Pagina 799 di 817

"You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little

less. The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference,

of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who

were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your

approbation alone. I roused and interested you, because I was so

unlike them. Had you not been really amiable you would have hated

me for it: but in spite of the pains you took to disguise

yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your

heart you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously

courted you. There--I have saved you the trouble of accounting

for it; and really, all things considered, I begin to think it

perfectly reasonable. To be sure you know no actual good of

me--but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love."

"Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane, while

she was ill at Netherfield?"