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- pride-and-prejudice
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- but the ladies, not having shoes to encounter the remains of a white
frost, turned back; and while Sir William accompanied him, Charlotte
took her sister and friend over the house, extremely well pleased,
probably, to have the opportunity of showing it without her husband’s
help. It was rather small, but well built and convenient; and everything
was fitted up and arranged with a neatness and consistency, of which
Elizabeth gave Charlotte all the credit. When Mr. Collins could be
forgotten, there was really a great air of comfort throughout, and by
Charlotte’s evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed he must be often
forgotten.
She had already learnt that Lady Catherine was still in the country. It
was spoken of again while they were at dinner, when Mr. Collins joining
in, observed,--
“Yes, Miss Elizabeth, you will have the honour of seeing Lady Catherine
de Bourgh on the ensuing Sunday at church, and I need not say you will
be delighted with her. She is all affability and condescension, and I
doubt not but you will be honoured with some portion of her notice when
service is over. I have scarcely any hesitation in saying that she will
include you and my sister Maria in every invitation with which she
honours us during your stay here. Her behaviour to my dear Charlotte is
charming. We dine at Rosings twice every week, and are never allowed to
walk home. Her Ladyship’s carriage is regularly ordered for us. I
_should_ say, one of her Ladyship’s carriages, for she has several.”
“Lady Catherine is a very respectable, sensible woman, indeed,” added
Charlotte, “and a most attentive neighbour.”
“Very true, my dear, that is exactly what I say. She is the sort of
woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference.”
The evening was spent chiefly in talking over Hertfordshire news, and
telling again what had been already written; and when it closed,
Elizabeth, in the solitude of her chamber, had to meditate upon
Charlotte’s degree of contentment, to understand her address in guiding,
and composure in bearing with, her husband, and to acknowledge that it
was all done very well. She had also to anticipate how her visit would
pass, the quiet tenour of their usual employments, the vexatious
interruptions of Mr. Collins, and the gaieties of their intercourse
with Rosings. A lively imagination soon settled it all.
About the middle of the next day, as she was in her room getting ready
for a walk, a sudden noise below seemed to speak the whole house in
confusion; and, after listening a moment, she heard somebody running
upstairs in a violent hurry, and calling loudly after her. She opened
the door, and met Maria in the landing-place, who, breathless with
agitation, cried out,--
[Illustration:
“In Conversation with the ladies”
[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]]
“Oh, my dear Eliza! pray make haste and come into the dining-room, for
there is such a sight to be seen! I will not tell you what it is. Make
haste, and come down this moment.”
Elizabeth asked questions in vain; Maria would tell her nothing more;
and down they ran into the dining-room which fronted the lane, in quest
of this wonder; it was two ladies, stopping in a low phaeton at the
garden gate.
“And is this all?” cried Elizabeth. “I expected at least that the pigs
were got into the garden, and here is nothing but Lady Catherine and her
daughter!”
“La! my dear,” said Maria, quite shocked at the mistake, “it is not Lady
Catherine. The old lady is Mrs. Jenkinson, who lives with them. The
other is Miss De Bourgh. Only look at her. She is quite a little
creature. Who would have thought she could be so thin and small!”
“She is abominably rude to keep Charlotte out of doors in all this wind.
Why does she not come in?”
“Oh, Charlotte says she hardly ever does. It is the greatest of favours
when Miss De Bourgh comes in.”
“I like her appearance,” said Elizabeth, struck with other ideas. “She
looks sickly and cross. Yes, she will do for him very well. She will
make him a very proper wife.”
Mr. Collins and Charlotte were both standing at the gate in conversation
with the ladies; and Sir William, to Elizabeth’s high diversion, was
stationed in the doorway, in earnest contemplation of the greatness
before him, and constantly bowing whenever Miss De Bourgh looked that
way.
At length there was nothing more to be said; the ladies drove on, and
the others returned into the house. Mr. Collins no sooner saw the two
girls than he began to congratulate them on their good fortune, which
Charlotte explained by letting them know that the whole party was asked
to dine at Rosings the next day.
[Illustration:
‘Lady Catherine, said she, you have given me a treasure.’
[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]
CHAPTER XXIX.
[Illustration]
Mr. Collins’s triumph, in consequence of this invitation, was complete.
The power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness to his wondering
visitors, and of letting them see her civility towards himself and his
wife, was exactly what he had wished for; and that an opportunity of
doing it should be given so soon was such an instance of Lady
Catherine’s condescension as he knew not how to admire enough.
“I confess,” said he, “that I should not have been at all surprised by
her Ladyship’s asking us on Sunday to drink tea and spend the evening
at Rosings. I rather expected, from my knowledge of her affability, that
it would happen. But who could have foreseen such an attention as this?
Who could have imagined that we should receive an invitation to dine
there (an invitation, moreover, including the whole party) so
immediately after your arrival?”
“I am the less surprised at what has happened,” replied Sir William,
“from that knowledge of what the manners of the great really are, which
my situation in life has allowed me to acquire. About the court, such
instances of elegant breeding are not uncommon.”
Scarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning but their
visit to Rosings. Mr. Collins was carefully instructing them in what
they were to expect, that the sight of such rooms, so many servants, and
so splendid a dinner, might not wholly overpower them.
When the ladies were separating for the toilette, he said to
Elizabeth,--
“Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady
Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which
becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on
whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest--there is no occasion
for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for
being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank
preserved.”
While they were dressing, he came two or three times to their different
doors, to recommend their being quick, as Lady Catherine very much
objected to be kept waiting for her dinner. Such formidable accounts of
her Ladyship, and her manner of living, quite frightened Maria Lucas,
who had been little used to company; and she looked forward to her
introduction at Rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done
to his presentation at St. James’s.
As the weather was fine, they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile
across the park. Every park has its beauty and its prospects; and
Elizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though she could not be in such
raptures as Mr. Collins expected the scene to inspire, and was but
slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the
house, and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally
cost Sir Lewis de Bourgh.
When they ascended the steps to the hall, Maria’s alarm was every moment
increasing, and even Sir William did not look perfectly calm.
Elizabeth’s courage did not fail her.