“What did you say of me,that I did not deserve?For,though your accusations were ill-founded,formed on mistaken premises, my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof. It was unpardonable.I cannot think of it without abhorrence.”
“I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself.The recollection of what I then said,of my conduct,my manners,my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me.Your reproof,so well applied,I shall never forget:'had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.' Those were your words.You know not,you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me;―though it was some time,I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice.”
Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change,since the period to which he alluded,as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.The happiness which this reply produced,was such as he had probably never felt before;and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his eye,she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight, diffused over his face, became him;but,though she could not look,she could listen,and he told her of feelings,which,in proving of what importance she was to him,made his affection every moment more valuable.