Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 80 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 80

JANE AUSTEN

they are not handsome! Not that I think Charlotte so

very plainbut then she is our particular friend.”

“She seems a very pleasant young woman.”

“Oh! dear, yes; but you must own she is very plain.

Lady Lucas herself has often said so, and envied me

Jane’s beauty. I do not like to boast of my own child, but

to be sure, Jane one does not often see anybody better

looking. It is what everybody says. I do not trust my

own partiality. When she was only fifteen, there was a

man at my brother Gardiner’s in town so much in love

with her that my sister-in-law was sure he would make

her an offer before we came away. But, however, he did

not. Perhaps he thought her too young. However, he

wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”

“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impa-

tiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome

in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the

efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”

“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of

love,” said Darcy.

“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything

nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a

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