Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 442 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 442

JANE AUSTEN

the imprudence of anger, took the first opportunity of

saying, with sneering civility:

“Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the shire Militia

removed from Meryton? They must be a great loss to

your family.”

In Darcy’s presence she dared not mention

Wickham’s name; but Elizabeth instantly compre-

hended that he was uppermost in her thoughts; and

the various recollections connected with him gave her

a moment’s distress; but exerting herself vigorously

to repel the ill-natured attack, she presently answered

the question in a tolerably detached tone. While she

spoke, an involuntary glance showed her Darcy, with

a heightened complexion, earnestly looking at her, and

his sister overcome with confusion, and unable to lift

up her eyes. Had Miss Bingley known what pain she

was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly

would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely

intended to discompose Elizabeth by bringing forward

the idea of a man to whom she believed her partial, to

make her betray a sensibility which might injure her

in Darcy’s opinion, and, perhaps, to remind the latter

of all the follies and absurdities by which some part

of her family were connected with that corps. Not a

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