Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 583 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 583

Pride and Prejudice

Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment, and then

replied:

“The engagement between them is of a peculiar

kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for

each other. It was the favourite wish of his mother, as

well as of her’s. While in their cradles, we planned the

union: and now, at the moment when the wishes of

both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage,

to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth,

of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to

the family! Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his

friends? To his tacit engagement with Miss de Bourgh?

Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy?

Have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours

he was destined for his cousin?”

“Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to

me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your

nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing

that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de

Bourgh. You both did as much as you could in planning

the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If

Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined

to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice?

And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?”

575