 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.«
    Elizabeth could not help smiling at his easy manner of directing his friend.
    »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?«
    »From the former. I had narrowly observed her during the two visits which I
had lately made her here; and I was convinced of her affection.«
    »And your assurance of it, I suppose, carried immediate conviction to him.«
    »It did. Bingley is most unaffectedly modest. His diffidence had prevented
his depending on his own judgment in so anxious a case, but his reliance on
mine, made every thing easy. I was obliged to confess one thing, which for a
time, and not unjustly, offended him. I could not allow myself to conceal that
your sister had been in town three months last winter, that I had known it, and
purposely kept it from him. He was angry. But his anger, I am persuaded, lasted
no longer than he remained in any doubt of your sister's sentiments. He has
heartily forgiven me now.«
    Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most delightful
friend; so easily guided that his worth was invaluable; but she checked herself.
She remembered that he had yet to learn to be laught at, and it was rather too
early to begin. In anticipating the happiness of Bingley, which of course was to
be inferior only to his own, he continued the conversation till they reached the
house. In the hall they parted.
 

                                  Chapter XVII

»My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?« was a question which
Elizabeth received from Jane as soon as she entered the room, and from all the
others when they sat down to table. She had only to say in reply, that they had
wandered about, till she was beyond her own knowledge. She coloured as she
spoke; but neither that, nor any thing else, awakened a suspicion of the truth.
    The evening passed quietly, unmarked by any thing extraordinary. The
acknowledged lovers talked and laughed, the unacknowledged were silent. Darcy
was not of a disposition in which happiness
