{"id":"01KJRRE0P6XA39PA7X7PCPEA4M","cid":"bafkreiewpu74v6ev2qbfyy2vhimjch53kv4jy47hzexuognhaxp24lw7ra","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":342394,"char_start":334555,"chunk_index":47,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1960,"label":"have been quite a slave to your education.”\r \r Eli","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"have been quite a slave to your education.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth could hardly help smiling, as she assured her that had not\r\nbeen the case.\r\n\r\n“Then who taught you? who attended to you? Without a governess, you must\r\nhave been neglected.”\r\n\r\n“Compared with some families, I believe we were; but such of us as\r\nwished to learn never wanted the means. We were always encouraged to\r\nread, and had all the masters that were necessary. Those who chose to be\r\nidle certainly might.”\r\n\r\n“Ay, no doubt: but that is what a governess will prevent; and if I had\r\nknown your mother, I should have advised her most strenuously to engage\r\none. I always say that nothing is to be done in education without steady\r\nand regular instruction, and nobody but a governess can give it. It is\r\nwonderful how many families I have been the means of supplying in that\r\nway. I am always glad to get a young person well placed out. Four nieces\r\nof Mrs. Jenkinson are most delightfully situated through my means; and\r\nit was but the other day that I recommended another young person, who\r\nwas merely accidentally mentioned to me, and the family are quite\r\ndelighted with her. Mrs. Collins, did I tell you of Lady Metcalfe’s\r\ncalling yesterday to thank me? She finds Miss Pope a treasure. ‘Lady\r\nCatherine,’ said she, ‘you have given me a treasure.’ Are any of your\r\nyounger sisters out, Miss Bennet?”\r\n\r\n“Yes, ma’am, all.”\r\n\r\n“All! What, all five out at once? Very odd! And you only the second. The\r\nyounger ones out before the elder are married! Your younger sisters must\r\nbe very young?”\r\n\r\n“Yes, my youngest is not sixteen. Perhaps _she_ is full young to be much\r\nin company. But really, ma’am, I think it would be very hard upon\r\nyounger sisters that they should not have their share of society and\r\namusement, because the elder may not have the means or inclination to\r\nmarry early. The last born has as good a right to the pleasures of youth\r\nas the first. And to be kept back on _such_ a motive! I think it would\r\nnot be very likely to promote sisterly affection or delicacy of mind.”\r\n\r\n“Upon my word,” said her Ladyship, “you give your opinion very decidedly\r\nfor so young a person. Pray, what is your age?”\r\n\r\n“With three younger sisters grown up,” replied Elizabeth, smiling, “your\r\nLadyship can hardly expect me to own it.”\r\n\r\nLady Catherine seemed quite astonished at not receiving a direct answer;\r\nand Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever\r\ndared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.\r\n\r\n“You cannot be more than twenty, I am sure,--therefore you need not\r\nconceal your age.”\r\n\r\n“I am not one-and-twenty.”\r\n\r\nWhen the gentlemen had joined them, and tea was over, the card tables\r\nwere placed. Lady Catherine, Sir William, and Mr. and Mrs. Collins sat\r\ndown to quadrille; and as Miss De Bourgh chose to play at cassino, the\r\ntwo girls had the honour of assisting Mrs. Jenkinson to make up her\r\nparty. Their table was superlatively stupid. Scarcely a syllable was\r\nuttered that did not relate to the game, except when Mrs. Jenkinson\r\nexpressed her fears of Miss De Bourgh’s being too hot or too cold, or\r\nhaving too much or too little light. A great deal more passed at the\r\nother table. Lady Catherine was generally speaking--stating the mistakes\r\nof the three others, or relating some anecdote of herself. Mr. Collins\r\nwas employed in agreeing to everything her Ladyship said, thanking her\r\nfor every fish he won, and apologizing if he thought he won too many.\r\nSir William did not say much. He was storing his memory with anecdotes\r\nand noble names.\r\n\r\nWhen Lady Catherine and her daughter had played as long as they chose,\r\nthe tables were broken up, the carriage was offered to Mrs. Collins,\r\ngratefully accepted, and immediately ordered. The party then gathered\r\nround the fire to hear Lady Catherine determine what weather they were\r\nto have on the morrow. From these instructions they were summoned by the\r\narrival of the coach; and with many speeches of thankfulness on Mr.\r\nCollins’s side, and as many bows on Sir William’s, they departed. As\r\nsoon as they had driven from the door, Elizabeth was called on by her\r\ncousin to give her opinion of all that she had seen at Rosings, which,\r\nfor Charlotte’s sake, she made more favourable than it really was. But\r\nher commendation, though costing her some trouble, could by no means\r\nsatisfy Mr. Collins, and he was very soon obliged to take her Ladyship’s\r\npraise into his own hands.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXX.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nSir William stayed only a week at Hunsford; but his visit was long\r\nenough to convince him of his daughter’s being most comfortably settled,\r\nand of her possessing such a husband and such a neighbour as were not\r\noften met with. While Sir William was with them, Mr. Collins devoted his\r\nmornings to driving him out in his gig, and showing him the country: but\r\nwhen he went away, the whole family returned to their usual employments,\r\nand Elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of her\r\ncousin by the alteration; for the chief of the time between breakfast\r\nand dinner was now passed by him either at work in the garden, or in\r\nreading and writing, and looking out of window in his own book room,\r\nwhich fronted the road. The room in which the ladies sat was backwards.\r\nElizabeth at first had rather wondered that Charlotte should not prefer\r\nthe dining parlour for common use; it was a better sized room, and had a\r\npleasanter aspect: but she soon saw that her friend had an excellent\r\nreason for what she did, for Mr. Collins would undoubtedly have been\r\nmuch less in his own apartment had they sat in one equally lively; and\r\nshe gave Charlotte credit for the arrangement.\r\n\r\nFrom the drawing-room they could distinguish nothing in the lane, and\r\nwere indebted to Mr. Collins for the knowledge of what carriages went\r\nalong, and how often especially Miss De Bourgh drove by in her phaeton,\r\nwhich he never failed coming to inform them of, though it happened\r\nalmost every day. She not unfrequently stopped at the Parsonage, and had\r\na few minutes’ conversation with Charlotte, but was scarcely ever\r\nprevailed on to get out.\r\n\r\nVery few days passed in which Mr. Collins did not walk to Rosings, and\r\nnot many in which his wife did not think it necessary to go likewise;\r\nand till Elizabeth recollected that there might be other family livings\r\nto be disposed of, she could not understand the sacrifice of so many\r\nhours. Now and then they were honoured with a call from her Ladyship,\r\nand nothing escaped her observation that was passing in the room during\r\nthese visits. She examined into their employments, looked at their work,\r\nand advised them to do it differently; found fault with the arrangement\r\nof the furniture, or detected the housemaid in negligence; and if she\r\naccepted any refreshment, seemed to do it only for the sake of finding\r\nout that Mrs. Collins’s joints of meat were too large for her family.\r\n\r\nElizabeth soon perceived, that though this great lady was not in the\r\ncommission of the peace for the county, she was a most active magistrate\r\nin her own parish, the minutest concerns of which were carried to her by\r\nMr. Collins; and whenever any of the cottagers were disposed to be\r\nquarrelsome, discontented, or too poor, she sallied forth into the\r\nvillage to settle their differences, silence their complaints, and scold\r\nthem into harmony and plenty.\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “he never failed to inform them”\r\n]\r\n\r\nThe entertainment of dining at Rosings was repeated about twice a week;\r\nand, allowing for the loss of Sir William, and there being only one\r\ncard-table in the evening, every such entertainment was the counterpart\r\nof the first. Their other engagements were few, as the style of living\r\nof the neighbourhood in general was beyond the Collinses’ reach."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY7G184NZ401P9V4JV87","peer_label":"lady catherine de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFC0HGAWDYGY0480MZGQA","peer_label":"mrs jenkinson","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYTMYM5H9026MPV0AJMX","peer_label":"sir william lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFG0K5SREGAFMDG85V7D7","peer_label":"mrs collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6ZWGAT4FYVDEM6VE2E","peer_label":"mr collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF826ZSJSKKBWG7SK2KSN","peer_label":"rosings","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF111GQ37KKZWSA5T7428","peer_label":"miss de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFH1RFZ4DGN75Y0GWAYQR","peer_label":"parsonage","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"residence","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKBGG6Z00H8JJ7J9STPM","peer_label":"education","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKBPWAJTG5TECB3RZVDR","peer_label":"quadrille","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"card_game","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKAXQMDESWS8QDBN1ASM","peer_label":"lady metcalfe","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKC1FY8KNDSD2FSQ2068","peer_label":"miss pope","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKBZMYR2XHSEBQTBDE6N","peer_label":"hunsford","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"parish","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKFSVPTJST5M4EB1EGVR","peer_label":"governess","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"occupation","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKY0K7J3DPF1TQMGZPA8","peer_label":"chapter xxx","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKY4JXFE6X0MGCNZBG2H","peer_label":"cassino","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"card_game","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKZ4PPY6SWP3Q1Y0B262","peer_label":"phaeton","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFKXKXTJV4G0YVK904N1R","peer_label":"cottagers","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"social_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.468Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.254Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:56.492Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}