diff --git a/PrideAndPrejudice.txt b/PrideAndPrejudice.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b42a407
--- /dev/null
+++ b/PrideAndPrejudice.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14572 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
+(#8 in our series by Jane Austen)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Pride and Prejudice
+
+Author: Jane Austen
+
+Release Date: Jun, 1998  [EBook #1342]
+[Most recently updated: September 16, 2004]
+
+Edition: 12
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ***
+
+
+
+
+Pride and Prejudice
+
+by Jane Austen
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
+possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
+
+However little known the feelings or views of such a man may
+be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well
+fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered
+the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
+
+"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you
+heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"
+
+Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
+
+"But it is," returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and
+she told me all about it."
+
+Mr. Bennet made no answer.
+
+"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife
+impatiently.
+
+"_You_ want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."
+
+This was invitation enough.
+
+"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield
+is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of
+England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to
+see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed
+with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession
+before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the
+house by the end of next week."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Bingley."
+
+"Is he married or single?"
+
+"Oh!  Single, my dear, to be sure!  A single man of large
+fortune; four or five thousand a year.  What a fine thing for our
+girls!"
+
+"How so?  How can it affect them?"
+
+"My dear Mr. Bennet," replied his wife, "how can you be so
+tiresome!  You must know that I am thinking of his marrying
+one of them."
+
+"Is that his design in settling here?"
+
+"Design!  Nonsense, how can you talk so!  But it is very likely
+that he _may_ fall in love with one of them, and therefore you
+must visit him as soon as he comes."
+
+"I see no occasion for that.  You and the girls may go, or you
+may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still
+better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley
+may like you the best of the party."
+
+"My dear, you flatter me.  I certainly _have_ had my share of
+beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now.
+When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give
+over thinking of her own beauty."
+
+"In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of."
+
+"But, my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when
+he comes into the neighbourhood."
+
+"It is more than I engage for, I assure you."
+
+"But consider your daughters.  Only think what an establishment
+it would be for one of them.  Sir William and Lady Lucas are
+determined to go, merely on that account, for in general, you
+know, they visit no newcomers.  Indeed you must go, for it will
+be impossible for _us_ to visit him if you do not."
+
+"You are over-scrupulous, surely.  I dare say Mr. Bingley will
+be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to
+assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he
+chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for
+my little Lizzy."
+
+"I desire you will do no such thing.  Lizzy is not a bit better
+than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as
+Jane, nor half so good-humoured as Lydia.  But you are always
+giving _her_ the preference."
+
+"They have none of them much to recommend them," replied he;
+"they are all silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy
+has something more of quickness than her sisters."
+
+"Mr. Bennet, how _can_ you abuse your own children in such a
+way?  You take delight in vexing me.  You have no compassion
+for my poor nerves."
+
+"You mistake me, my dear.  I have a high respect for your
+nerves.  They are my old friends.  I have heard you mention
+them with consideration these last twenty years at least."
+
+Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour,
+reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty
+years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his
+character.  _Her_ mind was less difficult to develop.  She was a
+woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain
+temper.  When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous.
+The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its
+solace was visiting and news.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+Mr. Bennet was among the earliest of those who waited on Mr.
+Bingley.  He had always intended to visit him, though to the last
+always assuring his wife that he should not go; and till the
+evening after the visit was paid she had no knowledge of it.
+It was then disclosed in the following manner.  Observing his
+second daughter employed in trimming a hat, he suddenly
+addressed her with:
+
+"I hope Mr. Bingley will like it, Lizzy."
+
+"We are not in a way to know _what_ Mr. Bingley likes," said
+her mother resentfully, "since we are not to visit."
+
+"But you forget, mamma," said Elizabeth, "that we shall meet
+him at the assemblies, and that Mrs. Long promised to introduce
+him."
+
+"I do not believe Mrs. Long will do any such thing.  She has two
+nieces of her own.  She is a selfish, hypocritical woman, and I
+have no opinion of her."
+
+"No more have I," said Mr. Bennet; "and I am glad to find that
+you do not depend on her serving you."
+
+Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply, but, unable to
+contain herself, began scolding one of her daughters.
+
+"Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heaven's sake!  Have a little
+compassion on my nerves.  You tear them to pieces."
+
+"Kitty has no discretion in her coughs," said her father; "she
+times them ill."
+
+"I do not cough for my own amusement," replied Kitty fretfully.
+"When is your next ball to be, Lizzy?"
+
+"To-morrow fortnight."
+
+"Aye, so it is," cried her mother, "and Mrs. Long does not come
+back till the day before; so it will be impossible for her to
+introduce him, for she will not know him herself."
+
+"Then, my dear, you may have the advantage of your friend, and
+introduce Mr. Bingley to _her_."
+
+"Impossible, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not acquainted
+with him myself; how can you be so teasing?"
+
+"I honour your circumspection.  A fortnight's acquaintance is
+certainly very little.  One cannot know what a man really is by
+the end of a fortnight.  But if _we_ do not venture somebody else
+will; and after all, Mrs. Long and her daughters must stand their
+chance; and, therefore, as she will think it an act of kindness,
+if you decline the office, I will take it on myself."
+
+The girls stared at their father.  Mrs. Bennet said only,
+"Nonsense, nonsense!"
+
+"What can be the meaning of that emphatic exclamation?" cried
+he.  "Do you consider the forms of introduction, and the stress
+that is laid on them, as nonsense?  I cannot quite agree with
+you _there_.  What say you, Mary?  For you are a young lady of
+deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts."
+
+Mary wished to say something sensible, but knew not how.
+
+"While Mary is adjusting her ideas," he continued, "let us return
+to Mr. Bingley."
+
+"I am sick of Mr. Bingley," cried his wife.
+
+"I am sorry to hear _that_; but why did not you tell me that
+before?  If I had known as much this morning I certainly would
+not have called on him.  It is very unlucky; but as I have
+actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance now."
+
+The astonishment of the ladies was just what he wished; that of
+Mrs. Bennet perhaps surpassing the rest; though, when the first
+tumult of joy was over, she began to declare that it was what she
+had expected all the while.
+
+"How good it was in you, my dear Mr. Bennet!  But I knew I should
+persuade you at last.  I was sure you loved your girls too well
+to neglect such an acquaintance.  Well, how pleased I am! and it
+is such a good joke, too, that you should have gone this morning
+and never said a word about it till now."
+
+"Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose," said Mr.
+Bennet; and, as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the
+raptures of his wife.
+
+"What an excellent father you have, girls!" said she, when the
+door was shut.  "I do not know how you will ever make him
+amends for his kindness; or me, either, for that matter.  At our
+time of life it is not so pleasant, I can tell you, to be making
+new acquaintances every day; but for your sakes, we would do
+anything.  Lydia, my love, though you _are_ the youngest, I dare
+say Mr. Bingley will dance with you at the next ball."
+
+"Oh!" said Lydia stoutly, "I am not afraid; for though I _am_ the
+youngest, I'm the tallest."
+
+The rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how soon he
+would return Mr. Bennet's visit, and determining when they
+should ask him to dinner.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+Not all that Mrs. Bennet, however, with the assistance of her
+five daughters, could ask on the subject, was sufficient to draw
+from her husband any satisfactory description of Mr. Bingley.
+They attacked him in various ways--with barefaced questions,
+ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but he eluded the
+skill of them all, and they were at last obliged to accept the
+second-hand intelligence of their neighbour, Lady Lucas.  Her
+report was highly favourable.  Sir William had been delighted
+with him.  He was quite young, wonderfully handsome, extremely
+agreeable, and, to crown the whole, he meant to be at the next
+assembly with a large party.  Nothing could be more delightful!
+To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love;
+and very lively hopes of Mr. Bingley's heart were entertained.
+
+"If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at
+Netherfield," said Mrs. Bennet to her husband, "and all the
+others equally well married, I shall have nothing to wish for."
+
+In a few days Mr. Bingley returned Mr. Bennet's visit, and sat
+about ten minutes with him in his library.  He had entertained
+hopes of being admitted to a sight of the young ladies, of
+whose beauty he had heard much; but he saw only the father.
+The ladies were somewhat more fortunate, for they had the
+advantage of ascertaining from an upper window that he wore
+a blue coat, and rode a black horse.
+
+An invitation to dinner was soon afterwards dispatched; and
+already had Mrs. Bennet planned the courses that were to do
+credit to her housekeeping, when an answer arrived which
+deferred it all.  Mr. Bingley was obliged to be in town the
+following day, and, consequently, unable to accept the honour
+of their invitation, etc.  Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted.
+She could not imagine what business he could have in town so
+soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire; and she began to fear
+that he might be always flying about from one place to another,
+and never settled at Netherfield as he ought to be.  Lady Lucas
+quieted her fears a little by starting the idea of his being gone
+to London only to get a large party for the ball; and a report
+soon followed that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and
+seven gentlemen with him to the assembly.  The girls grieved
+over such a number of ladies, but were comforted the day
+before the ball by hearing, that instead of twelve he brought
+only six with him from London--his five sisters and a cousin.
+And when the party entered the assembly room it consisted of
+only five altogether--Mr. Bingley, his two sisters, the husband
+of the eldest, and another young man.
+
+Mr. Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant
+countenance, and easy, unaffected manners.  His sisters were fine
+women, with an air of decided fashion.  His brother-in-law, Mr.
+Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon
+drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome
+features, noble mien, and the report which was in general
+circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having
+ten thousand a year.  The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine
+figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than
+Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about
+half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned
+the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud;
+to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his
+large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most
+forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be
+compared with his friend.
+
+Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the
+principal people in the room; he was lively and unreserved,
+danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early,
+and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield.  Such amiable
+qualities must speak for themselves.  What a contrast between
+him and his friend!  Mr. Darcy danced only once with Mrs. Hurst
+and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any
+other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about
+the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party.  His
+character was decided.  He was the proudest, most disagreeable
+man in the world, and everybody hoped that he would never come
+there again.  Amongst the most violent against him was Mrs.
+Bennet, whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened
+into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her
+daughters.
+
+Elizabeth Bennet had been obliged, by the scarcity of gentlemen,
+to sit down for two dances; and during part of that time,
+Mr. Darcy had been standing near enough for her to hear a
+conversation between him and Mr. Bingley, who came from the
+dance for a few minutes, to press his friend to join it.
+
+"Come, Darcy," said he, "I must have you dance.  I hate to see
+you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner.  You had
+much better dance."
+
+"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.  Your sisters are engaged, and
+there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a
+punishment to me to stand up with."
+
+"I would not be so fastidious as you are," cried Mr. Bingley,
+"for a kingdom!  Upon my honour, 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."
+
+"_You_ are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,"
+said Mr. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.
+
+"Oh! She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!  But
+there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is
+very pretty, and I dare say very agreeable.  Do let me ask my
+partner to introduce you."
+
+"Which do you mean?" and turning round he looked for a
+moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own
+and coldly said: "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to
+tempt _me_; I am in no humour at present to give consequence
+to young ladies who are slighted by other men.  You had better
+return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting
+your time with me."
+
+Mr. Bingley followed his advice.  Mr. Darcy walked off; and
+Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings toward him.
+She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends;
+for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in
+anything ridiculous.
+
+The evening altogether passed off pleasantly to the whole
+family.  Mrs. Bennet had seen her eldest daughter much
+admired by the Netherfield party.  Mr. Bingley had danced with
+her twice, and she had been distinguished by his sisters.  Jane
+was as much gratified by this as her mother could be, though in
+a quieter way.  Elizabeth felt Jane's pleasure.  Mary had heard
+herself mentioned to Miss Bingley as the most accomplished
+girl in the neighbourhood; and Catherine and Lydia had been
+fortunate enough never to be without partners, which was all
+that they had yet learnt to care for at a ball.  They returned,
+therefore, in good spirits to Longbourn, the village where they
+lived, and of which they were the principal inhabitants.  They
+found Mr. Bennet still up.  With a book he was regardless of
+time; and on the present occasion he had a good deal of
+curiosity as to the events of an evening which had raised such
+splendid expectations.  He had rather hoped that his wife's
+views on the stranger would be disappointed; but he soon
+found out that he had a different story to hear.
+
+"Oh! my dear Mr. Bennet," as she entered the room, "we have
+had a most delightful evening, a most excellent ball.  I wish you
+had been there.  Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it.
+Everybody said how well she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought
+her quite beautiful, and danced with her twice!  Only think of
+_that_, my dear; he actually danced with her twice! and she was
+the only creature in the room that he asked a second time.
+First of all, he asked Miss Lucas.  I was so vexed to see him
+stand up with her!  But, however, he did not admire her at all;
+indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with
+Jane as she was going down the dance.  So he inquired who she
+was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next.  Then
+the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with
+Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two
+sixth with Lizzy, and the _Boulanger_--"
+
+"If he had had any compassion for _me_," cried her husband
+impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much!  For God's
+sake, say no more of his partners.  O that he had sprained
+his ankle in the first place!"
+
+"Oh! my dear, I am quite delighted with him.  He is so
+excessively handsome!  And his sisters are charming women.
+I never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses.
+I dare say the lace upon Mrs. Hurst's gown--"
+
+Here she was interrupted again.  Mr. Bennet protested against
+any description of finery.  She was therefore obliged to seek
+another branch of the subject, and related, with much bitterness
+of spirit and some exaggeration, the shocking rudeness of Mr.
+Darcy.
+
+"But I can assure you," she added, "that Lizzy does not lose
+much by not suiting _his_ fancy; for he is a most disagreeable,
+horrid man, not at all worth pleasing.  So high and so conceited
+that there was no enduring him!  He walked here, and he walked
+there, fancying himself so very great!  Not handsome enough to
+dance with!  I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given
+him one of your set-downs.  I quite detest the man."
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+
+When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been
+cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her
+sister just how very much she admired him.
+
+"He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible,
+good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!--so
+much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"
+
+"He is also handsome," replied Elizabeth, "which a young man
+ought likewise to be, if he possibly can.  His character is thereby
+complete."
+
+"I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second
+time.  I did not expect such a compliment."
+
+"Did not you? I did for you.  But that is one great difference
+between us.  Compliments always take _you_ by surprise, and
+_me_ never.  What could be more natural than his asking you
+again?  He could not help seeing that you were about five times
+as pretty as every other woman in the room.  No thanks to his
+gallantry for that.  Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I
+give you leave to like him.  You have liked many a stupider
+person."
+
+"Dear Lizzy!"
+
+"Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in
+general.  You never see a fault in anybody.  All the world are
+good and agreeable in your eyes.  I never heard you speak ill of
+a human being in your life."
+
+"I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always
+speak what I think."
+
+"I know you do; and it is _that_ which makes the wonder.  With _your_
+good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense
+of others!  Affectation of candour is common enough--one meets
+with it everywhere.  But to be candid without ostentation or
+design--to take the good of everybody's character and make it
+still better, and say nothing of the bad--belongs to you alone.
+And so you like this man's sisters, too, do you?  Their manners
+are not equal to his."
+
+"Certainly not--at first.  But they are very pleasing women when
+you converse with them.  Miss Bingley is to live with her
+brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall
+not find a very charming neighbour in her."
+
+Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their
+behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in
+general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy
+of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by
+any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve
+them.  They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good
+humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making
+themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and
+conceited.  They were rather handsome, had been educated in
+one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of
+twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more
+than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and
+were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of
+themselves, and meanly of others.  They were of a respectable
+family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply
+impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune
+and their own had been acquired by trade.
+
+Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly a
+hundred thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to
+purchase an estate, but did not live to do it.  Mr. Bingley
+intended it likewise, and sometimes made choice of his county;
+but as he was now provided with a good house and the liberty of
+a manor, it was doubtful to many of those who best knew the
+easiness of his temper, whether he might not spend the
+remainder of his days at Netherfield, and leave the next
+generation to purchase.
+
+His sisters were anxious for his having an estate of his own; but,
+though he was now only established as a tenant, Miss Bingley
+was by no means unwilling to preside at his table--nor was Mrs.
+Hurst, who had married a man of more fashion than fortune, less
+disposed to consider his house as her home when it suited her.
+Mr. Bingley had not been of age two years, when he was tempted
+by an accidental recommendation to look at Netherfield House.
+He did look at it, and into it for half-an-hour--was pleased with
+the situation and the principal rooms, satisfied with what the
+owner said in its praise, and took it immediately.
+
+Between him and Darcy there was a very steady friendship, in
+spite of great opposition of character.  Bingley was endeared to
+Darcy by the easiness, openness, and ductility of his temper,
+though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own,
+and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied.  On the
+strength of Darcy's regard, Bingley had the firmest reliance, and
+of his judgement the highest opinion.  In understanding, Darcy
+was the superior.  Bingley was by no means deficient, but Darcy
+was clever.  He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and
+fastidious, and his manners, though well-bred, were not inviting.
+In that respect his friend had greatly the advantage.  Bingley was
+sure of being liked wherever he appeared, Darcy was continually
+giving offense.
+
+The manner in which they spoke of the Meryton assembly was
+sufficiently characteristic.  Bingley had never met with more
+pleasant people or prettier girls in his life; everybody had been
+most kind and attentive to him; there had been no formality, no
+stiffness; he had soon felt acquainted with all the room; and, as
+to Miss Bennet, he could not conceive an angel more beautiful.
+Darcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people in whom
+there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had
+felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention
+or pleasure.  Miss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty, but she
+smiled too much.
+
+Mrs. Hurst and her sister allowed it to be so--but still they
+admired her and liked her, and pronounced her to be a sweet
+girl, and one whom they would not object to know more of.
+Miss Bennet was therefore established as a sweet girl, and their
+brother felt authorized by such commendation to think of her as
+he chose.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom
+the Bennets were particularly intimate.  Sir William Lucas
+had been formerly in trade in Meryton, where he had made a
+tolerable fortune, and risen to the honour of knighthood by an
+address to the king during his mayoralty.  The distinction had
+perhaps been felt too strongly.  It had given him a disgust
+to his business, and to his residence in a small market town;
+and, in quitting them both, he had removed with his family
+to a house about a mile from Meryton, denominated from that
+period Lucas Lodge, where he could think with pleasure of his
+own importance, and, unshackled by business, occupy himself
+solely in being civil to all the world.  For, though elated by his
+rank, it did not render him supercilious; on the contrary, he was
+all attention to everybody.  By nature inoffensive, friendly, and
+obliging, his presentation at St. James's had made him courteous.
