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Elizabeth detected hesitation in his compliment. Was he sensible of Charlotte s being stricken?
 Yes, indeed, his friends may well rejoice in his having met with one of the very few sensible women who would have accepted him, or have made him happy if they had. My friend has an excellent
understanding-though I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest thing she ever did. She seems perfectly happy, however, and in a prudential light it is certainly a very good
match for her.
 It must be very agreeable for her to be settled within so easy a distance of her own family and friends.
 An easy distance, do you call it? It is nearly fifty miles.
 And what is fifty miles of zombie-free road? Little more than half a day s journey. Yes, I call it a very easy distance.
 I should never have considered the distance as one of the advantages of the match, cried Elizabeth.  I should never have said Mrs. Collins was settled near her family.
 It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far.
As he spoke he let slip a sort of smile which Elizabeth fancied she understood; he must be supposing her to be thinking of Jane and Netherfield, and she blushed as she answered:
 Sir, you forget that I have twice made the journey to the darkest reaches of the Orient-a journey you know to be frightfully long and fraught with bears. I assure you, my picture of the world is rather
a bit bigger than Longbourn. However, Mr. and Mrs. Collins have never had a need of embarking on such adventures, so I suspect their ideas of distance are much like those of other ordinary people.
1 am likewise persuaded my friend would not call herself near her family under less than half the present distance.
Mr. Darcy drew his chair a little towards her.
Elizabeth looked surprised. The gentleman experienced some change of feeling; he drew back his chair, took a newspaper from the table, and glancing over it, said, in a colder voice:
 Are you pleased with the news from Sheffield?
A short dialogue on the subject of the army s recent victory ensued, on either side calm and concise-and soon put an end to by the entrance of Charlotte and her sister, just returned from her walk.
The tete-a-tete surprised them. Mr. Darcy related the mistake which had occasioned his intruding on Miss Bennet, and after sitting a few minutes longer without saying much to anybody, went away.
 Wah can be da meaning of dis? howled Charlotte, as soon as he was gone.  Mah dear Ewiza, he muss be love you, aw he never wuh have called in dis famiwiar way.
But when Elizabeth told of his silence; it did not seem very likely, even to Charlotte s wishes, to be the case; and after various conjectures, they could at last only suppose his visit to proceed from
the difficulty of finding anything to do, which was the more probable from the time of year.The ground was quite frozen, and neither fresh unmentionables nor field sports would be seen again till spring.
Within doors there was Lady Catherine, books, and a billiard-table, but gentlemen cannot always be within doors; and in the nearness of the Parsonage, or the pleasantness of the walk to it, or of the
people who lived in it, the two cousins found a temptation from this period of walking thither almost every day. They called at various times of the morning, sometimes separately, sometimes together,
and now and then accompanied by their aunt. It was plain to them all that Colonel Fitzwilham came because he had pleasure in their society, a persuasion which of course recommended him still
more.
But why Mr. Darcy came so often to the Parsonage, it was more difficult to understand. It could not be for society, as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips; and when
he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choice. He seldom
he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choice. He seldom
appeared really animated, even at the sight of Mrs. Collins gnawing upon her own hand. What remained of Charlotte would liked to have believed this change the effect of love, and the object of
that love her friend Eliza. She watched him whenever they were at Rosings, and whenever he came to Hunsford; but without much success, for her thoughts often wandered to other subjects, such as
the warm, succulent sensation of biting into a fresh brain. Mr. Darcy certainly looked at her friend a great deal, but the expression of that look was disputable. It was an earnest, steadfast gaze, but she
often doubted whether there were much admiration in it, and sometimes it seemed nothing but absence of mind. And upon imagining Mr. Darcy s mind, her thoughts would again turn to the subject of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]