Chapter 10

by Jane Austen

　　The day passed much as the day before had done. Mrs. Hurstand Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with theinvalid, who continued, though slowly, to mend; and in theevening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing-room. Theloo-table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, andMiss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of hisletter and repeatedly calling his attention by messages to hissister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs.Hurst was observing their game.Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficientlyamused in attending to what passed between Darcy and hiscompanion. The perpetual commendations of the lady, either onhis handwriting, or on the evenness of his lines, or on the lengthof his letter, with the perfect unconcern with which her praiseswere received, formed a curious dialogue, and was exactly inunion with her opinion of each."How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!"He made no answer."You write uncommonly fast.""You are mistaken. I write rather slowly.""How many letters you must have occasion to write in thecourse of a year! Letters of business, too! How odious I shouldthink them!""It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of yours.""Pray tell your sister that I long to see her.""I have already told her so once, by your desire.""I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. Imend pens remarkably well.""Thank you-- but I always mend my own.""How can you contrive to write so even?"He was silent."Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement onthe harp; and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures withher beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitelysuperior to Miss Grantley's.""Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again?At present I have not room to do them justice.""Oh! It is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But doyou always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?""They are generally long; but whether always charming it is notfor me to determine.""It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letterwith ease, cannot write ill.""That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," criedher brother, "because he does not write with ease. He studiestoo much for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?""My style of writing is very different from yours.""Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most carelessway imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots therest.""My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them--by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all tomy correspondents.""Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarmreproof.""Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance ofhumility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimesan indirect boast.""And which of the two do you call my little recent piece ofmodesty?""The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects inwriting, because you consider them as proceeding from arapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which, if notestimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power ofdoing anything with quickness is always prized much by thepossessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection ofthe performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning, thatif you ever resolved upon quitting Netherfield you should begone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, ofcompliment to yourself-- and yet what is there so very laudablein a precipitance which must leave very necessary businessundone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyoneelse?""Nay," cried Bingley, "this is too much, to remember at night allthe foolish things that were said in the morning. And, yet, uponmy honour, I believe what I said of myself to be true, and Ibelieve it at this moment. At least, therefore, I did not assumethe character of needless precipitance merely to show off beforethe ladies.""I dare say you believed it; but I am by no means convinced thatyou would be gone with such celerity. Your conduct would bequite as dependent on chance as that of any man I know; and if,as you were mounting your horse, a friend were to say, 'Bingley,you had better stay till next week,' you would probably do it,you would probably not go-- and at another word, might stay amonth.""You have only proved by this," cried Elizabeth, "that Mr.Bingley did not do justice to his own disposition. You haveshown him off now much more than he did himself.""I am exceedingly gratified," said Bingley, "by your convertingwhat my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of mytemper. But I am afraid you are giving it a turn which thatgentleman did by no means intend; for he would certainly thinkbetter of me, if under such a circumstance I were to give a flatdenial, and ride off as fast as I could.""Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your originalintentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?""Upon my word, I cannot exactly explain the matter; Darcy mustspeak for himself.""You expect me to account for opinions which you choose tocall mine, but which I have never acknowledged. Allowing thecase, however, to stand according to your representation, youmust remember, Miss Bennet, that the friend who is supposed todesire his return to the house, and the delay of his plan, hasmerely desired it, asked it without offering one argument infavour of its propriety.""To yield readily-- easily-- to the persuasion of a friend isno merit with you.""To yield without conviction is no compliment to theunderstanding of either.""You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for theinfluence of friendship and affection. A regard for the requesterwould often make one readily yield to a request, without waitingfor arguments to reason one into it. I am not particularlyspeaking of such a case as you have supposed about Mr.Bingley. We may as well wait, perhaps, till the circumstanceoccurs before we discuss