The subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their parents, about a twelvemonth ago, was now brought forward again.
“Yet it is hard,”she sometimes thought,“that this poor man cannot come to a house which he has legally hired,without raising all this speculation!I will leave him to himself.”
“As often as I can. But you know married women have never much time for writing.My sisters may write to me.They will have nothing else to do.”
“Oh!my dear Lydia,”she cried,“when shall we meet again?”
“Well,well,and so Mr.Bingley is coming down,sister,”(for Mrs. Phillips first brought her the news).“Well, so much the better. Not that I care about it,though.He is nothing to us,you know, and I am sure I never want to see him again. But, however, he is very welcome to come to Netherfield,if he likes it.And who knows what may happen? But that is nothing to us.You know, sister,we agreed long ago never to mention a word about it.And so,is it quite certain he is coming?”
“I often think,”said she,“that there is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends.One seems so forlorn without them.”
In spite of what her sister declared,and really believed to be her feelings in the expectation of his arrival, Elizabeth could easily perceive that her spirits were affected by it.They were more disturbed,more unequal,than she had often seen them.