
    »Perhaps,« said Darcy, »I should have judged better, had I sought an
introduction, but I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers.«
    »Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?« said Elizabeth, still
addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. »Shall we ask him why a man of sense and
education, and who has lived in the world, is ill qualified to recommend himself
to strangers?«
    »I can answer your question,« said Fitzwilliam, »without applying to him. It
is because he will not give himself the trouble.«
    »I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,« said Darcy, »of
conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone
of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.«
    »My fingers,« said Elizabeth, »do not move over this instrument in the
masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or
rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always
supposed it to be my own fault - because I would not take the trouble of
practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other
woman's of superior execution.«
    Darcy smiled and said, »You are perfectly right. You have employed your time
much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you, can think any
thing wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers.«
    Here they were interrupted by Lady Catherine, who called out to know what
they were talking of. Elizabeth immediately began playing again. Lady Catherine
approached, and, after listening for a few minutes, said to Darcy,
    »Miss Bennet would not play at all amiss, if she practised more, and could
have the advantage of a London master. She has a very good notion of fingering,
though her taste is not equal to Anne's. Anne would have been a delightful
performer, had her health allowed her to learn.«
    Elizabeth looked at Darcy to see how cordially he assented to his cousin's
praise; but neither at that moment nor at any other could she discern any
symptom of love; and from the whole of his behaviour to Miss De Bourgh she
derived this comfort for Miss Bingley, that he might have been just as likely to
marry her, had she been his relation.
    Lady Catherine continued her remarks on Elizabeth's performance, mixing with
them many instructions on execution and taste. Elizabeth received them with all
the
