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Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow,

and sat down again to her work, with an eagerness which

it did not often command. She had ventured only one glance

at Darcy. He looked serious as usual; and she thought,

more as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, than

as she had seen him at Pemberley. But, perhaps, he could

not in her mother's presence be what he was before her

uncle and aunt. It was a painful, but not an improbable,

conjecture.

Bingley she had likewise seen for an instant, and in that

short period saw him looking both pleased and embarrassed.

He was received by Mrs. Bennet with a degree of civility

which made her two daughters ashamed, especially when

contrasted with the cold and ceremonious politeness of her

courtesy and address of his friend.

Elizabeth particularly, who knew that her mother owed

to the latter the preservation of her favourite daughter from

irremediable infamy, was hurt and distressed to a most pain-

ful degree by a distinction so ill applied.

Darcy, after inquiring of her how Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner

did, a question which she could not answer without con-

fusion, said scarcely anything. He was not seated by her:

perhaps that was the reason of his silence; but it had not

been so in Derbyshire. There he had talked to her friends

when he could not to herself. But now several minutes

elapsed, without bringing the sound of his voice; and when

occasionally, unable to resist the impulse of curiosity, she

raised her eyes to his face, she as often found him looking

at Jane as at herself, and frequently on no object but the

ground. More thoughtfulness and less anxiety to please,

than when they last met, were plainly expressed. She was

disappointed, and angry with herself for being so.

'Could I expect it to be otherwise?' said she. 'Yet why

did he come?'

She was in no humour for conversation with any one but

himself; and to him she had hardly courage to speak.

She inquired after his sister, but could do no more.

'It is a long time, Mr. Bingley, since you went away,' said

Mrs. Bennet.

He readily agreed to it.

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