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Elizabeth quietly answered "undoubtedly;" and, after an awkward

pause, they returned to the rest of the family. Charlotte did not

stay much longer; and Elizabeth was then left to reflect on what

she had heard. It was a long time before she became at all

reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match. The strangeness

of Mr. Collins's making two offers of marriage within three days

was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted. She had

always felt that Charlotte's opinion of matrimony was not exactly

like her own; but she could not have supposed it possible that,

when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better

feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte, the wife of Mr. Collins,

was a most humiliating picture! And to the pang of a friend

disgracing herself, and sunk in her esteem, was added the

distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to

be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen.

]

CHAPTER XXIII.