Page 128 of Hard Home

She will come to you. Not soon. When she hears something that alarms her. She will come to your house herself, in her own carriage, without giving notice, and she will get you into a room or a garden with nobody in it.

"Kitty," said Elizabeth. "Go up and tell mama that Lady Catherine de Bourgh is come, and be a long time about it, and then go and find Mary and stay with her."

"Are you not going to—"

"Do it now, please," said Elizabeth, and went out into the hall to open her own front door.

Chapter Fifty-Two

She came into the small parlor, and sat down, and was introduced to Mrs. Bennet, and answered her with an inclination of the head; and Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost politeness.

After sitting for a moment in silence, Lady Catherine said very stiffly to Elizabeth,

"I hope you are well, Miss Bennet. That lady, I suppose, is your mother."

Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.

"AndthatI suppose is one of your sisters."

"Yes, madam," said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to a Lady Catherine. "She is my youngest but one. My youngest of all is lately married."

"You have a very small park here," returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.

"It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's."

"This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening in summer; the windows are full west."

Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner; and then added,

"May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well?"

"Yes, very well. I saw them the night before last."

Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling. But no letter appeared.

Lady Catherine sat for a further two minutes, during which Mrs. Bennet said a great deal about the weather and the harvest and Mr. Bingley; and then she got up.

"Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favor me with your company."

"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and show her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage."

---

They went out through the hall, and the carriage stood in the sweep with the servants at the horses' heads, and neither of them said one word until they were past the paddock gate and into the little grove of hornbeam that Mrs. Bennet had called a wilderness for twenty years.

Then Lady Catherine stopped and turned round.

"You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither. Your own heart, your own conscience, must tell you why I come."

Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.

"Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam. I have not been at all able to account for the honor of seeing you here."

"Miss Bennet," replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, "you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with. But however insincereyoumay choose to be, you shall not findmeso. My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly not depart from it.

"A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told, that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married, but that you, that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all likelihood, be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy. Though Iknowit mustbe a scandalous falsehood; though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you."

"If you believed it impossible to be true," said Elizabeth, coloring with astonishment and disdain, "I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it?"