her beyond a monosyllable.
Miss Darcy was tall, and on a larger scale than Elizabeth; and, though

little more than sixteen, her figure was formed, and her appearance

womanly and graceful. She was less handsome than her brother, but{320} there

was sense and good-humour in her face, and her manners were perfectly

unassuming and gentle. Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as

acute and unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was much

relieved by discerning such different feelings.
They had not been long together before Darcy told her that Bingley was

also coming to wait on her; and she had barely time to express her

satisfaction, and prepare for such a visitor, when Bingley’s quick step

was heard on the stairs, and in a moment he entered the room. All

Elizabeth’s anger against him had been long done away; but had she still

felt any, it could hardly have stood its ground against the unaffected

cordiality with which he expressed himself on seeing her again. He

inquired in a friendly, though general, way, after her family, and

looked and spoke with the same good-humoured ease that he had ever done.
To Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner he was scarcely a less interesting personage

than to herself. They had long wished to see him. The whole party before

them, indeed, excited a lively attention. The suspicions which had just

arisen of Mr. Darcy and their niece, directed their observation towards

each with an earnest, though guarded, inquiry; and they soon drew from

those inquiries the full conviction that one of them at least knew what

it was to love. Of the lady’s sensations they remained a little in

doubt; but that the gentleman was overflowing with admiration was

evident enough.
Elizabeth, on her side, had much to do. She wanted to ascertain the

feelings of each of her visitors, she wanted to compose her own, and to

make herself agreeable to all; and in the latter object, where she