{{prxprp105.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 105 ||

confiding them, and I trust you will not esteem them unreasonable.

My brother admires her greatly already, he will have frequent

opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing, her

relations all wish the connection as much as his own, and a

sister's partiality is not misleading me, I think, when I call

Charles most capable of engaging any woman's heart. With

all these circumstances to favour an attachment, and nothing to

prevent it, am I wrong, my dearest Jane, in indulging the hope

of an event which will secure the happiness of so many?"

What think you of this sentence, my dear Lizzy?' -- said Jane

as she finished it. 'Is it not clear enough? -- Does it not expressly

declare that Caroline neither expects nor wishes me to be her

sister; that she is perfectly convinced of her brother's indifference,

and that if she suspects the nature of my feelings for him, she

means (most kindly!) to put me on my guard? Can there be

any other opinion on the subject?'

'Yes, there can; for mine is totally different. -- Will you hear it?'

'Most willingly.'

'You shall have it in a few words. Miss Bingley sees that her

brother is in love with you, and wants him to marry Miss Darcy.

She follows him to town in the hope of keeping him there, and

tries to persuade you that he does not care about you.'

Jane shook her head.

'Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. -- No one who has

ever seen you together, can doubt his affection. Miss Bingley

I am sure cannot. She is not such a simpleton. Could she

have seen half as much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would

have ordered her wedding clothes. But the case is this. We are

not rich enough, or grand enough, for them; and she is the more

anxious to get Miss Darcy for her brother, from the notion that

when there has been one intermarriage, she may have less trouble

in achieving a second; in which there is certainly some ingenuity,

and I dare say it would succeed, if Miss de Bourgh were out of

the way. But, my dearest Jane, you cannot seriously imagine

that because Miss Bingley tells you her brother greatly admires

Miss Darcy, he is in the smallest degree less sensible otyour merit

than when he took leave of you on Tuesday, or that it will bt

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