yet most certainly transferred
his attentions very shortly from her to a Miss King, who, by the death
of her grandfather, had come into L10,000. Elizabeth, however, was quite
heartwhole; and she and her former admirer parted on friendly terms when
she left Longbourn to pay her promised visit to Mr. and Mrs. Collins at
Hunsford.

There she found Charlotte, managing her home and her husband with
considerable discretion: and, as the rectory adjoined Rosings Park, the
seat of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the patroness of the living, she was
introduced to that lady, in whom she could discover nothing but an
insolent aristocratic woman, who dictated to everyone about her, meddled
in everybody's business, aimed at marrying her sickly daughter to Darcy,
and was, needless to say, slavishly adored by Mr. Collins.

In the third week of her visit Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel
Fitzwilliam, came down to see their aunt, and thus--to Elizabeth's
indifference--an acquaintance was renewed which Darcy soon seemed to
show a real desire to take up again. He sought her society at Rosings
Park, he called familiarly at the rectory, he waylaid her in her
favourite walk; and all the time, in all his intercourse with her, he
revealed such a mixture of interest and constraint as demonstrated only
too clearly that some internal struggle was going on within him.

Mrs. Collins began to hope for her friend; but Elizabeth, who had
received from Colonel Fitzwilliam ample confirmation of her suspicion
that it was Darcy who had persuaded Bingley to give up Jane, was now
only more incensed against the man who had broken her sister's peace of
mind.

On the very evening of the day on which she had extracted this piece of
information from his cousin, Darcy, knowing her to be alone, called at
the rectory, and, after a silence of several minutes, came towards her
in an agitated manner.

"In vain have I struggled," he said. "It will not do. My feelings will
not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire
and love you."

Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured,
doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement;
and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long felt, for her
immediately followed. He spoke well; but there were feelings besides
those of the heart to be detailed. His sense of her inferiority, of
marriage with her being a degradation, of the family obstacles which
judgment