第132章[第2頁/共5頁]

“She is a very fine-looking woman! and her calling here was prodigiously civil! for she only came, I suppose, to tell us the Collinses were well.She is on her road somewhere,I dare say,and so, passing through Meryton, thought she might as well call on you.I suppose she had nothing particular to say to you,Lizzy?”

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

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

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

“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.”