“Yours sincerely,etc.”
“You need not distress yourself.The moral will be perfectly fair. Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude.I was not in a humour to wait for any opening of yours. My aunt's intelligence had given me hope,and I was determined at once to know every thing.”
“Lady Catherine has been of infinite use,which ought to make her happy, for she loves to be of use.But tell me,what did you come down to Netherfield for?Was it merely to ride to Longbourn and be embarrassed? or had you intended any more serious consequence?”
“You may as well call it impertinence at once.It was very little less.The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention.You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking,and looking,and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them. Had you not been really amiable, you would have hated me for it;but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just;and in your heart,you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you.There―I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it;and really, all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable.To be sure, you knew no actual good of me―but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.”