+
+Lady Lucas was a very good kind of woman, not too clever to
+be a valuable neighbour to Mrs. Bennet.  They had several
+children.  The eldest of them, a sensible, intelligent young
+woman, about twenty-seven, was Elizabeth's intimate friend.
+
+That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to
+talk over a ball was absolutely necessary; and the morning after
+the assembly brought the former to Longbourn to hear and to
+communicate.
+
+"_You_ began the evening well, Charlotte," said Mrs. Bennet with
+civil self-command to Miss Lucas.  "_You_ were Mr. Bingley's
+first choice."
+
+"Yes; but he seemed to like his second better."
+
+"Oh! you mean Jane, I suppose, because he danced with her
+twice.  To be sure that _did_ seem as if he admired her--indeed
+I rather believe he _did_--I heard something about it--but I
+hardly know what--something about Mr. Robinson."
+
+"Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson;
+did not I mention it to you?  Mr. Robinson's asking him how he
+liked our Meryton assemblies, and whether he did not think there
+were a great many pretty women in the room, and _which_ he thought
+the prettiest? and his answering immediately to the last
+question: 'Oh! the eldest Miss Bennet, beyond a doubt; there
+cannot be two opinions on that point.'"
+
+"Upon my word!  Well, that is very decided indeed--that does
+seem as if--but, however, it may all come to nothing, you know."
+
+"_My_ overhearings were more to the purpose than _yours_, Eliza,"
+said Charlotte.  "Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to
+as his friend, is he?--poor Eliza!--to be only just _tolerable_."
+
+"I beg you would not put it into Lizzy's head to be vexed by
+his ill-treatment, for he is such a disagreeable man, that it
+would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him.  Mrs. Long
+told me last night that he sat close to her for half-an-hour
+without once opening his lips."
+
+"Are you quite sure, ma'am?--is not there a little mistake?"
+said Jane.  "I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her."
+
+"Aye--because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield,
+and he could not help answering her; but she said he seemed
+quite angry at being spoke to."
+
+"Miss Bingley told me," said Jane, "that he never speaks much,
+unless among his intimate acquaintances.  With _them_ he is
+remarkably agreeable."
+
+"I do not believe a word of it, my dear.  If he had been so very
+agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long.  But I can guess
+how it was; everybody says that he is eat up with pride, and I
+dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep
+a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise."
+
+"I do not mind his not talking to Mrs. Long," said Miss Lucas,
+"but I wish he had danced with Eliza."
+
+"Another time, Lizzy," said her mother, "I would not dance
+with _him_, if I were you."
+
+"I believe, ma'am, I may safely promise you _never_ to dance
+with him."
+
+"His pride," said Miss Lucas, "does not offend _me_ so much as
+pride often does, because there is an excuse for it.  One cannot
+wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune,
+everything in his favour, should think highly of himself.  If I
+may so express it, he has a _right_ to be proud."
+
+"That is very true," replied Elizabeth, "and I could easily
+forgive _his_ pride, if he had not mortified _mine_."
+
+"Pride," observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity
+of her reflections, "is a very common failing, I believe.  By
+all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common
+indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and
+that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of
+self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real
+or imaginary.  Vanity and pride are different things, though
+the words are often used synonymously.  A person may be proud
+without being vain.  Pride relates more to our opinion of
+ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."
+
+"If I were as rich as Mr. Darcy," cried a young Lucas, who
+came with his sisters, "I should not care how proud I was.  I
+would keep a pack of foxhounds, and drink a bottle of wine a
+day."
+
+"Then you would drink a great deal more than you ought," said
+Mrs. Bennet; "and if I were to see you at it, I should take away
+your bottle directly."
+
+The boy protested that she should not; she continued to declare
+that she would, and the argument ended only with the visit.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+The ladies of Longbourn soon waited on those of Netherfield.
+The visit was soon returned in due form.  Miss Bennet's
+pleasing manners grew on the goodwill of Mrs. Hurst and Miss
+Bingley; and though the mother was found to be intolerable,
+and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of
+being better acquainted with _them_ was expressed towards
+the two eldest.  By Jane, this attention was received with the
+greatest pleasure, but Elizabeth still saw superciliousness in
+their treatment of everybody, hardly excepting even her sister,
+and could not like them; though their kindness to Jane, such as it
+was, had a value as arising in all probability from the influence
+of their brother's admiration.  It was generally evident
+whenever they met, that he _did_ admire her and to _her_ it was
+equally evident that Jane was yielding to the preference which
+she had begun to entertain for him from the first, and was in a
+way to be very much in love; but she considered with pleasure
+that it was not likely to be discovered by the world in general,
+since Jane united, with great strength of feeling, a composure
+of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner which would
+guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent.  She
+mentioned this to her friend Miss Lucas.
+
+"It may perhaps be pleasant," replied Charlotte, "to be able to
+impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a
+disadvantage to be so very guarded.  If a woman conceals her
+affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose
+the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor
+consolation to believe the world equally in the dark.  There is
+so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that
+it is not safe to leave any to itself.  We can all _begin_ freely--a
+slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us
+who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.
+In nine cases out of ten a women had better show _more_ affection
+than she feels.  Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he
+may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on."
+
+"But she does help him on, as much as her nature will allow.
+If I can perceive her regard for him, he must be a simpleton,
+indeed, not to discover it too."
+
+"Remember, Eliza, that he does not know Jane's disposition as
+you do."
+
+"But if a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to
+conceal it, he must find it out."
+
+"Perhaps he must, if he sees enough of her.  But, though
+Bingley and Jane meet tolerably often, it is never for many
+hours together; and, as they always see each other in large
+mixed parties, it is impossible that every moment should be
+employed in conversing together.  Jane should therefore make
+the most of every half-hour in which she can command his
+attention.  When she is secure of him, there will be more leisure
+for falling in love as much as she chooses."
+
+"Your plan is a good one," replied Elizabeth, "where nothing is
+in question but the desire of being well married, and if I were
+determined to get a rich husband, or any husband, I dare say I
+should adopt it.  But these are not Jane's feelings; she is not
+acting by design.  As yet, she cannot even be certain of the
+degree of her own regard nor of its reasonableness.  She has
+known him only a fortnight.  She danced four dances with him
+at Meryton; she saw him one morning at his own house, and
+has since dined with him in company four times.  This is not
+quite enough to make her understand his character."
+
+"Not as you represent it.  Had she merely _dined_ with him, she
+might only have discovered whether he had a good appetite; but
+you must remember that four evenings have also been spent
+together--and four evenings may do a great deal."
+
+"Yes; these four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that
+they both like Vingt-un better than Commerce; but with respect
+to any other leading characteristic, I do not imagine that much
+has been unfolded."
+
+"Well," said Charlotte, "I wish Jane success with all my heart;
+and if she were married to him to-morrow, I should think she
+had as good a chance of happiness as if she were to be studying
+his character for a twelvemonth.  Happiness in marriage is
+entirely  a matter of chance.  If the dispositions of the parties
+are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand,
+it does not advance their felicity in the least.  They always
+continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their
+share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible
+of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."
+
+"You make me laugh, Charlotte; but it is not sound.  You know
+it is not sound, and that you would never act in this way
+yourself."
+
+Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley's attentions to her sister,
+Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming
+an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend.  Mr. Darcy
+had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at
+her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he
+looked at her only to criticise.  But no sooner had he made it
+clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature
+in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly
+intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.  To this
+discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.  Though he
+had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect
+symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure
+to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her
+manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught
+by their easy playfulness.  Of this she was perfectly unaware;
+to her he was only the man who made himself agreeable nowhere,
+and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.
+
+He began to wish to know more of her, and as a step towards
+conversing with her himself, attended to her conversation with
+others.  His doing so drew her notice.  It was at Sir William
+Lucas's, where a large party were assembled.
+
+"What does Mr. Darcy mean," said she to Charlotte, "by
+listening to my conversation with Colonel Forster?"
+
+"That is a question which Mr. Darcy only can answer."
+
+"But if he does it any more I shall certainly let him know that I
+see what he is about.  He has a very satirical eye, and if I do not
+begin by being impertinent myself, I shall soon grow afraid of
+him."
+
+On his approaching them soon afterwards, though without
+seeming to have any intention of speaking, Miss Lucas defied
+her friend to mention such a subject to him; which immediately
+provoking Elizabeth to do it, she turned to him and said:
+
+"Did you not think, Mr. Darcy, that I expressed myself
+uncommonly well just now, when I was teasing Colonel Forster
+to give us a ball at Meryton?"
+
+"With great energy; but it is always a subject which makes a lady
+energetic."
+
+"You are severe on us."
+
+"It will be _her_ turn soon to be teased," said Miss Lucas.  "I
+am going to open the instrument, Eliza, and you know what
+follows."
+
+"You are a very strange creature by way of a friend!--always
+wanting me to play and sing before anybody and everybody!
