Pride and Prejudice — Chapter Fifty-Seven
Abridged for Intermediate-High Learners

Elizabeth could not stop thinking about Lady Catherine's strange visit. She guessed that the report of her engagement to Mr. Darcy had begun because everyone expected one wedding to lead to another: Bingley was Jane's friend, and Elizabeth was Jane's sister. She was at a loss to imagine where the report began, until she remembered how eager everyone was for another wedding.

What troubled her most was the fear that Lady Catherine would speak to her nephew. She did not know how much Darcy respected his aunt's judgment, but with his strong ideas about dignity, such arguments might settle his doubts and end his interest in her.

"If his aunt persuaded him," she thought, "he would never return. I shall then give up every hope of his constancy. If he only regrets me when he might have had my love, I shall soon cease to regret him at all."

She concluded that the report had travelled through the Lucases and the Collinses until it reached Rosings. She had not forgotten that Jane's marriage would bring her and Darcy together more often, and her neighbours had simply imagined as certain what she had only hoped was possible.

The rest of the family was amazed to learn who their visitor had been, and Elizabeth was glad they asked her no more questions. The next morning her father came out of his library with a letter in his hand. "Lizzy," he said, "I was going to look for you. Come into my room."

"This letter has astonished me," said Mr. Bennet. "It concerns you, so you ought to know its contents." Elizabeth first thought it was from Mr. Darcy, and blushed; but it was from Mr. Collins. He congratulated them on Jane's approaching marriage, and then added a hint: Elizabeth, he wrote, would soon no longer bear the name of Bennet, and her chosen partner was one of the most illustrious men in the country.

"Yet he warned us," her father continued, "of the evils of a hasty marriage with this gentleman, for Lady Catherine does not look on the match with a friendly eye. Mr. Darcy, you see, is the man!"

Mr. Bennet laughed. "Could they have chosen any man whose name gives the lie more completely to the report? Mr. Darcy, who never looks at a woman except to see a fault, and who probably never looked at you in his life! It is admirable. Your perfect indifference and his pointed dislike make it so delightfully absurd!"

Elizabeth tried to laugh, but could only force a reluctant smile. Never had her father's wit been less agreeable to her. Mr. Collins also wrote that he was glad Lydia's sad business had been hushed up, but declared that receiving the young couple at home had been an encouragement of vice. "That is his notion of Christian forgiveness!" said Mr. Bennet.

The rest of the letter was about Charlotte's health and the coming of a young olive branch. "For what do we live," said Mr. Bennet, "but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"

"And pray, Lizzy, what did Lady Catherine say about this report? Did she call to refuse her consent?" asked Mr. Bennet. Elizabeth answered only with a laugh. She had never been more at a loss to hide her feelings: she had to laugh when she would rather have cried. Her father had cruelly wounded her by speaking of Mr. Darcy's indifference, and she wondered whether she had imagined more love than truly existed. The laugh she gave him was the hardest of her life.