“It taught me to hope,”said he,“as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.I knew enough of your disposition to be certain that,had you been absolutely,irrevocably decided against me,you would have acknowledged it to Lady Catherine,frankly and openly.”
Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change,since the period to which he alluded,as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.The happiness which this reply produced,was such as he had probably never felt before;and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his eye,she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight, diffused over his face, became him;but,though she could not look,she could listen,and he told her of feelings,which,in proving of what importance she was to him,made his affection every moment more valuable.
Elizabeth coloured and laughed as she replied,“Yes,you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face,I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.”