Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 549 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 549

Pride and Prejudice

from any symptom of resentment or any unnecessary

complaisance.

Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would

allow, and sat down again to her work, with an

eagerness which it did not often command. She had

ventured only one glance at Darcy. He looked serious,

as usual; and, she thought, more as he had been used

to look in Hertfordshire, than as she had seen him at

Pemberley. But, perhaps he could not in her mother’s

presence be what he was before her uncle and aunt. It

was a painful, but not an improbable, conjecture.

Bingley, she had likewise seen for an instant, and

in that short period saw him looking both pleased and

embarrassed. He was received by Mrs. Bennet with

a degree of civility which made her two daughters

ashamed, especially when contrasted with the cold and

ceremonious politeness of her curtsey and address to

his friend.

Elizabeth, particularly, who knew that her mother

owed to the latter the preservation of her favourite

daughter from irremediable infamy, was hurt and

distressed to a most painful degree by a distinction so

ill applied.

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