《傲慢与偏见》第12集|A Shocking Proposal

Mr. Darcy and arrives atRosings to visit his aunt, Lady Catherine. Elizabeth is angered when she learnsof Darcy's involvement in the separation of Bingley from Jane, but is utterlyastonished by what he does next.

达西先生来到罗辛斯拜访他的姨母凯瑟琳夫人。当伊丽莎白得知达西参与了彬格莱和简的分手时，她很生气，不过，对于达西接下来的行为，她却感到非常震惊。

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This part – from chapter 34 – will be ourreading today.

(READING)

In an hurried manner he immediately began aninquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she werebetter. She answered him with cold civility. He sat down for a few moments, andthen getting up, walked about the room. Elizabeth was surprised, but said not aword. After a silence of several minutes, he came towards her in an agitatedmanner, and thus began:

"In vain I have struggled. It will notdo. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you howardently I admire and love you."

Elizabeth's astonishment was beyondexpression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he consideredsufficient encouragement; and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long feltfor her, immediately followed. He spoke well; but there were feelings besidesthose of the heart to be detailed; and he was not more eloquent on the subjectof tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority—of its being adegradation—of the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination,were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he waswounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.

In spite of her deeply-rooted dislike, shecould not be insensible to the compliment of such a man's affection, and thoughher intentions did not vary for an instant, she was at first sorry for the painhe was to receive; till, roused to resentment by his subsequent language, shelost all compassion in anger. She tried, however, to compose herself to answerhim with patience, when he should have done. He concluded with representing toher the strength of that attachment which, in spite of all his endeavours, hehad found impossible to conquer; and with expressing his hope that it would nowbe rewarded by her acceptance of his hand. As he said this, she could easilysee that he had no doubt of a favourable answer. He spoke of apprehension and anxiety, but his countenanceexpressed real security. Such a circumstance could only exasperate farther,and, when he ceased, the colour rose into her cheeks, and she said:

"In such cases as this, it is, Ibelieve, the established mode to express a sense of obligation for thesentiments avowed, however unequally they may be returned. It is natural thatobligation should be felt, and if I could feel gratitude, Iwould now thank you. But I cannot—I have never desired your good opinion, andyou have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasionedpain to anyone. It has been most unconsciously done, however, and I hope will beof short duration. The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented theacknowledgment of your regard, can have little difficulty in overcoming itafter this explanation."

Mr. Darcy, who was leaning against themantelpiece with his eyes fixed on her face, seemed to catch her words with noless resentment than surprise. His complexion became pale with anger, and thedisturbance of his mind was visible in every feature. He was struggling for theappearance of composure, and would not open his lips till he believed himselfto have attained it. The pause was to Elizabeth's feelings dreadful. At length,with a voice of forced calmness, he said:

"And this is all the reply which I am tohave the honour of expecting! I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with solittle endeavour at civility, I am thus rejected. But it isof small importance."

"I might as well inquire," repliedshe, "why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, youchose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, andeven against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, ifI was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know Ihave. Had not my feelings decided against you—had they been indifferent, or hadthey even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt meto accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, thehappiness of a most beloved sister?"

As she pronounced these words, Mr. Darcychanged colour; but the emotion was short, and he listened without attemptingto interrupt her while she continued:

"I have every reason in the world tothink ill of you. No motive can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part youacted there. You dare not, you cannot deny, that you have beenthe principal, if not the only means of dividing them from each other—ofexposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability, and theother to its derision for disappointed hopes, and involving them both in miseryof the acutest kind."

She paused, and saw with no slightindignation that he was listening with an air which proved him wholly unmovedby any feeling of remorse. He even looked at her with a smile of affectedincredulity.

"Can you deny that you have doneit?" she repeated.

With assumed tranquillity he then replied:"I have no wish of denying that I did everything in my power to separatemy friend from your sister, or that I rejoice in my success. Towards him I have been kinder than towards myself."

Elizabeth disdained the appearance ofnoticing this civil reflection, but its meaning did not escape, nor was itlikely to conciliate her.

"But it is not merely this affair,"she continued, "on which my dislike is founded. Long before it had takenplace my opinion of you was decided. Your character was unfolded in the recitalwhich I received many months ago from Mr. Wickham. On this subject, what canyou have to say? In what imaginary act of friendship can you here defendyourself? or under what misrepresentation can you here impose uponothers?"

"You take an eager interest in thatgentleman's concerns," said Darcy, in a less tranquil tone, and with aheightened colour.

"Who that knows what his misfortuneshave been, can help feeling an interest in him?"

"His misfortunes!" repeated Darcycontemptuously; "yes, his misfortunes have been great indeed."

"And of your infliction," criedElizabeth with energy. "You have reduced him to his present state ofpoverty—comparative poverty. You have withheld the advantages which you mustknow to have been designed for him. You have deprived the best years of hislife of that independence which was no less his due than his desert. You havedone all this! and yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune withcontempt and ridicule."

"And this," cried Darcy, as hewalked with quick steps across the room, "is your opinion of me! This isthe estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully. Myfaults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps,"added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her, "these offensesmight have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honestconfession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any seriousdesign. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, withgreater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of mybeing impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection,by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed ofthe feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me torejoice in the inferiority of your connections?—to congratulate myself on thehope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath myown?"

Elizabeth felt herself growing more angryevery moment; yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure when shesaid:

"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if yousuppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than asit spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had youbehaved in a more gentlemanlike manner."

She saw him start at this, but he saidnothing, and she continued:

"You could not have made the offer ofyour hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it."

Again his astonishment was obvious; and helooked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification. Shewent on:

"From the very beginning—from the firstmoment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressingme with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfishdisdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork ofdisapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike;and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in theworld whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

"You have said quite enough, madam. Iperfectly comprehend your feelings, and have now only to be ashamed of what myown have been. Forgive me for having taken up so much of your time, and accept mybest wishes for your health and happiness."

And with these words he hastily left theroom, and Elizabeth heard him the next moment open the front door and quit thehouse.

(END READING)