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Chapter XV

Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the de-

ficiency of nature had been but little assisted by

education or society; the greatest part of his life

having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and

miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the univer-

sities, he had merely kept the necessary terms without form-

ing at it any useful acquaintance. The subjection in which

his father had brought him up had given him originally great

humility of manner; but it was now a good deal counteracted

by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and

the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity.

A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine

de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and

the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration

for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion

of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a

rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obse-

quiousness, self-importance and humility.

Having now a good house and a very sufficient income,

he intended to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with

the Longbourn family he had a wife in view, as he meant

to choose one of the daughters, if he found them as hand-

some and amiable as they were represented by common re-

port. This was his plan of amends -- of atonement -- for in-

heriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent

one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively gen-

erous and disinterested on his own part.

His plan did not vary on seeing them. Miss Bennet's lovely

face confirmed his views, and established all his strictest

notions of what was due to seniority; and for the first eve-

ning _she_ was his settled choice. The next morning, however,

made an alteration; for in a quarter of an hour's tete-a-tete

with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a conversation beginning

with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally to the avowal

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