第123章

er's letter, or to relate her own change of sentiment towards him.To Jane,he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused,and whose merit she had undervalued;but to her own more extensive information, he was the person to whom the whole family were indebted for the first of benefits, and whom she regarded herself with an interest,if not quite so tender,at least as reasonable and just as what Jane felt for Bingley. Her astonishment at his coming—at his coming to Netherfield,to Longbourn,and voluntarily seeking her again,was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour in Derbyshire.

    The colour which had been driven from her face,returned for half a minute with an additional glow,and a smile of delight added lustre to her eyes,as she thought for that space of time that his affection and wishes must still be unshaken.But she would not be secure.

    “Let me first see how he behaves,”said she;“it will then be early enough for expectation.”

    She sat intently at work,striving to be composed,and without daring to lift up her eyes,till anxious curiosity carried them to the face of her sister as the servant was approaching the door.Jane looked a little paler than usual,but more sedate than Elizabeth had expected.On the gentlemen's appearing,her colour increased;yet she received them with tolerable ease,and with a propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom of resentment or any unnecessary complaisance.

    Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow,and sat down again to her work,with an eagerness which it did not often command.She had ventured only one glance at Darcy.He looked serious,as usual;and,she thought,more as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, than as she had seen him at Pemberley. But, perhaps he could not in her mother's presence be what he was before her uncle and aunt. It was a painful, but not an improbable,conjecture.

    Bingley,she had likewise seen for an instant,and in that short period saw him looking both pleased and embarrassed. He was received by Mrs. Bennet with a degree of civility which made her two daughters ashamed,especially when contrasted with the cold and ceremonious politeness of her curtsey and address to his friend.

    Elizabeth, particularly, who knew that her mother owed to the latter the preservation of her favourite daughter from irremediable infamy, was hurt and distressed to a most painful degree by a distinction so ill applied.