{"id":"01KJRRE0NRT7DQRW3WA997CX3Z","cid":"bafkreigcasivfcojundjuq3vju3ggjppnuhojjgzkugbeynwx4rulayacq","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":292940,"char_start":285104,"chunk_index":40,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1959,"label":"then. It is something to think of, and gives her a","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction\r\namong her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to\r\nbe long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough at\r\nMeryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham\r\nbe your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”\r\n\r\n“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not\r\nall expect Jane’s good fortune.”\r\n\r\n“True,” said Mr. Bennet; “but it is a comfort to think that, whatever of\r\nthat kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will\r\nalways make the most of it.”\r\n\r\nMr. Wickham’s society was of material service in dispelling the gloom\r\nwhich the late perverse occurrences had thrown on many of the Longbourn\r\nfamily. They saw him often, and to his other recommendations was now\r\nadded that of general unreserve. The whole of what Elizabeth had already\r\nheard, his claims on Mr. Darcy, and all that he had suffered from him,\r\nwas now openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed; and everybody was\r\npleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they\r\nhad known anything of the matter.\r\n\r\nMiss Bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might be any\r\nextenuating circumstances in the case unknown to the society of\r\nHertfordshire: her mild and steady candour always pleaded for\r\nallowances, and urged the possibility of mistakes; but by everybody else\r\nMr. Darcy was condemned as the worst of men.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXV.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nAfter a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity, Mr.\r\nCollins was called from his amiable Charlotte by the arrival of\r\nSaturday. The pain of separation, however, might be alleviated on his\r\nside by preparations for the reception of his bride, as he had reason to\r\nhope, that shortly after his next return into Hertfordshire, the day\r\nwould be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men. He took leave\r\nof his relations at Longbourn with as much solemnity as before; wished\r\nhis fair cousins health and happiness again, and promised their father\r\nanother letter of thanks.\r\n\r\nOn the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of receiving her\r\nbrother and his wife, who came, as usual, to spend the Christmas at\r\nLongbourn. Mr. Gardiner was a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly\r\nsuperior to his sister, as well by nature as education. The Netherfield\r\nladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by\r\ntrade, and within view of his own warehouses, could have been so\r\nwell-bred and agreeable. Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger\r\nthan Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips, was an amiable, intelligent, elegant\r\nwoman, and a great favourite with her Longbourn nieces. Between the two\r\neldest and herself especially, there subsisted a very particular regard.\r\nThey had frequently been staying with her in town.\r\n\r\nThe first part of Mrs. Gardiner’s business, on her arrival, was to\r\ndistribute her presents and describe the newest fashions. When this was\r\ndone, she had a less active part to play. It became her turn to listen.\r\nMrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of. They\r\nhad all been very ill-used since she last saw her sister. Two of her\r\ngirls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothing\r\nin it.\r\n\r\n“I do not blame Jane,” she continued, “for Jane would have got Mr.\r\nBingley if she could. But, Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very hard to think\r\nthat she might have been Mr. Collins’s wife by this time, had not it\r\nbeen for her own perverseness. He made her an offer in this very room,\r\nand she refused him. The consequence of it is, that Lady Lucas will have\r\na daughter married before I have, and that Longbourn estate is just as\r\nmuch entailed as ever. The Lucases are very artful people, indeed,\r\nsister. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of\r\nthem, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted\r\nso in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves\r\nbefore anybody else. However, your coming just at this time is the\r\ngreatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us of\r\nlong sleeves.”\r\n\r\nMrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before, in\r\nthe course of Jane and Elizabeth’s correspondence with her, made her\r\nsister a slight answer, and, in compassion to her nieces, turned the\r\nconversation.\r\n\r\nWhen alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on the subject.\r\n“It seems likely to have been a desirable match for Jane,” said she. “I\r\nam sorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man,\r\nsuch as you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a pretty\r\ngirl for a few weeks, and, when accident separates them, so easily\r\nforgets her, that these sort of inconstancies are very frequent.”