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  • CHAPTER 10

  • The day passed much as the day before had done.

  • Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid, who

  • continued, though slowly, to mend; and in the evening Elizabeth joined their party in

  • the drawing-room.

  • The loo-table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley,

  • seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off

  • his attention by messages to his sister.

  • Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.

  • Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what

  • passed between Darcy and his companion.

  • The perpetual commendations of the lady, either on his handwriting, or on the

  • evenness of his lines, or on the length of his letter, with the perfect unconcern with

  • which her praises were received, formed a

  • curious dialogue, and was exactly in union with her opinion of each.

  • "How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!"

  • He made no answer.

  • "You write uncommonly fast." "You are mistaken.

  • I write rather slowly." "How many letters you must have occasion to

  • write in the course of a year!

  • Letters of business, too! How odious I should think them!"

  • "It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of yours."

  • "Pray tell your sister that I long to see her."

  • "I have already told her so once, by your desire."

  • "I am afraid you do not like your pen.

  • Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well."

  • "Thank you--but I always mend my own." "How can you contrive to write so even?"

  • He was silent.

  • "Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp; and pray let

  • her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table,

  • and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley's."

  • "Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again?

  • At present I have not room to do them justice."

  • "Oh! it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January.

  • But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?"

  • "They are generally long; but whether always charming it is not for me to

  • determine."

  • "It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot

  • write ill."

  • "That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," cried her brother,

  • "because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four

  • syllables.

  • Do not you, Darcy?" "My style of writing is very different from

  • yours." "Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes

  • in the most careless way imaginable.

  • He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."

  • "My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them--by which means my

  • letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."

  • "Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm reproof."

  • "Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility.

  • It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

  • "And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"

  • "The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because

  • you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of

  • execution, which, if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting.

  • The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and

  • often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

  • When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved upon quitting

  • Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of

  • panegyric, of compliment to yourself--and

  • yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very

  • necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone else?"

  • "Nay," cried Bingley, "this is too much, to remember at night all the foolish things

  • that were said in the morning.

  • And yet, upon my honour, I believe what I said of myself to be true, and I believe it

  • at this moment.

  • At least, therefore, I did not assume the character of needless precipitance merely

  • to show off before the ladies."

  • "I dare say you believed it; but I am by no means convinced that you would be gone with

  • such celerity.

  • Your conduct would be quite as dependent on chance as that of any man I know; and if,

  • as you were mounting your horse, a friend were to say, 'Bingley, you had better stay

  • till next week,' you would probably do it,

  • you would probably not go--and at another word, might stay a month."

  • "You have only proved by this," cried Elizabeth, "that Mr. Bingley did not do

  • justice to his own disposition.

  • You have shown him off now much more than he did himself."

  • "I am exceedingly gratified," said Bingley, "by your converting what my friend says

  • into a compliment on the sweetness of my temper.

  • But I am afraid you are giving it a turn which that gentleman did by no means

  • intend; for he would certainly think better of me, if under such a circumstance I were

  • to give a flat denial, and ride off as fast as I could."

  • "Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original intentions as atoned for

  • by your obstinacy in adhering to it?"

  • "Upon my word, I cannot exactly explain the matter; Darcy must speak for himself."

  • "You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I

  • have never acknowledged.

  • Allowing the case, however, to stand according to your representation, you must

  • remember, Miss Bennet, that the friend who is supposed to desire his return to the

  • house, and the delay of his plan, has

  • merely desired it, asked it without offering one argument in favour of its

  • propriety."

  • "To yield readily--easily--to the persuasion of a friend is no merit with

  • you." "To yield without conviction is no

  • compliment to the understanding of either."

  • "You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for the influence of friendship and

  • affection.

  • A regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request, without

  • waiting for arguments to reason one into it.

  • I am not particularly speaking of such a case as you have supposed about Mr.

  • Bingley.

  • We may as well wait, perhaps, till the circumstance occurs before we discuss the

  • discretion of his behaviour thereupon.

  • But in general and ordinary cases between friend and friend, where one of them is

  • desired by the other to change a resolution of no very great moment, should you think

  • ill of that person for complying with the

  • desire, without waiting to be argued into it?"

  • "Will it not be advisable, before we proceed on this subject, to arrange with

  • rather more precision the degree of importance which is to appertain to this

  • request, as well as the degree of intimacy subsisting between the parties?"

  • "By all means," cried Bingley; "let us hear all the particulars, not forgetting their

  • comparative height and size; for that will have more weight in the argument, Miss

  • Bennet, than you may be aware of.

  • I assure you, that if Darcy were not such a great tall fellow, in comparison with

  • myself, I should not pay him half so much deference.

  • I declare I do not know a more awful object than Darcy, on particular occasions, and in

  • particular places; at his own house especially, and of a Sunday evening, when

  • he has nothing to do."

  • Mr. Darcy smiled; but Elizabeth thought she could perceive that he was rather offended,

  • and therefore checked her laugh.

  • Miss Bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received, in an expostulation with

  • her brother for talking such nonsense. "I see your design, Bingley," said his

  • friend.

  • "You dislike an argument, and want to silence this."

  • "Perhaps I do. Arguments are too much like disputes.

  • If you and Miss Bennet will defer yours till I am out of the room, I shall be very

  • thankful; and then you may say whatever you like of me."

  • "What you ask," said Elizabeth, "is no sacrifice on my side; and Mr. Darcy had

  • much better finish his letter." Mr. Darcy took her advice, and did finish

  • his letter.

  • When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley and Elizabeth for an

  • indulgence of some music.

  • Miss Bingley moved with some alacrity to the pianoforte; and, after a polite request

  • that Elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely and more earnestly

  • negatived, she seated herself.

  • Mrs. Hurst sang with her sister, and while they were thus employed, Elizabeth could

  • not help observing, as she turned over some music-books that lay on the instrument, how

  • frequently Mr. Darcy's eyes were fixed on her.

  • She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so

  • great a man; and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her, was still more

  • strange.

  • She could only imagine, however, at last that she drew his notice because there was

  • something more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in

  • any other person present.

  • The supposition did not pain her. She liked him too little to care for his

  • approbation.

  • After playing some Italian songs, Miss Bingley varied the charm by a lively Scotch

  • air; and soon afterwards Mr. Darcy, drawing near Elizabeth, said to her:

  • "Do not you feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize such an opportunity of

  • dancing a reel?" She smiled, but made no answer.

  • He repeated the question, with some surprise at her silence.

  • "Oh!" said she, "I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say

  • in reply.

  • You wanted me, I know, to say 'Yes,' that you might have the pleasure of despising my

  • taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a

  • person of their premeditated contempt.

  • I have, therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at

  • all--and now despise me if you dare." "Indeed I do not dare."

  • Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry;

  • but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it

  • difficult for her to affront anybody; and

  • Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her.

  • He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he

  • should be in some danger.