第91章[第1页/共5页]

Elizabeth coloured,and said:“A little.”

“And do not you think him a very handsome gentleman,ma'am?”

Elizabeth,as they drove along,watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation;and when at length they turned in at the lodge,her spirits were in a high flutter.

Mrs.Gardiner looked at her niece with a smile,but Elizabeth could not return it.

Mrs.Reynolds respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this intimation of her knowing her master.

“Not so much as I could wish,sir;but I dare say he may spend half his time here;and Miss Darcy is always down for the summer months.”

“Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?”

Her aunt now called her to look at a picture.She approached and saw the likeness of Mr.Wickham,suspended,amongst several other miniatures, over the mantelpiece. Her aunt asked her, smilingly,how she liked it.The housekeeper came forward,and told them it was a picture of a young gentleman,the son of her late master's steward,who had been brought up by him at his own expense.“He is now gone into the army,”she added;“but I am afraid he has turned out very wild.”

“Yes,very handsome.”

“And of this place,”thought she,“I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own,and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.But no,”―recollecting herself―“that could never be;my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.”