] Do you really think this is true? I'd like to think better of Lady Anne. I'd like to think she knew her sister for what she was and would never wish to shackle her own son to such a mother-in-law. I imagine that Lady C. has convinced herself that Lady Anne wished it but I can't imagine it to be really true. What do you think?

It seems like most of the people who post on the P&P board would like to think well of Lady Anne, including me. The problem is that we know so little about her. However, Lady Catherine's attitudes toward the advantages of marriage would have been pretty typical of her class, and it is not at all unlikely that Lady Anne shared them. In addition, Wickham's knowledge of the supposed engagement and Darcy's attitude toward marriage, before Lizzy lets loose on him, suggest that she might have.