Elizabeth and her Come Backs

    "Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to your younger sister's infamous elopement.... And such a girl to be my nephew's sister?.. Heaven and earth!- of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?""
    "You can now have nothing farther to say," she resentfully answered. "You have insulted me, in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house...."
     Her ladyship was highly incensed.
     "You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you, must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?"
     "Lady Catherine, I have nothing farther to say. You know my sentiments."
     "You are then resolved to have him?"
     "I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected to me."

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 Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Volume 3 ch. 56 pg. 338

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     Elizabeth is never in the wrong in this scene. It is the powerful moment when she regrets the mistakes she made with Darcy, so to make up for that, she stands firm to what she feels. She really is not that rude compared to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but she says just enough that to Darcy's aunt, who is use to getting everything just the way she wants it, Elizabeth is revolting. She says just enough to get rid of the person who seeks to prevent Elizabeth's happiness. She says just enough to keep herself from confessing the vulnerable fact that she turned down the man she loves, whom she knows she is unworthy of.
     The character Mr. Collins adds so much more to this scene even though he is not present. The way he always did exactly what Lady Catherine asked of him and begged apologies for doing anything near questionable in her ladyships eyes adds so much more the Elizabeth's reaction. She say how Collins treated Lady de Bourgh, and she, in this moment, refuses to please her. It is not pride. It is not prejudice. It is simply Elizabeth's way of not letting Lady Catherine get away with treating everyone like a doormat.