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Chapter XXXIII · Pride and Prejudice | Audiobook

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  Speaker 1: Chapter 33 More than once did Elizabeth, in her ramble
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  Speaker 1: within the park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt all
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  Speaker 1: the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where
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  Speaker 1: no one else was brought, and to prevent its ever
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  Speaker 1: happening again, took care to inform him, at first, that
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  Speaker 1: it was a favourite haunt of hers. How it could
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  Speaker 1: occur a second time, therefore, was very odd. Yet, it did.
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  Speaker 1: And even the third. It seemed like willful ill nature,
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  Speaker 1: or a voluntary penance. For on these occasions, it was
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  Speaker 1: not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause
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  Speaker 1: and then away. But he actually thought it necessary to
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  Speaker 1: turn back and walk with her. He never said a
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  Speaker 1: great deal. nor did she give herself the trouble of
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  Speaker 1: talking or of listening much. But it struck her in
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  Speaker 1: the course of their third encounter that he was asking
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  Speaker 1: some odd, unconnected questions about her pleasure in being at Hunsford,
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  Speaker 1: her love of solitary walks, and her opinion of Mr.
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  Speaker 1: and Mrs. Collins's happiness, and that, in speaking of Rosings,
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  Speaker 1: and her not perfectly understanding the house. He seemed to
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  Speaker 1: expect that whenever she came into Kent again, she would
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  Speaker 1: be staying there too. His words seemed to imply it.
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  Speaker 1: Could he have Colonel Fitzwilliam in his thoughts? She supposed,
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  Speaker 1: if he meant anything, he must mean an allusion to
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  Speaker 1: what might arise in that quarter. It distressed her a little,
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  Speaker 1: and she was quite glad to find herself at the
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  Speaker 1: gate in the pails opposite the parsonage. She was engaged
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  Speaker 1: one day, as she walked, in re-perusing Jane's last letter,
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  Speaker 1: and dwelling on some passages which proved that Jane had
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  Speaker 1: not written in spirits, when, instead of being again surprised
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  Speaker 1: by Mr Darcy, she saw, on looking up, that Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Fitzwilliam was meeting her. Putting away the letter immediately, and
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  Speaker 1: forcing a smile, she said, I did not know before
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  Speaker 1: that you ever walked this way. I have been making
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  Speaker 1: the tour of the park, he replied, as I generally
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  Speaker 1: do every year, and intended to close it with a
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  Speaker 1: call at the parsonage. Are you going much farther? No,
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  Speaker 1: I should have turned in a moment. And accordingly, she
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  Speaker 1: did turn, and they walked towards the parsonage together. Do
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  Speaker 1: you certainly leave Kent on Saturday? said she. Yes, if
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  Speaker 1: Darcy does not put it off again, but I am
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  Speaker 1: at his disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases.
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  Speaker 1: And if not able to please himself in the arrangement,
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  Speaker 1: he has at least great pleasure in the power of choice.
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  Speaker 1: I do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: the power of doing what he likes than Mr Darcy.
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  Speaker 1: He likes to have his own way very well, replied
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Fitzwilliam. But so we all do. It is only
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  Speaker 1: that he has better means of having it than many others.
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  Speaker 1: Because he is rich, and many others are poor. I
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  Speaker 1: speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured
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  Speaker 1: to self-denial and dependence. In my opinion, the younger son
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  Speaker 1: of an earl can know very little of either. Now seriously,
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  Speaker 1: what have you ever known of self-denial and dependence? When
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  Speaker 1: have you been prevented by want of money from going
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  Speaker 1: wherever you chose or procuring anything you had a fancy for?
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  Speaker 1: These are home questions, and perhaps I cannot say that
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  Speaker 1: I have experienced many hardships of that nature. But in
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  Speaker 1: matters of greater weight, I may suffer from the want
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  Speaker 1: of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like. Unless
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  Speaker 1: where they like women of fortune, which I think they
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  Speaker 1: very often do. Our habits of expense make us too dependent,
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  Speaker 1: and there are not many in my rank of life
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  Speaker 1: who can afford to marry without some attention to money.
