“Lizzy,my dear,I want to speak with you.”
Elizabeth was forced to go.
“Can you come to-morrow?”
Elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother, but remained quietly in the hall,till she and Kitty were out of sight, then returned into the drawing-room.
Elizabeth's congratulations were given with a sincerity, a warmth,a delight,which words could but poorly express.Every sentence of kindness was a fresh source of happiness to Jane.But she would not allow herself to stay with her sister,or say half that remained to be said for the present.
But when her mother was gone,Jane would not be prevailed on to go down without one of her sisters.
Jane could have no reserves from Elizabeth,where confidence would give pleasure;and instantly embracing her,acknowledged, with the liveliest emotion,that she was the happiest creature in the world.
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.