{{prxprp231.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 231 ||

He had been some time with Mr. Gardiner, who, with two or

three other gentlemen from the house, was engaged by the river,

and had left him only on learning that the ladies of the family

intended a visit to Georgiana that morning. No sooner did he

appear, than Elizabeth wisely resolved to be perfectly easy and

unembarrassed; -- a resolution the more necessary to be made, but

perhaps not the more easily kept, because she saw that the suspi'

cions of the whole parry were awakened against them, and that

there was scarcely an eye which did not watch his behaviour

when he first came into the room. In no countenance was

attentive curiosity so strongly marked as in Miss Bingley's, in

spite of the smiles which overspread her face whenever she spoke

to one of its objects; for jealousy had not yet made her desperate,

and her attentions to Mr. Darcy were by no means over. Miss

Darcy, on her brother's entrance, exerted herself much more to

talk; and Elizabeth saw that he was anxious for his sister and

herself to get acquainted, and forwarded, as much as possible,

every attempt at conversation on either side. Miss Bingley saw

all this likewise; and, in the imprudence of anger, took the first

opportunity of saying, with sneering civility:

'Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the shire Militia removed from

Meryton? They must be a great loss to your family.'

In Darcy 's presence she dared not mention Wickham's name;

but Elizabeth instantly comprehended that he was uppermost in

her thoughts; and the various recollections connected with him

gave her a moment's distress; but, exerting herself vigorously to

repel the ill-natured attack, she presendy answered the question

in a tolerably disengaged tone. While she spoke, an involuntary

glance shewed her Darcy with an heightened complexion,

earnestly looking at her, and his sister overcome with confusion,

and unable to lift up her eyes. Had Miss Bingley known what

pain she was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly

would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely intended

to discompose Elizabeth, by bringing forward the idea of a man

to whom she believed her partial, to make her betray a sensibility

which might injure her in Darcy's opinion, and, perhaps, to

remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which some

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