“Now,”said she,“that this first meeting is over,I feel perfectly easy.I know my own strength,and I shall never be embarrassed again by his coming. I am glad he dines here on Tuesday. It will then be publicly seen that, on both sides, we meet only as common and indifferent acquaintance.”
“Yes,very indifferent indeed,”said Elizabeth,laughingly.“Oh, Jane,take care.”
“I think you are in very great danger of making him as much in love with you as ever.”
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.
Her resolution was for a short time involuntarily kept by the approach of her sister,who joined her with a cheerful look,which showed her better satisfied with their visitors,than Elizabeth.
“If he does not come to me,then,”said she,“I shall give him up for ever.”