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Chapter XXXIV

When they were gone, Elizabeth, as if intending to

exasperate herself as much as possible against Mr.

Darcy, chose for her employment the examination

of all the letters which Jane had written to her since her be-

ing in Kent. They contained no actual complaint, nor was

there any revival of past occurrences, or any communication

of present suffering. But in all, and in almost every line

of each, there was a want of that cheerfulness which had

been used to characterise her style, and which, proceeding

from the serenity of a mind at ease with itself, and kindly

disposed towards every one, had been scarcely ever clouded.

Elizabeth noticed every sentence conveying the idea of un-

easiness, with an attention which it had hardly received on

the first perusal. Mr. Darcy's shameful boast of what misery

he had been able to inflict gave her a keener sense of her

sister's sufferings. It was some consolation to think that his

visit to Rosings was to end on the day after the next, and a

still greater that in less than a fortnight she should herself

be with Jane again, and enabled to contribute to the recovery

of her spirits, by all that affection could do.

She could not think of Darcy's leaving Kent without re-

membering that his cousin was to go with him; but Colonel

Fitzwilliam had made it clear that he had no intentions at

all, and, agreeable as he was, she did not mean to be unhappy

about him.

While settling this point, she was suddenly roused by the

sound of the door bell; and her spirits were a little fluttered

by the idea of its being Colonel Fitzwilliam himself, who

had once before called late in the evening, and might now

come to inquire particularly after her. But this idea was

soon banished, and her spirits were very differently affected,

when, to her utter amazement, she saw Mr. Darcy walk into

the room. In a hurried manner he immediately began an

inquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of

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