第91章[第1页/共5页]

“Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?”

“And of this place,”thought she,“I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own,and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.But no,”―recollecting herself―“that could never be;my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.”

“Yes,very handsome.”

Elizabeth coloured,and said:“A little.”

“Except,”thought Elizabeth,“when she goes to Ramsgate.”

Elizabeth,as they drove along,watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation;and when at length they turned in at the lodge,her spirits were in a high flutter.

Mrs.Gardiner looked at her niece with a smile,but Elizabeth could not return it.

“Does that young lady know Mr.Darcy?”

This was a lucky recollection―it saved her from something very like regret.

This accounted to Elizabeth for Mr.Wickham's being among them.

“Oh!yes―the handsomest young lady that ever was seen;and so accomplished!―She plays and sings all day long.In the next room is a new instrument just come down for her―a present from my master;she comes here to-morrow with him.”