The next day, Mr. Collins makes an offer of marriage to Elizabeth. As he was proposing, Elizabeth forestalled him, telling him that she did not accept and that he should go no further. Mr. Collins refused to believe this, and said that it was the custom of 'elegant women' to refuse the first or even the second time to keep the suitor in sorrow and suspense. At this Elizabeth took leave of the room. Mrs. Bennett entered immediately afterwards to compliment them on their success. When she realized that Elizabeth had refused, she immediately ran to Mr. Bennett as Elizabeth had done to get his help. As this was occurring, Mr. Collins began to think he would rather not marry her, as she had refused him. This made Mrs. Bennett very worried. Mr. Bennett stated, meanwhile, that he simply would not tolerate her marrying him. This made Mrs. Bennett very upset, and she implored them all to change their minds. She was destined to fail at this however. After this occurrence, Mr. Collins became acquainted with with Charlotte and began to 'love' her. In the course of three days, he had proposed to her and she had accepted him.He left the day after the arrangement. Meanwhile, Jane receives a letter from Miss Bingley saying that their party, Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, M. Bingley, Miss Bingley, and Mr. Darcy, had left to London and were not expecting to come back until after the winter. Elizabeth did not believe it. It also said that Mr. Bingley was expected to soon join in matrimony with miss Darcy, which Elizabeth thought was equally preposterous.
This is where the first volume of the book has left us.
No comments:
Post a Comment