ladies; not deficient in good-humour when they were pleased, nor in the

power{20} of being agreeable where they chose it; but proud and conceited.

They were rather handsome; had been educated in one of the first private

seminaries in town; had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds; were in the

habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people

of rank; and were, therefore, in every respect entitled to think well of

themselves and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in

the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their

memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been

acquired by trade.
Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a hundred

thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate,

but did not live to do it. Mr. Bingley intended it likewise, and

sometimes made choice of his county; but, as he was now provided with a

good house and the liberty of a manor, it was doubtful to many of those

who best knew the easiness of his temper, whether he might not spend the

remainder of his days at Netherfield, and leave the next generation to

purchase.
His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate of his own; but

though he was now established only as a tenant, Miss Bingley was by no

means unwilling to preside at his table; nor was Mrs. Hurst, who had

married a man of more fashion than fortune, less disposed to consider

his house as her home when it suited her. Mr. Bingley had not been of

age two years when he was tempted, by an accidental recommendation, to

look at Netherfield House. He did look at it, and into it, for half an

hour; was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied

with what the owner said in its praise, and took it immediately.
Between him and Darcy there was a very steady{21} friendship, in spite of a

great opposition of character. Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the