Analyze the following passage and choose the best answer that most appropriately summarizes the series of events that transpire. "Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her, immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority - of its being a degradation - of the family obstacles which judgement had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due of the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit."​