“All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?”
“Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and

net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this; and I am

sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without

being informed that she was very accomplished.”
“Your list of the common extent of accomplishments,” said Darcy, “has

too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no

otherwise than by netting a purse or covering a screen; but I am very

far{51} from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I

cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen in the whole range of my

acquaintance that are really accomplished.”
“Nor I, I am sure,” said Miss Bingley.
“Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend a great deal in your

idea of an accomplished woman.”
“Yes; I do comprehend a great deal in it.”
“Oh, certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really

esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met

with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing,

dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and, besides all

this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of

walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word

will be but half deserved.”
“All this she must possess,” added Darcy; “and to all she must yet add

something more substantial in the improvement of her mind by extensive

reading.”
“I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women.

I rather wonder now at your knowing any.”
“Are you so severe upon your own sex as to doubt the possibility of all

this?”
“I never saw such a woman. I never saw such capacity, and taste, and

application, and elegance, as you describe, united.”
Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley both cried out against the injustice of her

implied doubt, and were both protesting that they knew many women who