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"How unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give,

and that I should be so reasonable as to admit it! But I wonder

how long you would have gone on, if you had been left to

yourself. I wonder when you would have spoken if I had not asked

you! My resolution of thanking you for your kindness to Lydia had

certainly great effect. _Too much_, I am afraid; for what becomes

of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise,

for I ought not to have mentioned the subject? This will never

do."

"You need not distress yourself. The moral will be perfectly

fair. Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us

were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for

my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your

gratitude. I was not in a humour to wait for an opening of yours.

My aunt's intelligence had given me hope, and I was determined at

once to know everything."