“Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine what is to befall her?”

Elizabeth's spirits soon rising to playfulness again,she wanted Mr.Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love with her.“How could you begin?”said she.“I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in the first place?”

Mr. Darcy's letter to Lady Catherine was in a different style;and still different from either was what Mr.Bennet sent to Mr. Collins,in reply to his last.

“A man who had felt less,might.”

“I cannot fix on the hour,or the spot,or the look,or the words, which laid the foundation.It is too long ago.I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

“And so was I.”

“Yours sincerely,etc.”

“Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection,and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible;and,in return,it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be;and I shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last?What made you so shy of me,when you first called,and afterwards dined here?Why,especially,when you called,did you look as if you did not care about me?”