These charges against her delinquent daughter were followed by further lamentations on the state of her poor nerves. Jane, with soothing clucks, offered to bathe her distraught parent’s temples with lavender water, which took Mrs and Miss Bennet from the room, leaving Charlotte free at last to attend to her friend. It was a moment of some import; she had no more faith than Lizzy in the sincerity of Mr Collins’s new-found attachment, but it was the first time her friend had received an offer of matrimony and, as such, it was a mark of some distinction, however unwished-for.

Lizzy now gave her friend a more detailed account of the morning’s events. Mr Collins had requested the honour of a private interview with Elizabeth immediately after breakfast, and had launched into a proposal almost as lengthy as it was unwanted. He had canvassed the strong likelihood of Lady Catherine’s approval, the honour he did Lizzy in throwing open to her the connection with Rosings, and promised never to reproach her for the smallness of her portion – ‘that one thousand pounds in the four per cents that is all you will inherit from your mother.’ It was only towards the end of this speech that he remembered to assure his intended of the violence of his affections. Even in the awkwardness of this unexpected crisis, neither woman could restrain herself from smiling as they contemplated the ‘violence’ of Mr Collins’s imaginary attachment.

What had followed owed more to theatrical farce than the pains of thwarted love: Mrs Bennet, upon congratulating Mr Collins, was horrified to hear that Lizzy had not yet accepted his hand, and a family hullabaloo broke out that culminated in a scene in Mr Bennet’s library. Here Lizzy’s father, once the ins and outs of the matter had been explained to him, declared to his recalcitrant daughter that a painful choice lay before her: if she refused Mr Collins’s offer, her mother would have no more to do with her; but if she accepted, she would henceforth be no daughter of his.

It was at this delicate domestic point that Charlotte had arrived, and now she was to witness the final act: as soon as Mrs Bennet reappeared, the rebuffed suitor stalked in to withdraw his application for the hand of her daughter. Lizzy slid out the room, but Charlotte was detained by Mr Collins, who enquired after every member of her family with great determination and minute particularity. Once he resorted back to the matter at hand, curiosity impelled her to linger as the clergyman first announced his intention to be silent on the subject forevermore, then launched into a speech defending his honour and intentions, and resentfully describing his resignation to a disappointment that was receding as he contemplated Lizzy’s headstrong and wilful qualities.