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  Speaker 1: Is this, thought Elizabeth, meant for me? And she coloured
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  Speaker 1: at the idea. But recovering herself... said in a lively tone,
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  Speaker 1: and pray, what is the usual price of an earl's
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  Speaker 1: younger son? Unless the elder brother is very sickly, I
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  Speaker 1: suppose you would not ask above fifty thousand pounds. He
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  Speaker 1: answered her in the same style, and the subject dropped.
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  Speaker 1: To interrupt a silence which might make him fancy her
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  Speaker 1: affected with what had passed, she soon afterwards said, I
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  Speaker 1: imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of having somebody at his disposal. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: he does not marry to secure a lasting convenience of
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  Speaker 1: that kind. But, perhaps, his sister does as well for
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  Speaker 1: the present, and, as she is under his sole care,
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  Speaker 1: he may do what he likes with her. No, said
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Fitzwilliam. That is an advantage which he must divide
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  Speaker 1: with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship
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  Speaker 1: of Miss Darcy. Are you, indeed? And pray, what sort
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  Speaker 1: of a guardian do you make? Does your charge give
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  Speaker 1: you much trouble? Young ladies of her age are sometimes
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  Speaker 1: a little difficult to manage. And if she has the
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  Speaker 1: true Darcy spirit, she may like to have her own way.
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  Speaker 1: As she spoke, She observed him looking at her earnestly,
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  Speaker 1: and the manner in which he immediately asked her why
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  Speaker 1: she supposed Miss Darcy likely to give them any uneasiness,
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  Speaker 1: convinced her that she had somehow or other got pretty
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  Speaker 1: near the truth. She directly replied, You need not be frightened.
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  Speaker 1: I never heard any harm of her, and I dare
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  Speaker 1: say she is one of the most tractable creatures in
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  Speaker 1: the world. She is a very great favourite with some
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  Speaker 1: ladies of my acquaintance, Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley. I
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  Speaker 1: think I have heard you say that you know them.
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  Speaker 1: I know them a little. Their brother is a pleasant
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  Speaker 1: gentleman-like man. He is a great friend of Darcy's. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: said Elizabeth dryly. Mr Darcy is uncommonly kind to Mr
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  Speaker 1: Bingley and takes a prodigious deal of care of him.
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  Speaker 1: Care of him? Yes, I really believe Darcy does take
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  Speaker 1: care of him in those points where he most wants care.
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  Speaker 1: From something that he told me in our journey hither,
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  Speaker 1: I have reason to think Bingley very much indebted to him.
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  Speaker 1: But I ought to beg his pardon, for I have
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  Speaker 1: no right to suppose that Bingley was the person meant.
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  Speaker 1: It was all conjecture. What is it you mean? It
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  Speaker 1: is a circumstance. which Darcy, of course, could not wish
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  Speaker 1: to be generally known, because if it were to get
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  Speaker 1: round to the lady's family, it would be an unpleasant thing.
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  Speaker 1: You may depend upon my not mentioning it, and remember
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  Speaker 1: that I have not much reason for supposing it to
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  Speaker 1: be Bingley. What he told me was merely this, that
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  Speaker 1: he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from
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  Speaker 1: the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without mentioning
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  Speaker 1: names or any other particulars, and I only suspected it
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  Speaker 1: to be Bingley, from believing him the kind of young
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  Speaker 1: man to get into a scrape of that sort, and
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  Speaker 1: from knowing them to have been together the whole of
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  Speaker 1: last summer. Did Mr. Darcy give you his reasons for
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  Speaker 1: this interference?' I understood that there were some very strong
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  Speaker 1: objections against the lady. And what arts did he use
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  Speaker 1: to separate them? He did not talk to me of
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  Speaker 1: his own arts, said Fitzwilliam smiling. He only told me
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  Speaker 1: what I have now told you. Elizabeth made no answer
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  Speaker 1: and walked on, her heart swelling with indignation. After watching
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  Speaker 1: her a little, Fitzwilliam asked her why she was so thoughtful.
