Pride and Prejudice: Lady Catherine's Visit

One morning, about a week after Jane and Mr. Bingley became engaged, the Bennets heard a carriage on the lawn, and Mr. Bingley quickly led Jane away into the shrubbery to escape the unexpected visitor.The visitor who swept into the room without a word, with a very ungracious air, was Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s proud aunt.After a few stiff remarks about the size of the park and the windows of the room, she asked Elizabeth to walk with her in the little wilderness beside the lawn, and Mrs. Bennet, flattered by such a grand guest, urged them to go.

As soon as they were alone among the trees, Lady Catherine announced that an alarming report had reached her: that Jane would soon marry well, and that Elizabeth would soon be engaged to her own nephew, Mr. Darcy.She said that she knew it must be a scandalous lie, but she had travelled all this way to demand that Elizabeth contradict it at once.Elizabeth answered coolly that such a journey would only make the rumour seem truer, and that she would not answer questions which Lady Catherine had no right to ask.

Lady Catherine declared that Mr. Darcy was promised to her daughter, Miss de Bourgh, because the two sisters had planned the marriage when the children were still in their cradles.Elizabeth replied that if Mr. Darcy was bound to his cousin by neither honour nor his own wishes, nothing stopped him from choosing someone else, and nothing stopped her from accepting him.The old lady warned that if Elizabeth defied his family she would be despised by everyone connected with him, but Elizabeth answered that the wife of Mr. Darcy would have so many sources of happiness that she could not regret it.

Lady Catherine grew angrier and sneered at Elizabeth’s family and connections, but Elizabeth calmly said that Mr. Darcy was a gentleman, that she was a gentleman’s daughter, and that so far they were equal.Then Lady Catherine demanded to know whether she was engaged to him, and Elizabeth, who would never have answered to please her, admitted only that she was not.When Lady Catherine tried to make her promise never to accept him, Elizabeth refused, saying that she would not be intimidated into anything so unreasonable, and that such a promise would not make his marriage to his cousin any more likely.

Lady Catherine then spoke of the disgrace of Lydia’s elopement and asked whether such a girl and her husband, the steward’s son, should become Mr. Darcy’s relatives, but Elizabeth said that she had nothing more to say and turned back toward the house.Lady Catherine called her selfish and ungrateful, but Elizabeth replied that she was resolved only to act in the way that would make her happy, without reference to Lady Catherine or to anyone else so wholly unconnected with her.At the carriage door Lady Catherine said that she took no leave of Elizabeth and sent no compliments to her mother, and she drove away, still determined to carry her point.

Elizabeth walked calmly upstairs, where her mother asked why such a distinguished visitor would not come in again to rest, and Elizabeth answered only that she had not chosen to.Elizabeth was then forced to tell a small lie, for she could not possibly explain to her mother what had really been said in the little wilderness.