In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Darcy the hero was a wealthy aristocrat. Elizabeth, the heroine was a daughter of a fairly rich gentleman with no dowry of her own. On seeing Elizabeth at a ball, he said in her hearing that she was not a beauty but only tolerable. She was mortally offended. But soon Darcy discovered that uncontrollable passion had been gathering in him towards that beauty. She refused to dance with him at another party when he requested her. A third time when he asked her at another ball, Elizabeth was caught unawares.