第131章[第1頁/共4頁]

“Whatever my connections may be,”said Elizabeth,“if your nephew does not object to them,they can be nothing to you.”

“If I have,I shall be the last person to confess it.”

“That will make your ladyship's situation at present more pitiable;but it will have no effect on me.”

“Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible.”

“Let me be rightly understood.This match,to which you have the presumption to aspire,can never take place.No,never.Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter.Now what have you to say?”

“True.You are a gentleman's daughter.But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts?Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.”

“Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew,I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh.You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage.Its completion depended on others.If Mr.Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin,why is not he to make another choice?And if I am that choice,why may not I accept him?”

“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter;so far we are equal.”