“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.”
“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?”
“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 hers.While in their cradles, we planned the union: and now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished is 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?”