Page 19 of Hard Home

"Oh! yes — I understand you perfectly."

"I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful."

"That is as it happens. It does not necessarily follow that a deep, intricate character is more or less estimable than such a one as yours."

"Lizzy," cried her mother, "remember where you are, and do not run on in the wild manner that you are suffered to do at home."

"I did not know before," continued Bingley immediately, "that you were a studier of character. It must be an amusing study."

"Yes; but intricate characters are themostamusing. They have at least that advantage."

"The country," said Darcy, "can in general supply but few subjects for such a study. In a country neighborhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society."

"But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever."

"Yes, indeed," cried Mrs. Bennet, offended by his manner of mentioning a country neighborhood. "I assure you there is quite as much ofthatgoing on in the country as in town."

Every body was surprised; and Darcy, after looking at her for a moment, turned silently away. Mrs. Bennet, who fancied she had gained a complete victory over him, continued her triumph.

"I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the country for my part, except the shops and public places. The country is a vast deal pleasanter, is not it, Mr. Bingley?"

"When I am in the country," he replied, "I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same. They have each their advantages, and I can be equally happy in either."

"Aye — that is because you have the right disposition. Butthatgentleman," looking at Darcy, "seemed to think the country was nothing at all."

"Indeed, Mama, you are mistaken," said Elizabeth, blushing for her mother. "You quite mistook Mr. Darcy. He only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in town, which you must acknowledge to be true."

"Certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with many people in this neighborhood, I believe there are few neighborhoods larger. I know we dine with four and twenty families."

Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep his countenance.

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"But I will say this for us," Mrs. Bennet went on, warming, "and it is a thing not every county can say. There is not a ward in the parish that has wanted mending in my lifetime. Not one. Not the assembly rooms, nor the church, nor Longbourn itself — my husband's people have held that ground four hundred years and I do not believe a single soul has ever had to lay so much as a thread across the threshold. Nowthatis what I call a healthy country. Some of these grand old places in the north, I am told, are for ever having men in."

"Are they," said Mr. Darcy.

"So I am told. Very expensive, and a great deal of dirt."

"Mama," said Elizabeth.

"Well, and it is true! Mrs. Long says the same. Nothing ever wants doing here. Nothing ever has."

Mr. Darcy said, in a voice that was perfectly level, "That is a very remarkable thing for a county to be able to say, madam. I do not think I have ever heard it said of anywhere else in England."

"There!" said Mrs. Bennet, delighted at last to have said something that a man of ten thousand a year approved.

Miss Bingley smiled, and looked at Mr. Darcy, and found to her considerable annoyance that he was not sharing the joke with her, and had in fact set down his cup, and was standing very still, in the way she had learned in four years meant that he was doing arithmetic.

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"Charlotte Lucas was here all day yesterday," Mrs. Bennet said presently, having got at last to the subject of the Lucases, which she reached by every road. "Her father called on me. Such an agreeable man, Sir William! — so much the fine gentleman! He has always something to say to every body. —Thatis my idea of good breeding; and those persons who fancy themselves very important and never open their mouths, quite mistake the matter."

"Did Charlotte dine with you?"

"No, she would go home. I fancy she was wanted about the mince pies. For my part, Mr. Bingley,Ialways keep servants that can do their own work;mydaughters are brought up differently. But every body is to judge for themselves, and the Lucases are a very good sort of girls, I assure you. It is a pity they are not handsome! Not thatIthink Charlotte soveryplain — but then she is our particular friend."

"She seems a very pleasant young woman," said Bingley.