It is difficult to know whether he is most agreeable when talking to his wife, or when putting Mr Let us flatter ourselves that_ I _may be the survivor;” and his inquiry to his colossal cousin as to the compliments which Mr Bennet we have glanced at, and it is not easy to say whether she is more exquisitely amusing or more horribly true With Mary, Miss Austen has taken rather less pains, though she has been even more unkind to her; not merely in the text, but, as we learn from those interesting traditional appendices which Mr Austen Leigh has given us, in dooming her privately to marry “one of Mr It is at any rate difficult not to extend to her a share of the respect and affection (affection and respect of a peculiar kind; doubtless), with which one regards Mr Collins, when she draws the moral of Lydia’s fall I sometimes wish that the exigencies of the story had permitted Miss Austen to unite these personages, and thus at once achieve a notable mating and soothe poor Mrs Only genius could have made Charlotte what she is, yet not disagreeable; Wickham what he is, without investing him either with a cheap Don Juanish attractiveness or a disgusting rascality It has sometimes, I believe, been urged that his pride is unnatural at first in its expression and later in its yielding, while his falling in love at all is not extremely probable Here again I cannot go with the objectors Nothing in even our author is finer and more delicately touched than the change of his demeanour at the sudden meeting in the grounds of Pemberley Had he been a bad prig or a bad coxcomb, he might have been still smarting under his rejection, or suspicious that the girl had come husband-hunting His being neither is exactly consistent with the probable feelings of a man spoilt in the common sense, but not really injured in disposition, and thoroughly in love Elizabeth of course belongs to the_ allegro _or_ allegra _division of the army of Venus Elizabeth can give at least as good as she gets when she is attacked; but she never “scratches,” and she never attacks first Then too she is a perfectly natural girl She does not disguise from herself or anybody that she resents Darcy’s first ill-mannered personality with as personal a feeling Though not in the least “impudent and mannish grown,” she has no mere sensibility, no nasty niceness about her There were better sense in the sad mechanic exercise of determining the reason of its absence where it is not Their names are, in chronological order, Elizabeth Bennet, Diana Vernon, Argemone Lavington, Beatrix Esmond, and Barbara Grant I should have been most in love with Beatrix and Argemone; I should, I think, for mere occasional companionship, have preferred Diana and Barbara 1 “He came down to see the place” 2 Mr Bennet 5 “I hope Mr 22 “Without once opening his lips” 24 Tailpiece to Chapter V Bennet and her two youngest girls” 53 Heading to Chapter X 60 “No, no; stay where you are” 67 “Piling up the fire” 69 Heading to Chapter XII 84 “Protested that he never read novels” 87 Heading to Chapter XV 95 “The officers of the ----shire” 97 “Delighted to see their dear friend again” 108 Heading to Chapter XVIII 113 “Such very superior dancing is not often seen” 118 “To assure you in the most animated language” 132 Heading to Chapter XX 139 “They entered the breakfast-room” 143 Heading to Chapter XXI 146 “Walked back with them” 148 Heading to Chapter XXII 209 “He never failed to inform them” 211 “The gentlemen accompanied him” 213 Heading to Chapter XXXI 221 “Accompanied by their aunt” 225 “On looking up” 228 Heading to Chapter XXXIV 235 “Hearing herself called” 243 Heading to Chapter XXXVI 318 “To make herself agreeable to all” 321 “Engaged by the river” 327 Heading to Chapter XLVI Darcy with him” 404 “Jane happened to look round” 415 “Mrs Long and her nieces” 420 “Lizzy, my dear, I want to speak to you” 422 Heading to Chapter LVI Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?” Mr “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.” Mr “Do not you want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife, impatiently “_You_ want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.” [Illustration: “He came down to see the place” [_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]] This was invitation enough “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year What a fine thing for our girls!” “How so how can it affect them?” “My dear Mr Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.” “Is that his design in settling here?” “Design But it is very likely that he _may_ fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.” “I see no occasion for that