house. Lady Catherine, I believe, did a great deal to it when Mr.

Collins first came to Hunsford.”
“I believe she did—and I am sure she could not have bestowed her

kindness on a more grateful object.”
“Mr. Collins appears very fortunate in his choice of a wife.”
“Yes, indeed; his friends may well rejoice in his having met with one of

the very few sensible women who would have accepted him, or have made

him happy if they had. My friend has an excellent understanding—though

I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest

thing she ever did. She seems perfectly happy, however; and, in a

prudential light, it is certainly a very good match for her.”
“It must be very agreeable to her to be settled within so easy a

distance of her own family and friends.”
“An easy distance do you call it? It is nearly fifty miles.”
“And what is fifty miles of good road? Little more than half a day’s

journey. Yes, I call it a very easy distance.”
“I should never have considered the distance as one of{224} the advantages

of the match,” cried Elizabeth. “I should never have said Mrs. Collins

was settled near her family.”
“It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond

the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far.”
As he spoke there was a sort of smile, which Elizabeth fancied she

understood; he must be supposing her to be thinking of Jane and

Netherfield, and she blushed as she answered,—
“I do not mean to say that a woman may not be settled too near her

family. The far and the near must be relative, and depend on many

varying circumstances. Where there is fortune to make the expense of

travelling unimportant, distance becomes no evil. But that is not the

case here. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have a comfortable income, but not

such a one as will allow of frequent journeys—and I am persuaded my

friend would not call herself near her family under less than half

the present distance.”