{"id":"01KJRRE0TH973SM6SEVRP3CKSB","cid":"bafkreig7kagz46vhx3ynqhxpv5gdeckbonvddfbdybr4vnbholvan6u4te","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":705545,"char_start":697586,"chunk_index":98,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1990,"label":"couple into your house as soon as they were marrie","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"couple into your house as soon as they were married. It was an\r\nencouragement of vice; and had I been the rector of Longbourn, I should\r\nvery strenuously have opposed it. You ought certainly to forgive them as\r\na Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their\r\nnames to be mentioned in your hearing.’ _That_ is his notion of\r\nChristian forgiveness! The rest of his letter is only about his dear\r\nCharlotte’s situation, and his expectation of a young olive-branch. But,\r\nLizzy, you look as if you did not enjoy it. You are not going to be\r\n_missish_, I hope, and pretend to be affronted at an idle report. For\r\nwhat do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them\r\nin our turn?”\r\n\r\n“Oh,” cried Elizabeth, “I am exceedingly diverted. But it is so\r\nstrange!”\r\n\r\n“Yes, _that_ is what makes it amusing. Had they fixed on any other man\r\nit would have been nothing; but _his_ perfect indifference and _your_\r\npointed dislike make it so delightfully absurd! Much as I abominate\r\nwriting, I would not give up Mr. Collins’s correspondence for any\r\nconsideration. Nay, when I read a letter of his, I cannot help giving\r\nhim the preference even over Wickham, much as I value the impudence and\r\nhypocrisy of my son-in-law. And pray, Lizzy, what said Lady Catherine\r\nabout this report? Did she call to refuse her consent?”\r\n\r\nTo this question his daughter replied only with a laugh; and as it had\r\nbeen asked without the least suspicion, she was not distressed by his\r\nrepeating it. Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her\r\nfeelings appear what they were not. It was necessary to laugh when she\r\nwould rather have cried. Her father had most cruelly mortified her by\r\nwhat he said of Mr. Darcy’s indifference; and she could do nothing but\r\nwonder at such a want of penetration, or fear that, perhaps, instead of\r\nhis seeing too _little_, she might have fancied too _much_.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n“The efforts of his aunt”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER LVIII.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nInstead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend, as\r\nElizabeth half expected Mr. Bingley to do, he was able to bring Darcy\r\nwith him to Longbourn before many days had passed after Lady Catherine’s\r\nvisit. The gentlemen arrived early; and, before Mrs. Bennet had time to\r\ntell him of their having seen his aunt, of which her daughter sat in\r\nmomentary dread, Bingley, who wanted to be alone with Jane, proposed\r\ntheir all walking out. It was agreed to. Mrs. Bennet was not in the\r\nhabit of walking, Mary could never spare time, but the remaining five\r\nset off together. Bingley and Jane, however, soon allowed the others to\r\noutstrip them. They lagged behind, while Elizabeth, Kitty, and Darcy\r\nwere to entertain each other. Very little was said by either; Kitty was\r\ntoo much afraid of him to talk; Elizabeth was secretly forming a\r\ndesperate resolution; and, perhaps, he might be doing the same.\r\n\r\nThey walked towards the Lucases’, because Kitty wished to call upon\r\nMaria; and as Elizabeth saw no occasion for making it a general concern,\r\nwhen Kitty left them she went boldly on with him alone. Now was the\r\nmoment for her resolution to be executed; and while her courage was\r\nhigh, she immediately said,--\r\n\r\n“Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature, and for the sake of giving\r\nrelief to my own feelings care not how much I may be wounding yours. I\r\ncan no longer help thanking you for your unexampled kindness to my poor\r\nsister. Ever since I have known it I have been most anxious to\r\nacknowledge to you how gratefully I feel it. Were it known to the rest\r\nof my family I should not have merely my own gratitude to express.”\r\n\r\n“I am sorry, exceedingly sorry,” replied Darcy, in a tone of surprise\r\nand emotion, “that you have ever been informed of what may, in a\r\nmistaken light, have given you uneasiness. I did not think Mrs. Gardiner\r\nwas so little to be trusted.”\r\n\r\n“You must not blame my aunt. Lydia’s thoughtlessness first betrayed to\r\nme that you had been concerned in the matter; and, of course, I could\r\nnot rest till I knew the particulars. Let me thank you again and again,\r\nin the name of all my family, for that generous compassion which induced\r\nyou to take so much trouble, and bear so many mortifications, for the\r\nsake of discovering them.”\r\n\r\n“If you _will_ thank me,” he replied, “let it be for yourself alone.\r\nThat the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other\r\ninducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your\r\n_family_ owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought\r\nonly of _you_.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause,\r\nher companion added, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your\r\nfeelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. _My_\r\naffections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence\r\nme on this subject for ever.