第139章[第1页/共4页]

Her father was walking about the room, looking grave and anxious.“Lizzy,”said he,“what are you doing?Are you out of your senses,to be accepting this man?Have not you always hated him?”

“I do,I do like him,”she replied,with tears in her eyes,“I love him.Indeed he has no improper pride.He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is;then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms.”

In the evening,soon after Mr.Bennet withdrew to the library, she saw Mr.Darcy rise also and follow him,and her agitation on seeing it was extreme.She did not fear her father's opposition,but he was going to be made unhappy;and that it should be through her means―that she, his favourite child, should be distressing him by her choice,should be filling him with fears and regrets in disposing of her―was a wretched reflection,and she sat in misery till Mr. Darcy appeared again, when, looking at him, she was a little relieved by his smile.In a few minutes he approached the table where she was sitting with Kitty;and,while pretending to admire her work,said in a whisper,“Go to your father,he wants you in the library.”She was gone directly.

During their walk, it was resolved that Mr. Bennet's consent should be asked in the course of the evening.Elizabeth reserved to herself the application for her mother's. She could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough to overcome her abhorrence of the man. But whether she were violently set against the match, or violently delighted with it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the first vehemence of her disapprobation.