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A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de

Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect

which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as

his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of

his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him

altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance

and humility.

Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, he intended

to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the Longbourn

family he had a wife in view, as he meant to choose one of the

daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were

represented by common report. This was his plan of amends--of

atonement--for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought

it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and

excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.