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Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth talked of all that had occurred during their visit,as they returned,except what had particularly interested them both.The look and behaviour of everybody they had seen were discussed, except of the person who had mostly engaged their attention.They talked of his sister, his friends, his house, his fruit—of everything but himself; yet Elizabeth was longing to know what Mrs. Gardiner thought of him, and Mrs. Gardiner would have been highly gratified by her niece's beginning the subject.

In Darcy's presence she dared not mention Wickham's name;but Elizabeth instantly comprehended that he was uppermost in her thoughts;and the various recollections connected with him gave her a moment's distress; but exerting herself vigorously to repel the ill-natured attack,she presently answered the question in a tolerably detached tone.While she spoke, an involuntary glance showed her Darcy, with a heightened complexion, earnestly looking at her,and his sister overcome with confusion, and unable to lift up her eyes.Had Miss Bingley known what pain she was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely intended to discompose Elizabeth by bringing forward the idea of a man to whom she believed her partial, to make her betray a sensibility which might injure her in Darcy's opinion, and, perhaps, to remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which some part of her family were connected with that corps.Not a syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy's meditated elopement.To no creature had it been revealed,where secrecy was possible,except to Elizabeth; and from all Bingley's connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it,from the very wish which Elizabeth had long ago attributed to him, of their becoming hereafter her own. He had certainly formed such a plan, and without meaning that it should effect his endeavour to separate him from Miss Bennet,it is probable that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare of his friend.

Elizabeth's collected behaviour, however, soon quieted his emotion;and as Miss Bingley,vexed and disappointed,dared not approach nearer to Wickham,Georgiana also recovered in time, though not enough to be able to speak any more. Her brother, whose eye she feared to meet,scarcely recollected her interest in the affair,and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from Elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully.

Their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned; and while Mr. Darcy was attending them to their carriage Miss Bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on Elizabeth's person,behaviour,and dress.But Georgiana would not join her.Her brother's recommendation was enough to ensure her favour; his judgement could not err, and he had spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave Georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable.When Darcy returned to the saloon,Miss Bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister.

“How very ill Miss Eliza Bennet looks this morning,Mr.Darcy,”she cried;“I never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter.She is grown so brown and coarse!Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again.”

However little Mr. Darcy might have liked such an address, he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned, no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer.

“For my own part,”she rejoined,“I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her.Her face is too thin;her complexion has no brilliancy;and her features are not at all handsome.Her nose wants character—there is nothing marked in its lines.Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes,which have sometimes been called so fine,I could never see anything extraordinary in them.They have a sharp,shrewish look,which I do not like at all;and in her air altogether,there is a self-sufficiency without fashion,which is intolerable.”

Persuaded as Miss Bingley was that Darcy admired Elizabeth, this was not the best method of recommending herself; but angry people are not always wise;and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled,she had all the success she expected.He was resolutely silent,however,and,from a determination of making him speak,she continued:

“I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire, how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty;and I particularly recollect your saying one night,after they had been dining at Netherfield,'she a beauty!—I should as soon call her mother a wit.'But afterwards she seemed to improve on you,and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time.”

“Yes,”replied Darcy,who could contain himself no longer,“but that was only when I first saw her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.”

He then went away, and Miss Bingley was left to all the satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any pain but herself.