Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 508 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 508

JANE AUSTEN

I could not bear to have her ten miles from me; and as

for Pulvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful.”

Her husband allowed her to talk on without inter-

ruption while the servants remained. But when they

had withdrawn, he said to her: “Mrs. Bennet, before

you take any or all of these houses for your son and

daughter, let us come to a right understanding. Into

one house in this neighbourhood they shall never have

admittance. I will not encourage the impudence of

either, by receiving them at Longbourn.”

A long dispute followed this declaration; but

Mr. Bennet was firm. It soon led to another; and

Mrs. Bennet found, with amazement and horror, that

her husband would not advance a guinea to buy

clothes for his daughter. He protested that she should

receive from him no mark of affection whatever on

the occasion. Mrs. Bennet could hardly comprehend

it. That his anger could be carried to such a point of

inconceivable resentment as to refuse his daughter a

privilege without which her marriage would scarcely

seem valid, exceeded all she could believe possible. She

was more alive to the disgrace which her want of new

clothes must reflect on her daughter’s nuptials, than

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