Chapter 4 15
everybody ' s character and make it still better , and say nothing of the bad--belongs to you alone . And so you like this man ' s sisters , too , do you ? Their manners are not equal to his ."
" Certainly not--at first . But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them . Miss Bingley is to live with her brother , and keep his house ; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her ."
Elizabeth listened in silence , but was not convinced ; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general ; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister , and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself , she was very little disposed to approve them . They were in fact very fine ladies ; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased , nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it , but proud and conceited . They were rather handsome , had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town , had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds , were in the habit of spending more than they ought , and of associating with people of rank , and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves , and meanly of others . They were of a respectable family in the north of England ; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother ' s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade .
Mr . Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a hundred thousand pounds from his father , who had intended to purchase an estate , but did not live to do it . Mr . Bingley intended it likewise , and sometimes made choice of his county ; but as he was now provided with a good house and the liberty of a manor , it was doubtful to many of those who best knew the easiness of his temper , whether he might not spend the remainder of his days at Netherfield , and leave the next generation to purchase .
His sisters were anxious for his having an estate of his own ; but , though he was now only established as a tenant , Miss Bingley was by no means unwilling to preside at his table--nor was Mrs . Hurst , who had married a man of more fashion than fortune , less disposed to consider his house as