“It has been a very agreeable day,”said Miss Bennet to Elizabeth.“The party seemed so well selected, so suitable one with the other.I hope we may often meet again.”

The gentlemen came;and she thought he looked as if he would have answered her hopes;but,alas!the ladies had crowded round the table, where Miss Bennet was making tea, and Elizabeth pouring out the coffee,in so close a confederacy that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit of a chair.And on the gentlemen's approaching,one of the girls moved closer to her than ever,and said,in a whisper:

When the tea-things were removed,and the card-tables placed, the ladies all rose, and Elizabeth was then hoping to be soon joined by him,when all her views were overthrown by seeing him fall a victim to her mother's rapacity for whist players,and in a few moments after seated with the rest of the party.She now lost every expectation of pleasure.They were confined for the evening at different tables,and she had nothing to hope,but that his eyes were so often turned towards her side of the room, as to make him play as unsuccessfully as herself.