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  Speaker 1: I am thinking of what you have been telling me,
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  Speaker 1: said she. Your cousin's conduct does not suit my feelings.
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  Speaker 1: Why was he to be the judge? You are rather
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  Speaker 1: disposed to call his interference officious. I do not see
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  Speaker 1: what right Mr. Darcy had to decide on the propriety
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  Speaker 1: of his friend's inclination. Or why, upon his own judgment alone,
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  Speaker 1: he was to determine and direct in what manner that
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  Speaker 1: friend was to be happy. But, she continued, recollecting herself,
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  Speaker 1: as we know none of the particulars, it is not
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  Speaker 1: fair to condemn him. It is not to be supposed
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  Speaker 1: that there was much affection in the case. That is
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  Speaker 1: not an unnatural surmise, said Fitzwilliam, but it is lessening
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  Speaker 1: the honour of my cousin's triumph very sadly. This was
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  Speaker 1: spoken jestingly. but it appeared to her so just a
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  Speaker 1: picture of Mr. Darcy that she would not trust herself
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  Speaker 1: with an answer, and therefore, abruptly changing the conversation, talked
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  Speaker 1: on indifferent matters till they reached the parsonage. There, shut
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  Speaker 1: into her own room, as soon as their visitor left them,
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  Speaker 1: she could think without interruption of all that she had heard.
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  Speaker 1: It was not to be supposed that any other people
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  Speaker 1: could be meant than those with whom she was connected.
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  Speaker 1: There could not exist in the world two men over
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  Speaker 1: whom Mr. Darcy could have such boundless influence. That he
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  Speaker 1: had been concerned in the measures taken to separate Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Bingley and Jane, she had never doubted. But she had
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  Speaker 1: always attributed to Miss Bingley, the principal design and arrangement
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  Speaker 1: of them. If his own vanity, however, did not mislead him,
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  Speaker 1: he was the cause, his pride and caprice were the cause,
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  Speaker 1: of all that Jane had suffered, and still continued to suffer.
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  Speaker 1: He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness
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  Speaker 1: for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world, and
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  Speaker 1: no one could say how lasting an evil he might
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  Speaker 1: have inflicted. There were some very strong objections against the lady,
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  Speaker 1: were Colonel Fitzwilliam's words, and these strong objections probably were
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  Speaker 1: her having one uncle, who was a country attorney, and
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  Speaker 1: another who was in business in London. To Jane herself,
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  Speaker 1: she exclaimed, there could be no possibility of objection, all
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  Speaker 1: loveliness and goodness as she is. Her understanding excellent, her
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  Speaker 1: mind improved, and her manners captivating. Neither could anything be
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  Speaker 1: urged against my father, who, though with some peculiarities, has
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  Speaker 1: abilities which Mr. Darcy himself need not disdain, and respectability
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  Speaker 1: which he will probably never reach. When she thought of
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  Speaker 1: her mother, indeed, her confidence gave way a little, but
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  Speaker 1: she would not allow that any objections there had material
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  Speaker 1: weight with Mr Darcy, whose pride, she was convinced, would
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  Speaker 1: receive a deeper wound from the want of importance in
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  Speaker 1: his friends' connections than from their want of sense. And
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  Speaker 1: she was quite decided, at last, that he had been
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  Speaker 1: partly governed by this worst kind of pride, and partly
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  Speaker 1: by the wish of retaining Mr Bingley for his sister.
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  Speaker 1: The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned brought on
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  Speaker 1: a headache, and it grew so much worse towards the
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  Speaker 1: evening that, added to her unwillingness to see Mr Darcy,
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  Speaker 1: it determined her not to attend her cousins to Rosings,
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  Speaker 1: where they were engaged to drink tea. Mrs Collins, seeing
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  Speaker 1: that she was really unwell, did not press her to go.
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  Speaker 1: and as much as possible, prevented her husband from pressing her.
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  Speaker 1: But Mr Collins could not conceal his apprehension of Lady
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  Speaker 1: Catherine's being rather displeased by her staying at home.