Introducing Mrs. Collins
Dear Mr Collins,
I am given to understand that an event is to take place greatly to my dissatisfaction.
That is, the wedding of my nephew, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, to Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
I have put forward every objection to the match most keenly, and I am shocked with the response I have received from them both.
I do not condone the marriage and will not send them my good wishes.
Further to my other objections, it has been hinted that they are to marry from Pemberley, not from Longbourn, which is most unseemly.
Worse still they have chosen to invite guests well beyond immediate family to join them for the ceremony, which I find vulgar, bordering on vain.
My dear sister Lady Anne would not have approved.
I can only assume these theatrics stem from the habits of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and not from my nephew, who has a more modest sensibility, like his dear mother.
Should you receive such an invitation, I assume I may rely upon your loyalty in ignoring it or, perhaps more wisely, writing to decline your attendance.
I will be extremely disappointed if I discover you have been part of a union which has brought great unhappiness on my family.
My daughter Anne rallies well enough, but inwardly, she must suffer greatly from this blow, even while she insists that she does not.
The betrothal of my nephew and my daughter has been in place since their infancy, and for Darcy to throw her off now is a disgrace.
I do not solely blame him, however: I witnessed for myself how artful Miss Elizabeth might be when she visited you last. I have met pretty girls before, but she was pretty in a rather underhand way.
When I think that you might have been tied to such a girl! What fortune that this was avoided, and that you were guided instead to dear Mrs Collins, who is a far superior creature to her friend – or rather, erstwhile friend – Miss Bennet.
I am sorry indeed to add this calamity to the other difficulties which have recently beset you both. I enclose a secondary letter for Mrs Collins to read privately at her discretion, if you would be so kind as to pass it on.
Yours sincerely,
Lady Catherine de Bourgh