Chapter 14

ONE morning, about a week after Bingley's engagement with
Jane had been formed, as he and the females of the family
were sitting together in the dining room," their attention was
suddenly drawn to the window, by the sound of a carriage;
and they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn.  It
was too early in the morning for visitors, and besides, the
equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbours.
The horses were post; and neither the carriage, nor the livery
of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them.  As it
was certain, however, that somebody was coming, Bingley
instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement
of such an intrusion, and walk away with him into the shrubbery.  They both set off, and the conjectures of the remaining
three continued, though with little satisfaction, till the door
was thrown open, and their visitor entered.  It was lady
Catherine de Bourgh.
They were of course all intending to be surprised; but their
astonishment was beyond their expectation; and on the part
of Mrs. Bennet and Kitty, though she was perfectly unknown
to them, even inferior to what Elizabeth felt.
She entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious, made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation, than
a slight inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a
word.  Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother, on
her ladyship's entrance, though no request of introduction
had been made.
Mrs. Bennet all amazement, though flattered by having
a guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost
politeness.  After sitting for a moment in silence, she said very
stiffly to Elizabeth,
 "I hope you are well, Miss Bennet.  That lady I suppose is
your mother."
 Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.
"And that I suppose is one of your sisters."
"Yes, madam," said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to
a lady Catherine.  "She is my youngest gilrl but one.  My
youngest of all, is lately married, and my eldest is somewhere 
about the grounds, walking with a young man, who
I believe will soon become a part of the family."
"You have a very small park here," returned lady Catherine
after a short silence.
"It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say;
but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's."
"This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the
evening, in summer; the windows are full west."
Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after
dinner," and then added,
"May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you
left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well."
"Yes, very well.  I saw them the night before last."
Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for
her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive
for her calling.  But no letter appeared, and she was completely puzzled.
Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to
take some refreshment; but Lady Catherine very resolutely,
and not very politely, declined eating any thing; and then
rising up, said to Elizabeth,
 "Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little
wilderness on one side of your lawn.  I should be glad to take
a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company."
"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and shew her ladyship
about the different walks.  I think she will be pleased with the
hermitage."
Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her
parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs.  As they passed
through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the
dining-parlour and drawing-room, and pronouncing them,
after a short survey, to be decent looking rooms, walked on.
Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that
her waiting-woman was in it.  They proceeded in silence along
the gravel walk that led to the copse; Elizabeth was determined 
to make no effort for conversation with a woman, who
was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable.
"How could I ever think her like her nephew?" said she, as
she looked in her face.
As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began
in the following manner: --
"You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the
reason of my journey hither.  Your own heart, your own 
conscience, must tell you why I come."
Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.
"Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam.  I have not been at all
able to account for the honour of seeing you here."
"Miss Bennet," replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, "you
ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with.  But however
insincere you may choose to be, you shall not find me so.  My
character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly
not depart from it.  A report of a most alarming nature, reached
me two days ago.  I was told, that not only your sister was on
the point of being most advantageously married, but that you,
that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all likelihood, be soon
afterwards united to my nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy.
Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood; though I
would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it
possible, I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that
I might make my sentiments known to you."
"If you believed it impossible to be true," said Elizabeth,
colouring with astonishment and disdain, "I wonder you took
the trouble of coming so far.  What could your ladyship propose 
by it?"
"At once to insist upon having such a report universally
contradicted."
"Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family," said
Elizabeth, coolly, "will be rather a confirmation of it; if, indeed,
such a report is in existence."
"If!  do you then pretend to be ignorant of it?  Has it not been
industriously circulated by yourselves?  Do you not know that
such a report is spread abroad?"
"I never heard that it was."
"And can you likewise declare, that there is no foundation
for it?"
"I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship.  You may ask questions, which I shall not choose to
answer."
"This is not to be borne.  Miss Bennet, I insist on being
satisfied.  Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of
marriage?"
"Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible."
"It ought to be so; it must be so, while he retains the use of
his reason.  But your arts and allurements may, in a moment
of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself
and to all his family.  You may have drawn him in."
"If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it."
"Miss Bennet, do you know who I am?  I have not been
accustomed to such language as this.  I am almost the nearest
relation he has in the world, and am entitled to know all his
dearest concems."
"But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such
behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit."
"Let me be rightly understood.  This match, to which you
have the presumption to aspire, can never take place.  No,
never.  Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter.  Now what have
you to say?"
"Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose 
he will make an offer to me."
Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment, and then replied,
"The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind.  From
their infancy, they have been intended for each other.  It was
the favourite wish of his mother, as well as of her's.  While in
their cradles, we planned the union: and now, at the moment
when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished, in
their marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior
birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to
the family!  Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends?
To his tacit engagement with Miss De Bourgh?  Are you lost
to every feeling of propriety and delicacy?  Have you not heard
me say, that from his earliest hours he was destined for his
cousin?"
