visit to Rosings. Mr. Collins was carefully instructing them in what

they were to expect, that the sight of such rooms, so many servants, and

so splendid a dinner, might not wholly overpower them.
When the ladies were separating for the toilette, he said to

Elizabeth,—
“Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady

Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us which

becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on

whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest—there is no occasion

for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for

being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank

preserved.”
While they were dressing, he came two or three times to their different

doors, to recommend their being quick, as Lady Catherine very much

objected to be kept waiting for her dinner. Such formidable accounts of

her Ladyship, and her manner of living, quite frightened Maria{202} Lucas,

who had been little used to company; and she looked forward to her

introduction at Rosings with as much apprehension as her father had done

to his presentation at St. James’s.
As the weather was fine, they had a pleasant walk of about half a mile

across the park. Every park has its beauty and its prospects; and

Elizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though she could not be in such

raptures as Mr. Collins expected the scene to inspire, and was but

slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the

house, and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally

cost Sir Lewis de Bourgh.
When they ascended the steps to the hall, Maria’s alarm was every moment

increasing, and even Sir William did not look perfectly calm.

Elizabeth’s courage did not fail her. She had heard nothing of Lady

Catherine that spoke her awful from any extraordinary talents or

miraculous virtue, and the mere stateliness of money and rank she