Chapter 5 18
" Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson; did not I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson ' s asking him how he liked our Meryton assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room, and which he thought the prettiest? and his answering immediately to the last question: ' Oh! the eldest Miss Bennet, beyond a doubt; there cannot be two opinions on that point.'"
" Upon my word! Well, that is very decided indeed--that does seem as if--but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know."
" My overhearings were more to the purpose than yours, Eliza," said Charlotte. " Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend, is he?--poor Eliza!--to be only just tolerable."
" I beg you would not put it into Lizzy ' s head to be vexed by his ill-treatment, for he is such a disagreeable man, that it would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him. Mrs. Long told me last night that he sat close to her for half-an-hour without once opening his lips."
" Are you quite sure, ma ' am?--is not there a little mistake?" said Jane. " I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her."
" Aye--because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he could not help answering her; but she said he seemed quite angry at being spoke to."
" Miss Bingley told me," said Jane, " that he never speaks much, unless among his intimate acquaintances. With them he is remarkably agreeable."
" I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; everybody says that he is eat up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise."