{{prxprp172.jpg}} || 172 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

William Lucas's accidental information, that Bingley's attentions to

your sister had given rise to a general expectation of their marriage.

He spoke of it as a certain event, of which the time alone could be

undecided. From that moment I observed my friend's behaviour

attentively; and I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet

was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him. Your sister I also

watched. -- Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging

as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard, and I remained

convinced from the evening's scrutiny, that though she received his

attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation

of sentiment. -- If you have not been mistaken here I must have been

in an error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the

latter probable. -- If it be so, if I have been misled by such error, to inflict

pain on her, your resentment has not been unreasonable. But I shall

not scruple to assert, that the serenity of your sister's countenance and

air was such, as might have given the most acute observer, a conviction

that, however amiable her temper, her heart was not likely to be easily

touched. -- That I was desirous of believing her indifferent is certain --

but I will venture to say that my investigations and decisions are not

usually influenced by my hopes or fears. -- I did not believe her to be

indifferent because I wished it; -- I believed it on impartial conviction,

as truly as I wished it in reason. My objections to the marriage were

not merely those, which I last night acknowledged to have required the

utmost force of passion to put aside, in my own case; the want of con^

nection could not be so great an evil to my friend as to me. -- But there

were other causes of repugnance; -- causes v/hich, though still existing,

and existing to an equal degree in both instances, I had myself endea^

voured to forget, because they were not immediately before me. -- These

causes must be stated, though briefly. -- The situation of your mother's

family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total

want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by her'

self, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father.

-- Pardon me. -- It pains me to offend you. But amidst your concern for

the defects of your nearest relations, and your displeasure at this reprc

sentation of them, let it give you consolation to consider that, to have

conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of the like censure, is

praise no less generally bestowed on you and your eldest sister, than it

is honourable to the sense and disposition of both. -- I will only say

farther, that from what passed that evening, my opinion cf all parties

was confirmed, and every inducement heightened, which could have led

me before, to preserve my friend from what I esteemed a most unhappy

 [[172]]