Lady Catherine paused for a few moments and appeared to select her own reply with unusual care, and with a somewhat softer tone and an attempt at a smile continued, “George, you greatly mistake me. I have only the happiness of my daughter as my object. Pecuniary considerations must and will always take a second place. Your brother has the title, yes, but I judge your character to be the superior; your habits are unexceptional and your actions have always been those of a gentleman and a prudent man. A mother would always wish to see her daughter the wife of a respectable man.”

“You mean to say, Madam,” said Colonel Fitzwilliam angrily, “that you estimate my character to be more tractable than my brother’s, that I am weak and malleable, and that you are, therefore, more likely to succeed in obtaining my consent. I assure you that I am neither so weak nor so malleable that my own future happiness is to be auctioned in this manner. Lady Catherine, I well understand that, as the second son, I must give some consideration as to fortune when and where I chuse to connect myself. I am, however, yet quite far from seeing my own prospects so blasted as to require the services of another in finding a wife, especially one who uses insult and offense to both parties as justification for interference.”

“Fitzwilliam,” cried Lady Catherine, “do you, then, absolutely refuse to marry my daughter?”

“Yes, Lady Catherine, I do. And allow me to say further that both the motive and the method with which this injudicious campaign has been waged has relieved me of any distress as may be comprehended in my refusal that I must otherwise have felt in your disappointment, or in any unintended disrespect for Miss de Bourgh. Pray give my regrets to Miss de Bourgh on not taking my leave personally, and my sincere wishes for her happiness. My refusal to accede to this preposterous plan is my best assurance for her being ever so.”

With the briefest of bows, Colonel Fitzwilliam turned and quitted both the scene and, within the hour, Rosings.

CHAP. 9.

COLONEL FITZWILLIAM’S father was the brother of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy, and thus the uncle of the present Mr. Darcy. Lord Hallendale had been the ideal son and heir in his younger life, giving an unusually small portion of the manifold anxieties which fall to the lot of over-fond mothers and fathers of sons, save in only one instance: that of his being so removed from the usual pursuits of young men of fortune and title, that he should never stir far enough from the family hearth to find a wife. Indeed, he had gone from Derbyshire up to University with his customary quiet cheerfulness, distinguished himself neither as a scholar nor as a rake, and returned to the parental abode just as agreeably as he had left it, and just as single.