they attacked him in various ways--with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all, and they were at last obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour, lady lucas.
in this second sentence from the passage, the author uses the word attacked
a) to show how defenseless mr. bennet was against the women.
b) to show that the women were assaulting mr. bennet physically.
c) to show that there was a struggle between mr. bennet and mrs. bennet.
d) to show how forcefully the women were questioning mr. bennet about mr. bingley.