Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 30 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 30

JANE AUSTEN

to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am

much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming

neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced;

their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated

to please in general; and with more quickness of

observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister,

and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention

to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them.

They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good

humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of

making themselves agreeable when 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,