Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 324 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 324

JANE AUSTEN

Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every

moment; yet she tried to the utmost to speak with

composure when she said:

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the

mode of your declaration affected me in any other way,

than as it spared the concern which I might have felt in

refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike

manner.”

She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and

she continued:

“You could not have made me the offer of your hand

in any possible way that would have tempted me to

accept it.”

Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked

at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and

mortification. She went on:

“From the very beginningfrom the first moment,

I may almost sayof my acquaintance with you, your

manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your

arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the

feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork

of disapprobation on which succeeding events have

built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you

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