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'Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improve-

ment 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 appear-

ance 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 much

prized 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 on quitting

Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it

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