 to him only as Mr. Bingley's
friend, without being heard by either of them. But Elizabeth had sources of
uneasiness which could not be suspected by Jane, to whom she had never yet had
courage to shew Mrs. Gardiner's letter, or to relate her own change of sentiment
towards him. To Jane, he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused,
and whose merit she had undervalued; but to her own more extensive information,
he was the person, to whom the whole family were indebted for the first of
benefits, and whom she regarded herself with an interest, if not quite so
tender, at least as reasonable and just, as what Jane felt for Bingley. Her
astonishment at his coming - at his coming to Netherfield, to Longbourn, and
voluntarily seeking her again, was almost equal to what she had known on first
witnessing his altered behaviour in Derbyshire.
    The colour which had been driven from her face, returned for half a minute
with an additional glow, and a smile of delight added lustre to her eyes, as she
thought for that space of time, that his affection and wishes must still be
unshaken. But she would not be secure.
    »Let me first see how he behaves,« said she; »it will then be early enough
for expectation.«
    She sat intently at work, striving to be composed, and without daring to
lift up her eyes, till anxious curiosity carried them to the face of her sister,
as the servant was approaching the door. Jane looked a little paler than usual,
but more sedate than Elizabeth had expected. On the gentlemen's appearing, her
colour increased; yet she received them with tolerable ease, and with a
propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom of resentment, or any
unnecessary complaisance.
    Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow, and sat down
again to her work, with an eagerness which it did not often command. She had
ventured only one glance at Darcy. He looked serious as usual; and she thought,
more as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, than as she had seen him at
Pemberley. But, perhaps he could not in her mother's presence be what he was
before her uncle and aunt. It was a painful, but not an improbable, conjecture.
    Bingley, she had likewise seen for an instant, and in that short period saw
him looking both pleased and embarrassed. He was received by Mrs. Bennet with a
degree of civility, which made her two daughters ashamed, especially when
contrasted with
