{"id":"01KJRRE0NRJJH5CV04T1PCXHB1","cid":"bafkreicy37fmz7ckb6vlj722kpn4flksmoqgdksqjzisk7m4mnvwqiwc6i","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":278742,"char_start":271020,"chunk_index":38,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1931,"label":"be an unanswerable argument with his amiable Charl","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"be an unanswerable argument with his amiable Charlotte to name an early\r\nday for making him the happiest of men.\r\n\r\nMr. Collins’s return into Hertfordshire was no longer a matter of\r\npleasure to Mrs. Bennet. On the contrary, she was as much disposed to\r\ncomplain of it as her husband. It was very strange that he should come\r\nto Longbourn instead of to Lucas Lodge; it was also very inconvenient\r\nand exceedingly troublesome. She hated having visitors in the house\r\nwhile her health was so indifferent, and lovers were of all people the\r\nmost disagreeable. Such were the gentle murmurs of Mrs. Bennet, and they\r\ngave way only to the greater distress of Mr. Bingley’s continued\r\nabsence.\r\n\r\nNeither Jane nor Elizabeth were comfortable on this subject. Day after\r\nday passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the\r\nreport which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his coming no more to\r\nNetherfield the whole winter; a report which highly incensed Mrs.\r\nBennet, and which she never failed to contradict as a most scandalous\r\nfalsehood.\r\n\r\nEven Elizabeth began to fear--not that Bingley was indifferent--but that\r\nhis sisters would be successful in keeping him away. Unwilling as she\r\nwas to admit an idea so destructive to Jane’s happiness, and so\r\ndishonourable to the stability of her lover, she could not prevent its\r\nfrequently recurring. The united efforts of his two unfeeling sisters,\r\nand of his overpowering friend, assisted by the attractions of Miss\r\nDarcy and the amusements of London, might be too much, she feared, for\r\nthe strength of his attachment.\r\n\r\nAs for Jane, _her_ anxiety under this suspense was, of course, more\r\npainful than Elizabeth’s: but whatever she felt she was desirous of\r\nconcealing; and between herself and Elizabeth, therefore, the subject\r\nwas never alluded to. But as no such delicacy restrained her mother, an\r\nhour seldom passed in which she did not talk of Bingley, express her\r\nimpatience for his arrival, or even require Jane to confess that if he\r\ndid not come back she should think herself very ill-used. It needed all\r\nJane’s steady mildness to bear these attacks with tolerable\r\ntranquillity.\r\n\r\nMr. Collins returned most punctually on the Monday fortnight, but his\r\nreception at Longbourn was not quite so gracious as it had been on his\r\nfirst introduction. He was too happy, however, to need much attention;\r\nand, luckily for the others, the business of love-making relieved them\r\nfrom a great deal of his company. The chief of every day was spent by\r\nhim at Lucas Lodge, and he sometimes returned to Longbourn only in time\r\nto make an apology for his absence before the family went to bed.\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “_Whenever she spoke in a low voice_”\r\n]\r\n\r\nMrs. Bennet was really in a most pitiable state. The very mention of\r\nanything concerning the match threw her into an agony of ill-humour, and\r\nwherever she went she was sure of hearing it talked of. The sight of\r\nMiss Lucas was odious to her. As her successor in that house, she\r\nregarded her with jealous abhorrence. Whenever Charlotte came to see\r\nthem, she concluded her to be anticipating the hour of possession; and\r\nwhenever she spoke in a low voice to Mr. Collins, was convinced that\r\nthey were talking of the Longbourn estate, and resolving to turn herself\r\nand her daughters out of the house as soon as Mr. Bennet was dead. She\r\ncomplained bitterly of all this to her husband.\r\n\r\n“Indeed, Mr. Bennet,” said she, “it is very hard to think that Charlotte\r\nLucas should ever be mistress of this house, that _I_ should be forced\r\nto make way for _her_, and live to see her take my place in it!”\r\n\r\n“My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts. Let us hope for\r\nbetter things. Let us flatter ourselves that _I_ may be the survivor.”\r\n\r\nThis was not very consoling to Mrs. Bennet; and, therefore, instead of\r\nmaking any answer, she went on as before.