"Yes, and I had heard it before.  But what is that to me?  If
there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I
shall certainly not be kept from it, by knowing that his mother
and aunt wished him to marry Miss De Bourgh.  You both did
as much as you could, in planning the marriage.  Its completion depended on others.  If Mr. Darcy is neither by
honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he
to make another choice?  And if I am that choice, why may
not I accept him?"
"Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid
it.  Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed
by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations 
of all.  You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by
every one connected with him.  Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us."
"These are heavy misfortunes," replied Elizabeth.  "But the
wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of
happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could,
upon the whole, have no cause to repine."
"Obstinate, headstrong girl!  I am ashamed of you!  Is this
your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring?  Is nothing
due to me on that score?
 "Let us sit down.  You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that
I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my
purpose; nor will I be dissuaded from it.  I have not been used
to submit to any person's whims.  I have not been in the habit
of brooking disappointment."
"That will make your ladyship's situation at present more
pitiable; but it will have no effect on me."
"I will not be interrupted.  Hear me in silence.  My daughter
and my nephew are formed for each other.  They are descended
on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the
father's, from respectable, honourable, and ancient, though
untitled families.  Their fortune on both sides is splendid.
They are destined for each other by the voice of every member
of their respective houses; and what is to divide them?  The
upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune.  Is this to be endured!  But it must not,
shall not be.  If you were sensible of your own good, you would
not wish to quit the sphere, in which you have been
brought up."
"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself
as quitting that sphere.  He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's
daughter; so far we are equal."
"True.  You are a gentleman's daughter.  But who was your
mother?  Who are your uncles and aunts?  Do not imagine me
ignorant of their condition."
"Whatever my connections may be," said Elizabeth, "if your
nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you."
"Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?"
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of
obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question; she
could not but say, after a moment's deliberation,
"I am not."
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
"And will you promise me, never to enter into such an
engagement?"
"I will make no promise of the kind."
"Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished.  I expected to
find a more reasonable young woman.  But do not deceive
yourself into a belief that I will ever recede.  I shall not go
away, till you have given me the assurance I require."
"And I certainly never shall give it.  I am not to be intimidated 
into anything so wholly unreasonable.  Your ladyship
wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my
giving you the wished-for promise, make their marriage at all
more probable?  Supposing him to be attached to me, would
my refusing to accept his hand, make him wish to bestow it on
his cousin?  Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary
application, have been as frivolous as the application was ill-
judged.  You have widely mistaken my character, if you think
I can be worked on by such persuasions as these.  How far
your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs,
I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine.  I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no
farther on the subject."
"Not so hasty, if you please.  I have by no means done.  To
all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to
add.  I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest
sister's infamous elopement.  I know it all; that the young
man's marrying her, was a patched-up business, at the expence
of your father and uncles.  And is such a girl to be my nephew's
sister?  Is her husband, is the son of his late father's steward,
to be his brother?  Heaven and earth! -- of what are you thinking?  Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
"You can now have nothing farther to say," she resentfully
answered.  "You have insulted me, in every possible method.
I must beg to return to the house."
And she rose as she spoke.  Lady Catherine rose also,
and they turned back.  Her ladyship was highly incensed.
"You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit
of my nephew!  Unfeeling, selfish girl!  Do you not consider
that a connection with you, must disgrace him in the eyes of
everybody?"
 "Lady Catherine, Ihave nothing further to say.  You know
my sentiments."
"You are then resolved to have him?"
"I have said no such thing.  I am only resolved to act in that
manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly
unconnected with me."
"It is well.  You refuse, then, to oblige me.  You refuse to
obey the claims of duty, honour, and gratitude.  You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make
him the contempt of the world."
"Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude," replied Elizabeth, 
"have any possible claim on me, in the present instance.
No principle of either, would be violated by my marriage with
Mr. Darcy.  And with regard to the resentment of his family,
or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by
his marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern
 -- and the world in general would have too much sense to join
in the scorn."
"And this is your real opinion!  This is your final resolve!
Very well.  I shall now know how to act.  Do not imagine, Miss
Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified.  I came to
try you.  I hoped to find you reasonable; but depend upon it
I will carry my point."
In this manner Lady Catherine talked on, till they were at
the door of the carriage, when turning hastily round, she added,
"I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet.  I send no compliments
to your mother.  You deserve no such attention.  I am most
seriously displeased."
Elizabeth made no answer; and without attempting to persuade 
her ladyship to return into the house, walked quietly
into it herself.  She heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded up stairs.  Her mother impatiently met her at the door
of the dressing-room, to ask why Lady Catherine would not
come in again and rest herself.
"She did not choose it," said her daughter, "she would go."
"She is a very fine-looking woman!  and her calling here was
prodigiously civil!  for she only came, I suppose, to tell us the
Collinses were well.  She is on her road somewhere, I dare say,
and so passing through Meryton, thought she might as well
call on you.  I suppose she had nothing particular to say to
you, Lizzy?"
Elizabeth was forced to give into a little falsehood here;
for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was
impossible.