{"id":"01KJRRE0P6MC8RDBV9QH9T9WAM","cid":"bafkreie62a7kygvqrc6rfupyhbtptexmebmavm3wwaguypylmvqvkspepe","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":328073,"char_start":320174,"chunk_index":45,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1975,"label":"but the ladies, not having shoes to encounter the","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"but the ladies, not having shoes to encounter the remains of a white\r\nfrost, turned back; and while Sir William accompanied him, Charlotte\r\ntook her sister and friend over the house, extremely well pleased,\r\nprobably, to have the opportunity of showing it without her husband’s\r\nhelp. It was rather small, but well built and convenient; and everything\r\nwas fitted up and arranged with a neatness and consistency, of which\r\nElizabeth gave Charlotte all the credit. When Mr. Collins could be\r\nforgotten, there was really a great air of comfort throughout, and by\r\nCharlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often\r\nforgotten.\r\n\r\nShe had already learnt that Lady Catherine was still in the country. It\r\nwas spoken of again while they were at dinner, when Mr. Collins joining\r\nin, observed,--\r\n\r\n“Yes, Miss Elizabeth, you will have the honour of seeing Lady Catherine\r\nde Bourgh on the ensuing Sunday at church, and I need not say you will\r\nbe delighted with her. She is all affability and condescension, and I\r\ndoubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when\r\nservice is over. I have scarcely any hesitation in saying that she will\r\ninclude you and my sister Maria in every invitation with which she\r\nhonours us during your stay here. Her behaviour to my dear Charlotte is\r\ncharming. We dine at Rosings twice every week, and are never allowed to\r\nwalk home. Her Ladyship’s carriage is regularly ordered for us. I\r\n_should_ say, one of her Ladyship’s carriages, for she has several.”\r\n\r\n“Lady Catherine is a very respectable, sensible woman, indeed,” added\r\nCharlotte, “and a most attentive neighbour.”\r\n\r\n“Very true, my dear, that is exactly what I say. She is the sort of\r\nwoman whom one cannot regard with too much deference.”\r\n\r\nThe evening was spent chiefly in talking over Hertfordshire news, and\r\ntelling again what had been already written; and when it closed,\r\nElizabeth, in the solitude of her chamber, had to meditate upon\r\nCharlotte’s degree of contentment, to understand her address in guiding,\r\nand composure in bearing with, her husband, and to acknowledge that it\r\nwas all done very well. She had also to anticipate how her visit would\r\npass, the quiet tenour of their usual employments, the vexatious\r\ninterruptions of Mr. Collins, and the gaieties of their intercourse\r\nwith Rosings. A lively imagination soon settled it all.\r\n\r\nAbout the middle of the next day, as she was in her room getting ready\r\nfor a walk, a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in\r\nconfusion; and, after listening a moment, she heard somebody running\r\nupstairs in a violent hurry, and calling loudly after her. She opened\r\nthe door, and met Maria in the landing-place, who, breathless with\r\nagitation, cried out,--\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “In Conversation with the ladies”\r\n\r\n[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]]\r\n\r\n“Oh, my dear Eliza! pray make haste and come into the dining-room, for\r\nthere is such a sight to be seen! I will not tell you what it is. Make\r\nhaste, and come down this moment.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth asked questions in vain; Maria would tell her nothing more;\r\nand down they ran into the dining-room which fronted the lane, in quest\r\nof this wonder; it was two ladies, stopping in a low phaeton at the\r\ngarden gate.\r\n\r\n“And is this all?” cried Elizabeth. “I expected at least that the pigs\r\nwere got into the garden, and here is nothing but Lady Catherine and her\r\ndaughter!”\r\n\r\n“La! my dear,” said Maria, quite shocked at the mistake, “it is not Lady\r\nCatherine. The old lady is Mrs. Jenkinson, who lives with them. The\r\nother is Miss De Bourgh. Only look at her. She is quite a little\r\ncreature. Who would have thought she could be so thin and small!”\r\n\r\n“She is abominably rude to keep Charlotte out of doors in all this wind.\r\nWhy does she not come in?”\r\n\r\n“Oh, Charlotte says she hardly ever does. It is the greatest of favours\r\nwhen Miss De Bourgh comes in.”\r\n\r\n“I like her appearance,” said Elizabeth, struck with other ideas. “She\r\nlooks sickly and cross. Yes, she will do for him very well. She will\r\nmake him a very proper wife.”\r\n\r\nMr. Collins and Charlotte were both standing at the gate in conversation\r\nwith the ladies; and Sir William, to Elizabeth’s high diversion, was\r\nstationed in the doorway, in earnest contemplation of the greatness\r\nbefore him, and constantly bowing whenever Miss De Bourgh looked that\r\nway.\r\n\r\nAt length there was nothing more to be said; the ladies drove on, and\r\nthe others returned into the house. Mr. Collins no sooner saw the two\r\ngirls than he began to congratulate them on their good fortune, which\r\nCharlotte explained by letting them know that the whole party was asked\r\nto dine at Rosings the next day.