Act One, Pt.2

But when Mr. Bingley’s party entered the ball room, it consisted of only three altogether. There was Mr. Bingley, good-looking and gentlemanlike, with easy, unaffected manners; there was his sister, Miss Caroline Bingley; and there was his friend, Mr. Darcy, who soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien – and the report spread about by Sir William Lucas –

William Lucas: He has ten thousand a year.

Lydia: A fine figure of a man!

Mrs. Bennet: Much handsomer than Mr. Bingley!

And he was looked at with great admiration until –

William Lucas: Mr. Darcy. Pray, sir, may I introduce you to some of the lovely ladies that are here among us. There must be a sum here that you would wish to be known to all.

Mr. Darcy: No. I thank you.

Lydia: --What a horrid man!

Mary: He has the most forbidding, disagreeable countenance.

Mr. Bennet: His manners certainly don’t compare to Mr. Bingley’s.

Mrs. Bennet: He’s the proudest, most conceited man in the world!

And everybody hoped that he would never come there again.

Mr. Bingley: Come, Darcy. I hate to see you standing by yourself in this stupid manner. You’d much better dance.

Mr. Darcy: I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable.

Mr. Bingley: I would not be so fastidious as you are, for a kingdom! Upon my honor, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life, as I have this evening; and there are several of them, you see, uncommonly pretty.

Mr. Darcy: You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room.

Mr. Bingley: Oh! You mean Miss Jane Bennet. She’s the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! There is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who is very pretty. Do let me introduce you.

Mr. Darcy: Who do you mean? Ah, she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.

Charlotte: Poor Lizzy! -- to be only just tolerable. But one cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favor, should think highly of himself. He has a right to be proud.

Elizabeth: That is very true, Charlotte, and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine. What do you think, Mary?

Mary: Pride, is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that human nature is particularly prone to it. Pride and vanity are very different things, however. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. Um, self-esteem, on the other hand…

In spite of the shocking rudeness of Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet was in transports. Jane had been much admired by Mr. Bingley.

Jane: He is just what a young man ought to be, sensible, good humored, lively—

Elizabeth: He is also handsome, which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can.

Jane: I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.

Elizabeth: Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. And he is certainly very agreeable, but I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.

Jane: Dear Lizzy!

Elizabeth: Well, you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in any body.

Jane: I always speak what I think.

Elizabeth: I know you do. It is that which makes me wonder with your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies of others! You like Miss Bingley too, do you? Her manners are not equal to his.

Jane: Certainly not; at first. But she’s a very pleasing woman when you converse with her.

Miss Bingley: What a dull, tedious, insupportable evening that was! And a conversation, really, there was hardly a person worth speaking to. Do you not agree, Mr. Darcy?

Mr. Darcy: There was no one worth speaking to.

Mr. Bingley: Well I have never met with pleasant girls or pretty people in all my life. Come, Darcy. You must admit that the eldest Miss Bennet being an angel.

Mr. Darcy: She is certainly pretty, but she smiles too much.

Miss Bingley: A sweet girl. Though their mother is atrocious, and her uncle is in trade! And, she has another uncle, an attorney, who lives somewhere near Cheapside. Ha ha! Oh, isn’t that capital?

Mr. Bingley: If they had uncles to fill all Cheapside, it would not make them one jot less agreeable.

Mr. Darcy: But it would very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world,

Mr. Bingley: Really now!

Miss Bingley: Oh, Charles! All are agreed that Miss Jane Bennet is a paragon. Indeed, I quite look forward to meeting her again myself. One must entertain oneself somehow.