\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “Offended two or three young ladies”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\n“An excellent consolation in its way,” said Elizabeth; “but it will not\r\ndo for _us_. We do not suffer by accident. It does not often happen\r\nthat the interference of friends will persuade a young man of\r\nindependent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in\r\nlove with only a few days before.”\r\n\r\n“But that expression of ‘violently in love’ is so hackneyed, so\r\ndoubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is as\r\noften applied to feelings which arise only from a half hour’s\r\nacquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how _violent was_\r\nMr. Bingley’s love?”\r\n\r\n“I never saw a more promising inclination; he was growing quite\r\ninattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her. Every time\r\nthey met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own ball he\r\noffended two or three young ladies by not asking them to dance; and I\r\nspoke to him twice myself without receiving an answer. Could there be\r\nfiner symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”\r\n\r\n“Oh, yes! of that kind of love which I suppose him to have felt. Poor\r\nJane! I am sorry for her, because, with her disposition, she may not get\r\nover it immediately. It had better have happened to _you_, Lizzy; you\r\nwould have laughed yourself out of it sooner. But do you think she would\r\nbe prevailed on to go back with us? Change of scene might be of\r\nservice--and perhaps a little relief from home may be as useful as\r\nanything.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth was exceedingly pleased with this proposal, and felt persuaded\r\nof her sister’s ready acquiescence.\r\n\r\n“I hope,” added Mrs. Gardiner, “that no consideration with regard to\r\nthis young man will influence her. We live in so different a part of\r\ntown, all our connections are so different, and, as you well know, we go\r\nout so little, that it is very improbable they should meet at all,\r\nunless he really comes to see her.”\r\n\r\n“And _that_ is quite impossible; for he is now in the custody of his\r\nfriend, and Mr. Darcy would no more suffer him to call on Jane in such a\r\npart of London! My dear aunt, how could you think of it? Mr. Darcy may,\r\nperhaps, have _heard_ of such a place as Gracechurch Street, but he\r\nwould hardly think a month’s ablution enough to cleanse him from its\r\nimpurities, were he once to enter it; and, depend upon it, Mr. Bingley\r\nnever stirs without him.”\r\n\r\n“So much the better. I hope they will not meet at all. But does not Jane\r\ncorrespond with his sister? _She_ will not be able to help calling.”\r\n\r\n“She will drop the acquaintance entirely.”\r\n\r\nBut, in spite of the certainty in which Elizabeth affected to place this\r\npoint, as well as the still more interesting one of Bingley’s being\r\nwithheld from seeing Jane, she felt a solicitude on the subject which\r\nconvinced her, on examination, that she did not consider it entirely\r\nhopeless."},"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":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYS51T78NJZ45CYXSXS9","peer_label":"george wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0QZTC5KJ63MKYZHD3F9","peer_label":"meryton","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"town","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZFDNHD81TMSJQPDWV69","peer_label":"charlotte lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF7VA665FKK6CM48CN8K0","peer_label":"longbourn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSZYA9P29KKXYZVTJ15","peer_label":"mr gardiner","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSAZT646RSHT9C5XPKR","peer_label":"mrs gardiner","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYT564P5405ZE4Q76ZF5","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYBBFVZYJA03S3Y70QZY","peer_label":"longbourn estate","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"property","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSX336MNFYYQ2MPNB60","peer_label":"lady lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0886HKAEXJPHPK5R594","peer_label":"charles bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF1A42FY2HZTFF6WCFG11","peer_label":"mrs philips","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF7M6PWKTFGVY5GSW3MFX","peer_label":"caroline bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF8YRSZ4H4ZQZ9PNGGHTE","peer_label":"fitzwilliam darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA0FFMB9AFH4QQXNSPVY","peer_label":"william collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA40KB2X9VYTN7AYFV3S","peer_label":"gracechurch street","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"street","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA49RSVYS8QE3NEDBDPR","peer_label":"lucas family","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"family","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA0E3W7CX9T3JXS8V9E3","peer_label":"chapter xxv","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:45.460Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.240Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:46.354Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}