第121章[第1页/共5页]

“I do not recollect that we did.”

“I was surprised to see Darcy in town last month.We passed each other several times.I wonder what he can be doing there.”

“That you were gone into the army,and she was afraid had―not turned out well.At such a distance as that,you know,things are strangely misrepresented.”

“True.Are the others coming out?”

“And do you like her?”

“And what did she say?”

She held out her hand;he kissed it with affectionate gallantry, though he hardly knew how to look,and they entered the house.

“I am afraid I interrupt your solitary ramble,my dear sister?”said he,as he joined her.

They were now almost at the door of the house, for she had walked fast to get rid of him;and unwilling,for her sister's sake, to provoke him, she only said in reply, with a good-humoured smile:

“You certainly do,”she replied with a smile;“but it does not follow that the interruption must be unwelcome.”

“You have.Yes,there was something in that;I told you so from the first,you may remember.”

“I dare say she will;she has got over the most trying age.”

“I did hear, too, that there was a time, when sermon-making was not so palatable to you as it seems to be at present;that you actually declared your resolution of never taking orders,and that the business had been compromised accordingly.”