Chapter 52 307
she did not listen . I was sometimes quite provoked , but then I recollected my dear Elizabeth and Jane , and for their sakes had patience with her .
" Mr . Darcy was punctual in his return , and as Lydia informed you , attended the wedding . He dined with us the next day , and was to leave town again on Wednesday or Thursday . Will you be very angry with me , my dear Lizzy , if I take this opportunity of saying ( what I was never bold enough to say before ) how much I like him . His behaviour to us has , in every respect , been as pleasing as when we were in Derbyshire . His understanding and opinions all please me ; he wants nothing but a little more liveliness , and that , if he marry prudently , his wife may teach him . I thought him very sly ; --he hardly ever mentioned your name . But slyness seems the fashion .
" Pray forgive me if I have been very presuming , or at least do not punish me so far as to exclude me from P . I shall never be quite happy till I have been all round the park . A low phaeton , with a nice little pair of ponies , would be the very thing .
" But I must write no more . The children have been wanting me this half hour .
" Yours , very sincerely , " M . GARDINER ."
The contents of this letter threw Elizabeth into a flutter of spirits , in which it was difficult to determine whether pleasure or pain bore the greatest share . The vague and unsettled suspicions which uncertainty had produced of what Mr . Darcy might have been doing to forward her sister ' s match , which she had feared to encourage as an exertion of goodness too great to be probable , and at the same time dreaded to be just , from the pain of obligation , were proved beyond their greatest extent to be true ! He had followed them purposely to town , he had taken on himself all the trouble and mortification attendant on such a research ; in which supplication had been necessary to a woman whom he must abominate and despise , and where he was reduced to meet , frequently meet , reason with , persuade , and