Part 21 (1/2)

ELIZABETH.

Very well, that reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by I may observe that private b.a.l.l.s are much pleasanter than public ones.

DARCY.

Do you talk by rule then?

ELIZABETH.

Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know,--and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.

DARCY.

Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?

ELIZABETH.

[_Archly._] Both, for I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds; we are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room and be handed down to posterity with all the _eclat_ of a proverb.

DARCY.

This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure.

How near it may be to mine, I cannot pretend to say. You think it a faithful portrait, undoubtedly.

ELIZABETH.

I shall not decide on my own performance. [_There is a short silence; then, as if with an effort_, ELIZABETH _speaks_.] I am surprised not to see Mr. Wickham here to-night. I find that he is a great favourite with the officers. He has made many friends among them.

DARCY.

[_With great hauteur._] Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may insure his _making_ friends; whether he may be equally capable of _retaining_ them is less certain.

ELIZABETH.

[_Excitedly._] He has been so unlucky as to lose your friends.h.i.+p, and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all his life.

[_They are both silent._]

SIR WILLIAM LUCAS.