cajoled.
“You either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each other's confidence and have secret affairs to discuss or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in walking. If the first, I should be completely in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better from where I sit.” With a self-satisfied grin, Mr. Darcy sat back in his chair and openly stared at Elizabeth.
Caroline was both thrilled and dismayed at Darcy's reaction, for this was the first time that her provocations had evoked a response from him, but she could not help but realize that it was Elizabeth's presence that made the difference. She grabbed Elizabeth's arm and turned her, so that their backs were to Mr. Darcy. “You were right Miss Eliza; we should not have pressed him, for that was an abominable speech! How shall we punish him for it?” She glanced seductively over her shoulder at Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth laughed at the thought of anyone punishing Mr. Darcy. “I would not know how to attempt it, Miss Bingley. You have known him far longer than I have. You must know of some weakness in his disposition that we can tease him about. Perhaps his wild imagining about our motives would do.”
“No, no!” Caroline declared. “There is indeed no weakness in Mr. Darcy, and he is most certainly not to be teased or laughed at.”
“No weakness at all?” Elizabeth teased, “Is your claim truly this, that Mr. Darcy is, in fact, the personification of perfection? Now I am the one disappointed, for I had hoped to find some amusement in his character, some folly to enjoy—I dearly love to laugh, you know. I hope to meet no o others like him, for if all my friends achieve such a state, at what will I laugh?”
Mr. Darcy, the smile on his face waning, replied, “Miss Bingley has given me credit for more than can be. The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”
“Indeed, Mr. Darcy, actions of the wise and good variety are not the sort at which I laugh. No, I am not so foolish. The ridiculous diverts me. Follies and foibles are a great source of entertainment, to be sure. Silly whims and inconsistencies amuse me, but these things are what Miss Bingley claims you are without.”
“Miss Bingley exaggerates. What she claims is not possible for anyone, but I hope that there is but little of the ridiculous in me. It has been the study of my life to avoid foolishness, and, likewise, I do not suffer fools easily.” There was a pained look on his face, as if in so saying he was exposing a weakness himself.
“Of that I am sure.” Elizabeth said sweetly, sensing that he was no longer enjoying their repartee. “I cannot imagine that you could be made to suffer for a fool's sake, and my teasing you is, after all, not entirely sensible in light of this study you have undertaken. I should not give the fool a second thought if I were you.” She bobbed a somewhat defiant curtsy in his direction and returned to her seat and her needlework.
She discovered quickly that her task was rendered difficult by the trembling of her hands, a problem she could not account for. Caroline almost immediately distracted the room with her demand for music at Mrs. Hurst's hand. This allowed Elizabeth to recover, to ponder on why she felt so unnerved by the conversation, and to consider why she had suddenly backed down.
She had been poised to strike, to point out his two most obvious faults, to charge him with vanity and pride, and yet, when the moment came to hurl the words at him, she could not do it. In her attempt to explain this to herself, she realized that she instinctively knew that the words would somehow injure him. The guilty, she told herself, take the truth to be hard, for it cuts as deeply as a knife, and although she found his prideful demeanor objectionable, it would not do to make
“You either choose this method of passing the evening because you are in each other's confidence and have secret affairs to discuss or because you are conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in walking. If the first, I should be completely in your way, and if the second, I can admire you much better from where I sit.” With a self-satisfied grin, Mr. Darcy sat back in his chair and openly stared at Elizabeth.
Caroline was both thrilled and dismayed at Darcy's reaction, for this was the first time that her provocations had evoked a response from him, but she could not help but realize that it was Elizabeth's presence that made the difference. She grabbed Elizabeth's arm and turned her, so that their backs were to Mr. Darcy. “You were right Miss Eliza; we should not have pressed him, for that was an abominable speech! How shall we punish him for it?” She glanced seductively over her shoulder at Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth laughed at the thought of anyone punishing Mr. Darcy. “I would not know how to attempt it, Miss Bingley. You have known him far longer than I have. You must know of some weakness in his disposition that we can tease him about. Perhaps his wild imagining about our motives would do.”
“No, no!” Caroline declared. “There is indeed no weakness in Mr. Darcy, and he is most certainly not to be teased or laughed at.”
“No weakness at all?” Elizabeth teased, “Is your claim truly this, that Mr. Darcy is, in fact, the personification of perfection? Now I am the one disappointed, for I had hoped to find some amusement in his character, some folly to enjoy—I dearly love to laugh, you know. I hope to meet no o others like him, for if all my friends achieve such a state, at what will I laugh?”
Mr. Darcy, the smile on his face waning, replied, “Miss Bingley has given me credit for more than can be. The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.”
“Indeed, Mr. Darcy, actions of the wise and good variety are not the sort at which I laugh. No, I am not so foolish. The ridiculous diverts me. Follies and foibles are a great source of entertainment, to be sure. Silly whims and inconsistencies amuse me, but these things are what Miss Bingley claims you are without.”
“Miss Bingley exaggerates. What she claims is not possible for anyone, but I hope that there is but little of the ridiculous in me. It has been the study of my life to avoid foolishness, and, likewise, I do not suffer fools easily.” There was a pained look on his face, as if in so saying he was exposing a weakness himself.
“Of that I am sure.” Elizabeth said sweetly, sensing that he was no longer enjoying their repartee. “I cannot imagine that you could be made to suffer for a fool's sake, and my teasing you is, after all, not entirely sensible in light of this study you have undertaken. I should not give the fool a second thought if I were you.” She bobbed a somewhat defiant curtsy in his direction and returned to her seat and her needlework.
She discovered quickly that her task was rendered difficult by the trembling of her hands, a problem she could not account for. Caroline almost immediately distracted the room with her demand for music at Mrs. Hurst's hand. This allowed Elizabeth to recover, to ponder on why she felt so unnerved by the conversation, and to consider why she had suddenly backed down.
She had been poised to strike, to point out his two most obvious faults, to charge him with vanity and pride, and yet, when the moment came to hurl the words at him, she could not do it. In her attempt to explain this to herself, she realized that she instinctively knew that the words would somehow injure him. The guilty, she told herself, take the truth to be hard, for it cuts as deeply as a knife, and although she found his prideful demeanor objectionable, it would not do to make
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