{{prxprp288.jpg}} || 288 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

Both sisters were uncomfortable enough. Each felt for the other,

and of course for themselves; and their mother talked on, of her

dislike of Mr. Darcy, and her resoluu'on to be civil to him only

as Mr. Bingley's friend, without being heard by either of them.

But Elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be

suspected by Jane, to whom she had never yet had courage to

show Mrs. Gardiner's letter, or to relate her own change of

sentiment towards him. To Jane, he could be only a man whose

proposals she had refused, and whose merit she had undervalued;

but to her own more extensive information, he was the person, to

whom the whole family were indebted for the first of benefits, and

whom she regarded herself with an interest, if not quite so tender,

at least as reasonable and just, as what Jane felt for Bingley. Her

astonishment at his coming -- at his coming to Netherfield, to

Longbourn, and voluntarily seeking her again, was almost equal

to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour

in Derbyshire.

The colour which had been driven from her face, returned for

half a minute with an additional glow, and a smile of delight

added lustre to her eyes, as she thought for that space of time, that

his affection and wishes must still be unshaken. But she would

not be secure.

'Let me first see how he behaves,' said she; 'it will then be

early enough for expectation.'

She sat intently at work striving to be composed, and without

daring to lift up her eyes, till anxious curiosity carried them to the

face of her sister, as the servant was approaching the door. Jane

looked a little paler than usual, but more sedate than Elizabeth

had expected. On the gentlemen's appearing, her colour

increased; yet. she received them with tolerable ease, and with a

propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom of resent"

ment, or any unnecessary complaisance.

Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow, and sat

down again to her work, with an eagerness which it did not

often command. She had ventured only one glance at Darcy.

He looked serious as usual; and she thought, more as he had

been used to look in Hertfordshire, than as she had seen him at

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