{"id":"01KJRRE0N9AMK7V8S7RYXKCZ23","cid":"bafkreibgy7hj2o2or5f3jsc3hqeemp3qqz5ya7xbywdqzwzoui5gk2w5jq","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":243540,"char_start":235544,"chunk_index":33,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1999,"label":"a very headstrong, foolish girl, and does not know","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"a very headstrong, foolish girl, and does not know her own interest; but\r\nI will _make_ her know it.”\r\n\r\n“Pardon me for interrupting you, madam,” cried Mr. Collins; “but if she\r\nis really headstrong and foolish, I know not whether she would\r\naltogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my situation, who\r\nnaturally looks for happiness in the marriage state. If, therefore, she\r\nactually persists in rejecting my suit, perhaps it were better not to\r\nforce her into accepting me, because, if liable to such defects of\r\ntemper, she could not contribute much to my felicity.”\r\n\r\n“Sir, you quite misunderstand me,” said Mrs. Bennet, alarmed. “Lizzy is\r\nonly headstrong in such matters as these. In everything else she is as\r\ngood-natured a girl as ever lived. I will go directly to Mr. Bennet, and\r\nwe shall very soon settle it with her, I am sure.”\r\n\r\nShe would not give him time to reply, but hurrying instantly to her\r\nhusband, called out, as she entered the library,--\r\n\r\n“Oh, Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar.\r\nYou must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will\r\nnot have him; and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and\r\nnot have _her_.”\r\n\r\nMr. Bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered, and fixed them\r\non her face with a calm unconcern, which was not in the least altered by\r\nher communication.\r\n\r\n“I have not the pleasure of understanding you,” said he, when she had\r\nfinished her speech. “Of what are you talking?”\r\n\r\n“Of Mr. Collins and Lizzy. Lizzy declares she will not have Mr. Collins,\r\nand Mr. Collins begins to say that he will not have Lizzy.”\r\n\r\n“And what am I to do on the occasion? It seems a hopeless business.”\r\n\r\n“Speak to Lizzy about it yourself. Tell her that you insist upon her\r\nmarrying him.”\r\n\r\n“Let her be called down. She shall hear my opinion.”\r\n\r\nMrs. Bennet rang the bell, and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to the\r\nlibrary.\r\n\r\n“Come here, child,” cried her father as she appeared. “I have sent for\r\nyou on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr. Collins has made\r\nyou an offer of marriage. Is it true?”\r\n\r\nElizabeth replied that it was.\r\n\r\n“Very well--and this offer of marriage you have refused?”\r\n\r\n“I have, sir.”\r\n\r\n“Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your\r\naccepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?”\r\n\r\n“Yes, or I will never see her again.”\r\n\r\n“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must\r\nbe a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you\r\nagain if you do _not_ marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again\r\nif you _do_.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a beginning;\r\nbut Mrs. Bennet, who had persuaded herself that her husband regarded the\r\naffair as she wished, was excessively disappointed.\r\n\r\n“What do you mean, Mr. Bennet, by talking in this way? You promised me\r\nto _insist_ upon her marrying him.”\r\n\r\n“My dear,” replied her husband, “I have two small favours to request.\r\nFirst, that you will allow me the free use of my understanding on the\r\npresent occasion; and, secondly, of my room. I shall be glad to have the\r\nlibrary to myself as soon as may be.”\r\n\r\nNot yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her husband, did\r\nMrs. Bennet give up the point. She talked to Elizabeth again and again;\r\ncoaxed and threatened her by turns. She endeavoured to secure Jane in\r\nher interest, but Jane, with all possible mildness, declined\r\ninterfering; and Elizabeth, sometimes with real earnestness, and\r\nsometimes with playful gaiety, replied to her attacks. Though her manner\r\nvaried, however, her determination never did.\r\n\r\nMr. Collins, meanwhile, was meditating in solitude on what had passed.\r\nHe thought too well of himself to comprehend on what motive his cousin\r\ncould refuse him; and though his pride was hurt, he suffered in no other\r\nway. His regard for her was quite imaginary; and the possibility of her\r\ndeserving her mother’s reproach prevented his feeling any regret.\r\n\r\nWhile the family were in this confusion, Charlotte Lucas came to spend\r\nthe day with them. She was met in the vestibule by Lydia, who, flying to\r\nher, cried in a half whisper, “I am glad you are come, for there is such\r\nfun here! What do you think has happened this morning? Mr. Collins has\r\nmade an offer to Lizzy, and she will not have him.”