Pagina 248 de 817

"You shall have it in a few words. Miss Bingley sees that her

brother is in love with you and wants him to marry Miss Darcy.

She follows him to town in the hope of keeping him there, and

tries to persuade you that he does not care about you."

Jane shook her head.

"Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. No one who has ever seen

you together can doubt his affection; Miss Bingley, I am sure,

cannot: she is not such a simpleton. Could she have seen half as

much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would have ordered her

wedding clothes. But the case is this:--we are not rich enough or

grand enough for them; and she is the more anxious to get Miss

Darcy for her brother, from the notion that when there has been

one inter-marriage, she may have less trouble in achieving a

second; in which there is certainly some ingenuity, and I dare

say it would succeed if Miss de Bourgh were out of the way. But,

my dearest Jane, you cannot seriously imagine that, because Miss

Bingley tells you her brother greatly admires Miss Darcy, he is

in the smallest degree less sensible of your merit than when he

took leave of you on Tuesday; or that it will be in her power to

persuade him that, instead of being in love with you, he is very

much in love with her friend."