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     ‘Lady Catherine, said she, you have given me a treasure.’\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXIX.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nMr. Collins’s triumph, in consequence of this invitation, was complete.\r\nThe power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering\r\nvisitors, and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his\r\nwife, was exactly what he had wished for; and that an opportunity of\r\ndoing it should be given so soon was such an instance of Lady\r\nCatherine’s condescension as he knew not how to admire enough.\r\n\r\n“I confess,” said he, “that I should not have been at all surprised by\r\nher Ladyship’s asking us on Sunday to drink tea and spend the evening\r\nat Rosings. I rather expected, from my knowledge of her affability, that\r\nit would happen. But who could have foreseen such an attention as this?\r\nWho could have imagined that we should receive an invitation to dine\r\nthere (an invitation, moreover, including the whole party) so\r\nimmediately after your arrival?”\r\n\r\n“I am the less surprised at what has happened,” replied Sir William,\r\n“from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are, which\r\nmy situation in life has allowed me to acquire. About the court, such\r\ninstances of elegant breeding are not uncommon.”\r\n\r\nScarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning but their\r\nvisit to Rosings. Mr. Collins was carefully instructing them in what\r\nthey were to expect, that the sight of such rooms, so many servants, and\r\nso splendid a dinner, might not wholly overpower them.\r\n\r\nWhen the ladies were separating for the toilette, he said to\r\nElizabeth,--\r\n\r\n“Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady\r\nCatherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which\r\nbecomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on\r\nwhatever of your clothes is superior to the rest--there is no occasion\r\nfor anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for\r\nbeing simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank\r\npreserved.”\r\n\r\nWhile they were dressing, he came two or three times to their different\r\ndoors, to recommend their being quick, as Lady Catherine very much\r\nobjected to be kept waiting for her dinner. Such formidable accounts of\r\nher Ladyship, and her manner of living, quite frightened Maria Lucas,\r\nwho had been little used to company; and she looked forward to her\r\nintroduction at Rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done\r\nto his presentation at St. James’s.\r\n\r\nAs the weather was fine, they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile\r\nacross the park. Every park has its beauty and its prospects; and\r\nElizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though she could not be in such\r\nraptures as Mr. Collins expected the scene to inspire, and was but\r\nslightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the\r\nhouse, and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally\r\ncost Sir Lewis de Bourgh.\r\n\r\nWhen they ascended the steps to the hall, Maria’s alarm was every moment\r\nincreasing, and even Sir William did not look perfectly calm.\r\nElizabeth’s courage did not fail her."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREYTMYM5H9026MPV0AJMX","peer_label":"sir william lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY7G184NZ401P9V4JV87","peer_label":"lady catherine de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF826ZSJSKKBWG7SK2KSN","peer_label":"rosings","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZFDNHD81TMSJQPDWV69","peer_label":"charlotte lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6ZWGAT4FYVDEM6VE2E","peer_label":"mr collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF954JRMR1MX0FS25BB9X","peer_label":"maria lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFC0HGAWDYGY0480MZGQA","peer_label":"mrs jenkinson","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF111GQ37KKZWSA5T7428","peer_label":"miss de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0YB65S9YTQA71N6S7T8","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFBRY6V0FJD5MB0AQ08QY","peer_label":"sir lewis de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFS9MNT6TJM4N52H73ZF2","peer_label":"phaeton","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"carriage","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFSP8QX3YBSHXJZ7CHXKW","peer_label":"st jamess","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFSBVD6EVTEWKGRMBKY4G","peer_label":"collinss residence","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"house","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFT20XRNA95RQBVQW7JGC","peer_label":"chapter xxix","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:03.111Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.254Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:30:04.161Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}