Chapter 3

NOT all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of
her five daughters, could ask on the subject was sufficient to
draw from her husband any satisfactory description of Mr,
Bingley.  They attacked him in various ways; with barefaced
questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but
he eluded the skill of them all; and they were at last obliged
to accept the second-hand intelligence oftheir neighbour Lady
Lucas.  Her report was highly favourable.  Sir William had
been delighted with him.  He was quite young, wonderfully
handsome, extremely agreeable, and to crown the whole, he
meant to be at the next assembly with a large party.  Nothing
could be more delightful!  To be fond of dancing was a certain
step towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr
Bingley's heart were entertained.
"If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at
Netherfield," said Mrs. Bennet to her husband, "and all the
others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for."
In a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennet's visit, and
sat about ten minutes with him in his library.  He had entertained
hopes of being admitted to a sight of the young ladies,
of whose beauty he had heard much; but he saw only the
father.  The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they
had the advantage of ascertaining from an upper window, that
he wore a blue coat and rode a black horse.
An invitation to dinner was soon afterwards dispatched;
and already had Mrs. Bennet planned the courses that were
to do credit to her housekeeping, when an answer arrived
which deferred it all.  Mr. Bingley was obliged to be in town
the following day, and consequently unable to accept the
honour of their invitation, &c.  Mrs. Bennet was quite 
disconcerted.  She could not imagine what business he could
have in town so soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and
she began to fear that he might be always flying about from
one place to another, and never settled at Netherfield as he
ought to be.  Lady Lucas quieted her fears a little by starting
the idea of his being gone to London only to get a large party
for the ball; and a report soon followed that Mr. Bingley was
to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the ball
assembly.  The girls grieved over such a large number of ladies;
but were comforted the day before the ball by hearing, that
instead of twelve, he had brought only six with him from
London, his five sisters and a cousin.  And when the party
entered the assembly room, it consisted of only five altogether;
Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband of the oldest, and
another young man.
 Mr. Bingley was good looking and gentlmanlike; he had
a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners.  His
brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but
his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by
his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the
report which was in general circulation within five minutes
after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.  The
gentleman pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the
ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley,
and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the
evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide
of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be
above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his
large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a
most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy 
to be compared with his friend.
Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the
principal people in the room; he was lively and unreserved,
danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early,
and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield.  Such amiable
qualities must speak for themselves.  What a contrast between
him and his friend!  Mr. Darcy danced only once with Mrs. 
Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in
walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his
own party.  His character was decided.  He was the proudest,
most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped
that he would never come there again.  Amongst the most
violent against him was Mrs. Bennet, whose dislike of his
general behaviour, was sharpened into particular resentment,
by his having slighted one of her daughters.
Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of
gentlemen, to sit down for two dances; and during part of
that time, Mr. Darcy had been standing near enough for her
to overhear a conversation between him and Mr. Bingley, who
came from the dance for a few minutes, to press his friend to
join it.
"Come, Darcy," said he, "I must have you dance.  I hate to
see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner.  You
had much better dance."
"I certainly shall not.  You know how I detest it, unless I am
particularly acquainted with my partner.  At such an assembly
as this, it would be insupportable.  Your sisters are engaged,
 and there is not another woman in the room, whom it would
not be a punishment to me to stand up with."
"I would not be so fastidious as you are," cried Bingley, "for
a kingdom!  Upon my honour I never met with so many
pleasant girls in my life, as I have this evening; and there are
several of them you see uncommonly pretty."
" You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,"
said Mr. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.
"Oh!  she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!  But
there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who
is very pretty, and I dare say, very agreeable.  Do let me ask
my partner to introduce you."
"Which do you mean?" and turning round, he looked for
a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his
own and coldly said, "She is tolerable; but not handsome
enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give
consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.
You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles,
for you are wasting your time with me."
Mr. Bingley followed his advice.  Mr. Darcy walked off;
and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards
him.  She told the story however with great spirit among her
friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which
delighted in any thing ridiculous.
The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole
family.  Mrs. Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much
admired by the Netherfield party.  Mr. Bingley had danced
with her twice, and she had been distinguished by his sisters.
Jane was as much gratified by this, as her mother could be,
though in a quieter way.  Elizabeth felt Jane's pleasure.  Mary
had heard herself mentioned to Miss Bingley as the most
accomplished girl in the neighbourhood; and Catherine and
Lydia had been fortunate enough to be never without partners,
which was all that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball.
They returned therefore in good spirits to Longbourn, the
village where they lived, and of which they were the principal
inhabitants.  They found Mr. Bennet still up.  With a book he
was regardless of time; and on the present occasion he had a
good deal of curiosity as to the event of an evening which had
raised such splendid expectations.  He had rather hoped that
all his wife's views on the stranger would be disappointed; but
he soon found that he had a very different story to hear.
"Oh!  my dear Mr. Bennet," as she entered the room, "we
have had a most delightful evening, a most excellent ball.  I
wish you had been there.  Jane was so admired, nothing could
be like it.  Every body said how well she looked; and Mr. 
Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with her
twice.  Only think of that my dear; he actually danced with
her twice; and she was the only creature in the room that he
asked a second time.  First of all, he asked Miss Lucas.  I was
so vexed to see him stand up with her; but, however, he did
not admire her at all: indeed, nobody can, you know; and he
seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the
dance.  So, he enquired who she was, and got introduced,
and asked her for the two next.  Then, the two third he danced
with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and
the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy,
and the Boulanger -- -- "
"If he had had any compassion for me," cried her husband
impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much!  For
God's sake, say no more of his partners.  Oh!  that he had
sprained his ancle in the first dance!"
"Oh!  my dear," continued Mrs. Bennet, "I am quite
delighted with him.  He is so excessively handsome!  and his
sisters are charming women.  I never in my life saw any
thing more elegant than their dresses.  I dare say the lace
upon Mrs. Hurst's gown -- "
Here she was interrupted again.  Mr. Bennet protested
against any description of finery.  She was therefore obliged
to seek another branch of the subject, and related, with much
bitterness of spirit and some exaggeration, the shocking 
rudeness of Mr. Darcy.
"But I can assure you," she added, "that Lizzy does not
 lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most 
 disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing.  So high
and so conceited that there was no enduring him!  He walked
here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great!
Not handsome enough to dance with!  I wish you had been
there, my dear, to have given him one of your set downs.
I quite detest the man."