第130章[第1頁/共6頁]

“You have a very small park here,”returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.

“And can you likewise declare,that there is no foundation for it?”

“I hope you are well,Miss Bennet.That lady,I suppose,is your mother.”

“It is nothing in comparison of Rosings,my lady,I dare say;but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's.”

Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.

“Go, my dear,”cried her mother,“and show her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage.”

“You can be at no loss,Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither.Your own heart,your own conscience, must tell you why I come.”

“If!Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it?Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves?Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad?”

“This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening, in summer;the windows are full west.”

One morning,about a week after Bingley's engagement with Jane had been formed,as he and the females of the family were sitting together in the dining-room,their attention was suddenly drawn to the window,by the sound of a carriage;and they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn.It was too early in the morning for visitors,and besides,the equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbours.The horses were post;and neither the carriage, nor the livery of the servant who preceded it,were familiar to them. As it was certain,however,that somebody was coming,Bingley instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion,and walk away with him into the shrubbery.They both set off,and the conjectures of the remaining three continued, though with little satisfaction,till the door was thrown open and their visitor entered.It was Lady Catherine de Bourgh.