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Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your

connections?--to congratulate myself on the hope of relations

whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?"

Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she

tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said,--

"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of

your declaration affected me in any other way than as it spared

me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you

behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner."

She saw him start at this; but he said nothing, and she

continued,--

"You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any

possible way that would have tempted me to accept it."

Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with an

expression of mingled incredulity and mortification. She went

on,--