Page 766 of 817

To this question his daughter replied only with a laugh; and as

it had been asked without the least suspicion, she was not

distressed by his repeating it. Elizabeth had never been more at

a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not. It was

necessary to laugh when she would rather have cried. Her father

had most cruelly mortified her by what he said of Mr. Darcy's

indifference; and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want

of penetration, or fear that, perhaps, instead of his seeing too

little, she might have fancied too much.

]

CHAPTER LVIII.