{{prxprp047.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 47 ||

the door. He then sat down by her, and talked scarcely to any

one else. Elizabeth, at work in the opposite corner, saw it all

with great delight.

When tea was over, Mr. Hurst reminded his sister'in'law of

the card'table -- but in vain. She had obtained private intelligence

that Mr. Darcy did not wish for cards; and Mr. Hurst soon found

even his open petition rejected. She assured him that no one

intended to play, and the silence of the whole party on the subject

seemed to justify her. Mr. Hurst had therefore nothing to do

but to stretch himself on one of the sophas and go to sleep. Darcy

took up a book; Miss Bingley did the same: and Mrs. Hurst,

principally occupied in playing with her bracelets and rings,

joined now and then in her brother's conversation with Miss

Bennet.

Miss Bingley's attention was quite as much engaged in watching

Mr. Darcy's progress through his book, as in reading her own;

and she was perpetually either making some inquiry, or looking

at his page. She could not win him, however, to any conversa^

tion; he merely answered her question, and read on. At length,

quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book,

which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of

his, she gave a great yawn and said: 'How pleasant it is to spend

an evening in this way! I declare after all there is no enjoyment

like reading 1 How much sooner one tires of anything than of

a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable

if I have not an excellent library'.

No one made any reply. She then yawned again, threw aside

her book, and cast her eyes round the room in quest of some

amusement; when hearing her brother mentioning a ball to

Miss Bennet, she turned suddenly towards him and said,

'By the bye, Charles, are you really serious in meditating a

dance at Netherfield? -- I would advise you, before you determine

on it, to consult the wishes of the present party; I am much

mistaken if there are not some among us to whom a ball would

be rather a punishment than a pleasure.'

'If you mean Darcy,' cried her brother, 'he may go to bed, if

he chuses, before it begins -- but as for the ball, it is quite a setded

 [[047]]