+If my vanity had taken a musical turn, you would have been
+invaluable; but as it is, I would really rather not sit down
+before those who must be in the habit of hearing the very best
+performers."  On Miss Lucas's persevering, however, she added,
+"Very well, if it must be so, it must."  And gravely glancing at
+Mr. Darcy, "There is a fine old saying, which everybody here is of
+course familiar with: 'Keep your breath to cool your porridge';
+and I shall keep mine to swell my song."
+
+Her performance was pleasing, though by no means capital.
+After a song or two, and before she could reply to the entreaties
+of several that she would sing again, she was eagerly succeeded
+at the instrument by her sister Mary, who having, in consequence
+of being the only plain one in the family, worked hard for
+knowledge and accomplishments, was always impatient for
+display.
+
+Mary had neither genius nor taste; and though vanity had given
+her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and
+conceited manner, which would have injured a higher degree of
+excellence than she had reached.  Elizabeth, easy and unaffected,
+had been listened to with much more pleasure, though not
+playing half so well; and Mary, at the end of a long concerto,
+was glad to purchase praise and gratitude by Scotch and Irish
+airs, at the request of her younger sisters, who, with some of the
+Lucases, and two or three officers, joined eagerly in dancing at
+one end of the room.
+
+Mr. Darcy stood near them in silent indignation at such a mode
+of passing the evening, to the exclusion of all conversation, and
+was too much engrossed by his thoughts to perceive that Sir
+William Lucas was his neighbour, till Sir William thus began:
+
+"What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy!
+There is nothing like dancing after all.  I consider it as one
+of the first refinements of polished society."
+
+"Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue
+amongst the less polished societies of the world.  Every savage
+can dance."
+
+Sir William only smiled.  "Your friend performs delightfully," he
+continued after a pause, on seeing Bingley join the group; "and I
+doubt not that you are an adept in the science yourself, Mr.
+Darcy."
+
+"You saw me dance at Meryton, I believe, sir."
+
+"Yes, indeed, and received no inconsiderable pleasure from the
+sight.  Do you often dance at St. James's?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"Do you not think it would be a proper compliment to the
+place?"
+
+"It is a compliment which I never pay to any place if I can
+avoid it."
+
+"You have a house in town, I conclude?"
+
+Mr. Darcy bowed.
+
+"I had once had some thought of fixing in town myself--for I am
+fond of superior society; but I did not feel quite certain that the
+air of London would agree with Lady Lucas."
+
+He paused in hopes of an answer; but his companion was not
+disposed to make any; and Elizabeth at that instant moving
+towards them, he was struck with the action of doing a very
+gallant thing, and called out to her:
+
+"My dear Miss Eliza, why are you not dancing?  Mr. Darcy, you
+must allow me to present this young lady to you as a very
+desirable partner.  You cannot refuse to dance, I am sure when
+so much beauty is before you."  And, taking her hand, he would
+have given it to Mr. Darcy who, though extremely surprised,
+was not unwilling to receive it, when she instantly drew back,
+and said with some discomposure to Sir William:
+
+"Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing.  I entreat
+you not to suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a
+partner."
+
+Mr. Darcy, with grave propriety, requested to be allowed the
+honour of her hand, but in vain.  Elizabeth was determined; nor
+did Sir William at all shake her purpose by his attempt at
+persuasion.
+
+"You excel so much in the dance, Miss Eliza, that it is cruel to
+deny me the happiness of seeing you; and though this gentleman
+dislikes the amusement in general, he can have no objection, I
+am sure, to oblige us for one half-hour."
+
+"Mr. Darcy is all politeness," said Elizabeth, smiling.
+
+"He is, indeed; but, considering the inducement, my dear Miss
+Eliza, we cannot wonder at his complaisance--for who would
+object to such a partner?"
+
+Elizabeth looked archly, and turned away.  Her resistance had
+not injured her with the gentleman, and he was thinking of her
+with some complacency, when thus accosted by Miss Bingley:
+
+"I can guess the subject of your reverie."
+
+"I should imagine not."
+
+"You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many
+evenings in this manner--in such society; and indeed I am quite
+of your opinion.  I was never more annoyed!  The insipidity, and
+yet the noise--the nothingness, and yet the self-importance of all
+those people!  What would I give to hear your strictures on them!"
+
+"You conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you.  My mind was
+more agreeably engaged.  I have been meditating on the very
+great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty
+woman can bestow."
+
+Miss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired
+he would tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such
+reflections.  Mr. Darcy replied with great intrepidity:
+
+"Miss Elizabeth Bennet."
+
+"Miss Elizabeth Bennet!" repeated Miss Bingley.  "I am all
+astonishment.  How long has she been such a favourite?--and
+pray, when am I to wish you joy?"
+
+"That is exactly the question which I expected you to ask.  A
+lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to
+love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.  I knew you would
+be wishing me joy."
+
+"Nay, if you are serious about it, I shall consider the matter is
+absolutely settled.  You will be having a charming mother-in-law,
+indeed; and, of course, she will always be at Pemberley with you."
+
+He listened to her with perfect indifference while she chose to
+entertain herself in this manner; and as his composure convinced
+her that all was safe, her wit flowed long.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of
+two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was
+entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their
+mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could
+but ill supply the deficiency of his.  Her father had been an
+attorney in Meryton, and had left her four thousand pounds.
+
+She had a sister married to a Mr. Phillips, who had been a clerk
+to their father and succeeded him in the business, and a brother
+settled in London in a respectable line of trade.
+
+The village of Longbourn was only one mile from Meryton; a
+most convenient distance for the young ladies, who were usually
+tempted thither three or four times a week, to pay their duty to
+their aunt and to a milliner's shop just over the way.  The two
+youngest of the family, Catherine and Lydia, were particularly
+frequent in these attentions; their minds were more vacant than
+their sisters', and when nothing better offered, a walk to
+Meryton was necessary to amuse their morning hours and
+furnish conversation for the evening; and however bare of news
+the country in general might be, they always contrived to learn
+some from their aunt.  At present, indeed, they were well
+supplied both with news and happiness by the recent arrival of
+a militia regiment in the neighbourhood; it was to remain the
+whole winter, and Meryton was the headquarters.
+
+Their visits to Mrs. Phillips were now productive of the most
+interesting intelligence.  Every day added something to their
+knowledge of the officers' names and connections.  Their
+lodgings were not long a secret, and at length they began to
+know the officers themselves.  Mr. Phillips visited them all, and
+this opened to his nieces a store of felicity unknown before.
+They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr. Bingley's large
+fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother,
+was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of
+an ensign.
+
+After listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr.
+Bennet coolly observed:
+
+"From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must
+be two of the silliest girls in the country.  I have suspected it
+some time, but I am now convinced."
+
+Catherine was disconcerted, and made no answer; but Lydia,
+with perfect indifference, continued to express her admiration of
+Captain Carter, and her hope of seeing him in the course of the
+day, as he was going the next morning to London.
+
+"I am astonished, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "that you should
+be so ready to think your own children silly.  If I wished to think
+slightingly of anybody's children, it should not be of my own,
+however."
+
+"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it."
+
+"Yes--but as it happens, they are all of them very clever."
+
+"This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not
+agree.  I had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every
+particular, but I must so far differ from you as to think our two
+youngest daughters uncommonly foolish."
+
+"My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have
+the sense of their father and mother.  When they get to our age, I
+dare say they will not think about officers any more than we do.
+I remember the time when I liked a red coat myself very well--and,
+indeed, so I do still at my heart; and if a smart young colonel,
+with five or six thousand a year, should want one of my girls I
+shall not say nay to him; and I thought Colonel Forster looked
+very becoming the other night at Sir William's in his regimentals."
+
+"Mamma," cried Lydia, "my aunt says that Colonel Forster and
+Captain Carter do not go so often to Miss Watson's as they did
+when they first came; she sees them now very often standing in
+Clarke's library."
+
+Mrs. Bennet was prevented replying by the entrance of the
+footman with a note for Miss Bennet; it came from Netherfield,
+and the servant waited for an answer.  Mrs. Bennet's eyes
+sparkled with pleasure, and she was eagerly calling out, while
+her daughter read,
+
+"Well, Jane, who is it from?  What is it about?  What does he
+say?  Well, Jane, make haste and tell us; make haste, my love."
+
+"It is from Miss Bingley," said Jane, and then read it aloud.
+
+"MY DEAR FRIEND,--
+
+"If you are not so compassionate as to dine to-day with Louisa
+and me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest
+of our lives, for a whole day's tete-a-tete between two women
+can never end without a quarrel.  Come as soon as you can on
+receipt of this.  My brother and the gentlemen are to dine with
+the officers.--Yours ever,
+
+"CAROLINE BINGLEY"
+
+"With the officers!" cried Lydia.  "I wonder my aunt did not tell
+us of _that_."
+
+"Dining out," said Mrs. Bennet, "that is very unlucky."
+
+"Can I have the carriage?" said Jane.
+
+"No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems
+likely to rain; and then you must stay all night."
+
+"That would be a good scheme," said Elizabeth, "if you were
+sure that they would not offer to send her home."
+
+"Oh! but the gentlemen will have Mr. Bingley's chaise to go to
+Meryton, and the Hursts have no horses to theirs."
