And it is such a
good joke, too, that you should have gone this morning, and never said a
word about it till now.”

“Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,” said Mr
Bennet; and,
as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife
“What an excellent father you have, girls,” said she, when the door was
shut
“I do not know how you will ever make him amends for his kindness;
or me either, for that matter
At our time of life, it is not so
pleasant, I can tell you, to be making new acquaintances every day; but
for your sakes we would do anything
Lydia, my love, though you _are_
the youngest, I dare say Mr
Bennet’s visit, and determining when they should ask him to
dinner
[Illustration: “I’m the tallest”]




[Illustration:

     “He rode a black horse”
]




CHAPTER III
[Illustration]

Not all that Mrs
Bennet, however, with the assistance of her five
daughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw from her
husband any satisfactory description of Mr
Her report was highly favourable
Sir William had been
delighted with him
He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely
agreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next assembly
with a large party
Nothing could be more delightful
To be fond of
dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively
hopes of Mr
Bingley’s heart were entertained
“If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield,”
said Mrs
Bennet to her husband, “and all the others equally well
married, I shall have nothing to wish for.”

In a few days Mr
Bennet’s visit, and sat about ten
minutes with him in his library
He had entertained hopes of being
admitted to a sight of the young ladies, of whose beauty he had heard
much; but he saw only the father
The ladies were somewhat more
fortunate, for they had the advantage of ascertaining, from an upper
window, that he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse
An invitation to dinner was soon afterwards despatched; and already had
Mrs
Bennet planned the courses that were to do credit to her
housekeeping, when an answer arrived which deferred it all
Bingley
was obliged to be in town the following day, and consequently unable to
accept the honour of their invitation, etc
Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and
seven gentlemen with him to the assembly
And when the party entered the
assembly-room, it consisted of only five altogether: Mr
Bingley, his
two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and another young man
Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike: he had a pleasant
countenance, and easy, unaffected manners
His sisters were fine women,
with an air of decided fashion
Hurst, merely
looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr
The gentlemen
pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was
much handsomer than Mr
Such amiable qualities must speak for
themselves
What a contrast between him and his friend
Darcy danced
only once with Mrs
Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being
introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in
walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party
He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in
the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come there again
Amongst the most violent against him was Mrs
Bennet, whose dislike of
his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his
having slighted one of her daughters
Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen, to sit
down for two dances; and during part of that time, Mr
Darcy had been
standing near enough for her to overhear a conversation between him and
Mr
Bingley, who came from the dance for a few minutes to press his
friend to join it
“Come, Darcy,” said he, “I must have you dance
I hate to see you
standing about by yourself in this stupid manner
You had much better
dance.”

“I certainly shall not
You know how I detest it, unless I am
particularly acquainted with my partner
At such an assembly as this, it
would be insupportable
Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet
“Oh, she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld
But there is one
of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I
dare say very agreeable
You had better return to your partner and enjoy her
smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

Mr