She had gradually discovered that the best response to glorious, unexpected happiness was not to seek explanation for its appearance but simply to embrace it and be glad.

being. They did not consider happiness a matter of chance or destiny. Instead they did everything in their power to cultivate it, prizing generosity over petulance, preferring kindness to umbrage, and always encouraging laughter rather than complaint.

Behind her mild, compliant demeanour, she was entirely self-contained. Nothing Mr. Collins said or did touched her; her feelings were locked up and battened down, in every way inaccessible to her husband. As Mary stole a glance at Mr. Collins’s bleak, resigned expression, she realised that he knew this; and that the unhappiness she sensed in him

object. She would see an oculist. She only hoped it would be soon.