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Pride & Prejudice – page 86

JANE AUSTEN

“Oh!” cried Miss Bingley, “Charles writes in the most

careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words,

and blots the rest.”

“My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to

express themby which means my letters sometimes

convey no ideas at all to my correspondents.”

“Your humility, Mr. Bingley,” said Elizabeth, “must

disarm reproof.”

“Nothing is more deceitful,” said Darcy, “than the

appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of

opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”

“And which of the two do you call my little recent

piece of modesty?”

“The indirect boast; for you are really proud of

your defects in writing, because you consider them as

proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness

of execution, which, if not estimable, you think at least

highly interesting. The power of doing anything with

quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and

often without any attention to the imperfection of the

performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning

that if you ever resolved upon quitting Netherfield you

should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort

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