Pride and Prejudice | Page 341

Chapter 56 341 therefore , to be importuned no farther on the subject ."
" Not so hasty , if you please . I have by no means done . To all the objections I have already urged , I have still another to add . I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister ' s infamous elopement . I know it all ; that the young man ' s marrying her was a patched-up business , at the expence of your father and uncles . And is such a girl to be my nephew ' s sister ? Is her husband , is the son of his late father ' s steward , to be his brother ? Heaven and earth ! --of what are you thinking ? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted ?"
" You can now have nothing further to say ," she resentfully answered . " You have insulted me in every possible method . I must beg to return to the house ."
And she rose as she spoke . Lady Catherine rose also , and they turned back . Her ladyship was highly incensed .
" You have no regard , then , for the honour and credit of my nephew ! Unfeeling , selfish girl ! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody ?"
" Lady Catherine , I have nothing further to say . You know my sentiments ." " You are then resolved to have him ?"
" I have said no such thing . I am only resolved to act in that manner , which will , in my own opinion , constitute my happiness , without reference to you , or to any person so wholly unconnected with me ."
" It is well . You refuse , then , to oblige me . You refuse to obey the claims of duty , honour , and gratitude . You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends , and make him the contempt of the world ."
" Neither duty , nor honour , nor gratitude ," replied Elizabeth , " have any possible claim on me , in the present instance . No principle of either would