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.
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.
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.
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.