Austen Said:

“Is Miss Darcy much grown since the spring?”

“will she be as tall as I am?”

“How I long to see her again! I never met with anybody who delighted me so much. Such a countenance, such manners! And so extremely accomplished for her age! Her performance on the pianoforte is exquisite.”

“It is amazing to me,”

“how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are.”

“All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?”

“Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and net purses. I scarcely know anyone who cannot do all this, and I am sure

I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that

“Nor I, I am sure,”

“Oh! certainly,”

“no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.”

“Elizabeth Bennet,”

“is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.”

Mr. Jones's being sent for immediately;

every possible attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.

“She is a great deal too ill to be moved. Mr. Jones says we must not think of moving her. We must trespass a little longer on your kindness.”

“Removed!”

“It must not be thought of. My sister, I am sure, will not hear of her removal.”

“You may depend upon it, Madam,”

“that Miss Bennet shall receive every possible attention while she remains with us.”

“if it was not for such good friends I do not know what would become of her, for she is very ill indeed, and suffers a vast deal, though with the greatest patience in the world, which is always the way with her, for she has, without exception, the sweetest temper I have ever met with. I often tell my other girls they are nothing to her. You have a sweet room here, Mr. Bingley, and a charming prospect over the gravel walk. I do not know a place in the country that is equal to Netherfield. You will not think of quitting it in a hurry, I hope, though you have but a short lease.”

“Whatever I do is done in a hurry,”

“and therefore if I should resolve to quit Netherfield, I should probably be off in five minutes. At present, however, I consider myself as quite fixed here.”

“You begin to comprehend me, do you?”

“I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.”

“remember where you are, and do not run on in the wild manner that you are suffered to do at home.”

“I did not know before,”

“that you were a studier of character. It must be an amusing study.”

“I assure you there is quite as much of that going on in the country as in town.”

“When I am in the country,”

“I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same. They have each their advantages, and I can be equally happy in either.”

“seemed to think the country was nothing at all.”

“Did Charlotte dine with you?”

“She seems a very pleasant young woman.”

“I am perfectly ready, I assure you, to keep my engagement; and when your sister is recovered, you shall, if you please, name the very day of the ball. But you would not wish to be dancing when she is ill.”

“How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!”

“You write uncommonly fast.”

“How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a year! Letters of business, too! How odious I should think them!”

“Pray tell your sister that I long to see her.”

“I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well.”

“How can you contrive to write so even?”

“Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp; and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley's.”

“Oh! it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?”

“It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.”

“That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline,”

“because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?”

“Oh!”

“Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest.”

“My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them — by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents.”

“And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?”