+
+"I had much rather go in the coach."
+
+"But, my dear, your father cannot spare the horses, I am sure.
+They are wanted in the farm, Mr. Bennet, are they not?"
+
+"They are wanted in the farm much oftener than I can get them."
+
+"But if you have got them to-day," said Elizabeth, "my mother's
+purpose will be answered."
+
+She did at last extort from her father an acknowledgment that
+the horses were engaged.  Jane was therefore obliged to go on
+horseback, and her mother attended her to the door with many
+cheerful prognostics of a bad day.  Her hopes were answered;
+Jane had not been gone long before it rained hard.  Her sisters
+were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted.  The rain
+continued the whole evening without intermission; Jane certainly
+could not come back.
+
+"This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!" said Mrs. Bennet more
+than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own.  Till
+the next morning, however, she was not aware of all the felicity
+of her contrivance.  Breakfast was scarcely over when a servant
+from Netherfield brought the following note for Elizabeth:
+
+"MY DEAREST LIZZY,--
+
+"I find myself very unwell this morning, which, I suppose, is to
+be imputed to my getting wet through yesterday.  My kind friends
+will not hear of my returning till I am better.  They insist also
+on my seeing Mr. Jones--therefore do not be alarmed if you should
+hear of his having been to me--and, excepting a sore throat and
+headache, there is not much the matter with me.--Yours, etc."
+
+"Well, my dear," said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the
+note aloud, "if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of
+illness--if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it
+was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders."
+
+"Oh! I am not afraid of her dying.  People do not die of little
+trifling colds.  She will be taken good care of.  As long as she
+stays there, it is all very well.  I would go and see her if I could
+have the carriage."
+
+Elizabeth, feeling really anxious, was determined to go to her,
+though the carriage was not to be had; and as she was no
+horsewoman, walking was her only alternative.  She declared her
+resolution.
+
+"How can you be so silly," cried her mother, "as to think of such
+a thing, in all this dirt!  You will not be fit to be seen when you
+get there."
+
+"I shall be very fit to see Jane--which is all I want."
+
+"Is this a hint to me, Lizzy," said her father, "to send for
+the horses?"
+
+"No, indeed, I do not wish to avoid the walk.  The distance is
+nothing when one has a motive; only three miles.  I shall be back
+by dinner."
+
+"I admire the activity of your benevolence," observed Mary, "but
+every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my
+opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is
+required."
+
+"We will go as far as Meryton with you," said Catherine and
+Lydia.  Elizabeth accepted their company, and the three young
+ladies set off together.
+
+"If we make haste," said Lydia, as they walked along, "perhaps
+we may see something of Captain Carter before he goes."
+
+In Meryton they parted; the two youngest repaired to the lodgings of
+one of the officers' wives, and Elizabeth continued her walk alone,
+crossing field after field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles
+and springing over puddles with impatient activity, and finding
+herself at last within view of the house, with weary ankles, dirty
+stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise.
+
+She was shown into the breakfast-parlour, where all but Jane
+were assembled, and where her appearance created a great deal
+of surprise.  That she should have walked three miles so early
+in the day, in such dirty weather, and by herself, was almost
+incredible to Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and Elizabeth was
+convinced that they held her in contempt for it.  She was
+received, however, very politely by them; and in their brother's
+manners there was something better than politeness; there was
+good humour and kindness.  Mr. Darcy said very little, and Mr.
+Hurst nothing at all.  The former was divided between admiration
+of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion,
+and doubt as to the occasion's justifying her coming so far
+alone.  The latter was thinking only of his breakfast.
+
+Her inquiries after her sister were not very favourably answered.
+Miss Bennet had slept ill, and though up, was very feverish, and
+not well enough to leave her room.  Elizabeth was glad to be
+taken to her immediately; and Jane, who had only been withheld
+by the fear of giving alarm or inconvenience from expressing in
+her note how much she longed for such a visit, was delighted at
+her entrance.  She was not equal, however, to much conversation,
+and when Miss Bingley left them together, could attempt little
+besides expressions of gratitude for the extraordinary kindness
+she was treated with.  Elizabeth silently attended her.
+
+When breakfast was over they were joined by the sisters; and
+Elizabeth began to like them herself, when she saw how much
+affection and solicitude they showed for Jane.  The apothecary
+came, and having examined his patient, said, as might be
+supposed, that she had caught a violent cold, and that they must
+endeavour to get the better of it; advised her to return to bed,
+and promised her some draughts.  The advice was followed
+readily, for the feverish symptoms increased, and her head ached
+acutely.  Elizabeth did not quit her room for a moment; nor were
+the other ladies often absent; the gentlemen being out, they had,
+in fact, nothing to do elsewhere.
+
+When the clock struck three, Elizabeth felt that she must go, and
+very unwillingly said so.  Miss Bingley offered her the carriage,
+and she only wanted a little pressing to accept it, when Jane
+testified such concern in parting with her, that Miss Bingley was
+obliged to convert the offer of the chaise to an invitation to
+remain at Netherfield for the present.  Elizabeth most thankfully
+consented, and a servant was dispatched to Longbourn to
+acquaint the family with her stay and bring back a supply of
+clothes.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+At five o'clock the two ladies retired to dress, and at half-past
+six Elizabeth was summoned to dinner.  To the civil inquiries
+which then poured in, and amongst which she had the pleasure
+of distinguishing the much superior solicitude of Mr. Bingley's,
+she could not make a very favourable answer.  Jane was by no
+means better.  The sisters, on hearing this, repeated three or four
+times how much they were grieved, how shocking it was to have
+a bad cold, and how excessively they disliked being ill
+themselves; and then thought no more of the matter: and their
+indifference towards Jane when not immediately before them
+restored Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her former dislike.
+
+Their brother, indeed, was the only one of the party whom she
+could regard with any complacency.  His anxiety for Jane was
+evident, and his attentions to herself most pleasing, and
+they prevented her feeling herself so much an intruder as she
+believed she was considered by the others.  She had very little
+notice from any but him.  Miss Bingley was engrossed by Mr.
+Darcy, her sister scarcely less so; and as for Mr. Hurst, by
+whom Elizabeth sat, he was an indolent man, who lived only to
+eat, drink, and play at cards; who, when he found her to prefer
+a plain dish to a ragout, had nothing to say to her.
+
+When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss
+Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room.
+Her manners were pronounced to be very bad indeed, a mixture
+of pride and impertinence; she had no conversation, no style, no
+beauty.  Mrs. Hurst thought the same, and added:
+
+"She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an
+excellent walker.  I shall never forget her appearance this
+morning.  She really looked almost wild."
+
+"She did, indeed, Louisa.  I could hardly keep my countenance.
+Very nonsensical to come at all!  Why must _she_ be scampering
+about the country, because her sister had a cold?  Her hair, so
+untidy, so blowsy!"
+
+"Yes, and her petticoat; I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches
+deep in mud, I am absolutely certain; and the gown which had
+been let down to hide it not doing its office."
+
+"Your picture may be very exact, Louisa," said Bingley; "but
+this was all lost upon me.  I thought Miss Elizabeth Bennet
+looked remarkably well when she came into the room this
+morning.  Her dirty petticoat quite escaped my notice."
+
+"_You_ observed it, Mr. Darcy, I am sure," said Miss Bingley;
+"and I am inclined to think that you would not wish to see
+_your_ sister make such an exhibition."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it
+is, above her ankles in dirt, and alone, quite alone!  What could
+she mean by it?  It seems to me to show an abominable sort of
+conceited independence, a most country-town indifference to
+decorum."
+
+"It shows an affection for her sister that is very pleasing," said
+Bingley.
+
+"I am afraid, Mr. Darcy," observed Miss Bingley in a half
+whisper, "that this adventure has rather affected your
+admiration of her fine eyes."
+
+"Not at all," he replied; "they were brightened by the exercise."
+A short pause followed this speech, and Mrs. Hurst began again:
+
+"I have a excessive regard for Miss Jane Bennet, she is really
+a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart she were well
+settled.  But with such a father and mother, and such low
+connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it."
+
+"I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney on
+Meryton."
+
+"Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside."
+
+"That is capital," added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.
+
+"If they had uncles enough to fill _all_ Cheapside," cried
+Bingley, "it would not make them one jot less agreeable."
+
+"But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men
+of any consideration in the world," replied Darcy.
+
+To this speech Bingley made no answer; but his sisters gave it
+their hearty assent, and indulged their mirth for some time at the
+expense of their dear friend's vulgar relations.
+
+With a renewal of tenderness, however, they returned to her
+room on leaving the dining-parlour, and sat with her till
+summoned to coffee.  She was still very poorly, and Elizabeth
+would not quit her at all, till late in the evening, when she had
+the comfort of seeing her sleep, and when it seemed to her rather
+right than pleasant that she should go downstairs herself.  On
+entering the drawing-room she found the whole party at loo, and
+was immediately invited to join them; but suspecting them to be
+playing high she declined it, and making her sister the excuse,
+said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay
+below, with a book.  Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment.
+
+"Do you prefer reading to cards?" said he; "that is rather
+singular."
+
+"Miss Eliza Bennet," said Miss Bingley, "despises cards.  She is
+a great reader, and has no pleasure in anything else."
