“If, therefore, an excuse for not keeping his promise should come to his friend within a few days,”she added,“I shall know how to understand it. I shall then give over every expectation, every wish of his constancy.If he is satisfied with only regretting me,when he might have obtained my affections and hand,I shall soon cease to regret him at all.”
In revolving Lady Catherine's expressions,however,she could not help feeling some uneasiness as to the possible consequence of her persisting in this interference.From what she had said of her resolution to prevent their marriage,it occurred to Elizabeth that she must meditate an application to her nephew; and how he might take a similar representation of the evils attached to a connection with her, she dared not pronounce. She knew not the exact degree of his affection for his aunt,or his dependence on her judgment,but it was natural to suppose that he thought much higher of her ladyship than she could do;and it was certain that,in enumerating the miseries of a marriage with one,whose immediate connections were so unequal to his own, his aunt would address him on his weakest side. With his notions of dignity, he would probably feel that the arguments, which to Elizabeth had appeared weak and ridiculous, contained much good sense and solid reasoning.