Jane Austen
that I am convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly--which
perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and
recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness. Twice
has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!) on this subject; and it was but
the very Saturday night before I left Hunsford--between our pools at quadrille, while Mrs.
Jenkinson was arranging Miss de Bourgh's footstool, that she said, 'Mr. Collins, you must
marry. A clergyman like you must marry. Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for my
sake; and for your own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but
able to make a small income go a good way. This is my advice. Find such a woman as soon
as you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.' Allow me, by the way, to observe,
my fair cousin, that I do not reckon the notice and kindness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as