Chapter 58 349
till I knew the particulars . Let me thank you again and again , in the name of all my family , for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble , and bear so many mortifications , for the sake of discovering them ."
" If you will thank me ," he replied , " let it be for yourself alone . That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on , I shall not attempt to deny . But your family owe me nothing . Much as I respect them , I believe I thought only of you ."
Elizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word . After a short pause , her companion added , " You are too generous to trifle with me . If your feelings are still what they were last April , tell me so at once . My affections and wishes are unchanged , but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever ."
Elizabeth , feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation , now forced herself to speak ; and immediately , though not very fluently , gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change , since the period to which he alluded , as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances . The happiness which this reply produced , was such as he had probably never felt before ; and he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do . Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his eye , she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt delight , diffused over his face , became him ; but , though she could not look , she could listen , and he told her of feelings , which , in proving of what importance she was to him , made his affection every moment more valuable .
They walked on , without knowing in what direction . There was too much to be thought , and felt , and said , for attention to any other objects . She soon learnt that they were indebted for their present good understanding to the efforts of his aunt , who did call on him in her return through London , and there relate her journey to Longbourn , its motive , and the substance of her conversation with Elizabeth ; dwelling emphatically on every expression of