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Quote 5. Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, [Mr. Collins] intended to marry ... he meant to choose one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report. This was his plan of amends—of atonement—for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part. Explanation and Analysis. Mr. Collins has inherited Mr. Bennet's estate since women, at this time in England, do not have the right to inherit property. In some ways, Mr. Collins is thus simply fulfilling the general statement that began the book: now that he has a considerable income, he will go in search of a wife. But he also fancies himself a fount of kindness and generosity, as he seeks to restore some sense of fairness to the dealings. The tone throughout this passage, however, is undeniably ironic. Austen may not believe that there is anything intrinsically wrong about primogeniture (the rule by which an estate passes to the first-born son or other male relative), but she certainly can see how silly it is for Mr. Collins to think himself so generous and kind, when he is really just planning to share with one of the daughters the riches that he took away from them in the first place. Austen also pokes fun at Mr. Collins's high-minded self-regard in general, suggesting that he holds himself a bit too much in esteem.