第132章[第1页/共4页]

“Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say.You know my sentiments.”

“She did not choose it,”said her daughter,“she would go.”

And she rose as she spoke.Lady Catherine rose also,and they turned back.Her ladyship was highly incensed.

“And will you promise me,never to enter into such an engagement?”

“And I certainly never shall give it.I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable.Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me,would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin?Allow me to say,Lady Catherine,that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged.You have widely mistaken my character,if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these.How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine.I must beg,therefore,to be importuned no farther on the subject.”

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

“I am not.”

“I take no leave of you,Miss Bennet.I send no compliments to your mother.You deserve no such attention.I am most seriously displeased.”