Upon their reaching a quieter corner, he stopt and turned to look directly at her. “Georgiana, I cannot wonder at what you must think of me. I have been a fool of prodigious proportions. In spite of my unworthiness, I have come to ask you to marry me. I have been in love with you—and only you—but had not wit enough to realise it. Foolish and blind I have certainly been. All this time I have been searching for a woman who is just like you, without recognising that in every way my ideal of a wife has been formed by you: your kindness, your gentleness, your strength of mind, your beauty, your grace—your capacity for love. In these past weeks, I have—at last—perceived that you might love me—love me not as your guardian or your cousin, but as an husband. If my past actions—if I am mistaken in this matter—if your feelings have very reasonably undergone alteration these past months, I only ask that you inform me at once, and I shall not speak of this again. Only—I beg you—do not deny me that share of happiness I have long claimed as a brother, because of the mistakes of the past. I would be wretched, indeed, if I lost both a wife and my dearest friend, even though my actions should rightly deny me the regard of both. For the love of God, Georgiana, please look at me! Answer me, if you can!”

Georgiana had always believed that a declaration of love, so ardently expressed, from the lips of the man she loved even better than a brother, would resemble the scenes of a novel, in a secluded glade or atop a windswept mountain, rescued from a near-tragedy by the bold, precipitate action of her lover; but in the sight of Colonel Fitzwilliam’s stricken demeanour, she found herself growing calm, retreating once more into the familiar patterns of comfort and care: “Hush, Colonel Fitzwilliam. There is no need to speak of alteration to my feelings. There is room in my heart for no-one but yourself.” The shy and diffident Miss Darcy looked for the first time into the eyes of the man she loved, to see that love reflected in his whole countenance, and was no longer afraid to believe her ears or her heart. He gently set Tabby down again, and held out his hands to take hers; she never looked away from the diffusion of joy in his eyes, unwilling to deny herself even an instant of the startling joy of this moment, and such unexpected, exquisite felicity!