+
+"I deserve neither such praise nor such censure," cried Elizabeth;
+"I am _not_ a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things."
+
+"In nursing your sister I am sure you have pleasure," said Bingley;
+"and I hope it will be soon increased by seeing her quite well."
+
+Elizabeth thanked him from her heart, and then walked towards
+the table where a few books were lying.  He immediately offered
+to fetch her others--all that his library afforded.
+
+"And I wish my collection were larger for your benefit and my
+own credit; but I am an idle fellow, and though I have not many,
+I have more than I ever looked into."
+
+Elizabeth assured him that she could suit herself perfectly with
+those in the room.
+
+"I am astonished," said Miss Bingley, "that my father should
+have left so small a collection of books.  What a delightful library
+you have at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"It ought to be good," he replied, "it has been the work of many
+generations."
+
+"And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are
+always buying books."
+
+"I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days
+as these."
+
+"Neglect!  I am sure you neglect nothing that can add to the
+beauties of that noble place.  Charles, when you build _your_
+house, I wish it may be half as delightful as Pemberley."
+
+"I wish it may."
+
+"But I would really advise you to make your purchase in that
+neighbourhood, and take Pemberley for a kind of model.  There
+is not a finer county in England than Derbyshire."
+
+"With all my heart; I will buy Pemberley itself if Darcy will
+sell it."
+
+"I am talking of possibilities, Charles."
+
+"Upon my word, Caroline, I should think it more possible to get
+Pemberley by purchase than by imitation."
+
+Elizabeth was so much caught with what passed, as to leave her
+very little attention for her book; and soon laying it wholly
+aside, she drew near the card-table, and stationed herself
+between Mr. Bingley and his eldest sister, to observe the game.
+
+"Is Miss Darcy much grown since the spring?" said Miss
+Bingley; "will she be as tall as I am?"
+
+"I think she will.  She is now about Miss Elizabeth Bennet's
+height, or rather taller."
+
+"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," said Bingley, "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 she was very accomplished."
+
+"Your list of the common extent of accomplishments," said Darcy,
+"has too much truth.  The word is applied to many a woman who
+deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse or covering
+a screen.  But I am very far from agreeing with you in your
+estimation of ladies in general.  I cannot boast of knowing
+more than half-a-dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance,
+that are really accomplished."
+
+"Nor I, I am sure," said Miss Bingley.
+
+"Then," observed Elizabeth, "you must comprehend a great deal
+in your idea of an accomplished woman."
+
+"Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it."
+
+"Oh! certainly," cried his faithful assistant, "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."
+
+"All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she
+must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of
+her mind by extensive reading."
+
+"I am no longer surprised at your knowing _only_ six accomplished
+women.  I rather wonder now at your knowing _any_."
+
+"Are you so severe upon your own sex as to doubt the possibility
+of all this?"
+
+"I never saw such a woman.  I never saw such capacity, and
+taste, and application, and elegance, as you describe united."
+
+Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley both cried out against the injustice
+of her implied doubt, and were both protesting that they knew
+many women who answered this description, when Mr. Hurst
+called them to order, with bitter complaints of their inattention
+to what was going forward.  As all conversation was thereby at
+an end, Elizabeth soon afterwards left the room.
+
+"Elizabeth Bennet," said Miss Bingley, when the door was
+closed on her, "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."
+
+"Undoubtedly," replied Darcy, to whom this remark was chiefly
+addressed, "there is a meanness in _all_ the arts which ladies
+sometimes condescend to employ for captivation.  Whatever
+bears affinity to cunning is despicable."
+
+Miss Bingley was not so entirely satisfied with this reply as to
+continue the subject.
+
+Elizabeth joined them again only to say that her sister was worse,
+and that she could not leave her.  Bingley urged Mr. Jones being
+sent for immediately; while his sisters, convinced that no country
+advice could be of any service, recommended an express to town for
+one of the most eminent physicians.  This she would not hear of;
+but she was not so unwilling to comply with their brother's
+proposal; and it was settled that Mr. Jones should be sent for
+early in the morning, if Miss Bennet were not decidedly better.
+Bingley was quite uncomfortable; his sisters declared that they
+were miserable.  They solaced their wretchedness, however, by
+duets after supper, while he could find no better relief to his
+feelings than by giving his housekeeper directions that every
+attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+
+Elizabeth passed the chief of the night in her sister's room, and
+in the morning had the pleasure of being able to send a tolerable
+answer to the inquiries which she very early received from Mr.
+Bingley by a housemaid, and some time afterwards from the two
+elegant ladies who waited on his sisters.  In spite of this
+amendment, however, she requested to have a note sent to Longbourn,
+desiring her mother to visit Jane, and form her own judgement of
+her situation.  The note was immediately dispatched, and its
+contents as quickly complied with.  Mrs. Bennet, accompanied by
+her two youngest girls, reached Netherfield soon after the family
+breakfast.
+
+Had she found Jane in any apparent danger, Mrs. Bennet would
+have been very miserable; but being satisfied on seeing her that
+her illness was not alarming, she had no wish of her recovering
+immediately, as her restoration to health would probably remove
+her from Netherfield.  She would not listen, therefore, to her
+daughter's proposal of being carried home; neither did the
+apothecary, who arrived about the same time, think it at all
+advisable.  After sitting a little while with Jane, on Miss
+Bingley's appearance and invitation, the mother and three
+daughter all attended her into the breakfast parlour.  Bingley met
+them with hopes that Mrs. Bennet had not found Miss Bennet
+worse than she expected.
+
+"Indeed I have, sir," was her answer.  "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!" cried Bingley.  "It must not be thought of.  My
+sister, I am sure, will not hear of her removal."
+
+"You may depend upon it, Madam," said Miss Bingley, with cold
+civility, "that Miss Bennet will receive every possible attention
+while she remains with us."
+
+Mrs. Bennet was profuse in her acknowledgments.
+
+"I am sure," she added, "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," replied he; "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."
+
+"That is exactly what I should have supposed of you," said
+Elizabeth.
+
+"You begin to comprehend me, do you?" cried he, turning
+towards her.
+
+"Oh! yes--I understand you perfectly."
+
+"I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily
+seen through I am afraid is pitiful."
+
+"That is as it happens.  It does not follow that a deep, intricate
+character is more or less estimable than such a one as yours."
+
+"Lizzy," cried her mother, "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," continued Bingley immediately, "that
+you were a studier of character.  It must be an amusing study."
+
+"Yes, but intricate characters are the _most_ amusing.  They
+have at least that advantage."
+
+"The country," said Darcy, "can in general supply but a few
+subjects for such a study.  In a country neighbourhood you move
+in a very confined and unvarying society."
+
+"But people themselves alter so much, that there is something
+new to be observed in them for ever."
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Mrs. Bennet, offended by his manner of
+mentioning a country neighbourhood.  "I assure you there is
+quite as much of _that_ going on in the country as in town."
+
+Everybody was surprised, and Darcy, after looking at her for a
+moment, turned silently away.  Mrs. Bennet, who fancied she
+had gained a complete victory over him, continued her triumph.
+
+"I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the
+country, for my part, except the shops and public places.  The
+country is a vast deal pleasanter, is it not, Mr. Bingley?"
+
+"When I am in the country," he replied, "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."
+
+"Aye--that is because you have the right disposition.  But that
+gentleman," looking at Darcy, "seemed to think the country was
+nothing at all."
+
+"Indeed, Mamma, you are mistaken," said Elizabeth, blushing for
+her mother.  "You quite mistook Mr. Darcy.  He only meant that
+there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the
+country as in the town, which you must acknowledge to be
+true."
+
+"Certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not
+meeting with many people in this neighbourhood, I believe
+there are few neighbourhoods larger.  I know we dine with
+four-and-twenty families."
+
+Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep
+his countenance.  His sister was less delicate, and directed her
+eyes towards Mr. Darcy with a very expressive smile.  Elizabeth,
+for the sake of saying something that might turn her mother's
+thoughts, now asked her if Charlotte Lucas had been at
+Longbourn since _her_ coming away.
+
+"Yes, she called yesterday with her father.  What an agreeable
+man Sir William is, Mr. Bingley, is not he?  So much the man of
+fashion!  So genteel and easy!  He had always something to say
+to everybody.  _That_ is my idea of good breeding; and those
+persons who fancy themselves very important, and never open
+their mouths, quite mistake the matter."
+
+"Did Charlotte dine with you?"
+
+"No, she would go home.  I fancy she was wanted about the
+mince-pies.  For my part, Mr. Bingley, I always keep servants
+that can do their own work; _my_ daughters are brought up very
+differently.  But everybody is to judge for themselves, and the
+Lucases are a very good sort of girls, I assure you.  It is a pity
+they are not handsome!  Not that I think Charlotte so _very_
+plain--but then she is our particular friend."
+
+"She seems a very pleasant young woman."
+
+"Oh! dear, yes; but you must own she is very plain.  Lady Lucas
+herself has often said so, and envied me Jane's beauty.  I do not
+like to boast of my own child, but to be sure, Jane--one does
+not often see anybody better looking.  It is what everybody says.
+I do not trust my own partiality.  When she was only fifteen,
+there was a man at my brother Gardiner's in town so much in
+love with her that my sister-in-law was sure he would make her
+an offer before we came away.  But, however, he did not.
