Chapter 57 347
hope , and pretend to be affronted at an idle report . For what do we live , but to make sport for our neighbours , and laugh at them in our turn ?"
" Oh !" cried Elizabeth , " I am excessively diverted . But it is so strange !"
" Yes--that is what makes it amusing . Had they fixed on any other man it would have been nothing ; but his perfect indifference , and your pointed dislike , make it so delightfully absurd ! Much as I abominate writing , I would not give up Mr . Collins ' s correspondence for any consideration . Nay , when I read a letter of his , I cannot help giving him the preference even over Wickham , much as I value the impudence and hypocrisy of my son-in-law . And pray , Lizzy , what said Lady Catherine about this report ? Did she call to refuse her consent ?"
To this question his daughter replied only with a laugh ; and as it had been asked without the least suspicion , she was not distressed by his repeating it . Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not . It was necessary to laugh , when she would rather have cried . Her father had most cruelly mortified her , by what he said of Mr . Darcy ' s indifference , and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want of penetration , or fear that perhaps , instead of his seeing too little , she might have fancied too much .