"What can he want with my father?" said Jane, a suspicion of the truth shooting across her mind and checking her utterance, as she glanced anxiously at her sister; but no such idea seemed to have occurred to Kitty, who innocently conjectured their interview to be a literary conference, or a discussion that had arisen out of Mr. Morland's sermon-making. Mr. Bennet, on perceiving his visitor, might have anticipated something of the kind, but Mr. Morland's first words corrected him. The young man's errand was indeed nothing more or less than to make a formal proposal for the hand of Mr. Bennet's daughter and to request permission to address her. He was nervous, as men in his situation are apt to be, but genuine feeling and sound sense enabled him to state his case well, if not very fluently, as he represented the strength of his attachment and described his worldly position and prospects. Mr. Bennet had long ceased to be surprised at receiving applications of the kind, however unexpected they might be, and certainly this one found him quite unprepared. What little thought he had given to the subject had certainly not led him to the supposition of Mr. Morland's becoming his son-in-law, and he endeavoured to make his answer a discouraging one. "My daughter will be much honoured by your high opinion of her, Mr. Morland, and I have no reason to think ill of your pretensions; but I must admit that I have not remarked on her part any strong prepossession in your favour." "It is one of the things I have found most charming in Miss Bennet's character, sir," replied Morland, "that she would not easily give her heart away, or readily suppose a man to be enslaved by her. No one else could have failed to perceive the depth of my admiration, but she has seemed quite unconscious of it, though at the same time I am fully aware that there is no brilliancy or distinction about me, nothing to attract anyone who herself possesses a full measure of those qualities." He looked so downcast that Mr. Bennet remarked: "If that were the question, Mr. Morland, you might set your mind at rest, for my daughter, though a very good girl, is not brilliant, nor would she be comfortable with a husband of that description." This observation inspired Mr. Morland to a fairly long speech, in which he extolled Kitty's amiable qualities and dwelt on his own demerits, but notwithstanding the contrast thereby presented, he was able to deduce a number of excellent reasons for his being allowed to propose to Miss Bennet without delay. Mr. Bennet heard him in silence, and at the end replied that, though flattered by Mr. Morland's first referring to him, who was merely the father of the young lady, he could not answer for his daughter's sentiments; he had found that in these matters his girls had always made up their own minds, and no doubt would continue to do so.