“Did you speak from your own observation,”said she,“when you told him that my sister loved him, or merely from my information last spring?”
“No indeed;I felt nothing but surprise.”
“My object then,”replied Darcy,“was to show you, by every civility in my power,that I was not so mean as to resent the past;and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness,to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to.How soon any other wishes introduced themselves I can hardly tell,but I believe in about half an hour after I had seen you.”
Elizabeth could not help smiling at his easy manner of directing his friend.
“I must ask whether you were surprised?”said Elizabeth.
She expressed her gratitude again, but it was too painful a subject to each,to be dwelt on farther.
“From the former.I had narrowly observed her during the two visits which I had lately made here;and I was convinced of her affection.”
“On the evening before my going to London,”said he,“I made a confession to him,which I believe I ought to have made long ago. I told him of all that had occurred to make my former interference in his affairs absurd and impertinent. His surprise was great.He had never had the slightest suspicion.I told him, moreover,that I believed myself mistaken in supposing,as I had done,that your sister was indifferent to him;and as I could easily perceive that his attachment to her was unabated,I felt no doubt of their happiness together.”