"As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females."
"I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart."
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 19. Elizabeth is trying to reinforce the message to Mr. Collins that she doesn’t wish to marry him, but he appears to be a little dense and mentally hard of hearing. The dumbfounded Collins does not believe that her rejection of his marriage proposal is at all serious. He ludicrously views it as the ploy of elegant females to keep a man in suspense and increase his love. Elizabeth assures him that her refusal is sincere.