“Why,at that rate,you will have been here only six weeks. I expected you to stay two months. I told Mrs. Collins so before you came. There can be no occasion for your going so soon. Mrs. Bennet could certainly spare you for another fortnight.”
Lady Catherine observed, after dinner, that Miss Bennet seemed out of spirits, and immediately accounting for it by herself, by supposing that she did not like to go home again so soon,she added:
Elizabeth could not see Lady Catherine without recollecting that, had she chosen it, she might by this time have been presented to her as her future niece;nor could she think,without a smile, of what her ladyship's indignation would have been.“What would she have said?how would she have behaved?”were questions with which she amused herself.
“But if that is the case,you must write to your mother and beg that you may stay a little longer.Mrs.Collins will be very glad of your company,I am sure.”
“My uncle is to send a servant for us.”
“You are all kindness,madam;but I believe we must abide by our original plan.”
“But my father cannot. He wrote last week to hurry my return.”
Their first subject was the diminution of the Rosings party.“I assure you,I feel it exceedingly,”said Lady Catherine;“I believe no one feels the loss of friends so much as I do.But I am particularly attached to these young men, and know them to be so much attached to me!They were excessively sorry to go! But so they always are.The dear Colonel rallied his spirits tolerably till just at last;but Darcy seemed to feel it most acutely,more,I think,than last year.His attachment to Rosings certainly increases.”