 Sir William Lucas's accidental
        information, that Bingley's attentions to your sister had given rise to
        a general expectation of their marriage. He spoke of it as a certain
        event, of which the time alone could be undecided. From that moment I
        observed my friend's behaviour attentively; and I could then perceive
        that his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed
        in him. Your sister I also watched. - Her look and manners were open,
        cheerful and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar
        regard, and I remained convinced from the evening's scrutiny, that
        though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite
        them by any participation of sentiment. - If you have not been mistaken
        here, I must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your
        sister must make the latter probable. - If it be so, if I have been
        misled by such error, to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not
        been unreasonable. But I shall not scruple to assert, that the serenity
        of your sister's countenance and air was such, as might have given the
        most acute observer, a conviction that, however amiable her temper, her
        heart was not likely to be easily touched. - That I was desirous of
        believing her indifferent is certain, - but I will venture to say that
        my investigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes
        or fears.- I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it;
        - I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in
        reason. - My objections to the marriage were not merely those, which I
        last night acknowledged to have required the utmost force of passion to
        put aside, in my own case; the want of connection could not be so great
        an evil to my friend as to me. - But there were other causes of
        repugnance; - causes which, though still existing, and existing to an
        equal degree in both instances, I had myself endeavoured to forget,
        because they were not immediately before me. - These causes must be
        stated, though briefly. - The situation of your mother's family, though
        objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety
        so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three
        younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father. - Pardon me. - It
        pains me to offend you. But amidst your concern for the defects of your
        nearest relations, and your displeasure at this representation of them,
        let it give you consolation to consider that,
