第91章[第1頁/共6頁]

“And that,”said Mrs. Reynolds, pointing to another of the miniatures,“is my master―and very like him.It was drawn at the same time as the other―about eight years ago.”

This was a lucky recollection―it saved her from something very like regret.

“Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?”

Elizabeth coloured,and said:“A little.”

“Not so much as I could wish,sir;but I dare say he may spend half his time here;and Miss Darcy is always down for the summer months.”

“And of this place,”thought she,“I might have been mistress! With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced in them as my own,and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle and aunt.But no,”―recollecting herself―“that could never be;my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them.”

Mrs.Gardiner looked at her niece with a smile,but Elizabeth could not return it.

Mr. Gardiner, whose manners were very easy and pleasant, encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks;Mrs.Reynolds,either by pride or attachment,had evidently great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister.