Chapter 5 19
" I do not mind his not talking to Mrs. Long," said Miss Lucas, " but I wish he had danced with Eliza."
" Another time, Lizzy," said her mother, " I would not dance with him, if I were you."
" I believe, ma ' am, I may safely promise you never to dance with him."
" His pride," said Miss Lucas, " does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud."
" That is very true," replied Elizabeth, " and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."
" Pride," observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, " is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
" If I were as rich as Mr. Darcy," cried a young Lucas, who came with his sisters, " I should not care how proud I was. I would keep a pack of foxhounds, and drink a bottle of wine a day."
" Then you would drink a great deal more than you ought," said Mrs. Bennet; " and if I were to see you at it, I should take away your bottle directly."
The boy protested that she should not; she continued to declare that she would, and the argument ended only with the visit.