“It has been a very agreeable day,”said Miss Bennet to Elizabeth.“The party seemed so well selected, so suitable one with the other.I hope we may often meet again.”
“You are very cruel,”said her sister,“you will not let me smile, and are provoking me to it every moment.”
“Mrs.Annesley is with her.The others have been gone on to Scarborough,these three weeks.”
“And quite alone?Have all her friends left her?”
“That is a question which I hardly know how to answer.We all love to instruct,though we can teach only what is not worth knowing. Forgive me; and if you persist in indifference, do not make me your confidante.”
She could think of nothing more to say; but if he wished to converse with her,he might have better success.He stood by her, however,for some minutes,in silence;and,at last,on the young lady's whispering to Elizabeth again,he walked away.
“Is your sister at Pemberley still?”
“The men shan't come and part us,I am determined.We want none of them;do we?”
“Well girls,”said she, as soon as they were left to themselves,“What say you to the day? I think every thing has passed off uncommonly well,I assure you.The dinner was as well dressed as any I ever saw.The venison was roasted to a turn―and everybody said they never saw so fat a haunch.The soup was fifty times better than what we had at the Lucases' last week;and even Mr. Darcy acknowledged, that the partridges were remarkably well done; and I suppose he has two or three French cooks at least. And,my dear Jane,I never saw you look in greater beauty.Mrs. Long said so too,for I asked her whether you did not.And what do you think she said besides? 'Ah! Mrs. Bennet, we shall have her at Netherfield at last.'She did indeed.I do think Mrs.Long is as good a creature as ever lived―and her nieces are very pretty behaved girls,and not at all handsome:I like them prodigiously.”