'...You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.'
'You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.'
'Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.'
'Kitty has no discretion in her coughs,' said her father; 'she times them ill.'
'Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,' said Mr Bennet; and, as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife.
'Oh!' said Lydia stoutly, 'I am not afraid; for though I am the youngest, I'm the tallest.'
'He is also handsome,' replied Elizabeth, 'which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.'
'There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense.' - Elizabeth Bennet
'When I am in the country,' he replied, 'I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same.' - Mr Bingley
'I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!'
'I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,' said Darcy.
'Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Every thing nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.'
Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion. The perpetual commendations of the lady either on his hand-writing or on the evenness of his lines, or on the length of his letter, with the perfect unconcern with which her praises were received, formed a curious dialogue, and was exactly in unison with her opinion of each.
'How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!'
He made no answer.
'You write uncommonly fast.'
'You are mistaken. I write rather slowly.'
'How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of the year! Letters of business too! How odious I should think them!'
'It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of to yours.'
'Nothing is more deceitful,' said Darcy, 'than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.'
'And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?'
'The indirect boast; - for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.'
'There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.'
'And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.'
'And yours,' he replied with a smile, 'is willfully to misunderstand them.'
'You judge very properly,' said Mr Bennet, 'and it is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?'
'They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though I sometimes amuse myself with suggestion and arranging such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible.'
Mr Bennet's expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment, maintaining at the same time the most resolute composure of countenance, and except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure.
Lydia's intention of walking to Meryton was not forgotten; every sister except Mary agreed to go with her; and Mr Collins was to attend them, at the request of Mr Bennet, who was most anxious to get rid of him, and have his library to himself; for thither Mr Collins had followed him after breakfast, and there he would continue, nominally engaged with one of the largest folios in he collection, but really talking to Mr Bennet, with little cessation, of his house and garden at Hunsford. Such doings discomposed Mr Bennet exceedingly. In his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquility; and though prepared, as he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room in the house, he was used to be free from them there...
"...for I have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation." - Mr Collins
"Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" - Elizabeth Bennet
...and the good-natured wishes for her well-doing, which had proceeded before, from all the spiteful old ladies in Meryton, lost but little of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such an husband, her misery was considered certain.
It was a fortnight since Mrs Bennet had been down stairs, but on this happy day, she again took her seat at the head of her table, and in spirits oppressively high.
She was humbled, she was grieved; she repented, though she hardly knew of what. She became jealous of his esteem, when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it. She wanted to hear of him, when there seemed the least chance of gaining intelligence. She was convinced that she could have been happy with him; when it was no longer likely they should meet.
...and more than commonly anxious to please, she naturally suspected that every power of pleasing would fail her.
Their arrival was dreaded by the elder Miss Bennets; and Jane more especially, who gave Lydia the feelings which would have attended herself, had she been the culprit, was wretched in the thought of what her sister must endure.
'He is as fine a fellow,' said Mr Bennet, as soon as they were out of the house, 'as ever I saw. He simpers, and smirks, and makes love to us all. I am prodigiously proud of him. I defy even Sir William Lucas himself, to produce a more valuable son-in-law.'
'I will not spend my hours in running after my neighbors every time they go away, and come back again.' - Mr Bennet
She was in no humour for conversation with any one but himself; and to him she had hardly courage to speak.
As soon as they were gone, Elizabeth walked out to recover her spirits; or in other words, to dwell without interruption on those subjects that must deaden them more.
'That is a question which I hardly know how to answer. We all love to instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth knowing.' - Elizabeth Bennet
'I was sure you could not be so beautiful for nothing!' - Mrs Bennet
'Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.' - Elizabeth Bennet
'Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.' - Elizabeth Bennet
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