“I do not cough for my own amusement.”

“Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.”

“Kitty has no discretion in her coughs," said her father; "she times them ill.”

“No, indeed, I shall grant you nothing. I always take the part of my own sex. I do indeed. I give you notice-- You will find me a formidable antagonist on that point. I always stand up for women.”

“I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled.”

“If I am a wild Beast I cannot help it. It is not my own fault.”

“My fingers", said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault--because I will not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe MY fingers as capable as any other woman's of superior execution."Darcy smiled and said, "You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers.”