improvements it was receiving, he was happily employed until the

gentlemen joined them; and he found in Mrs. Philips a very attentive

listener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she

heard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as

soon as she could. To the girls, who could not listen to their cousin,

and who had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument, and examine

their own indifferent imitations of china on the mantel-piece, the

interval of waiting appeared very long. It was over at last, however.

The gentlemen did approach: and when Mr. Wickham walked into the room,

Elizabeth felt that she had neither been seeing him before, nor thinking

of him since, with the smallest degree of {97}unreasonable admiration. The

officers of the ——shire were in general a very creditable,

gentlemanlike set and the best of them were of the present party; but

Mr, Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air, and

walk, as they were superior to the broad-faced stuffy uncle Philips,

breathing port wine, who followed them into the room.

[Image unavailable.]


“The officers of the ——shire”

[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]

Mr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every female eye was

turned, and Elizabeth was{98} the happy woman by whom he finally seated

himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into

conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the

probability of a rainy season, made her feel that the commonest,

dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the

skill of the speaker.
With such rivals for the notice of the fair as Mr. Wickham and the

officers, Mr. Collins seemed to sink into insignificance; to the young

ladies he certainly was nothing; but he had still at intervals a kind

listener in Mrs. Philips, and was, by her watchfulness, most abundantly

supplied with coffee and muffin.