“You have a very small park here,”returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.
“I never heard that it was.”
“It is nothing in comparison of Rosings,my lady,I dare say;but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's.”
Mrs.Bennet,all amazement,though flattered by having a guest of such high importance,received her with the utmost politeness. After sitting for a moment in silence, she said very stiffly to Elizabeth,
“May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left Mr.and Mrs.Collins well.”
Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.
Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.
“If!Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it?Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves?Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad?”
Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest downstairs.As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining-parlour and drawing-room,and pronouncing them,after a short survey,to be decent looking rooms,walked on.