\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “they entered the breakfast room”\r\n]\r\n\r\nCharlotte had hardly time to answer before they were joined by Kitty,\r\nwho came to tell the same news; and no sooner had they entered the\r\nbreakfast-room, where Mrs. Bennet was alone, than she likewise began on\r\nthe subject, calling on Miss Lucas for her compassion, and entreating\r\nher to persuade her friend Lizzy to comply with the wishes of her\r\nfamily. “Pray do, my dear Miss Lucas,” she added, in a melancholy tone;\r\n“for nobody is on my side, nobody takes part with me; I am cruelly used,\r\nnobody feels for my poor nerves.”\r\n\r\nCharlotte’s reply was spared by the entrance of Jane and Elizabeth.\r\n\r\n“Ay, there she comes,” continued Mrs. Bennet, “looking as unconcerned as\r\nmay be, and caring no more for us than if we were at York, provided she\r\ncan have her own way. But I tell you what, Miss Lizzy, if you take it\r\ninto your head to go on refusing every offer of marriage in this way,\r\nyou will never get a husband at all--and I am sure I do not know who is\r\nto maintain you when your father is dead. _I_ shall not be able to keep\r\nyou--and so I warn you. I have done with you from this very day. I told\r\nyou in the library, you know, that I should never speak to you again,\r\nand you will find me as good as my word. I have no pleasure in talking\r\nto undutiful children. Not that I have much pleasure, indeed, in talking\r\nto anybody. People who suffer as I do from nervous complaints can have\r\nno great inclination for talking. Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it\r\nis always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”\r\n\r\nHer daughters listened in silence to this effusion, sensible that any\r\nattempt to reason with or soothe her would only increase the irritation.\r\nShe talked on, therefore, without interruption from any of them till\r\nthey were joined by Mr. Collins, who entered with an air more stately\r\nthan usual, and on perceiving whom, she said to the girls,--\r\n\r\n“Now, I do insist upon it, that you, all of you, hold your tongues, and\r\nlet Mr. Collins and me have a little conversation together.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth passed quietly out of the room, Jane and Kitty followed, but\r\nLydia stood her ground, determined to hear all she could; and Charlotte,\r\ndetained first by the civility of Mr. Collins, whose inquiries after\r\nherself and all her family were very minute, and then by a little\r\ncuriosity, satisfied herself with walking to the window and pretending\r\nnot to hear. In a doleful voice Mrs. Bennet thus began the projected\r\nconversation:--\r\n\r\n“Oh, Mr. Collins!”\r\n\r\n“My dear madam,” replied he, “let us be for ever silent on this point.\r\nFar be it from me,” he presently continued, in a voice that marked his\r\ndispleasure, “to resent the behaviour of your daughter. Resignation to\r\ninevitable evils is the duty of us all: the peculiar duty of a young man\r\nwho has been so fortunate as I have been, in early preferment; and, I\r\ntrust, I am resigned. Perhaps not the less so from feeling a doubt of my\r\npositive happiness had my fair cousin honoured me with her hand; for I\r\nhave often observed, that resignation is never so perfect as when the\r\nblessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation.\r\nYou will not, I hope, consider me as showing any disrespect to your\r\nfamily, my dear madam, by thus withdrawing my pretensions to your\r\ndaughter’s favour, without having paid yourself and Mr. Bennet the\r\ncompliment of requesting you to interpose your authority in my behalf.\r\nMy conduct may, I fear, be objectionable in having accepted my\r\ndismission from your daughter’s lips instead of your own; but we are all\r\nliable to error."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREYW2V9QH9GNRQRJT67GK","peer_label":"mr bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYT564P5405ZE4Q76ZF5","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6ZWGAT4FYVDEM6VE2E","peer_label":"mr collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6RHWPTVXJ7SHB3NE6F","peer_label":"lydia bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZFDNHD81TMSJQPDWV69","peer_label":"charlotte lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY4KCKYKYTFBWSNR6EZ0","peer_label":"kitty bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5J8MP8KCD5E5BD7BH5X","peer_label":"library","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"room","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5Q6G5CW5YPRRXK7QZAS","peer_label":"york","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5KER6GY2KJBC8B8XWQ1","peer_label":"early preferment","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5KKGY52F1WKFDE9233H","peer_label":"breakfast-room","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"room","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5KBTRG681EGXTBAY97X","peer_label":"marriage proposal collins-bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF5NX14E2QSA5MMHFNYED","peer_label":"nervous complaints","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"condition","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:40.786Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.225Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:41.473Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}