look; for a few minutes he was silent; till, shaking off his

embarrassment, he turned to her again, and said in the gentlest of

accents,—
“You, who so well know my feelings towards Mr. Darcy, will readily

comprehend how sincerely I must rejoice that he is wise enough to assume

even the{293} appearance of what is right. His pride, in that direction,

may be of service, if not to himself, to many others, for it must deter

him from such foul misconduct as I have suffered by. I only fear that

the sort of cautiousness to which you, I imagine, have been alluding, is

merely adopted on his visits to his aunt, of whose good opinion and

judgment he stands much in awe. His fear of her has always operated, I

know, when they were together; and a good deal is to be imputed to his

wish of forwarding the match with Miss de Bourgh, which I am certain he

has very much at heart.”
Elizabeth could not repress a smile at this, but she answered only by a

slight inclination of the head. She saw that he wanted to engage her on

the old subject of his grievances, and she was in no humour to indulge

him. The rest of the evening passed with the appearance, on his side,

of usual cheerfulness, but with no further attempt to distinguish

Elizabeth; and they parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a

mutual desire of never meeting again.
When the party broke up, Lydia returned with Mrs. Forster to Meryton,

from whence they were to set out early the next morning. The separation

between her and her family was rather noisy than pathetic. Kitty was the

only one who shed tears; but she did weep from vexation and envy. Mrs.

Bennet was diffuse in her good wishes for the felicity of her daughter,

and impressive in her injunctions that she would not miss the

opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possible,—advice which there

was every reason to believe would be attended to; and, in the clamorous