“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.”
“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.
“I am more likely to want more time than courage,Elizabeth. But it ought to be done,and if you will give me a sheet of paper,it shall be done directly.”
Elizabeth's spirits soon rising to playfulness again,she wanted Mr.Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her.“How could you begin?”said she.“I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?”
“You may as well call it impertinence at once.It was very little less.The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention.You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking,and looking,and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them. Had you not been really amiable, you would have hated me for it;but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just;and in your heart,you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you.There―I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it;and really, all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable.To be sure, you knew no actual good of me―but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.”