“He made a little mistake to be sure;but it is to the credit of his modesty.”
Bingley,from this time,was of course a daily visitor at Longbourn;coming frequently before breakfast,and always remaining till after supper;unless when some barbarous neighbour,who could not be enough detested,had given him an invitation to dinner which he thought himself obliged to accept.
“I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!”cried Jane.“Oh!Lizzy,why am I thus singled from my family,and blessed above them all!If I could but see you as happy!If there were but such another man for you!”
Wickham,Lydia,were all forgotten.Jane was beyond competition her favourite child.At that moment,she cared for no other.Her younger sisters soon began to make interest with her for objects of happiness which she might in future be able to dispense.
“Would you believe it, Lizzy, that when he went to town last November,he really loved me,and nothing but a persuasion of my being indifferent would have prevented his coming down again!”
“He has made me so happy,”said she,one evening,“by telling me that he was totally ignorant of my being in town last spring!I had not believed it possible.”
“I suspected as much,”replied Elizabeth.“But how did he account for it?”
“It must have been his sister's doing.They were certainly no friends to his acquaintance with me,which I cannot wonder at, since he might have chosen so much more advantageously in many respects.But when they see,as I trust they will,that their brother is happy with me,they will learn to be contented,and we shall be on good terms again; though we can never be what we once were to each other.”