They descended the hill,crossed the bridge,and drove to the door;and,while examining the nearer aspect of the house,all her apprehension of meeting its owner returned.She dreaded lest the chambermaid had been mistaken.On applying to see the place, they were admitted into the hall; and Elizabeth, as they waited for the housekeeper,had leisure to wonder at her being where she was.
Mrs. Reynolds then directed their attention to one of Miss Darcy,drawn when she was only eight years old.
“Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?”
“And of this place,”thought she,“I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own,and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.But no,”―recollecting herself―“that could never be;my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.”
“Except,”thought Elizabeth,“when she goes to Ramsgate.”
“Yes,very handsome.”
“And is Miss Darcy as handsome as her brother?”said Mrs. Gardiner.
Mrs.Reynolds respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master.
This accounted to Elizabeth for Mr.Wickham's being among them.