 spirits might often lead me wrong. How you
must have hated me after that evening?«
    »Hate you! I was angry perhaps at first, but my anger soon began to take a
proper direction.«
    »I am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me; when we met at
Pemberley. You blamed me for coming?«
    »No indeed; I felt nothing but surprise.«
    »Your surprise could not be greater than mine in being noticed by you. My
conscience told me that I deserved no extraordinary politeness, and I confess
that I did not expect to receive more than my due.«
    »My object then,« replied Darcy, »was to shew 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.«
    He then told her of Georgiana's delight in her acquaintance, and of her
disappointment at its sudden interruption; which naturally leading to the cause
of that interruption, she soon learnt that his resolution of following her from
Derbyshire in quest of her sister, had been formed before he quitted the inn,
and that his gravity and thoughtfulness there, had arisen from no other
struggles than what such a purpose must comprehend.
    She expressed her gratitude again, but it was too painful a subject to each,
to be dwelt on farther.
    After walking several miles in a leisurely manner, and too busy to know any
thing about it, they found at last, on examining their watches, that it was time
to be at home.
    »What could become of Mr. Bingley and Jane!« was a wonder which introduced
the discussion of their affairs. Darcy was delighted with their engagement; his
friend had given him the earliest information of it.
    »I must ask whether you were surprised?« said Elizabeth.
    »Not at all. When I went away, I felt that it would soon happen.«
    »That is to say, you had given your permission. I guessed as much.« And
though he exclaimed at the term, she found that it had been pretty much the
case.
    »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
