Page 272 of 817

As for Jane, her anxiety under this suspense was, of course, more

painful than Elizabeth's: but whatever she felt she was desirous

of concealing; and between herself and Elizabeth, therefore, the

subject was never alluded to. But as no such delicacy restrained

her mother, an hour seldom passed in which she did not talk of

Bingley, express her impatience for his arrival, or even require

Jane to confess that if he did not come back she should think

herself very ill-used. It needed all Jane's steady mildness to

bear these attacks with tolerable tranquillity.