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"Indeed!" cried Wickham, with a look which did not escape her.

"And pray may I ask--" but checking himself, he added, in a gayer

tone, "Is it in address that he improves? Has he deigned to add

aught of civility to his ordinary style? for I dare not hope," he

continued, in a lower and more serious tone, "that he is improved

in essentials."

"Oh, no!" said Elizabeth. "In essentials, I believe, he is very

much what he ever was."

While she spoke, Wickham looked as if scarcely knowing whether to

rejoice over her words or to distrust their meaning. There was a

something in her countenance which made him listen with an

apprehensive and anxious attention, while she added,--

"When I said that he improved on acquaintance, I did not mean

that either his mind or manners were in a state of improvement;

but that, from knowing him better, his disposition was better

understood."