{{prxprp134.jpg}} || 134 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

'But, my dear Elizabeth,' she added, 'what sort of girl is Miss

King? I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary.'

'Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial

affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where

does discretion end, and avarice begin? Last Christmas you

were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent;

and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand

pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary.'

'If you will only tell me what sort of girl Miss King is, I shall

know what to think.'

'She is a very good kind of girl, I believe. I know no harm

of her.'

'But he paid her not the smallest attention, till her grandfather's

death made her mistress of this fortune.'

'No -- why should he? If it were not allowable for him to gain

my affections, because I had no money, what occasion could there

be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about, and who

was equally poor?'

'But there seems indelicacy in directing his attention towards

her, so soon after this event.'

'A man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those

elegant decorums which other people may observe. If she docs

not object to it, why should wel'

'Her not objecting, does not justify him. It only shows her being

deficient in something herself -- sense or feeling.'

'Well,' cried Elizabeth, 'have it as you chuse. He shall be

mercenary, and she shall be foolish.'

'No, Lizzy, that is what I do not chuse. I should be sorry,

you know, to think ill of a young man who has lived so long

in Derbyshire.'

'Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men

who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in

Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank

Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has

not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to

recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing,

after all.'

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