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- pride-and-prejudice
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- good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing
of the bad,--belongs to you alone. And so, you like this man’s sisters,
too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”
“Certainly not, at first; but they are very pleasing women when you
converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep
his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming
neighbour in her.”
Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced: their behaviour at
the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more
quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and
with a judgment, too, unassailed by any attention to herself, she was
very little disposed to approve them. They were, in fact, very fine
ladies; not deficient in good-humour when they were pleased, nor in the
power of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited.
They were rather handsome; had been educated in one of the first private
seminaries in town; had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds; were in the
habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people
of rank; and were, therefore, in every respect entitled to think well of
themselves and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in
the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their
memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been
acquired by trade.
Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a hundred
thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate,
but did not live to do it. Mr. Bingley intended it likewise, and
sometimes made choice of his county; but, as he was now provided with a
good house and the liberty of a manor, it was doubtful to many of those
who best knew the easiness of his temper, whether he might not spend the
remainder of his days at Netherfield, and leave the next generation to
purchase.
His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate of his own; but
though he was now established only as a tenant, Miss Bingley was by no
means unwilling to preside at his table; nor was Mrs. Hurst, who had
married a man of more fashion than fortune, less disposed to consider
his house as her home when it suited her. Mr. Bingley had not been of
age two years when he was tempted, by an accidental recommendation, to
look at Netherfield House. He did look at it, and into it, for half an
hour; was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied
with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately.
Between him and Darcy there was a very steady friendship, in spite of a
great opposition of character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the
easiness, openness, and ductility of his temper, though no disposition
could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he
never appeared dissatisfied. On the strength of Darcy’s regard, Bingley
had the firmest reliance, and of his judgment the highest opinion. In
understanding, Darcy was the superior. Bingley was by no means
deficient; but Darcy was clever. He was at the same time haughty,
reserved, and fastidious; and his manners, though well bred, were not
inviting. In that respect his friend had greatly the advantage. Bingley
was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually
giving offence.
The manner in which they spoke of the Meryton assembly was sufficiently
characteristic. Bingley had never met with pleasanter people or prettier
girls in his life; everybody had been most kind and attentive to him;
there had been no formality, no stiffness; he had soon felt acquainted
with all the room; and as to Miss Bennet, he could not conceive an angel
more beautiful. Darcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people
in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had
felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or
pleasure. Miss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty; but she smiled too
much.
Mrs. Hurst and her sister allowed it to be so; but still they admired
her and liked her, and pronounced her to be a sweet girl, and one whom
they should not object to know more of. Miss Bennet was therefore
established as a sweet girl; and their brother felt authorized by such
commendation to think of her as he chose.
[Illustration: [_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]
CHAPTER V.
[Illustration]
Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets
were particularly intimate. Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade
in Meryton, where he had made a tolerable fortune, and risen to the
honour of knighthood by an address to the king during his mayoralty. The
distinction had, perhaps, been felt too strongly. It had given him a
disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town;
and, quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about
a mile from Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge; where he
could think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by
business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world. For,
though elated by his rank, it did not render him supercilious; on the
contrary, he was all attention to everybody. By nature inoffensive,
friendly, and obliging, his presentation at St. James’s had made him
courteous.
Lady Lucas was a very good kind of woman, not too clever to be a
valuable neighbour to Mrs. Bennet. They had several children. The eldest
of them, a sensible, intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven, was
Elizabeth’s intimate friend.
That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a
ball was absolutely necessary; and the morning after the assembly
brought the former to Longbourn to hear and to communicate.
“_You_ began the evening well, Charlotte,” said Mrs. Bennet, with civil
self-command, to Miss Lucas. “_You_ were Mr. Bingley’s first choice.”
“Yes; but he seemed to like his second better.”
“Oh, you mean Jane, I suppose, because he danced with her twice. To be
sure that _did_ seem as if he admired her--indeed, I rather believe he
_did_--I heard something about it--but I hardly know what--something
about Mr. Robinson.”
“Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson: did not
I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson’s asking him how he liked our Meryton
assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty
women in the room, and _which_ he thought the prettiest? and his
answering immediately to the last question, ‘Oh, the eldest Miss Bennet,
beyond a doubt: there cannot be two opinions on that point.’”
“Upon my word! Well, that was very decided, indeed--that does seem as
if--but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know.”
“_My_ overhearings were more to the purpose than _yours_, Eliza,” said
Charlotte. “Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend,
is he? Poor Eliza! to be only just _tolerable_.”
“I beg you will not put it into Lizzy’s head to be vexed by his
ill-treatment, for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite
a misfortune to be liked by him. Mrs. Long told me last night that he
sat close to her for half an hour without once opening his lips.”
[Illustration: “Without once opening his lips”
[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]
“Are you quite sure, ma’am? Is not there a little mistake?” said Jane.
“I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her.”
“Ay, because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he
could not help answering her; but she said he seemed very angry at being
spoke to.”
“Miss Bingley told me,” said Jane, “that he never speaks much unless
among his intimate acquaintance. With _them_ he is remarkably
agreeable.”
“I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very
agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long.