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not approach nearer to Wickham, Georgiana also recovered

in time, though not enough to be able to speak any more.

Her brother, whose eye she feared to meet, scarcely recol-

lected her interest in the affair; and the very circumstance

which had been designed to turn his thoughts from Elizabeth

seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully.

 

Their visit did not continue long after the question and

answer above mentioned; and while Mr. Darcy was attending

them to their carriage, Miss Bingley was venting her feelings

in criticisms on Elizabeth's person, behaviour, and dress. But

Georgiana would not join her. Her brother's recommenda-

tion was enough to insure her favour: his judgment could not

err; and he had spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave

Georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than

lovely and amiable. When Darcy returned to the saloon,

Miss Bingley could not help repeating to him some part of

what she had been saying to his sister.

 

'How very ill Eliza Bennet looks this morning, Mr. Darcy,'

she cried: 'I never in my life saw any one so much altered

as she is since the winter. She is grown so brown and coarse.

Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known

her again.'

 

However little Mr. Darcy might have liked such an ad-

dress, he contented himself with coolly replying that he per-

ceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned, -- no

miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer.

 

'For my own part,' she rejoined, 'I must confess that I

never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin;

her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not

at all handsome. Her nose wants character; there is nothing

marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of

the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes

been called so fine, I never could perceive anything extraor-

dinary in them. They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I

do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self-~

sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.'

 

Persuaded as Miss Bingley was that Darcy admired Eliza-

beth, this was not the best method of recommending herself;

but angry people are not always wise; and in seeing him at

last look somewhat nettled, she had all the success she ex-

 

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