Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s proposal:

‘I might as well inquire’, replied she, ‘why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know I have. Had not my own feelings decided against you, had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?’

And a bit later:

‘From the very beginning, from the first moment, I may almost say, of my acquaitance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immoveable a dislike: and I had not known you for a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.’

I hold this book in the opposite of contempt, I love it! (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, in case you did not recognize or ever have the pleasure of reading it.) I’m with Elizabeth here in that I have never liked conceit and fat-headedness in anyone. I don’t like braggards or someone “blowing their own horn.”

JustJotItJanuary prompt word “contempt” suggested by Rosemary Carlson at Rosemary Carlson Freelance Writer. Featured image ‘Darcy proposing to Elizabeth’ by George Allen 1894 via wikimedia.