They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt, that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!

With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.

Her astonishment however was extreme, and continually was she repeating, ‘Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me, it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened.’

‘Yes,’ replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer, ‘but that was only when I first knew her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.’