{{prxprp332.jpg}} || 332 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

was still partial to Bingley, and if she were, to make the confession

to him which I have since made.'

'Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine,

what is to befal her?'

'I am more likely to want time than courage, Elizabeth. But

it ought to be done, and if you will give me a sheet of paper it

shall be done directly.'

'And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you,

and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady

once did. But I have an aunt, too, who must not be longer

neglected.'

From an unwillingness to confess how much her intimacy with

Mr. Darcy had been overrated, Elizabeth had never yet answered

Mrs. Gardiner's long letter, but now, having that to communicate

which she knew would be most welcome, she was almost ashamed

to find, that her uncle and aunt had already lost three days of

happiness, and immediately wrote as follows:

'I would have thanked you before, my dear aunt, as I ought to have

done, for your long, kind, satisfactory detail of particulars but to say

the truth, I was too cross to write. You supposed more than really

existed. But now suppose as much as you chuse; give a loose to your

fancy, indulge your imagination in every possible flight which the sub'

ject will afford, and unless you believe me actually married, you cannot

gready err. You must write again very soon, and praise him a great

deal more than you did in your last. I thank you again and again,

for not going to the Lakes. How could I be so silly as to wish it!

Your idea of the ponies is delightful. We will go round the Park

every day. I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other

people have said so before, but no one with such justice. I am happier

even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Air. Darcy sends you all

the love in the world, that can be spared from me. You are all to come

to Pemberley at Christmas. -- Yours, etc'

Mr. Darcy's letter to Lady Catherine was in a different style;

and still different from either, was what Mr. Bennet sent to

Mr. Collins, in reply to his last.

'Dfar Sir,

'I must trouble you once more for congratulations. Elizabeth will

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