Chapter XLV


On reaching the house, they were shown through the hall into the saloon, whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for summer. Its windows, opening to the ground, admitted a most refreshing view of the high, woody hills behind the house, and of the beautiful oaks and Spanish chestnuts which were scattered over the intermediate lawn.


By Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley they were noticed only by a courtesy; and on their being seated, a pause, awkward as such pauses must always be, succeeded for a few moments. It was first broken by Mrs. Annesley, a genteel, agreeable-looking woman, whose endeavor to introduce some kind of discourse proved her to be more truly well bred than either of the others; and between her and Mrs. Gardiner, with occasional help from Elizabeth, the conversation was carried on. Miss Darcy looked as if she wished for courage enough to join in it, and sometimes did venture a short sentence, when there was least danger of its being heard.

Elizabeth soon saw that she was herself closely watched by Miss Bingley, and that she could not speak a word, especially to Miss Darcy, without calling her attention. This observation would not have prevented her from trying to talk to the latter, had they not been seated at an inconvenient distance; but she was not sorry to be spared the necessity of saying much; her own thoughts were employing her. She expected every moment that some of the gentlemen would enter the room: she wished, she feared that the master of the house might be among them; and whether she wished or feared it most, she could scarcely determine. After sitting in this manner a quarter of an hour without hearing Miss Bingley's voice, Elizabeth was roused by receiving from her a cold inquiry after the health of her family. She answered with equal indifference and brevity, and the other said no more.


While thus engaged, Elizabeth had a fair opportunity of deciding whether she most feared or wished for the appearance of Mr. Darcy, by the feelings which prevailed on his entering the room; and, then, though but a moment before she had believed her wishes to predominate, she began to regret that he came.


“Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the—shire militia removed from Meryton? They must be a great loss to your family.”



Their visit did not continue long after the question and answer above mentioned; and while Mr. Darcy was attending them to their carriage Miss Bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms on Elizabeth's person, behavior, and dress. But Georgiana would not join her. Her brother's recommendation was enough to insure her favor; his judgment could not err; and he had spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave Georgiana without the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable. When Darcy returned to the saloon, Miss Bingley could not help repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his sister.

“How very ill Eliza Bennet looks this morning, Mr. Darcy!” she cried; “I never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she is since the winter—she is grown so brown and coarse! Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again.”

However little Mr. Darcy might have liked such an address, he contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned—no miraculous consequence of traveling in the summer.

“For my own part,” she rejoined, “I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her face is too thin, her complexion has no brilliancy, and her features are not at all handsome. Her nose wants character; there is nothing marked in its lines. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive anything extraordinary in them. They have a sharp, shrewish look which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion which is intolerable.”


“I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire, how amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty; and I particularly recollect your saying one night, after they had been dining at Netherfield, ‘she a beauty! I should as soon call her mother a wit.’ But afterward she seemed to improve on you, and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time.”

“Yes,” replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer; “but that was only when I first knew her; for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.”




  1. Fruit was not commonly available to most people in 18th-century England; instead, it was primarily enjoyed by members of the upper class—such as the Darcys and the Bingleys.

    — Sarah, Owl Eyes Staff
  2. Once again, Miss Bingley is being excessively rude in her attempt to win Mr. Darcy away from Elizabeth. Her jealously, however, leads her to ultimately insult Mr. Darcy's taste; for example, she criticizes Elizabeth's eyes, though she knows Mr. Darcy admires them.

    — Sarah, Owl Eyes Staff
  3. Nina Auerbach, in her book Communities of Women, argues that the use of the word "pyramid" evokes a sense of both power and permanence, two things that Pemberly has and Longbourn lacks.  Source: Auerbach, Nina. Communities of Women. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.

    — Jamie Wheeler