{"id":"01KJRRE0T8JYMWS69488Z7DQH9","cid":"bafkreihegcakndvztexu55erncshpnyvhmgtk7kzgf2pix6yipetnpiq4e","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":669881,"char_start":661965,"chunk_index":93,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1979,"label":"“Oh! hang Kitty! what has she to do with it? Com","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"\r\n“Oh! hang Kitty! what has she to do with it? Come, be quick, be quick!\r\nwhere is your sash, my dear?”\r\n\r\nBut when her mother was gone, Jane would not be prevailed on to go down\r\nwithout one of her sisters.\r\n\r\nThe same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the\r\nevening. After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his\r\ncustom, and Mary went upstairs to her instrument. Two obstacles of the\r\nfive being thus removed, Mrs. Bennet sat looking and winking at\r\nElizabeth and Catherine for a considerable time, without making any\r\nimpression on them. Elizabeth would not observe her; and when at last\r\nKitty did, she very innocently said, “What is the matter, mamma? What do\r\nyou keep winking at me for? What am I to do?”\r\n\r\n“Nothing, child, nothing. I did not wink at you.” She then sat still\r\nfive minutes longer; but unable to waste such a precious occasion, she\r\nsuddenly got up, and saying to Kitty,--\r\n\r\n“Come here, my love, I want to speak to you,” took her out of the room.\r\nJane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth which spoke her distress at such\r\npremeditation, and her entreaty that _she_ would not give in to it. In a\r\nfew minutes, Mrs. Bennet half opened the door and called out,--\r\n\r\n“Lizzy, my dear, I want to speak with you.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth was forced to go.\r\n\r\n“We may as well leave them by themselves, you know,” said her mother as\r\nsoon as she was in the hall. “Kitty and I are going upstairs to sit in\r\nmy dressing-room.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother, but remained\r\nquietly in the hall till she and Kitty were out of sight, then returned\r\ninto the drawing-room.\r\n\r\nMrs. Bennet’s schemes for this day were ineffectual. Bingley was\r\neverything that was charming, except the professed lover of her\r\ndaughter. His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable\r\naddition to their evening party; and he bore with the ill-judged\r\nofficiousness of the mother, and heard all her silly remarks with a\r\nforbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the\r\ndaughter.\r\n\r\nHe scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper; and before he went away\r\nan engagement was formed, chiefly through his own and Mrs. Bennet’s\r\nmeans, for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband.\r\n\r\nAfter this day, Jane said no more of her indifference. Not a word passed\r\nbetween the sisters concerning Bingley; but Elizabeth went to bed in the\r\nhappy belief that all must speedily be concluded, unless Mr. Darcy\r\nreturned within the stated time. Seriously, however, she felt tolerably\r\npersuaded that all this must have taken place with that gentleman’s\r\nconcurrence.\r\n\r\nBingley was punctual to his appointment; and he and Mr. Bennet spent the\r\nmorning together, as had been agreed on. The latter was much more\r\nagreeable than his companion expected. There was nothing of presumption\r\nor folly in Bingley that could provoke his ridicule, or disgust him into\r\nsilence; and he was more communicative, and less eccentric, than the\r\nother had ever seen him. Bingley of course returned with him to dinner;\r\nand in the evening Mrs. Bennet’s invention was again at work to get\r\neverybody away from him and her daughter. Elizabeth, who had a letter to\r\nwrite, went into the breakfast-room for that purpose soon after tea; for\r\nas the others were all going to sit down to cards, she could not be\r\nwanted to counteract her mother’s schemes.\r\n\r\nBut on her returning to the drawing-room, when her letter was finished,\r\nshe saw, to her infinite surprise, there was reason to fear that her\r\nmother had been too ingenious for her. On opening the door, she\r\nperceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth, as\r\nif engaged in earnest conversation; and had this led to no suspicion,\r\nthe faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away from each\r\nother, would have told it all. _Their_ situation was awkward enough; but\r\n_hers_ she thought was still worse. Not a syllable was uttered by\r\neither; and Elizabeth was on the point of going away again, when\r\nBingley, who as well as the other had sat down, suddenly rose, and,\r\nwhispering a few words to her sister, ran out of the room.\r\n\r\nJane could have no reserves from Elizabeth, where confidence would give\r\npleasure; and, instantly embracing her, acknowledged, with the liveliest\r\nemotion, that she was the happiest creature in the world.