On Tuesday there was a large party assembled at Longbourn;and the two who were most anxiously expected,to the credit of their punctuality as sportsmen,were in very good time.When they repaired to the dining room,Elizabeth eagerly watched to see whether Bingley would take the place which,in all their former parties,had belonged to him,by her sister.Her prudent mother,occupied by the same ideas,forbore to invite him to sit by herself.On entering the room,he seemed to hesitate;but Jane happened to look round,and happened to smile:it was decided.He placed himself by her.
Elizabeth,with a triumphant sensation,looked towards his friend.He bore it with noble indifference,and she would have imagined that Bingley had received his sanction to be happy,had she not seen his eyes likewise turned towards Mr Darcy,with an expression of half laughing alarm.
His behaviour to her sister was such,during dinner time,as shewed an admiration of her,which,though more guarded than formerly,persuaded Elizabeth,that if left wholly to himself,Jane's happiness,and his own,would be speedily secured.Though she dared not depend upon the consequence,she yet received pleasure from observing his behaviour.It gave her all the animation that her spirits could boast;for she was in no cheerful humour.Mr Darcy was almost as far from her as the table could divide them.He was on one side of her mother.She knew how little such a situation would give pleasure to either,or make either appear to advantage.She was not near enough to hear any of their discourse,but she could see how seldom they spoke to each other,and how formal and cold was their manner whenever they did.Her mother's ungraciousness,made the sense of what they owed him more painful to Elizabeth's mind;and she would,at times,have given any thing to be privileged to tell him that his kindness was neither unknown nor unfelt by the whole of the family.
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.
‘If he does not come to me then,’said she,‘I shall give him up for ever.’
The gentlemen came;and she thought he looked as if he would have answered her hopes;but,alas!the ladies had crowded round the table,where Miss Bennet was making tea,and Elizabeth pouring out the coffee,in so close a confederacy that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit of a chair.And on the gentlemen's approaching,one of the girls moved closer to her than ever,and said,in a whisper,
‘The men shan't come and part us,I am determined.We want none of them;do we?’
Darcy had walked away to another part of the room.She followed him with her eyes,envied every one to whom he spoke,had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee;and then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
‘A man who has once been refused!How could I ever be foolish enough to expect a renewal of his love?Is there one among the sex,who would not protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman?There is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings!’
She was a little revived,however,by his bringing back his coffee cup himself;and she seized the opportunity of saying,
‘Is your sister at Pemberley still?’
‘Yes,she will remain there till Christmas.’
‘And quite alone?Have all her friends left her?’
‘Mrs Annesley is with her.The others have been gone on to Scarborough these three weeks.’
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.
When the tea things were removed,and the card tables placed,the ladies all rose,and Elizabeth was then hoping to be soon joined by him,when all her views were overthrown by seeing him fall a victim to her mother's rapacity for whist players,and in a few moments after seated with the rest of the party.She now lost every expectation of pleasure.They were confined for the evening at different tables,and she had nothing to hope,but that his eyes were so often turned towards her side of the room,as to make him play as unsuccessfully as herself.
Mrs Bennet had designed to keep the two Netherfield gentlemen to supper;but their carriage was unluckily ordered before any of the others,and she had no opportunity of detaining them.
‘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.’
