“Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible.”
“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.”
“Tell me once for all,are you engaged to him?”
“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.”
“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.”
Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment,and then replied:
“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?”