“How very ill Miss 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.”

“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 afterwards she seemed to improve on you,and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time.”

Elizabeth's collected behaviour, however, soon quieted his emotion;and as Miss Bingley,vexed and disappointed,dared not approach nearer to Wickham,Georgiana also recovered in time, though not enough to be able to speak any more. Her brother, whose eye she feared to meet,scarcely recollected her interest in the affair,and the very circumstance which had been designed to turn his thoughts from Elizabeth seemed to have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully.

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,behaviour,and dress.But Georgiana would not join her.Her brother's recommendation was enough to ensure her favour; his judgement 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.