going the\r\nnext morning to London.\r\n\r\n“I am astonished, my dear,” said Mrs. Bennet, “that you should be so\r\nready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly\r\nof anybody’s children, it should not be of my own, however.”\r\n\r\n“If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it.”\r\n\r\n“Yes; but as it happens, they are all of them very clever.”\r\n\r\n“This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not agree. I\r\nhad hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular, but I must\r\nso far differ from you as to think our two youngest daughters uncommonly\r\nfoolish.”\r\n\r\n“My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have the sense of\r\ntheir father and mother. When they get to our age, I dare say they will\r\nnot think about officers any more than we do. I remember the time when I\r\nliked a red coat myself very well--and, indeed, so I do still at my\r\nheart; and if a smart young colonel, with five or six thousand a year,\r\nshould want one of my girls, I shall not say nay to him; and I thought\r\nColonel Forster looked very becoming the other night at Sir William’s in\r\nhis regimentals.”\r\n\r\n“Mamma,” cried Lydia, “my aunt says that Colonel Forster and Captain\r\nCarter do not go so often to Miss Watson’s as they did when they first\r\ncame; she sees them now very often standing in Clarke’s library.”\r\n\r\nMrs. Bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the footman with a\r\nnote for Miss Bennet; it came from Netherfield, and the servant waited\r\nfor an answer. Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled with pleasure, and she was\r\neagerly calling out, while her daughter read,--\r\n\r\n“Well, Jane, who is it from? What is it about? What does he say? Well,\r\nJane, make haste and tell us; make haste, my love.”\r\n\r\n“It is from Miss Bingley,” said Jane, and then read it aloud.\r\n\r\n     /* NIND “My dear friend, */\r\n\r\n     “If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa and\r\n     me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our\r\n     lives; for a whole day’s _tête-à-tête_ between two women can never\r\n     end without a quarrel. Come as soon as you can on the receipt of\r\n     this. My brother and the gentlemen are to dine with the officers.\r\n     Yours ever,\r\n\r\n“CAROLINE BINGLEY.”\r\n\r\n“With the officers!” cried Lydia: “I wonder my aunt did not tell us of\r\n_that_.”\r\n\r\n“Dining out,” said Mrs. Bennet; “that is very unlucky.”\r\n\r\n“Can I have the carriage?” said Jane.\r\n\r\n“No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to\r\nrain; and then you must stay all night.”\r\n\r\n“That would be a good scheme,” said Elizabeth, “if you were sure that\r\nthey would not offer to send her home.”\r\n\r\n“Oh, but the gentlemen will have Mr. Bingley’s chaise to go to Meryton;\r\nand the Hursts have no horses to theirs.”\r\n\r\n“I had much rather go in the coach.”\r\n\r\n“But, my dear, your father cannot spare the horses, I am sure. They are\r\nwanted in the farm, Mr. Bennet, are not they?”\r\n\r\n[Illustration: Cheerful prognostics]\r\n\r\n“They are wanted in the farm much oftener than I can get them.”\r\n\r\n“But if you have got them to-day,” said Elizabeth, “my mother’s purpose\r\nwill be answered.”\r\n\r\nShe did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that the horses\r\nwere engaged; Jane was therefore obliged to go on horseback, and her\r\nmother attended her to the door with many cheerful prognostics of a bad\r\nday. Her hopes were answered; Jane had not been gone long before it\r\nrained hard. Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was\r\ndelighted."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:14.135Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZJ8A0QJK2TXKT8DT57S","peer_label":"pemberley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:14.135Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZJBEM6MWHW485H9DS9F","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:14.135Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFNZTD5HTAYNT80X4F43J","peer_label":"george 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