{{prxprp123.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 123 ||

got Mr. Bingley, if she could. But, Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very

hard to think that she might have been Mr. Collins's wife by

this time, had not it been for her own perverseness. He made

her an offer in this very room, and she refused him. The conse^

quence of it is, that Lady Lucas will have a daughter married

before I have, and that Longbourn estate is just as much entailed

as ever. The Lucases are very artful people indeed, sister. They

are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of them, but

so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted

so in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of

themselves before anybody else. However, your coming just at

this time is the greatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear

what you tell us, of long sleeves.'

Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given

before, in the course of Jane and Elizabeth's correspondence

with her, made her sister a slight answer, and in compassion

to her nieces turned the conversation.

When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on

the subject. 'It seems likely to have been a desirable match for

Jane,' said she. 'I am sorry it went off. But these things happen

so often! A young man, such as you describe Mr. Bingley, so

easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks, and when

accident separates them, so easily forgets her, that these son of

inconstancies are very frequent.'

'An excellent consolation in its way,' said Elizabeth, 'but it

will not do for us. We do not suffer by accident. It does not

often happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young

man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl, whom he

was violently in love with only a few days before.'

'But that expression of "violently in love" is so hackneyed, so

doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is as

often applied to feelings which arise only from an half-hour's

acquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how violent

was Mr. Bingley's love?'

'I never saw a more promising inclination; he was growing

quite inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her.

Every time they met, it was more decided and remarkable. At

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