“I would have thought the reasoning behind my decision is quite obvious, child. You still need to find an husband, and you are getting rather old to be unmarried and living at home. At least one of us still knows your best interest! I have every reason to believe that you may yet find a suitable husband in London, and the coming months may procure an arrangement. Above all, you must be willing to take your own measures to prevent your gratitude and esteem for me from ruining your chances of ever making a match. I cannot find that you have made any such effort in the past, but that is neither here nor there. You may go now. Will you tell Purvis to bring my hat and shawl? Of course, you will not go to Hunsford on your own; I must accompany you. It will give me an opportunity to ask Mrs. Collins about her preparations for the village fête. The poor thing is quite dim underneath all that book-nonsense and will say nothing worth-while, but as you know, I like to shew a proper condescension to my neighbours whenever it can be done without inconvenience, and she will be most grateful for my notice. Come, child, why do you make me wait? It is precisely such inactivity and indecision, which makes my duty to you as a mother all the more necessary, yet at the same time, all the more tiresome.”

CHAP. 6.

HAVING SECURED the proper address for her visiting cards and augmenting that title to which she had been born, the wife of Sir Lewis entertained in grand stile. Every detail calculated to excite admiration and envy had been attended to with a punctiliousness that defied any natural elegance. With innumerable servants, an house laden with gold and damask, and a superfluity of mirrors and candles, the effect achieved was more likely to illustrate the adage that, in some things, too much is worse than too little. Lady Catherine had been vastly pleased by her success, and daily contrived to increase her joy by inviting the most fashionable sets in London to balls, soirées, and the occasional breakfast, in multitudes so oppressively crowded as to ensure that few escaped being crushed, having their dress trampled, or some evidence of their dinner on their cloathes; this, she knew, coloured these aristocratic gatherings with a very desirable exclusivity. Even the élite, who scorned to invite Lady Catherine to their own houses, courted her diligently on account of the excellence of her entertainments, whilst making both her ambition and lavish hospitality a frequent object of their gossip and derision. In time, as her daughter became of a presentable age, these ostentatious gatherings lost their focus on her own victory in having secured Sir Lewis and his fortune, and turned instead to the display of her daughter, and the search for another equally qualified husband for Anne.