\r\n\r\n“I cannot bear to think that they should have all this estate. If it was\r\nnot for the entail, I should not mind it.”\r\n\r\n“What should not you mind?”\r\n\r\n“I should not mind anything at all.”\r\n\r\n“Let us be thankful that you are preserved from a state of such\r\ninsensibility.”\r\n\r\n“I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for anything about the entail. How\r\nanyone could have the conscience to entail away an estate from one’s own\r\ndaughters I cannot understand; and all for the sake of Mr. Collins, too!\r\nWhy should _he_ have it more than anybody else?”\r\n\r\n“I leave it to yourself to determine,” said Mr. Bennet.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXIV.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nMiss Bingley’s letter arrived, and put an end to doubt. The very first\r\nsentence conveyed the assurance of their being all settled in London for\r\nthe winter, and concluded with her brother’s regret at not having had\r\ntime to pay his respects to his friends in Hertfordshire before he left\r\nthe country.\r\n\r\nHope was over, entirely over; and when Jane could attend to the rest of\r\nthe letter, she found little, except the professed affection of the\r\nwriter, that could give her any comfort. Miss Darcy’s praise occupied\r\nthe chief of it. Her many attractions were again dwelt on; and Caroline\r\nboasted joyfully of their increasing intimacy, and ventured to predict\r\nthe accomplishment of the wishes which had been unfolded in her former\r\nletter. She wrote also with great pleasure of her brother’s being an\r\ninmate of Mr. Darcy’s house, and mentioned with raptures some plans of\r\nthe latter with regard to new furniture.\r\n\r\nElizabeth, to whom Jane very soon communicated the chief of all this,\r\nheard it in silent indignation. Her heart was divided between concern\r\nfor her sister and resentment against all others. To Caroline’s\r\nassertion of her brother’s being partial to Miss Darcy, she paid no\r\ncredit. That he was really fond of Jane, she doubted no more than she\r\nhad ever done; and much as she had always been disposed to like him, she\r\ncould not think without anger, hardly without contempt, on that easiness\r\nof temper, that want of proper resolution, which now made him the slave\r\nof his designing friends, and led him to sacrifice his own happiness to\r\nthe caprice of their inclinations. Had his own happiness, however, been\r\nthe only sacrifice, he might have been allowed to sport with it in\r\nwhatever manner he thought best; but her sister’s was involved in it, as\r\nshe thought he must be sensible himself. It was a subject, in short, on\r\nwhich reflection would be long indulged, and must be unavailing. She\r\ncould think of nothing else; and yet, whether Bingley’s regard had\r\nreally died away, or were suppressed by his friends’ interference;\r\nwhether he had been aware of Jane’s attachment, or whether it had\r\nescaped his observation; whichever were the case, though her opinion of\r\nhim must be materially affected by the difference, her sister’s\r\nsituation remained the same, her peace equally wounded.\r\n\r\nA day or two passed before Jane had courage to speak of her feelings to\r\nElizabeth; but at last, on Mrs. Bennet’s leaving them together, after a\r\nlonger irritation than usual about Netherfield and its master, she could\r\nnot help saying,--\r\n\r\n“O that my dear mother had more command over herself! she can have no\r\nidea of the pain she gives me by her continual reflections on him. But I\r\nwill not repine. It cannot last long. He will be forgot, and we shall\r\nall be as we were before.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude, but said\r\nnothing.\r\n\r\n“You doubt me,” cried Jane, slightly colouring; “indeed, you have no\r\nreason. He may live in my memory as the most amiable man of my\r\nacquaintance but that is all. I have nothing either to hope or fear, and\r\nnothing to reproach him with. Thank God I have not _that_ pain."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRRF7VA665FKK6CM48CN8K0","peer_label":"longbourn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:16.236Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFB5M59Q4BE285XQZ1D06","peer_label":"lucas lodge","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:16.236Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6ZWGAT4FYVDEM6VE2E","peer_label":"mr 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