She inquired after his sister,but could do no more.
She was in no humour for conversation with anyone but himself;and to him she had hardly courage to speak.
“It is a long time,Mr.Bingley,since you went away,”said Mrs. Bennet.
“It is a delightful thing, to be sure, to have a daughter well married,”continued her mother,“but at the same time, Mr.Bingley, it is very hard to have her taken such a way from me. They are gone down to Newcastle, a place quite northward, it seems,and there they are to stay,I do not know how long.His regiment is there; for I suppose you have heard of his leaving the―shire, and of his being gone into the regulars. Thank Heaven!he has some friends,though perhaps not so many as he deserves.”
Bingley looked a little silly at this reflection,and said something of his concern at having been prevented by business.They then went away.
Elizabeth, who knew this to be levelled at Mr. Darcy, was in such misery of shame,that she could hardly keep her seat.It drew from her,however,the exertion of speaking,which nothing else had so effectually done before;and she asked Bingley whether he meant to make any stay in the country at present.A few weeks,he believed.
Yet the misery, for which years of happiness were to offer no compensation, received soon afterwards material relief, from observing how much the beauty of her sister re-kindled the admiration of her former lover.When first he came in, he had spoken to her but little; but every five minutes seemed to be giving her more of his attention. He found her as handsome as she had been last year;as good natured,and as unaffected,though not quite so chatty.Jane was anxious that no difference should be perceived in her at all,and was really persuaded that she talked as much as ever.But her mind was so busily engaged,that she did not always know when she was silent.