Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 253 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 253

Pride and Prejudice

in Miss Bingley’s regard for me. But, my dear sister,

though the event has proved you right, do not think

me obstinate if I still assert that, considering what

her behaviour was, my confidence was as natural as

your suspicion. I do not at all comprehend her reason

for wishing to be intimate with me; but if the same

circumstances were to happen again, I am sure I should

be deceived again. Caroline did not return my visit

till yesterday; and not a note, not a line, did I receive

in the meantime. When she did come, it was very

evident that she had no pleasure in it; she made a

slight, formal apology, for not calling before, said not

a word of wishing to see me again, and was in every

respect so altered a creature, that when she went away I

was perfectly resolved to continue the acquaintance no

longer. I pity, though I cannot help blaming her. She was

very wrong in singling me out as she did; I can safely

say that every advance to intimacy began on her side.

But I pity her, because she must feel that she has been

acting wrong, and because I am very sure that anxiety

for her brother is the cause of it. I need not explain

myself farther; and though we know this anxiety to be

quite needless, yet if she feels it, it will easily account

for her behaviour to me; and so deservedly dear as

he is to his sister, whatever anxiety she must feel on

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