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- pride-and-prejudice
- text
- the family.
She was in hopes that the evening would afford some opportunity of
bringing them together; that the whole of the visit would not pass away
without enabling them to enter into something more of conversation,
than the mere ceremonious salutation attending his entrance. Anxious and
uneasy, the period which passed in the drawing-room before the gentlemen
came, was wearisome and dull to a degree that almost made her uncivil.
She looked forward to their entrance as the point on which all her
chance of pleasure for the evening must depend.
“If he does not come to me, _then_,” said she, “I shall give him up for
ever.”
The gentlemen came; and she thought he looked as if he would have
answered her hopes; but, alas! the ladies had crowded round the table,
where Miss Bennet was making tea, and Elizabeth pouring out the coffee,
in so close a confederacy, that there was not a single vacancy near her
which would admit of a chair. And on the gentlemen’s approaching, one of
the girls moved closer to her than ever, and said, in a whisper,--
“The men shan’t come and part us, I am determined. We want none of them;
do we?”
Darcy had walked away to another part of the room. She followed him with
her eyes, envied everyone to whom he spoke, had scarcely patience enough
to help anybody to coffee, and then was enraged against herself for
being so silly!
“A man who has once been refused! How could I ever be foolish enough to
expect a renewal of his love? Is there one among the sex who would not
protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman?
There is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings.”
She was a little revived, however, by his bringing back his coffee-cup
himself; and she seized the opportunity of saying,--
“Is your sister at Pemberley still?”
“Yes; she will remain there till Christmas.”
“And quite alone? Have all her friends left her?”
“Mrs. Annesley is with her. The others have been gone on to Scarborough
these three weeks.”
She could think of nothing more to say; but if he wished to converse
with her, he might have better success. He stood by her, however, for
some minutes, in silence; and, at last, on the young lady’s whispering
to Elizabeth again, he walked away.
When the tea things were removed, and the card tables placed, the ladies
all rose; and Elizabeth was then hoping to be soon joined by him, when
all her views were overthrown, by seeing him fall a victim to her
mother’s rapacity for whist players, and in a few moments after seated
with the rest of the party. She now lost every expectation of pleasure.
They were confined for the evening at different tables; and she had
nothing to hope, but that his eyes were so often turned towards her side
of the room, as to make him play as unsuccessfully as herself.
Mrs. Bennet had designed to keep the two Netherfield gentlemen to
supper; but their carriage was, unluckily, ordered before any of the
others, and she had no opportunity of detaining them.
“Well, girls,” said she, as soon as they were left to themselves, “what
say you to the day? I think everything has passed off uncommonly well, I
assure you. The dinner was as well dressed as any I ever saw. The
venison was roasted to a turn--and everybody said, they never saw so fat
a haunch. The soup was fifty times better than what we had at the
Lucases’ last week; and even Mr. Darcy acknowledged that the partridges
were remarkably well done; and I suppose he has two or three French
cooks at least. And, my dear Jane, I never saw you look in greater
beauty. Mrs. Long said so too, for I asked her whether you did not. And
what do you think she said besides? ‘Ah! Mrs. Bennet, we shall have her
at Netherfield at last!’ She did, indeed. I do think Mrs. Long is as
good a creature as ever lived--and her nieces are very pretty behaved
girls, and not at all handsome: I like them prodigiously.”
[Illustration:
“M^{rs}. Long and her nieces.”
]
Mrs. Bennet, in short, was in very great spirits: she had seen enough of
Bingley’s behaviour to Jane to be convinced that she would get him at
last; and her expectations of advantage to her family, when in a happy
humour, were so far beyond reason, that she was quite disappointed at
not seeing him there again the next day, to make his proposals.
“It has been a very agreeable day,” said Miss Bennet to Elizabeth. “The
party seemed so well selected, so suitable one with the other. I hope we
may often meet again.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“Lizzy, you must not do so. You must not suspect me. It mortifies me. I
assure you that I have now learnt to enjoy his conversation as an
agreeable and sensible young man without having a wish beyond it. I am
perfectly satisfied, from what his manners now are, that he never had
any design of engaging my affection. It is only that he is blessed with
greater sweetness of address, and a stronger desire of generally
pleasing, than any other man.”
“You are very cruel,” said her sister, “you will not let me smile, and
are provoking me to it every moment.”
“How hard it is in some cases to be believed! And how impossible in
others! But why should you wish to persuade me that I feel more than I
acknowledge?”
“That is a question which I hardly know how to answer. We all love to
instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth knowing. Forgive
me; and if you persist in indifference, do not make _me_ your
confidante.”
[Illustration:
“Lizzy, my dear, I want to speak to you.”
]
CHAPTER LV.
[Illustration]
A few days after this visit, Mr. Bingley called again, and alone. His
friend had left him that morning for London, but was to return home in
ten days’ time. He sat with them above an hour, and was in remarkably
good spirits. Mrs. Bennet invited him to dine with them; but, with many
expressions of concern, he confessed himself engaged elsewhere.
“Next time you call,” said she, “I hope we shall be more lucky.”
He should be particularly happy at any time, etc., etc.; and if she
would give him leave, would take an early opportunity of waiting on
them.
“Can you come to-morrow?”
Yes, he had no engagement at all for to-morrow; and her invitation was
accepted with alacrity.
He came, and in such very good time, that the ladies were none of them
dressed. In ran Mrs. Bennet to her daughters’ room, in her
dressing-gown, and with her hair half finished, crying out,--
“My dear Jane, make haste and hurry down. He is come--Mr. Bingley is
come. He is, indeed. Make haste, make haste. Here, Sarah, come to Miss
Bennet this moment, and help her on with her gown. Never mind Miss
Lizzy’s hair.”
“We will be down as soon as we can,” said Jane; “but I dare say Kitty is
forwarder than either of us, for she went upstairs half an hour ago.”
“Oh! hang Kitty! what has she to do with it? Come, be quick, be quick!
where is your sash, my dear?”
But when her mother was gone, Jane would not be prevailed on to go down
without one of her sisters.
The same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the
evening. After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his
custom, and Mary went upstairs to her instrument. Two obstacles of the
five being thus removed, Mrs. Bennet sat looking and winking at
Elizabeth and Catherine for a considerable time, without making any
impression on them. Elizabeth would not observe her; and when at last
Kitty did, she very innocently said, “What is the matter, mamma? What do
you keep winking at me for? What am I to do?”
“Nothing, child, nothing.