He readily assured her of his secrecy;again expressed his sorrow for her distress, wished it a happier conclusion than there was at present reason to hope, and leaving his compliments for her relations,with only one serious,parting look,went away.
“When I consider,”she added in a yet more agitated voice,“that I might have prevented it!I,who knew what he was.Had I but explained some part of it only―some part of what I learnt,to my own family!Had his character been known,this could not have happened.But it is all―all too late now.”
“Oh, yes!They left Brighton together on Sunday night, and were traced almost to London,but not beyond;they are certainly not gone to Scotland.”
“I am grieved indeed,”cried Darcy;“grieved―shocked.But is it certain―absolutely certain?”
But self, though it would intrude, could not engross her. Lydia―the humiliation,the misery she was bringing on them all, soon swallowed up every private care;and covering her face with her handkerchief,Elizabeth was soon lost to everything else;and, after a pause of several minutes,was only recalled to a sense of her situation by the voice of her companion,who,in a manner which, though it spoke compassion,spoke likewise restraint,said,
As he quitted the room,Elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other again on such terms of cordiality as had marked their several meetings in Derbyshire;and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their acquaintance, so full of contradictions and varieties, sighed at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have promoted its continuance,and would formerly have rejoiced in its termination.