+Perhaps he thought her too young.  However, he wrote some
+verses on her, and very pretty they were."
+
+"And so ended his affection," said Elizabeth impatiently.  "There
+has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way.  I
+wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving
+away love!"
+
+"I have been used to consider poetry as the _food_ of love," said
+Darcy.
+
+"Of  a fine, stout, healthy love it may.  Everything nourishes
+what is strong already.  But if it be only a slight, thin sort of
+inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it
+entirely away."
+
+Darcy only smiled; and the general pause which ensued made
+Elizabeth tremble lest her mother should be exposing herself
+again.  She longed to speak, but could think of nothing to say;
+and after a short silence Mrs. Bennet began repeating her thanks
+to Mr. Bingley for his kindness to Jane, with an apology for
+troubling him also with Lizzy.  Mr. Bingley was unaffectedly
+civil in his answer, and forced his younger sister to be civil
+also, and say what the occasion required.  She performed her
+part indeed without much graciousness, but Mrs. Bennet was
+satisfied, and soon afterwards ordered her carriage.  Upon this
+signal, the youngest of her daughters put herself forward.  The
+two girls had been whispering to each other during the whole
+visit, and the result of it was, that the youngest should tax
+Mr. Bingley with having promised on his first coming into the
+country to give a ball at Netherfield.
+
+Lydia was a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen, with a fine
+complexion and good-humoured countenance; a favourite with her
+mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early
+age.  She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural
+self-consequence, which the attention of the officers, to whom
+her uncle's good dinners, and her own easy manners recommended
+her, had increased into assurance.  She was very equal,
+therefore, to address Mr. Bingley on the subject of the ball, and
+abruptly reminded him of his promise; adding, that it would be
+the most shameful thing in the world if he did not keep it.  His
+answer to this sudden attack was delightful to their mother's ear:
+
+"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."
+
+Lydia declared herself satisfied.  "Oh! yes--it would be much
+better to wait till Jane was well, and by that time most likely
+Captain Carter would be at Meryton again.  And when you have
+given _your_ ball," she added, "I shall insist on their giving one
+also.  I shall tell Colonel Forster it will be quite a shame if he
+does not."
+
+Mrs. Bennet and her daughters then departed, and Elizabeth
+returned instantly to Jane, leaving her own and her relations'
+behaviour to the remarks of the two ladies and Mr. Darcy; the
+latter of whom, however, could not be prevailed on to join in
+their censure of _her_, in spite of all Miss Bingley's witticisms on
+_fine eyes_.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+
+The day passed much as the day before had done.  Mrs. Hurst
+and Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the
+invalid, who continued, though slowly, to mend; and in the
+evening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing-room.  The
+loo-table, however, did not appear.  Mr. Darcy was writing, and
+Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of his
+letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to
+his sister.  Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs.
+Hurst was observing their game.
+
+Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently
+amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his
+companion.  The perpetual commendations of the lady, either on
+his handwriting, or on the evenness of his lines, or on the length
+of his letter, with the perfect unconcern with which her praises
+were received, formed a curious dialogue, and was exactly in
+union with her opinion of each.
+
+"How delighted Miss Darcy will be to receive such a letter!"
+
+He made no answer.
+
+"You write uncommonly fast."
+
+"You are mistaken.  I write rather slowly."
+
+"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!"
+
+"It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of yours."
+
+"Pray tell your sister that I long to see her."
+
+"I have already told her so once, by your desire."
+
+"I am afraid you do not like your pen.  Let me mend it for you.
+I mend pens remarkably well."
+
+"Thank you--but I always mend my own."
+
+"How can you contrive to write so even?"
+
+He was silent.
+
+"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."
+
+"Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again?
+At present I have not room to do them justice."
+
+"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?"
+
+"They are generally long; but whether always charming it is not
+for me to determine."
+
+"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," cried
+her brother, "because he does _not_ write with ease.  He studies
+too much for words of four syllables.  Do not you, Darcy?"
+
+"My style of writing is very different from yours."
+
+"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "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."
+
+"Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm
+reproof."
+
+"Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of
+humility.  It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes
+an indirect boast."
+
+"And which of the two do you call _my_ little recent piece of
+modesty?"
+
+"The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects in
+writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a
+rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which, if not
+estimable, you think at least highly interesting.  The power of
+doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the
+possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of
+the performance.  When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that
+if you ever resolved upon quitting Netherfield you should be
+gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of
+compliment to yourself--and yet what is there so very laudable
+in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business
+undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone
+else?"
+
+"Nay," cried Bingley, "this is too much, to remember at night all
+the foolish things that were said in the morning.  And yet, upon
+my honour, I believe what I said of myself to be true, and I
+believe it at this moment.  At least, therefore, I did not assume
+the character of needless precipitance merely to show off before
+the ladies."
+
+"I dare say you believed it; but I am by no means convinced that
+you would be gone with such celerity.  Your conduct would be
+quite as dependent on chance as that of any man I know; and if,
+as you were mounting your horse, a friend were to say,  'Bingley,
+you had better stay till next week,' you would probably do it,
+you would probably not go--and at another word, might stay a
+month."
+
+"You have only proved by this," cried Elizabeth, "that Mr.
+Bingley did not do justice to his own disposition.  You have
+shown him off now much more than he did himself."
+
+"I am exceedingly gratified," said Bingley, "by your converting
+what my friend says into a compliment on the sweetness of my
+temper.  But I am afraid you are giving it a turn which that
+gentleman did by no means intend; for he would certainly think
+better of me, if under such a circumstance I were to give a flat
+denial, and ride off as fast as I could."
+
+"Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original
+intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?"
+
+"Upon my word, I cannot exactly explain the matter; Darcy must
+speak for himself."
+
+"You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to
+call mine, but which I have never acknowledged.  Allowing the
+case, however, to stand according to your representation, you
+must remember, Miss Bennet, that the friend who is supposed to
+desire his return to the house, and the delay of his plan, has
+merely desired it, asked it without offering one argument in
+favour of its propriety."
+
+"To yield readily--easily--to the _persuasion_ of a friend is
+no merit with you."
+
+"To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding
+of either."
+
+"You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for the
+influence of friendship and affection.  A regard for the requester
+would often make one readily yield to a request, without waiting
+for arguments to reason one into it.  I am not particularly
+speaking of such a case as you have supposed about Mr.
+Bingley.  We may as well wait, perhaps, till the circumstance
+occurs before we discuss the discretion of his behaviour
+thereupon.  But in general and ordinary cases between friend and
+friend, where one of them is desired by the other to change a
+resolution of no very great moment, should you think ill of that
+person for complying with the desire, without waiting to be
+argued into it?"
+
+"Will it not be advisable, before we proceed on this subject, to
+arrange with rather more precision the degree of importance
+which is to appertain to this request, as well as the degree of
+intimacy subsisting between the parties?"
+
+"By all means," cried Bingley; "let us hear all the particulars,
+not forgetting their comparative height and size; for that will
+have more weight in the argument, Miss Bennet, than you may be
+aware of.  I assure you, that if Darcy were not such a great tall
+fellow, in comparison with myself, I should not pay him half so
+much deference.  I declare I do not know a more awful object
+than Darcy, on particular occasions, and in particular places; at
+his own house especially, and of a Sunday evening, when he has
+nothing to do."
+
+Mr. Darcy smiled; but Elizabeth thought she could perceive that
+he was rather offended, and therefore checked her laugh.  Miss
+Bingley warmly resented the indignity he had received, in an
+expostulation with her brother for talking such nonsense.
+
+"I see your design, Bingley," said his friend.  "You dislike an
+argument, and want to silence this."
+
+"Perhaps I do.  Arguments are too much like disputes.  If you and
+Miss Bennet will defer yours till I am out of the room, I shall
+be very thankful; and then you may say whatever you like of me."
+
+"What you ask," said Elizabeth, "is no sacrifice on my side; and
+Mr. Darcy had much better finish his letter."
+
+Mr. Darcy took her advice, and did finish his letter.
+
+When that business was over, he applied to Miss Bingley and
+Elizabeth for an indulgence of some music.  Miss Bingley moved
+with some alacrity to the pianoforte; and, after a polite request
+that Elizabeth would lead the way which the other as politely
+and more earnestly negatived, she seated herself.
+
+Mrs. Hurst sang with her sister, and while they were thus
+employed, Elizabeth could not help observing, as she turned
+over some music-books that lay on the instrument, how frequently
+Mr. Darcy's eyes were fixed on her.  She hardly knew how to
+suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a
+man; and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her,
+was still more strange.  She could only imagine, however, at last
+that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong
+and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in any
+other person present.  The supposition did not pain her.  She
+liked him too little to care for his approbation.
+
+After playing some Italian songs, Miss Bingley varied the charm
+by a lively Scotch air; and soon afterwards Mr. Darcy, drawing
+near Elizabeth, said to her:
+
+"Do not you feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize such
+an opportunity of dancing a reel?"
+
+She smiled, but made no answer.  He repeated the question, with
+some surprise at her silence.
