Page 28 of Hard Home

Elizabeth was chiefly struck by his extraordinary deference for Lady Catherine, and his kind intention of christening, marrying, and burying his parishioners whenever it were required.

"He must be an oddity, I think," said she. "I cannot make him out. — There is something very pompous in his style. — And what can he mean by apologizing for being next in the entail? — We cannot suppose he would help it if he could. — Can he be a sensible man, sir?"

"No, my dear; I think not. I have great hopes of finding him quite the reverse. There is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his letter, which promises well. I am impatient to see him."

"In point of composition," said Mary, "his letter does not seem defective. The idea of the olive branch perhaps is not wholly new, yet I think it is well expressed."

She had also observed the phrasethose older offices which are annexed to the living, and had turned quite cold at it, and had said nothing, because in that house it was well understood that when Mary spoke about bindings the subject was changed.

To Catherine and Lydia, neither the letter nor its writer were in any degree interesting. It was next to impossible that their cousin should come in a scarlet coat, and it was now some weeks since they had received pleasure from the society of a man in any other color.

---

Mr. Collins was punctual to his time, and was received with great politeness by the whole family. Mr. Bennet indeed said little; but the ladies were ready enough to talk, and Mr. Collins seemed neither in need of encouragement, nor inclined to be silent himself.

He was a tall, heavy looking young man of five and twenty. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal. He had not been long seated before he complimented Mrs. Bennet on having so fine a family of daughters, said he had heard much of their beauty, but that in this instance fame had fallen short of the truth; and added, that he did not doubt her seeing them all in due time well disposed of in marriage.

This gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers; but Mrs. Bennet, who quarreled with no compliments, answered most readily.

"You are very kind, sir, I am sure; and I wish with all my heart it may prove so; for else they will be destitute enough. Things are settled so oddly."

"You allude perhaps to the entail of this estate."

"Ah! sir, I do indeed. It is a grievous affair to my poor girls, you must confess. Not that I mean to find fault withyou, for such things I know are all chance in this world. There is no knowing how estates will go when once they come to be entailed."

"I am very sensible, madam, of the hardship to my fair cousins, and could say much on the subject, but that I am cautious of appearing forward and precipitate. But I can assure the young ladies that I come prepared to admire them. At present I will not say more, but perhaps when we are better acquainted—"

He was interrupted by a summons to dinner; and the girls smiled on each other. They were not the only objects of Mr. Collins's admiration. The hall, the dining-room, and all its furniture were examined and praised; and his commendationof every thing would have touched Mrs. Bennet's heart, but for the mortifying supposition of his viewing it all as his own future property.

The dinner too in its turn was highly admired; and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cookery was owing. But here he was set right by Mrs. Bennet, who assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to keep a good cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen. He begged pardon for having displeased her. In a softened tone she declared herself not at all offended; but he continued to apologize for about a quarter of an hour.

---

Elizabeth watched him do a thing four times before she understood what she was watching.

He did it at the front door as he came in, and again at the door of the dining parlor, and again at the foot of the stairs, and once more at the drawing-room window where the old part of the house joins the new: he laid the flat of his right hand against the frame, and held it there for perhaps two seconds, and took it away.

It was done quite openly. He did not trouble to conceal it, because it did not occur to him that it was a thing requiring concealment, any more than a man taking possession of a house conceals that he is looking at the roof.

The fourth time, he did it twice.

He pressed his palm to the frame, and waited, and frowned very slightly — and then did it again, a little higher, the way a man tries a lock a second time in case the first was his own clumsiness.

Then he turned round and found Elizabeth in the doorway, and was not in the least discomposed.

"Longbourn is a very fine old property, cousin Elizabeth," he said. "Very fine. Four hundred years, I understand, in the maleline without a break, which is more than can be said for a great many houses of far greater pretension."

"So we are told, sir."

"Lady Catherine, when I did myself the honor of consulting her Ladyship upon the propriety of this visit, was so good as to say a number of things upon the subject which I shall not soon forget." He clasped his hands. "Her Ladyship observed — and I thought it a most striking observation, and set it down in my pocket-book directly — that ground which has been long held is oftenshywith a new holder. Shy, madam. Her Ladyship's very word. She said it is by no means uncommon, and that the ground must not be blamed, for it has known one blood a great while, and it may want some years to be reconciled — or —"

He paused, in the manner of a man arriving at the good part.

"—or it may beintroduced," said Mr. Collins, "by the shortest and most agreeable road, which her Ladyship was pleased to point out to me with her usual condescension, and upon which I have every intention of acting during the course of this very visit."

He bowed, and went in to the ladies, and complimented Mrs. Bennet on her chimney-piece for eleven minutes.

Elizabeth stood in the passage.