“Nothing child,nothing.I did not wink at you.”She then sat still five minutes longer; but unable to waste such a precious occasion,she suddenly got up,and saying to Kitty,“Come here, my love,I want to speak to you,”took her out of the room.Jane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth which spoke her distress at such premeditation,and her entreaty that she would not give in to it. In a few minutes,Mrs.Bennet half-opened the door and called out:
“Oh!hang Kitty!what has she to do with it?Come be quick,be quick!Where is your sash,my dear?”
But on returning to the drawing-room, when her letter was finished,she saw,to her infinite surprise,there was reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for her.On opening the door,she perceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth,as if engaged in earnest conversation;and had this led to no suspicion, the faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other, would have told it all. Their situation was awkward enough; but hers she thought was still worse.Not a syllable was uttered by either;and Elizabeth was on the point of going away again,when Bingley,who as well as the other had sat down,suddenly rose,and whispering a few words to her sister,ran out of the room.