the discretion of his behaviourthereupon. But in general and ordinary cases between friend andfriend, where one of them is desired by the other to change aresolution of no very great moment, should you think ill of thatperson for complying with the desire, without waiting to beargued into it?""Will it not be advisable, before we proceed on this subject, toarrange with rather more precision the degree of importancewhich is to appertain to this request, as well as the degree ofintimacy subsisting between the parties?""By all means," cried Bingley; "let us hear all the particulars, notforgetting their comparative height and size; for that will havemore weight in the argument, Miss Bennet, than you may beaware of. I assure you, that if Darcy were not such a great tallfellow, in comparison with myself, that I should not pay him halfso much deference. I declare I do not know a more awful objectthan Darcy, on particular occasions, and in particular places; athis own house especially, and of a Sunday evening, when he hasnothing to do."Mr. Darcy smiled; but Elizabeth thought she could perceive thathe was rather offended, and therefore checked her laugh. MissBingley warmly resented the indignity he had received, in anexpostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense."I see your design, Bingley," said his friend. "You dislike anargument, and want to silence this.""Perhaps I do. Arguments are too much like disputes. If youand Miss Bennet will defer yours till I am out of the room, I shallbe very thankful; and then you may say whatever you like ofme.""What you ask," said Elizabeth, "is no sacrifice on my side; andMr. Darcy had much better finish his letter."Mr. Darcy took her advice, and did finish his letter.When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley andElizabeth for an indulgence of some music. Miss Bingley movedwith some alacrity to the pianoforte; and, after a polite requestthat Elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politelyand more earnestly negatived, she seated herself.Mrs. Hurst sang with her sister, and while they were thusemployed, Elizabeth could not help observing, as she turnedover some music-books that lay on the instrument, howfrequently Mr. Darcy's eyes were fixed on her. She hardly knewhow to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to sogreat a man; and yet that he should look at her because hedisliked her, was still more strange. She could only imagine,however, at last that she drew his notice because there wassomething more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideasof right, than in any other person present. The supposition didnot pain her. She liked him too little to care for his approbation.After playing some Italian songs, Miss Bingley varied the charmby a lively Scotch air; and soon afterwards Mr. Darcy, drawingnear Elizabeth, said to her:"Do not you feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize suchan opportunity of dancing a reel?"She smiled, but made no answer. He repeated the question, withsome surprise at her silence."Oh!" said she, "I heard you before, but I could not immediatelydetermine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say'Yes,' that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste;but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, andcheating a person of their meditated contempt. I have,therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want todance a reel at all-- and now despise me if you dare.""Indeed I do not dare."Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed athis gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archnessin her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody;and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as hewas by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiorityof her connections, he should be in some danger.Miss Bingley saw, or suspected enough to be jealous; and hergreat anxiety for the recovery of her dear friend Jane receivedsome assistance from her desire of getting rid of Elizabeth.She often tried to provoke Darcy into disliking her guest, bytalking of their supposed marriage, and planning his happiness insuch an alliance."I hope," said she, as they were walking together in theshrubbery the next day, "you will give your mother-in-law a fewhints, when this desirable event takes place, as to the advantageof holding her tongue; and if you can compass it, do sure theyounger girls of running after officers. And, if I may mention sodelicate a subject, endeavour to check that little something,bordering on conceit and impertinence, which your ladypossesses.""Have you anything else to propose for my domestic felicity?""Oh! yes. Do let the portraits of your uncle and aunt Phillips getplaced in the gallery at Pemberley. Put them next to yourgreat-uncle the judge. They are in the same profession, youknow, only in different lines. As for your Elizabeth's picture, youmust not have it taken, for what painter could do justice to thosebeautiful eyes?""It would not be easy, indeed, to catch their expression, but theircolour and shape, and the eyelashes, so remarkably fine, mightbe copied."At that moment they were met from another walk by Mrs. Hurstand Elizabeth herself."I did not know that you intended to walk," said Miss Bingley,in some confusion, lest they had been overheard."You used us abominably ill, "answered Mrs. Hurst, "runningaway without telling us that you were coming out."Then taking the disengaged arm of Mr. Darcy, she left Elizabethto walk by herself. The path just admitted three. Mr. Darcy felttheir rudeness, and immediately said:"This walk is not wide enough for our party. We had better gointo the avenue."But Elizabeth, who had not the least inclination to remain withthem, laughingly answered:"No, no; stay where you are. You are charmingly grouped, andappear to uncommon advantage. The picturesque would bespoilt by admitting a fourth. Good-bye."She then ran gaily off, rejoicing, as she rambled about, in thehope of being at home again in a day or two. Jane was alreadyso much recovered as to intend leaving her room for a couple ofhours that evening.