Elizabeth ordinarily would have at least made a strong effort to attend to his words — it was a significant event after all. Her first proposal of marriage. Even a man such as Mr. Collins deserved the consideration from a woman that she at leastlistenedto him before she refused his hand.
Elizabeth was tired.
Her mind drifted away, seeing through Mr. Collins.
It was Mr. Darcy’s intense eyes that she saw. He’d been so kind, and he approved of her display of temper. Slapping Bingley. The feel on her hand, the rage she’d felt in her chest. Her terror when Jane’s face had been paralyzed. At least Jane was alive. A fragment of music she liked to play. What would they eat for dinner? Mama had ordered fish, but when Mr. Collins went off in high dudgeon, would Mama still have it cooked and served when he was not to be her future son-in-law?
“And now all that remains is for us to tell your father the news that you have made me the happiest of men, and ask for his blessing.”
Mr. Collins now bowed slightly to her and began to step as though he were to walk towards the door.
“Wait, I have not yet replied.”
“Ah yes, the formalities.”
“Mr. Collins, while I am deeply flattered, and I must express my gratitude at having been the recipient of your attentions, I must refuse your offer of marriage.”
He blinked at her and pulled at the hair on the side of his head. “Ummmm, you mean to say you wish to refuse my offer of marriage?”
Why couldn’t he or Mama have taken the clear hint that this was her preference?
“That is, I must have misheard you. You wish me to tell your admirable mother before I ask for your father’s blessing?”
“I wish you to tell no one.”
“Now Cousin Elizabeth, I’ll not participate in a secret engagement, and I see no reason—”
“Mr. Collins, do not be obtuse! I have no intentions of marrying you.”
“Ah.” He smiled at her complaisantly. “Now I begin to understand. You mean to increase my affection via suspense, in the usual manner of elegant females.”
“I mean no such thing. I mean to refuse you.”
“Miss Bennet, though it pains me to do so, I must accuse you of dissembling. I consider it impossible that you can rely upon ever again meeting such an eligible offer as my own. Further your sister Jane will now be dependent for her entire life upon the charity and affection of her family, as it is certain to me that she will never marry. In such a situation it is wholly and entirely impossible for you to seriously mean to refuse me.”
Why, after all the stress and unhappiness of the past weeks did she need to listen to such a man proclaiming her empty future in which Jane would have no one to care for her?
Elizabeth rose and lifted her chin high. “Mr. Collins, I am now at a loss what to say if you mean to ignore my plain words, and claim that I am dissembling. So I shall merely repeat what I have already said: I will not marry you. I do not want to marry you. I do not like you. I do not like your tendency to speak endlessly without ever attending to whether the person you are speaking with wishes to hear what you have to say. I do not wish to serve attendance on Lady Catherine as she gives me unwanted advice. Let me be clear: My feelings towards you are of the sort that it would beimpossiblefor me to accept your proposal.”
A flash of anger went across Mr. Collins’s face. He glared at her and swept his arm in a wide arc. “This is what you have to say to me? — I can hardly believe such. I had thought you a well-bred woman. Your mother had told me that you are a compliant girl, but I see she was mistaken. Yet — yet, I still cannot believe this. Aha — you hope for another offer do you not. Perhaps from that crippled man, Mr. Darcy?”
“You ought not insult him in such a way,” Elizabeth replied flintily.
“Ha! The cripple.” Mr. Collins chortled. “A crippled man. But you must realize that with his disabilities you can hardly expect him to perform the duties of a husband, while I am a whole man.”
Elizabeth sneered. “You are not even a third, nor a quarter of the man that Mr. Darcy is.”
“It is him! But he’ll never marry you, for he is not at liberty to do so. I must inform you that he is destined to marry Lady Catherine’s daughter Anne de Bourgh.Shehas a heritage worthy of such a man, while you are wholly beneath him.” He pulled his lips back and clapped his hands together. “What do you have to say to that?”
What a small and petty man.
When Elizabeth did not reply, Mr. Collins chuckled again, and he rubbed his hands together. “Now since you know for certain that you can expect nothing from Mr. Darcy, and that there is no savior who can protect you from your sad fate following your father’s death, except for me, I shall ask you one last time: Will you make me the happiest of men?”
“I find it utterly mystifying,” Elizabeth replied, “that you continue to pursue this line of questioning. I have made my sentiments utterly clear, and I begin to think that you have no true feeling of affection towards me. Mr. Collins, be honest with yourself, surely you do not think we will suit.”
There was a look of confusion that crossed his face, as though he was attempting to think, and found the exercise exceedingly painful. Then he said, “But you should listen to what your mother says. Surely she will tell you to marry me. I have come here twice now, courting you. What will Lady Catherine say?”
While Elizabeth never found out what Lady Catherine said, hermotherhad a great deal to say upon the topic of Elizabeth’s refusal of Mr. Collins’s hand in marriage.
