Chapter LIV — Pride and Prejudice

You read every signal from someone who hurt you by helping you, and the room's layout decides more than your courage. After the first visit Elizabeth walks out vexed: why did Darcy come only to be silent and indifferent when he could still be amiable to her uncle and aunt in town? Jane, easier after the meeting, expects Tuesday's dinner as common indifferent acquaintance; Elizabeth laughs and warns she is in very great danger of making Bingley as much in love as ever.

At the large party Bingley hesitates until Jane looks round and smiles; he sits by her, and Darcy bears it with noble indifference while Bingley glances at him in half-laughing alarm. Elizabeth watches her mother cold and formal to the man the family owes everything, longs to thank him, and resolves that if he does not come to her in the drawing-room she will give him up for ever. The tea-table confederacy blocks every chair near her; a brief exchange about Georgiana alone at Pemberley fails when a whisper drives him off; Mrs. Bennet then traps Darcy at whist for the rest of the evening.

Mrs. Long prophesies Jane at Netherfield at last, and Mrs. Bennet is already disappointed he does not propose the next day. Jane protests indifference and begs Elizabeth not to smile; Elizabeth refuses to be her confidante if Jane persists in that fiction. Bingley's renewed attention advances in plain sight, while Darcy's silence leaves Elizabeth parsing every glance for meaning.