Pagina 340 de 817

Mrs. Jenkinson was chiefly employed in watching how little Miss

de Bourgh ate, pressing her to try some other dish and fearing

she was indisposed. Maria thought speaking out of the question,

and the gentlemen did nothing but eat and admire.

When the ladies returned to the drawing-room, there was little to

be done but to hear Lady Catherine talk, which she did without

any intermission till coffee came in, delivering her opinion on

every subject in so decisive a manner as proved that she was not

used to have her judgment controverted. She inquired into

Charlotte's domestic concerns familiarly and minutely, and gave

her a great deal of advice as to the management of them all; told

her how everything ought to be regulated in so small a family as

hers, and instructed her as to the care of her cows and her

poultry. Elizabeth found that nothing was beneath this great

lady's attention which could furnish her with an occasion for

dictating to others. In the intervals of her discourse with Mrs.

Collins, she addressed a variety of questions to Maria and

Elizabeth, but especially to the latter, of whose connections she

knew the least, and who, she observed to Mrs. Collins, was a very

genteel, pretty kind of girl.