to the window—she looked—she saw Mr. Darcy with him, and sat down

again by her sister.
“There is a gentleman with him, mamma,” said Kitty; “who can it be?”
“Some acquaintance or other, my dear, I suppose; I am sure I do not

know.”
“La!” replied Kitty, “it looks just like that man that used to be with

him before. Mr. what’s his name—that tall, proud man.”
“Good gracious! Mr. Darcy!—and so it does, I vow. Well, any friend of

Mr. Bingley’s will always be welcome here, to be sure; but else I must

say that I hate the very sight of him.”
Jane looked at Elizabeth with surprise and concern. She knew but little

of their meeting in Derbyshire, and therefore felt for the awkwardness

which must attend her sister, in seeing him almost for the first time

after receiving his explanatory letter. Both sisters were uncomfortable

enough. Each felt for the other, and of course for themselves; and their

mother talked on of her dislike of Mr. Darcy, and her resolution to be

civil to him only as Mr. Bingley’s friend, without being heard by either

of them. But Elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not yet be

suspected by Jane, to whom she had never yet had courage to show Mrs.

Gardine{410}r’s letter, or to relate her own change of sentiment towards

him. To Jane, he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused,

and whose merits she had undervalued; but to her own more extensive

information, he was the person to whom the whole family were indebted

for the first of benefits, and whom she regarded herself with an

interest, if not quite so tender, at least as reasonable and just, as

what Jane felt for Bingley. Her astonishment at his coming—at his

coming to Netherfield, to Longbourn, and voluntarily seeking her again,

was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his altered

behaviour in Derbyshire.
The colour which had been driven from her face returned for half a