{"id":"01KJRRE0MQ5WV3S43BFMEBC2CV","cid":"bafkreihrphxkc434uhzt44uwgm5uqhhdgecyvk6qvmojvizaysqpgbyjme","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":172366,"char_start":164396,"chunk_index":23,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1993,"label":"could only tell her nieces what they already knew,","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"could only tell her nieces what they already knew, that Mr. Denny had\r\nbrought him from London, and that he was to have a lieutenant’s\r\ncommission in the ----shire. She had been watching him the last hour,\r\nshe said, as he walked up and down the street,--and had Mr. Wickham\r\nappeared, Kitty and Lydia would certainly have continued the occupation;\r\nbut unluckily no one passed the windows now except a few of the\r\nofficers, who, in comparison with the stranger, were become “stupid,\r\ndisagreeable fellows.” Some of them were to dine with the Philipses the\r\nnext day, and their aunt promised to make her husband call on Mr.\r\nWickham, and give him an invitation also, if the family from Longbourn\r\nwould come in the evening. This was agreed to; and Mrs. Philips\r\nprotested that they would have a nice comfortable noisy game of lottery\r\ntickets, and a little bit of hot supper afterwards. The prospect of such\r\ndelights was very cheering, and they parted in mutual good spirits. Mr.\r\nCollins repeated his apologies in quitting the room, and was assured,\r\nwith unwearying civility, that they were perfectly needless.\r\n\r\nAs they walked home, Elizabeth related to Jane what she had seen pass\r\nbetween the two gentlemen; but though Jane would have defended either or\r\nboth, had they appeared to be wrong, she could no more explain such\r\nbehaviour than her sister.\r\n\r\nMr. Collins on his return highly gratified Mrs. Bennet by admiring Mrs.\r\nPhilips’s manners and politeness. He protested that, except Lady\r\nCatherine and her daughter, he had never seen a more elegant woman; for\r\nshe had not only received him with the utmost civility, but had even\r\npointedly included him in her invitation for the next evening, although\r\nutterly unknown to her before. Something, he supposed, might be\r\nattributed to his connection with them, but yet he had never met with so\r\nmuch attention in the whole course of his life.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XVI.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nAs no objection was made to the young people’s engagement with their\r\naunt, and all Mr. Collins’s scruples of leaving Mr. and Mrs. Bennet for\r\na single evening during his visit were most steadily resisted, the coach\r\nconveyed him and his five cousins at a suitable hour to Meryton; and the\r\ngirls had the pleasure of hearing, as they entered the drawing-room,\r\nthat Mr. Wickham had accepted their uncle’s invitation, and was then in\r\nthe house.\r\n\r\nWhen this information was given, and they had all taken their seats, Mr.\r\nCollins was at leisure to look around him and admire, and he was so much\r\nstruck with the size and furniture of the apartment, that he declared he\r\nmight almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast parlour\r\nat Rosings; a comparison that did not at first convey much\r\ngratification; but when Mrs. Philips understood from him what Rosings\r\nwas, and who was its proprietor, when she had listened to the\r\ndescription of only one of Lady Catherine’s drawing-rooms, and found\r\nthat the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt all\r\nthe force of the compliment, and would hardly have resented a comparison\r\nwith the housekeeper’s room.\r\n\r\nIn describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion,\r\nwith occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode, and the\r\nimprovements it was receiving, he was happily employed until the\r\ngentlemen joined them; and he found in Mrs. Philips a very attentive\r\nlistener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she\r\nheard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as\r\nsoon as she could. To the girls, who could not listen to their cousin,\r\nand who had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument, and examine\r\ntheir own indifferent imitations of china on the mantel-piece, the\r\ninterval of waiting appeared very long. It was over at last, however.\r\nThe gentlemen did approach: and when Mr. Wickham walked into the room,\r\nElizabeth felt that she had neither been seeing him before, nor thinking\r\nof him since, with the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration. The\r\nofficers of the ----shire were in general a very creditable,\r\ngentlemanlike set and the best of them were of the present party; but\r\nMr, Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air, and\r\nwalk, as _they_ were superior to the broad-faced stuffy uncle Philips,\r\nbreathing port wine, who followed them into the room.\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n“The officers of the ----shire”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\nMr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was\r\nturned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated\r\nhimself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into\r\nconversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the\r\nprobability of a rainy season, made her feel that the commonest,\r\ndullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the\r\nskill of the speaker.\r\n\r\nWith such rivals for the notice of the fair as Mr. Wickham and the\r\nofficers, Mr. Collins seemed to sink into insignificance; to the young\r\nladies he certainly was nothing; but he had still at intervals a kind\r\nlistener in Mrs. Philips, and was, by her watchfulness, most abundantly\r\nsupplied with coffee and muffin.\r\n\r\nWhen the card tables were placed, he had an opportunity of obliging her,\r\nin return, by sitting down to whist.\r\n\r\n“I know little of the game at present,” said he, “but I shall be glad to\r\nimprove myself; for in my situation of life----” Mrs. Philips was very\r\nthankful for his compliance, but could not wait for his reason.\r\n\r\nMr. Wickham did not play at whist, and with ready delight was he\r\nreceived at the other table between Elizabeth and Lydia. At first there\r\nseemed danger of Lydia’s engrossing him entirely, for she was a most\r\ndetermined talker; but being likewise extremely fond of lottery tickets,\r\nshe soon grew too much interested in the game, too eager in making bets\r\nand exclaiming after prizes, to have attention for anyone in particular.\r\nAllowing for the common demands of the game, Mr. Wickham was therefore\r\nat leisure to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him,\r\nthough what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be told,\r\nthe history of his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy. She dared not even\r\nmention that gentleman. Her curiosity, however, was unexpectedly\r\nrelieved. Mr. Wickham began the subject himself. He inquired how far\r\nNetherfield was from Meryton; and, after receiving her answer, asked in\r\na hesitating manner how long Mr. Darcy had been staying there.\r\n\r\n“About a month,” said Elizabeth; and then, unwilling to let the subject\r\ndrop, added, “he is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I\r\nunderstand.”\r\n\r\n“Yes,” replied Wickham; “his estate there is a noble one. A clear ten\r\nthousand per annum. You could not have met with a person more capable of\r\ngiving you certain information on that head than myself--for I have been\r\nconnected with his family, in a particular manner, from my infancy.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth could not but look surprised.\r\n\r\n“You may well be surprised, Miss Bennet, at such an assertion, after\r\nseeing, as you probably might, the very cold manner of our meeting\r\nyesterday. Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?”\r\n\r\n“As much as I ever wish to be,” cried Elizabeth, warmly. “I have spent\r\nfour days in the same house with him, and I think him very\r\ndisagreeable.”\r\n\r\n“I have no right to give _my_ opinion,” said Wickham, “as to his being\r\nagreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him\r\ntoo long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for _me_ to\r\nbe impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general\r\nastonish--and, perhaps, you would not express it quite so strongly\r\nanywhere else. Here you are in your own family.”\r\n\r\n“Upon my word I say no more _here_ than I might say in any house in the\r\nneighbourhood, except Netherfield. He is not at all liked in\r\nHertfordshire."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREYZ36C2F9Z4KP5F6ANMZ","peer_label":"london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:17.234Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF19AD63KEEZZWPG3X2KQ","peer_label":"mr wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:17.234Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY4KCKYKYTFBWSNR6EZ0","peer_label":"kitty bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:17.234Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF11967A9GY7P7SYXF2RC","peer_label":"mr 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