“For the liveliness of your mind,I did.”
“A man who had felt less,might.”
“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.
“My beauty you had early withstood,and as for my manners―my behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil,and I never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not.Now be sincere;did you admire me for my impertinence?”
“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.”
“You need not distress yourself.The moral will be perfectly fair. Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude.I was not in a humour to wait for any opening of yours. My aunt's intelligence had given me hope,and I was determined at once to know every thing.”
From an unwillingness to confess how much her intimacy with Mr.Darcy had been over-rated,Elizabeth had never yet answered Mrs.Gardiner's long letter;but now,having that to communicate which she knew would be most welcome,she was almost ashamed to find that her uncle and aunt had already lost three days of happiness,and immediately wrote as follows: