Pride and Prejudice / Гордость и предубеждение. Джейн Остин

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      Elizabeth passed the night in her sister’s room. Suddenly Mrs. Bennet, accompanied by her two youngest girls, came to Netherfield soon after the family breakfast.

      If she found Jane in a danger, Mrs. Bennet would have been very miserable. But she was satisfied that her illness was not dangerous. She would not listen, therefore, to her daughter’s proposal of coming home. After sitting a little while with Jane, the mother and three daughters came into the breakfast parlour. Bingley met them with hopes that Mrs. Bennet had not found Miss Bennet worse than she expected.

      “Indeed I have, sir,” was her answer. “She is too ill to be moved. We must use your kindness a little longer. You have a sweet room here, Mr. Bingley. I do not know a place in the country that is equal to Netherfield. You will not think of quitting it in a hurry.”

      “Whatever I do is done in a hurry,” replied he; “But at present, however, I consider myself as quite fixed here.”

      “That is exactly what I should have supposed of you,” said Elizabeth.

      “You begin to comprehend me, do you?” cried he.

      “Oh! yes-I understand you perfectly.”

      “Lizzy,” cried her mother, “remember where you are, and do not continue in the wild manner that you use at home.”

      “I did not know before,” continued Bingley immediately, “that you were a studier of character. It must be an amusing study.”

      “The country,” said Darcy, “can in general supply a few subjects for such a study.”

      “Yes, indeed,” cried Mrs. Bennet, offended by his manner of mentioning a country neighbourhood. “I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the country, except the shops and public places. The country is far more pleasant, is it not, Mr. Bingley?”

      “When I am in the country,” he replied, “I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is the same. They have each their advantages.”

      “That is because you have the right disposition. But that gentleman,” looking at Darcy, “seemed to think the country was nothing at all.”

      “Indeed, Mamma, you are mistaken,” said Elizabeth, blushing for her mother. “You quite mistook Mr. Darcy. He only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in the town.”

      “Certainly, my dear, but we dine with twenty-four families.”

      Elizabeth asked her mother if Charlotte Lucas had been at Longbourn.

      “Yes, she came yesterday with her father. What an agreeable man Sir William is, Mr. Bingley, is not he? He has always something to say to everybody.”

      “Did Charlotte dine with you?”

      “No, she went home. The Lucases are a very good sort of girls, I assure you. It is a pity they are not handsome! Not that I think Charlotte so very plain – she is our friend.”

      “She seems a very pleasant young woman.”

      “Oh! dear, yes; but you must agree she is very plain. Lady Lucas herself has often said so, and envied me Jane’s beauty. I do not like to boast of my own child, but to be sure, Jane – one does not often see anybody better looking. It is what everybody says. When she was only fifteen, there was a man so much in love with her that my sister-in-law was sure he would make her an offer. But, however, he did not. Perhaps he thought she was too young. However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”

      “I wonder,” said Elizabeth impatiently, “who first discovered the poetry was driving away love!”

      “I always thought that the poetry was the food of love,” said Darcy.

      “Maybe. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it is weak, one good sonnet will kill it.”

      Darcy only smiled; Mrs. Bennet began to thank Mr. Bingley for his kindness to Jane, with an apology for troubling him also with Lizzy. Mr. Bingley was very civil in his answer, and forced his younger sister to be civil also, and say what the occasion required.

      Lydia was a stout girl of fifteen, with a fine complexion and good-humoured countenance; a favourite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age. She had a sort of natural self-consequence. She reminded Mr. Bingley about the ball that he had promised to organise. And she added, that it would be the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep his promise. His answer was delightful to their mother’s ear:

      “I am perfectly ready, I assure you, to keep my promise, when your sister is recovered. But you would not wish to dance when she is ill.”

      Lydia declared herself satisfied. “Oh! yes – it would be much better to wait till Jane was well, and by that time most likely Captain Carter would be at Meryton again.”

      Mrs. Bennet and her daughters then left, and Elizabeth returned instantly to Jane.

      Chapter 10