Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 98 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 98

JANE AUSTEN

making some inquiry, or looking at his page. She could

not win him, however, to any conversation; he merely

answered her question, and read on. At length, quite

exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own

book, which she had only chosen because it was the

second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said,

“How pleasant it is to spend an evening in this way!

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!

How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!

When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if

I have not an excellent library.”

No one made any reply. She then yawned again,

threw aside her book, and cast her eyes round the room

in quest of some amusement; when hearing her brother

mentioning a ball to Miss Bennet, she turned suddenly

towards him and said:

“By the bye, Charles, are you really serious in

meditating a dance at Netherfield? I would advise you,

before you determine on it, to consult the wishes of the

present party; I am much mistaken if there are not some

among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment

than a pleasure.”

“If you mean Darcy,” cried her brother, “he may go to

bed, if he chooses, before it beginsbut as for the ball,

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