Pride and Prejudice (Clandestine Classics) by Jane Austen, Amy Armstrong Page B

had to concede that yes, she would have consented to more, and she had the distinct impression she would have loved every second of it. She could not be certain if she would have been able to stop herself from doing the very thing which society told her she should not, as a lady, desire, certainly not outside the sanctity of marriage.
     
     

Chapter Nine
    Elizabeth passed the chief of the night in her sister’s room. Jane was not well enough to converse, so Elizabeth sat mostly in silence, contemplating what had passed between herself and Mr Darcy. Her sister would have been scandalised if she knew about the kiss, and Elizabeth would have felt guilty for not being equally so. Now that she was no longer in his company, the entire episode felt strangely like a dream. It was too unbelievable to be real and she had to wonder if it had really happened at all.
    In the morning she had the pleasure of being able to send a tolerable answer to the enquiries which she very early received from Mr Bingley by a housemaid, and some time afterwards from the two elegant ladies who waited on his sisters. In spite of this amendment, however, she requested to have a note sent to Longbourn, desiring her mother to visit Jane, and form her own judgement of her situation. The note was immediately dispatched, and its contents as quickly complied with. Mrs Bennet, accompanied by her two youngest girls, reached Netherfield soon after the family breakfast.
    Had she found Jane in any apparent danger, Mrs Bennet would have been very miserable, but being satisfied on seeing her that her illness was not alarming, she had no wish of her recovering immediately, as her restoration to health would probably remove her from Netherfield. She would not listen, therefore, to her daughter’s proposal of being carried home. Neither did the apothecary, who arrived about the same time, think it at all advisable. After sitting a little while with Jane, on Miss Bingley’s appearance and invitation, the mother and three daughters all attended her into the breakfast parlour. Bingley met them with hopes that Mrs Bennet had not found Miss Bennet worse than she expected.
    “Indeed I have, sir,” was her answer. “She is a great deal too ill to be moved. Mr Jones says we must not think of moving her. We must trespass a little longer on your kindness.”
    “Removed!” cried Bingley. “It must not be thought of. My sister, I am sure, will not hear of her removal.”
    “You may depend upon it, madam,” said Miss Bingley, with cold civility, “that Miss Bennet will receive every possible attention while she remains with us.”
    Mrs Bennet was profuse in her acknowledgements.
    “I am sure,” she added, “if it was not for such good friends I do not know what would become of her, for she is very ill indeed, and suffers a vast deal, though with the greatest patience in the world, which is always the way with her, for she has, without exception, the sweetest temper I have ever met with. I often tell my other girls they are nothing to her . You have a sweet room here, Mr Bingley, and a charming prospect over the gravel walk. I do not know a place in the country that is equal to Netherfield. You will not think of quitting it in a hurry, I hope, though you have but a short lease.”
    “Whatever I do is done in a hurry,” replied he, “and therefore if I should resolve to quit Netherfield, I should probably be off in five minutes. At present, however, I consider myself as quite fixed here.”
    “That is exactly what I should have supposed of you,” said Elizabeth.
    “You begin to comprehend me, do you?” cried he, turning towards her.
    “Oh, yes—I understand you perfectly.”
    “I wish I might take this for a compliment, but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.”
    “That is as it happens. It does not follow that a deep, intricate character is more or less estimable than such a one as yours.”
    “Lizzy,” cried her mother, “remember where