第106章[第1页/共5页]

Her sister,however,assured her of her being perfectly well;and their conversation, which had been passing while Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner were engaged with their children,was now put an end to by the approach of the whole party.Jane ran to her uncle and aunt,and welcomed and thanked them both,with alternate smiles and tears.

“Not the slightest.I can remember no symptom of affection on either side; and had anything of the kind been perceptible,you must be aware that ours is not a family on which it could be thrown away.When first he entered the corps,she was ready enough to admire him;but so we all were.Every girl in or near Meryton was out of her senses about him for the first two months;but he never distinguished her by any particular attention;and,consequently, after a moderate period of extravagant and wild admiration,her fancy for him gave way,and others of the regiment,who treated her with more distinction,again became her favourites.”

“Not yet,”replied Jane.“But now that my dear uncle is come,I hope everything will be well.”

“And have you heard from him often?”

It may be easily believed,that however little of novelty could be added to their fears,hopes,and conjectures,on this interesting subject, by its repeated discussion, no other could detain them from it long, during the whole of the journey. From Elizabeth's thoughts it was never absent. Fixed there by the keenest of all anguish, self-reproach, she could find no interval of ease or forgetfulness.