“Can you come to-morrow?”
He scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper;and before he went away,an engagement was formed,chiefly through his own and Mrs.Bennet's means,for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband.
The same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the evening.After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his custom,and Mary went up stairs to her instrument.Two obstacles of the five being thus removed,Mrs.Bennet sat looking and winking at Elizabeth and Catherine for a considerable time, without making any impression on them. Elizabeth would not observe her;and when at last Kitty did,she very innocently said,“What is the matter mamma?What do you keep winking at me for?What am I to do?”
But on returning to the drawing-room, when her letter was finished,she saw,to her infinite surprise,there was reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for her.On opening the door,she perceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth,as if engaged in earnest conversation;and had this led to no suspicion, the faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other, would have told it all. Their situation was awkward enough; but hers she thought was still worse.Not a syllable was uttered by either;and Elizabeth was on the point of going away again,when Bingley,who as well as the other had sat down,suddenly rose,and whispering a few words to her sister,ran out of the room.