very wisely in leaving the girls to their own trifling amusements. Mrs.

Bennet and her daughters apologized most civilly for Lydia’s

interruption, and promised that it should not occur again, if he would

resume his book; but Mr. Collins, after assuring them that he bore his

young cousin no ill-will, and should never resent her behaviour as any

affront, seated himself at another table with Mr. Bennet, and prepared

for backgammon.{89}

CHAPTER XV.

MR. COLLINS was not a sensible man, and the deficiency 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 universities, he

had merely kept the necessary terms without forming 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 obsequiousness, 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{90} meant to choose one of the daughters, if he found

them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report.

This was his plan of amends—of atonement—for inheriting their father’s

estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and