\r\n\r\n“’Tis too much!” she added, “by far too much. I do not deserve it. Oh,\r\nwhy is not everybody as happy?”\r\n\r\nElizabeth’s congratulations were given with a sincerity, a warmth, a\r\ndelight, which words could but poorly express. Every sentence of\r\nkindness was a fresh source of happiness to Jane. But she would not\r\nallow herself to stay with her sister, or say half that remained to be\r\nsaid, for the present.\r\n\r\n“I must go instantly to my mother,” she cried. “I would not on any\r\naccount trifle with her affectionate solicitude, or allow her to hear it\r\nfrom anyone but myself. He is gone to my father already. Oh, Lizzy, to\r\nknow that what I have to relate will give such pleasure to all my dear\r\nfamily! how shall I bear so much happiness?”\r\n\r\nShe then hastened away to her mother, who had purposely broken up the\r\ncard-party, and was sitting upstairs with Kitty.\r\n\r\nElizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity and ease\r\nwith which an affair was finally settled, that had given them so many\r\nprevious months of suspense and vexation.\r\n\r\n“And this,” said she, “is the end of all his friend’s anxious\r\ncircumspection! of all his sister’s falsehood and contrivance! the\r\nhappiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!”\r\n\r\nIn a few minutes she was joined by Bingley, whose conference with her\r\nfather had been short and to the purpose.\r\n\r\n“Where is your sister?” said he hastily, as he opened the door.\r\n\r\n“With my mother upstairs. She will be down in a moment, I dare say.”\r\n\r\nHe then shut the door, and, coming up to her, claimed the good wishes\r\nand affection of a sister. Elizabeth honestly and heartily expressed her\r\ndelight in the prospect of their relationship. They shook hands with\r\ngreat cordiality; and then, till her sister came down, she had to listen\r\nto all he had to say of his own happiness, and of Jane’s perfections;\r\nand in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed all his\r\nexpectations of felicity to be rationally founded, because they had for\r\nbasis the excellent understanding and super-excellent disposition of\r\nJane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and\r\nhimself.\r\n\r\nIt was an evening of no common delight to them all; the satisfaction of\r\nMiss Bennet’s mind gave such a glow of sweet animation to her face, as\r\nmade her look handsomer than ever. Kitty simpered and smiled, and hoped\r\nher turn was coming soon. Mrs. Bennet could not give her consent, or\r\nspeak her approbation in terms warm enough to satisfy her feelings,\r\nthough she talked to Bingley of nothing else, for half an hour; and when\r\nMr. Bennet joined them at supper, his voice and manner plainly showed\r\nhow really happy he was.\r\n\r\nNot a word, however, passed his lips in allusion to it, till their\r\nvisitor took his leave for the night; but as soon as he was gone, he\r\nturned to his daughter and said,--\r\n\r\n“Jane, I congratulate you. You will be a very happy woman.”\r\n\r\nJane went to him instantly, kissed him, and thanked him for his\r\ngoodness.\r\n\r\n“You are a good girl,” he replied, “and I have great pleasure in\r\nthinking you will be so happily settled. I have not a doubt of your\r\ndoing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are\r\neach of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on; so\r\neasy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will\r\nalways exceed your income.”\r\n\r\n“I hope not so. Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be\r\nunpardonable in _me_.”\r\n\r\n“Exceed their income! My dear Mr. Bennet,” cried his wife, “what are you\r\ntalking of?"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREY63WYEJRTN7FS2QXC2P","peer_label":"mary bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW2V9QH9GNRQRJT67GK","peer_label":"mr bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYT564P5405ZE4Q76ZF5","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0886HKAEXJPHPK5R594","peer_label":"charles bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZJBEM6MWHW485H9DS9F","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF73BA0P949BTWMCEFX09","peer_label":"charming","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF7049YZC3K3WA2H5J1ED","peer_label":"catherine bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF725G6Z03TAG1HCE9J8T","peer_label":"engagement of jane and bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF72VMNFF7VNWA2FN9AAB","peer_label":"mrs bennets schemes matchmaking","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF724T06Q5C8AT27EZ1YA","peer_label":"bennet household","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"residence","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:42.440Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.384Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:43.264Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}