make you better satisfied that your other four are single."
"It is no such thing. Lydia does not leave me because she is married, but only because her
husband's regiment happens to be so far off. If that had been nearer, she would not have gone so
soon."
But the spiritless condition which this event threw her into was shortly relieved, and her mind
opened again to the agitation of hope, by an article of news which then began to be in
circulation. The housekeeper at Netherfield had received orders to prepare for the arrival of her
master, who was coming down in a day or two, to shoot there for several weeks. Mrs. Bennet
was quite in the fidgets. She looked at Jane, and smiled and shook her head by turns.
"Well, well, and so Mr. Bingley is coming down, sister," (for Mrs. Phillips first brought her the
news). "Well, so much the better. Not that I care about it, though. He is nothing to us, you know,
and I am sure I never want to see him again. But, however, he is very welcome to come to
Netherfield, if he likes it. And who knows what MAY happen? But that is nothing to us. You
know, sister, we agreed long ago never to mention a word about it. And so, is it quite certain he
is coming?"
"You may depend on it," replied the other, "for Mrs. Nicholls was in Meryton last night; I saw
her passing by, and went out myself on purpose to know the truth of it; and she told me that it
was certain true. He comes down on Thursday at the latest, very likely on Wednesday. She was
going to the butcher's, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she has
got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed."
Miss Bennet had not been able to hear of his coming without changing colour. It was many
months since she had mentioned his name to Elizabeth; but now, as soon as they were alone
together, she said:
"I saw you look at me to-day, Lizzy, when my aunt told us of the present report; and I know I
appeared distressed. But don't imagine it was from any silly cause. I was only confused for the
moment, because I felt that I SHOULD be looked at. I do assure you that the news does not
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affect me either with pleasure or pain. I am glad of one thing, that he comes alone; because we
shall see the less of him. Not that I am afraid of MYSELF, but I dread other people's remarks."
Elizabeth did not know what to make of it. Had she not seen him in Derbyshire, she might have
supposed him capable of coming there with no other view than what was acknowledged; but she
still thought him partial to Jane, and she wavered as to the greater probability of his coming there
WITH his friend's permission, or being bold enough to come without it.
"Yet it is hard," she sometimes thought, "that this poor man cannot come to a house which he has
legally hired, without raising all this speculation! I WILL leave him to himself."
In spite of what her sister declared, and really believed to be her feelings in the expectation of his
arrival, Elizabeth could easily perceive that her spirits were affected by it. They were more
disturbed, more unequal, than she had often seen them.
The subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their parents, about a twelvemonth
ago, was now brought forward again.
"As soon as ever Mr. Bingley comes, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "you will wait on him of
course."
"No, no. You forced me into visiting him last year, and promised, if I went to see him, he should
marry one of my daughters. But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on a fool's errand
again."
His wife represented to him how absolutely necessary such an attention would be from all the
neighbouring gentlemen, on his returning to Netherfield.
"'Tis an etiquette I despise," said he. "If he wants our society, let him seek it. He knows where
we live. I will not spend my hours in running after my neighbours every time they go away and
come back again."
"Well, all I know is, that it will be abominably rude if you do not wait on him. But, however, that
shan't prevent my asking him to dine here, I am determined. We must have Mrs. Long and the
Gouldings soon. That will make thirteen with ourselves, so there will be just room at table for
him."
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Consoled by this resolution, she was the better able to bear her husband's incivility; though it was
very mortifying to know that her neighbours might all see Mr. Bingley, in consequence of it,
before THEY did. As the day of his arrival drew near:
"I begin to be sorry that he comes at all," said Jane to her sister. "It would be nothing; I could see
him with perfect indifference, but I can hardly bear to hear it thus perpetually talked of. My
mother means well; but she does not know, no one can know, how much I suffer from what she
says. Happy shall I be, when his stay at Netherfield is over!"
"I wish I could say any thing to comfort you," replied Elizabeth; "but it is wholly out of my
power. You must feel it; and the usual satisfaction of preaching patience to a sufferer is denied
me, because you have always so much."
Mr. Bingley arrived. Mrs. Bennet, through the assistance of servants, contrived to have the
earliest tidings of it, that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might be as long as it
could. She counted the days that must intervene before their invitation could be sent; hopeless of
seeing him before. But on the third morning after his arrival in Hertfordshire, she saw him, from
her dressing-room window, enter the paddock and ride towards the house.
Her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy. Jane resolutely kept her place at the
table; but Elizabeth, to satisfy her mother, went to the window—she looked,—she saw Mr.
Darcy with him, and sat down again by her sister.
"There is a gentleman with him, mamma," said Kitty; "who can it be?"
"Some acquaintance or other, my dear, I suppose; I am sure I do not know."
"La!" replied Kitty, "it looks just like that man that used to be with him before. Mr. what's-his-
name. That tall, proud man."
"Good gracious! Mr. Darcy!—and so it does, I vow. Well, any friend of Mr. Bingley's will
always be welcome here, to be sure; but else I must say that I hate the very sight of him."
Jane looked at Elizabeth with surprise and concern. She knew but little of their meeting in
Derbyshire, and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister, in seeing him
almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter. 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 resolution to be civil to him only as Mr. Bingley's friend, without
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being heard by either of them. But Elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not be