Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/109

 intended should be her son-in-law, falls in love with Elizabeth. She hears of it from outside sources, at about the time of Jane's engagement to Bingley, and at once sets off for Longbourn to load Elizabeth with reproaches, and insist upon her giving up all idea of marrying Darcy. Of course Elizabeth absolutely refuses to do this, and her ladyship departs in great wrath; but as she has wrung from Elizabeth an admission that she is not actually engaged to Darcy, she calls on him in the hopes that he may be deterred from proposing again. Her anger has, however, just the contrary effect; her account of what she calls Elizabeth's "perverseness and assurance" fills him with hope, and urges him on to the final proposal, in which he is successful.

It taught me to hope,' said he, 'as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before. I knew enough of your disposition to be certain that had you been absolutely, irrevocably decided against me, you would have acknowledged it to Lady Catherine, frankly and openly.'

As Elizabeth observes, "Lady Catherine has been of infinite use, which ought to make her happy, for she loves to be of use;" and though her ladyship's fury knows no bounds when she hears that Darcy is actually married to Elizabeth, she condescends in time to make overtures to them, which they care too little about her to refuse.

One more extract must be made in the hope, though perhaps a vain one, of giving some idea of the mixture of playfulness, sweetness, and refinement in Elizabeth Bennet, which made Jane Austen rightly call her "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." Her charm is one that pervades the book, and is not easily condensed into any isolated passage; but her first