When the ladies removed after dinner, Elizabeth ran up to her sister, and
seeing her well guarded from cold, attended her into the drawing-room,
where she was welcomed by her two friends with many professions of
pleasure; and Elizabeth had never seen them so agreeable as they were
during the hour which passed before the gentlemen appeared. Their powers
of conversation were considerable. They could describe an entertainment
with accuracy, relate an anecdote with humour, and laugh at their
acquaintance with spirit.🔗
But when the gentlemen entered, Jane was no longer the first object; Miss
Bingley’s eyes were instantly turned toward Darcy, and she had something
to say to him before he had advanced many steps. He addressed himself to
Miss Bennet, with a polite congratulation; Mr. Hurst also made her a
slight bow, and said he was “very glad;” but diffuseness and warmth
remained for Bingley’s salutation. He was full of joy and attention. The
first half-hour was spent in piling up the fire, lest she should suffer
from the change of room; and she removed at his desire to the other side
of the fireplace, that she might be further from the door. He then sat
down by her, and talked scarcely to anyone else. Elizabeth, at work in the
opposite corner, saw it all with great delight.🔗
When tea was over, Mr. Hurst reminded his sister-in-law of the card-table—but
in vain. She had obtained private intelligence that Mr. Darcy did not wish
for cards; and Mr. Hurst soon found even his open petition rejected. She
assured him that no one intended to play, and the silence of the whole
party on the subject seemed to justify her. Mr. Hurst had therefore
nothing to do, but to stretch himself on one of the sofas and go to sleep.
Darcy took up a book; Miss Bingley did the same; and Mrs. Hurst,
principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and rings, joined now
and then in her brother’s conversation with Miss Bennet.🔗
Miss Bingley’s attention was quite as much engaged in watching Mr. Darcy’s
progress through his book, as in reading her own; and she was
perpetually either making some enquiry, or looking at his page. She could
not win him, however, to any conversation; he merely answered her
question, and read on. At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be
amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the
second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said, “How pleasant it is
to spend an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment
like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I
have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent
library.”🔗
No one made any reply. She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and
cast her eyes round the room in quest for some amusement; when hearing her
brother mentioning a ball to Miss Bennet, she turned suddenly towards him
and said:🔗
“By the bye, Charles, are you really serious in meditating a dance at
Netherfield? I would advise you, before you determine on it, to consult
the wishes of the present party; I am much mistaken if there are not some
among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment than a pleasure.”🔗
“If you mean Darcy,” cried her brother, “he may go to bed, if he chooses,
before it begins—but as for the ball, it is quite a settled thing;
and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my
cards.”🔗
“I should like balls infinitely better,” she replied, “if they were
carried on in a different manner; but there is something insufferably
tedious in the usual process of such a meeting. It would surely be much
more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of
the day.”🔗
“Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be
near so much like a ball.”🔗
Miss Bingley made no answer, and soon afterwards she got up and walked
about the room. Her figure was elegant, and she walked well; but Darcy, at
whom it was all aimed, was still inflexibly studious. In the desperation
of her feelings, she resolved on one effort more, and, turning to
Elizabeth, said:🔗
“Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example, and take a
turn about the room. I assure you it is very refreshing after sitting so
long in one attitude.”🔗
Elizabeth was surprised, but agreed to it immediately. Miss Bingley
succeeded no less in the real object of her civility; Mr. Darcy looked up.
He was as much awake to the novelty of attention in that quarter as
Elizabeth herself could be, and unconsciously closed his book. He was
directly invited to join their party, but he declined it, observing that
he could imagine but two motives for their choosing to walk up and down
the room together, with either of which motives his joining them would
interfere. “What could he mean? She was dying to know what could be his
meaning?”—and asked Elizabeth whether she could at all understand
him?🔗
“Not at all,” was her answer; “but depend upon it, he means to be severe
on us, and our surest way of disappointing him will be to ask nothing
about it.”🔗
Miss Bingley, however, was incapable of disappointing Mr. Darcy in
anything, and persevered therefore in requiring an explanation of his two
motives.🔗
“I have not the smallest objection to explaining them,” said he, as soon
as she allowed him to speak. “You either choose this method of passing the
evening because you are in each other’s confidence, and have secret
affairs to discuss, or because you are conscious that your figures appear
to the greatest advantage in walking; if the first, I would be completely
in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better as I sit by
the fire.”🔗
“Oh! shocking!” cried Miss Bingley. “I never heard anything so abominable.
How shall we punish him for such a speech?”🔗
“Nothing so easy, if you have but the inclination,” said Elizabeth. “We
can all plague and punish one another. Tease him—laugh at him.
Intimate as you are, you must know how it is to be done.”🔗
“But upon my honour, I do not. I do assure you that my intimacy has
not yet taught me that. Tease calmness of manner and presence of
mind! No, no; I feel he may defy us there. And as to laughter, we will not
expose ourselves, if you please, by attempting to laugh without a subject.
Mr. Darcy may hug himself.”🔗
“Mr. Darcy is not to be laughed at!” cried Elizabeth. “That is an uncommon
advantage, and uncommon I hope it will continue, for it would be a great
loss to me to have many such acquaintances. I dearly love a laugh.”🔗
“Miss Bingley,” said he, “has given me more credit than can be. The wisest
and the best of men—nay, the wisest and best of their actions—may
be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”🔗
“Certainly,” replied Elizabeth—“there are such people, but I hope I
am not one of them. I hope I never ridicule what is wise and good.
Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I
own, and I laugh at them whenever I can. But these, I suppose, are
precisely what you are without.”🔗
“Perhaps that is not possible for anyone. But it has been the study of my
life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding
to ridicule.”🔗
“Such as vanity and pride.”🔗
“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride—where there is a real
superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.”🔗
Elizabeth turned away to hide a smile.🔗
“Your examination of Mr. Darcy is over, I presume,” said Miss Bingley;
“and pray what is the result?”🔗
“I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it
himself without disguise.”🔗
“No,” said Darcy, “I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough,
but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch
for. It is, I believe, too little yielding—certainly too little for
the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of
others so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings
are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would
perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”🔗
“That is a failing indeed!” cried Elizabeth. “Implacable resentment
is a shade in a character. But you have chosen your fault well. I
really cannot laugh at it. You are safe from me.”🔗
“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular
evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can
overcome.”🔗
“And your defect is to hate everybody.”🔗
“And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand
them.”🔗
“Do let us have a little music,” cried Miss Bingley, tired of a
conversation in which she had no share. “Louisa, you will not mind my
waking Mr. Hurst?”🔗
Her sister had not the smallest objection, and the pianoforte was opened;
and Darcy, after a few moments’ recollection, was not sorry for it. He
began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.🔗