Страница 716 из 817

Her mother's ungraciousness made the sense of what they owed him

more painful to Elizabeth's mind; and she would, at times, have

given anything to be privileged to tell him, that his kindness

was neither unknown nor unfelt by the whole of the family.

She was in hopes that the evening would afford some opportunity

of bringing them together; that the whole of the visit would not

pass away without enabling them to enter into something more of

conversation, than the mere ceremonious salutation attending his

entrance. Anxious and uneasy, the period which passed in the

drawing-room before the gentlemen came, was wearisome and dull to

a degree that almost made her uncivil. She looked forward to

their entrance as the point on which all her chance of pleasure

for the evening must depend.

"If he does not come to me, then," said she, "I shall give him up

for ever."