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Consoled by this resolution, she was the better able to

bear her husband's incivility; though it was very mortifying

to know that her neighbours might all see Mr. Bingley in

consequence of it before _they_ did. As the day of his arrival

drew near,--

'I begin to be sorry that he comes at all,' said Jane to

her sister. 'It would be nothing; I could see him with

perfect indifference; but I can hardly bear to hear it thus

perpetually talked off. My mother means well; but she does

not know, no one can know, how much I suffer from what

she says. Happy shall I be when his stay at Netherfield is

over!'

'I wish I could say anything to comfort you,' replied

Elizabeth; 'but it is wholly out of my power. You must

feel it; and the usual satisfaction of preaching patience to a

sufferer is denied me, because you have always so much.'

Mr. Bingley arrived. Mrs. Bennet, through the assist-

ance of servants, contrived to have the earliest tidings of it,

that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might

be as long as it could. She counted the days that must

intervene before their invitation could be sent; hopeless of

seeing him before. But on the third morning after his

arrival in Hertfordshire, she saw him from her dressing-~

room window enter the paddock, and ride towards the

house.

Her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy.

Jane resolutely kept her place at the table; but Elizabeth,

to satisfy her mother, went to the window -- she looked -- she

saw Mr. Darcy with him, and sat down again by her sister.

'There is a gentleman with him, mamma,' said Kitty;

'who can it be?'

'Some acquaintance or other, my dear, I suppose; I am

sure I do not know.'

'La!' replied Kitty, 'it looks just like that man that used

to be with him before. Mr. what's his name -- that tall, proud

man.'

'Good gracious! Mr. Darcy! -- and so it does, I vow.

Well, any friend of Mr. Bingley's will always be welcome

here to be sure; but else I must say that I hate the very

sight of him.'

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