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of\r\nhis situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not\r\nvery fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone\r\nso material a change since the period to which he alluded, as to make\r\nher receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances. The\r\nhappiness which this reply produced was such as he had probably never\r\nfelt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as\r\nwarmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do. Had Elizabeth\r\nbeen able to encounter his eyes, she might have seen how well the\r\nexpression of heartfelt delight diffused over his face became him: but\r\nthough she could not look she could listen; and he told her of feelings\r\nwhich, in proving of what importance she was to him, made his affection\r\nevery moment more valuable.\r\n\r\nThey walked on without knowing in what direction. There was too much to\r\nbe thought, and felt, and said, for attention to any other objects. She\r\nsoon learnt that they were indebted for their present good understanding\r\nto the efforts of his aunt, who _did_ call on him in her return through\r\nLondon, and there relate her journey to Longbourn, its motive, and the\r\nsubstance of her conversation with Elizabeth; dwelling emphatically on\r\nevery expression of the latter, which, in her Ladyship’s apprehension,\r\npeculiarly denoted her perverseness and assurance, in the belief that\r\nsuch a relation must assist her endeavours to obtain that promise from\r\nher nephew which _she_ had refused to give. But, unluckily for her\r\nLadyship, its effect had been exactly contrariwise.\r\n\r\n“It taught me to hope,” said he, “as I had scarcely ever allowed myself\r\nto hope before. I knew enough of your disposition to be certain, that\r\nhad you been absolutely, irrevocably decided against me, you would have\r\nacknowledged it to Lady Catherine frankly and openly.”\r\n\r\nElizabeth coloured and laughed as she replied, “Yes, you know enough of\r\nmy _frankness_ to believe me capable of _that_. After abusing you so\r\nabominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all\r\nyour relations.”\r\n\r\n“What did you say of me that I did not deserve? For though your\r\naccusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises, my behaviour\r\nto you at the time had merited the severest reproof. It was\r\nunpardonable. I cannot think of it without abhorrence.”\r\n\r\n“We will not quarrel for the greater share of blame annexed to that\r\nevening,” said Elizabeth. “The conduct of neither, if strictly\r\nexamined, will be irreproachable; but since then we have both, I hope,\r\nimproved in civility.”\r\n\r\n“I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I\r\nthen said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of\r\nit, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your\r\nreproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: ‘Had you behaved in a\r\nmore gentlemanlike manner.’ Those were your words."},"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":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6ZWGAT4FYVDEM6VE2E","peer_label":"mr collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYS51T78NJZ45CYXSXS9","peer_label":"george wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY7G184NZ401P9V4JV87","peer_label":"lady catherine de bourgh","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW2V9QH9GNRQRJT67GK","peer_label":"mr bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSAZT646RSHT9C5XPKR","peer_label":"mrs gardiner","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZJBEM6MWHW485H9DS9F","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6RHWPTVXJ7SHB3NE6F","peer_label":"lydia bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY5SSJCQ67QYG0XTG9A8","peer_label":"mr bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0VGMTTKPRSDMPY969CW","peer_label":"longbourn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY4KCKYKYTFBWSNR6EZ0","peer_label":"kitty bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYT564P5405ZE4Q76ZF5","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF954JRMR1MX0FS25BB9X","peer_label":"maria lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF7HVCDF1H7B2RWG54Q0T","peer_label":"london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYRAPBAR593DJKHRVWY2","peer_label":"george allen","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"organization","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFH24ZM3VNXDJY9TG1GWQ","peer_label":"charlotte lucas collins","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFHWA02329548GAVZYC3D","peer_label":"lucases house","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFHTZ1XSE0P5TKSG2C316","peer_label":"chapter lviii","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_chapter","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJ03NKAKGTXFQ7BKR2WM","peer_label":"1894","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFHYAWQGY27D2QETCE4QB","peer_label":"illustration","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.355Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.393Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:53.967Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}