Lydia exclaimed. - Other books
were produced, and after some deliberation he chose Fordyce's Sermons. Lydia
gaped as he opened the volume, and before he had, with very monotonous
solemnity, read three pages, she interrupted him with,
    »Do you know, mama, that my uncle Philips talks of turning away Richard, and
if he does, Colonel Forster will hire him. My aunt told me so herself on
Saturday. I shall walk to Meryton to-morrow to hear more about it, and to ask
when Mr. Denny comes back from town.«
    Lydia was bid by her two eldest sisters to hold her tongue; but Mr. Collins,
much offended, laid aside his book, and said,
    »I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a
serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit. It amazes me, I confess;
- for certainly, there can be nothing so advantageous to them as instruction.
But I will no longer importune my young cousin.«
    Then turning to Mr. Bennet, he offered himself as his antagonist at
backgammon. Mr. Bennet accepted the challenge, observing that he acted very
wisely in leaving the girls to their own trifling amusements. Mrs. Bennet and
her daughters apologised 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.
 

                                   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 rights as a
rector, made him altogether a