第88章[第1页/共4页]

“And you saw him frequently?”

Wickham's alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and agitated look;for a few minutes he was silent,till,shaking off his embarrassment,he turned to her again,and said in the gentlest of accents:

“Indeed!”cried Mr.Wickham with a look which did not escape her.“And pray,may I ask?―”But checking himself,he added,in a gayer tone,“Is it in address that he improves?Has he deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style?―for I dare not hope,”he continued in a lower and more serious tone,“that he is improved in essentials.”

“Yes,almost every day.”

On the very last day of the regiment's remaining at Meryton, he dined,with other of the officers,at Longbourn;and so little was Elizabeth disposed to part from him in good humour,that on his making some inquiry as to the manner in which her time had passed at Hunsford,she mentioned Colonel Fitzwilliam's and Mr. Darcy's having both spent three weeks at Rosings,and asked him, if he was acquainted with the former.

“His manners are very different from his cousin's.”

While she spoke, Wickham looked as if scarcely knowing whether to rejoice over her words,or to distrust their meaning. There was a something in her countenance which made him listen with an apprehensive and anxious attention,while she added: