If your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness – if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 7. Mr. Bennet teases Mrs. Bennet with one of his famous tongue-in-cheek comments about her placing Jane in danger through her obsession with getting her daughter married. This is after Elizabeth reads a note from Jane in Bingley’s Netherfield Park to say that she is ill with a sore throat and headache after being out in the storm. The passage is an example of Austen’s wonderful use of verbal irony – Mr. Bennet means the opposite of what he appears to be saying to Mrs. Bennet.