“My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me.My avowed one, or what I avowed to myself,was to see whether your sister were still partial to Bingley,and if she were,to make the confession to him which I have since made.”
“I must trouble you once more for congratulations. Elizabeth will soon be the wife of Mr. Darcy. Console Lady Catherine as well as you can.But,if I were you,I would stand by the nephew. He has more to give.
“Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection,and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible;and,in return,it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be;and I shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last?What made you so shy of me,when you first called,and afterwards dined here?Why,especially,when you called,did you look as if you did not care about me?”
“But I was embarrassed.”
“I cannot fix on the hour,or the spot,or the look,or the words, which laid the foundation.It is too long ago.I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
Mr. Darcy's letter to Lady Catherine was in a different style;and still different from either was what Mr.Bennet sent to Mr. Collins,in reply to his last.