Chapter 45 255
recollected her interest in the affair , and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from Elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully .
Their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned ; and while Mr . Darcy was attending them to their carriage Miss Bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on Elizabeth ' s person , behaviour , and dress . But Georgiana would not join her . Her brother ' s recommendation was enough to ensure her favour ; his judgement could not err . And he had spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave Georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable . When Darcy returned to the saloon , Miss Bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister .
" How very ill Miss Eliza Bennet looks this morning , Mr . Darcy ," she cried ; " I never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter . She is grown so brown and coarse ! Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again ."
However little Mr . Darcy might have liked such an address , he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned , no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer .
" For my own part ," she rejoined , " I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her . Her face is too thin ; her complexion has no brilliancy ; and her features are not at all handsome . Her nose wants character--there is nothing marked in its lines . Her teeth are tolerable , but not out of the common way ; and as for her eyes , which have sometimes been called so fine , I could never see anything extraordinary in them . They have a sharp , shrewish look , which I do not like at all ; and in her air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion , which is intolerable ."
Persuaded as Miss Bingley was that Darcy admired Elizabeth , this was not the best method of recommending herself ; but angry people are not always wise ; and in seeing him at last look somewhat nettled , she had all the