{"id":"01KJRRE0PHACSNNPB51DT5CDT9","cid":"bafkreifm634p4rd7kmc67tx5b6zbeyvydlpbthdas3ic5y2dtmove7jvvm","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":391766,"char_start":383769,"chunk_index":54,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":2000,"label":"scruples that had long prevented my forming any se","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These\r\nbitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater\r\npolicy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my\r\nbeing impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by\r\nreflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence.\r\nNor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just.\r\nCould you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your\r\nconnections?--to congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose\r\ncondition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”\r\n\r\nElizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she tried to\r\nthe utmost to speak with composure when she said,--\r\n\r\n“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your\r\ndeclaration affected me in any other way than as it spared me the\r\nconcern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a\r\nmore gentlemanlike manner.”\r\n\r\nShe saw him start at this; but he said nothing, and she continued,--\r\n\r\n“You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way\r\nthat would have tempted me to accept it.”\r\n\r\nAgain his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with an\r\nexpression of mingled incredulity and mortification. She went on,--\r\n\r\n“From the very beginning, from the first moment, I may almost say, of my\r\nacquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest\r\nbelief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the\r\nfeelings of others, were such as to form that groundwork of\r\ndisapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a\r\ndislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the\r\nlast man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”\r\n\r\n“You have said quite enough, madam. I perfectly comprehend your\r\nfeelings, and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been.\r\nForgive me for having taken up so much of your time, and accept my best\r\nwishes for your health and happiness.”\r\n\r\nAnd with these words he hastily left the room, and Elizabeth heard him\r\nthe next moment open the front door and quit the house. The tumult of\r\nher mind was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself,\r\nand, from actual weakness, sat down and cried for half an hour. Her\r\nastonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by\r\nevery review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from\r\nMr. Darcy! that he should have been in love with her for so many months!\r\nso much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections\r\nwhich had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which\r\nmust appear at least with equal force in his own case, was almost\r\nincredible! it was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong\r\nan affection. But his pride, his abominable pride, his shameless avowal\r\nof what he had done with respect to Jane, his unpardonable assurance in\r\nacknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner\r\nwhich he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not\r\nattempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his\r\nattachment had for a moment excited.\r\n\r\nShe continued in very agitating reflections till the sound of Lady\r\nCatherine’s carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter\r\nCharlotte’s observation, and hurried her away to her room.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n“Hearing herself called”\r\n]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXXV.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nElizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and meditations\r\nwhich had at length closed her eyes. She could not yet recover from the\r\nsurprise of what had happened: it was impossible to think of anything\r\nelse; and, totally indisposed for employment, she resolved soon after\r\nbreakfast to indulge herself in air and exercise. She was proceeding\r\ndirectly to her favourite walk, when the recollection of Mr. Darcy’s\r\nsometimes coming there stopped her, and instead of entering the park,\r\nshe turned up the lane which led her farther from the turnpike road. The\r\npark paling was still the boundary on one side, and she soon passed one\r\nof the gates into the ground.\r\n\r\nAfter walking two or three times along that part of the lane, she was\r\ntempted, by the pleasantness of the morning, to stop at the gates and\r\nlook into the park. The five weeks which she had now passed in Kent had\r\nmade a great difference in the country, and every day was adding to the\r\nverdure of the early trees. She was on the point of continuing her\r\nwalk, when she caught a glimpse of a gentleman within the sort of grove\r\nwhich edged the park: he was moving that way; and fearful of its being\r\nMr. Darcy, she was directly retreating. But the person who advanced was\r\nnow near enough to see her, and stepping forward with eagerness,\r\npronounced her name. She had turned away; but on hearing herself called,\r\nthough in a voice which proved it to be Mr. Darcy, she moved again\r\ntowards the gate. He had by that time reached it also; and, holding out\r\na letter, which she instinctively took, said, with a look of haughty\r\ncomposure, “I have been walking in the grove some time, in the hope of\r\nmeeting you. Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?” and\r\nthen, with a slight bow, turned again into the plantation, and was soon\r\nout of sight.\r\n\r\nWith no expectation of pleasure, but with the strongest curiosity,\r\nElizabeth opened the letter, and to her still increasing wonder,\r\nperceived an envelope containing two sheets of letter paper, written\r\nquite through, in a very close hand. The envelope itself was likewise\r\nfull. Pursuing her way along the lane, she then began it. It was dated\r\nfrom Rosings, at eight o’clock in the morning, and was as follows:--\r\n\r\n“Be not alarmed, madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of\r\nits containing any repetition of those sentiments, or renewal of those\r\noffers, which were last night so disgusting to you. I write without any\r\nintention of paining you, or humbling myself, by dwelling on wishes,\r\nwhich, for the happiness of both, cannot be too soon forgotten; and the\r\neffort which the formation and the perusal of this letter must occasion,\r\nshould have been spared, had not my character required it to be written\r\nand read. You must, therefore, pardon the freedom with which I demand\r\nyour attention; your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly, but I\r\ndemand it of your justice.\r\n\r\n“Two offences of a very different nature, and by no means of equal\r\nmagnitude, you last night laid to my charge. The first mentioned was,\r\nthat, regardless of the sentiments of either, I had detached Mr. Bingley\r\nfrom your sister,--and the other, that I had, in defiance of various\r\nclaims, in defiance of honour and humanity, ruined the immediate\r\nprosperity and blasted the prospects of Mr. Wickham. Wilfully and\r\nwantonly to have thrown off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged\r\nfavourite of my father, a young man who had scarcely any other\r\ndependence than on our patronage, and who had been brought up to expect\r\nits exertion, would be a depravity, to which the separation of two young\r\npersons whose affection could be the growth of only a few weeks, could\r\nbear no comparison. But from the severity of that blame which was last\r\nnight so liberally bestowed, respecting each circumstance, I shall hope\r\nto be in future secured, when the following account of my actions and\r\ntheir motives has been read. If, in the explanation of them which is due\r\nto myself, I am under the necessity of relating feelings which may be\r\noffensive to yours, I can only say that I am sorry. The necessity must\r\nbe obeyed, and further apology would be absurd. I had not been long in\r\nHertfordshire before I saw, in common with others, that Bingley\r\npreferred your elder sister to any other young woman in the country. But\r\nit was not till the evening of the dance at Netherfield that I had any\r\napprehension of his feeling a serious attachment."},"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":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF9YT9F8Z9BAXYRC3SHK6","peer_label":"fitzwilliam darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYS51T78NJZ45CYXSXS9","peer_label":"george wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0886HKAEXJPHPK5R594","peer_label":"charles bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY7G184NZ401P9V4JV87","peer_label":"lady catherine de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZFDNHD81TMSJQPDWV69","peer_label":"charlotte lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF91J7212QSPKP6Q7S0NC","peer_label":"kent","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF153TPWJAW8CQK8BJTFG","peer_label":"rosings park","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJMH9SRRJSGJ20M79HMM","peer_label":"marriage proposal darcy to elizabeth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJREHJ94ASJ9F8K9H9T7","peer_label":"chapter xxxv","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJV05JZMJFG32FZ5DMNV","peer_label":"netherfield park","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJQRH4873CF2A57H3WR6","peer_label":"darcys pride","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"character_trait","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJSMMMJSGJCHQ20N7363","peer_label":"darcys letter to elizabeth","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJXRHANNK33HARNXJTB7","peer_label":"dance at netherfield","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:54.473Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.265Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:55.259Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}