Pagina 389 van 817

When they were gone, Elizabeth, as if intending to exasperate

herself as much as possible against Mr. Darcy, chose for her

employment the examination of all the letters which Jane had

written to her since her being in Kent. They contained no actual

complaint, nor was there any revival of past occurrences, or any

communication of present suffering. But in all, and in almost

every line of each, there was a want of that cheerfulness which

had been used to characterize her style, and which, proceeding

from the serenity of a mind at ease with itself, and kindly

disposed towards everyone, had been scarcely ever clouded.

Elizabeth noticed every sentence conveying the idea of

uneasiness, with an attention which it had hardly received on the

first perusal. Mr. Darcy's shameful boast of what misery he had

been able to inflict gave her a keener sense of her sister's

sufferings.