+
+"Oh!" said she, "I heard you before, but I could not immediately
+determine what to say in reply.  You wanted me, I know, to say
+'Yes,' that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste;
+but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes,
+and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt.  I have,
+therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to
+dance a reel at all--and now despise me if you dare."
+
+"Indeed I do not dare."
+
+Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at
+his gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness
+in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody;
+and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he
+was by her.  He really believed, that were it not for the
+inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.
+
+Miss Bingley saw, or suspected enough to be jealous; and her
+great anxiety for the recovery of her dear friend Jane received
+some assistance from her desire of getting rid of Elizabeth.
+
+She often tried to provoke Darcy into disliking her guest, by
+talking of their supposed marriage, and planning his happiness in
+such an alliance.
+
+"I hope," said she, as they were walking together in the
+shrubbery the next day, "you will give your mother-in-law a few
+hints, when this desirable event takes place, as to the advantage
+of holding her tongue; and if you can compass it, do sure the
+younger girls of running after officers.  And, if I may mention so
+delicate a subject, endeavour to check that little something,
+bordering on conceit and impertinence, which your lady
+possesses."
+
+"Have you anything else to propose for my domestic felicity?"
+
+"Oh! yes.  Do let the portraits of your uncle and aunt Phillips be
+placed in the gallery at Pemberley.  Put them next to your
+great-uncle the judge.  They are in the same profession, you
+know, only in different lines.  As for your Elizabeth's picture, you
+must not have it taken, for what painter could do justice to those
+beautiful eyes?"
+
+"It would not be easy, indeed, to catch their expression, but their
+colour and shape, and the eyelashes, so remarkably fine, might
+be copied."
+
+At that moment they were met from another walk by Mrs. Hurst
+and Elizabeth herself.
+
+"I did not know that you intended to walk," said Miss Bingley,
+in some confusion, lest they had been overheard.
+
+"You used us abominably ill," answered Mrs. Hurst, "running
+away without telling us that you were coming out."
+
+Then taking the disengaged arm of Mr. Darcy, she left Elizabeth
+to walk by herself.  The path just admitted three.  Mr. Darcy felt
+their rudeness, and immediately said:
+
+"This walk is not wide enough for our party.  We had better go
+into the avenue."
+
+But Elizabeth, who had not the least inclination to remain with
+them, laughingly answered:
+
+"No, no; stay where you are.  You are charmingly grouped, and
+appear to uncommon advantage.  The picturesque would be
+spoilt by admitting a fourth.  Good-bye."
+
+She then ran gaily off, rejoicing as she rambled about, in the
+hope of being at home again in a day or two.  Jane was already
+so much recovered as to intend leaving her room for a couple of
+hours that evening.
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+
+When the ladies removed after dinner, Elizabeth ran up to her
+sister, and seeing her well guarded from cold, attended her into
+the drawing-room, where she was welcomed by her two friends
+with many professions of pleasure; and Elizabeth had never seen
+them so agreeable as they were during the hour which passed
+before the gentlemen appeared.  Their powers of conversation
+were considerable.  They could describe an entertainment with
+accuracy, relate an anecdote with humour, and laugh at their
+acquaintance with spirit.
+
+But when the gentlemen entered, Jane was no longer the first
+object; Miss Bingley's eyes were instantly turned toward Darcy,
+and she had something to say to him before he had advanced
+many steps.  He addressed himself to Miss Bennet, with a polite
+congratulation; Mr. Hurst also made her a slight bow, and said
+he was "very glad;" but diffuseness and warmth remained for
+Bingley's salutation.  He was full of joy and attention.  The first
+half-hour was spent in piling up the fire, lest she should suffer
+from the change of room; and she removed at his desire to the
+other side of the fireplace, that she might be further from the
+door.  He then sat down by her, and talked scarcely to anyone
+else.  Elizabeth, at work in the opposite corner, saw it all with
+great delight.
+
+When tea was over, Mr. Hurst reminded his sister-in-law of the
+card-table--but in vain.  She had obtained private intelligence
+that Mr. Darcy did not wish for cards; and Mr. Hurst soon found
+even his open petition rejected.  She assured him that no one
+intended to play, and the silence of the whole party on the
+subject seemed to justify her.  Mr. Hurst had therefore nothing
+to do, but to stretch himself on one of the sofas and go to
+sleep.  Darcy took up a book; Miss Bingley did the same; and
+Mrs. Hurst, principally occupied in playing with her bracelets
+and rings, joined now and then in her brother's conversation
+with Miss Bennet.
+
+Miss Bingley's attention was quite as much engaged in watching
+Mr. Darcy's progress through _his_ book, as in reading her own;
+and she was perpetually either making some inquiry, or looking
+at his page.  She could not win him, however, to any conversation;
+he merely answered her question, and read on.  At length, quite
+exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which
+she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his,
+she gave a great yawn and said, "How pleasant it is to spend an
+evening in this way!  I declare after all there is no enjoyment
+like reading!  How much sooner one tires of anything than of a
+book!  When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if
+I have not an excellent library."
+
+No one made any reply.  She then yawned again, threw aside her
+book, and cast her eyes round the room in quest for some
+amusement; when hearing her brother mentioning a ball to Miss
+Bennet, she turned suddenly towards him and said:
+
+"By the bye, Charles, are you really serious in meditating a dance
+at Netherfield?  I would advise you, before you determine on it,
+to consult the wishes of the present party; I am much mistaken if
+there are not some among us to whom a ball would be rather a
+punishment than a pleasure."
+
+"If you mean Darcy," cried her brother, "he may go to bed, if he
+chooses, before it begins--but as for the ball, it is quite a settled
+thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I
+shall send round my cards."
+
+"I should like balls infinitely better," she replied, "if they
+were carried on in a different manner; but there is something
+insufferably tedious in the usual process of such a meeting.  It
+would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of
+dancing were made the order of the day."
+
+"Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would
+not be near so much like a ball."
+
+Miss Bingley made no answer, and soon afterwards she got up
+and walked about the room.  Her figure was elegant, and she
+walked well; but Darcy, at whom it was all aimed, was still
+inflexibly studious.  In the desperation of her feelings, she
+resolved on one effort more, and, turning to Elizabeth, said:
+
+"Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example,
+and take a turn about the room.  I assure you it is very
+refreshing after sitting so long in one attitude."
+
+Elizabeth was surprised, but agreed to it immediately.  Miss
+Bingley succeeded no less in the real object of her civility;
+Mr. Darcy looked up.  He was as much awake to the novelty of
+attention in that quarter as Elizabeth herself could be, and
+unconsciously closed his book.  He was directly invited to join
+their party, but he declined it, observing that he could imagine
+but two motives for their choosing to walk up and down the
+room together, with either of which motives his joining them
+would interfere.  "What could he mean?  She was dying to know
+what could be his meaning?"--and asked Elizabeth whether she
+could at all understand him?
+
+"Not at all," was her answer; "but depend upon it, he means to
+be severe on us, and our surest way of disappointing him will be
+to ask nothing about it."
+
+Miss Bingley, however, was incapable of disappointing Mr.
+Darcy in anything, and persevered therefore in requiring an
+explanation of his two motives.
+
+"I have not the smallest objection to explaining them," said he,
+as soon as she allowed him to speak.  "You either choose this
+method of passing the evening because you are in each other's
+confidence, and have secret affairs to discuss, or because you are
+conscious that your figures appear to the greatest advantage in
+walking; if the first, I would be completely in your way, and if
+the second, I can admire you much better as I sit by the fire."
+
+"Oh! shocking!" cried Miss Bingley.  "I never heard anything so
+abominable.  How shall we punish him for such a speech?"
+
+"Nothing so easy, if you have but the inclination," said Elizabeth.
+"We can all plague and punish one another.  Tease him--laugh
+at him.  Intimate as you are, you must know how it is to be
+done."
+
+"But upon my honour, I do _not_.  I do assure you that my
+intimacy has not yet taught me _that_.  Tease calmness of
+manner and presence of mind!  No, no--feel he may defy us
+there.  And as to laughter, we will not expose ourselves, if you
+please, by attempting to laugh without a subject.  Mr. Darcy may
+hug himself."
+
+"Mr. Darcy is not to be laughed at!" cried Elizabeth.  "That is
+an uncommon advantage, and uncommon I hope it will continue, for
+it would be a great loss to _me_ to have many such acquaintances.
+I dearly love a laugh."
+
+"Miss Bingley," said he, "has given me more credit than can be.
+The wisest and the best of men--nay, the wisest and best of their
+actions--may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first
+object in life is a joke."
+
+"Certainly," replied Elizabeth--"there are such people, but I
+hope I am not one of _them_.  I hope I never ridicule what is
+wise and good.  Follies and nonsense, whims and
+inconsistencies, _do_ divert me, I own, and I laugh at them
+whenever I can.  But these, I suppose, are precisely what you
+are without."
+
+"Perhaps that is not possible for anyone.  But it has been the
+study of my life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a
+strong understanding to ridicule."
+
+"Such as vanity and pride."
+
+"Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed.  But pride--where there is a
+real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good
+regulation."
+
+Elizabeth turned away to hide a smile.
+
+"Your examination of Mr. Darcy is over, I presume," said Miss
+Bingley; "and pray what is the result?"
+
+"I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect.
+He owns it himself without disguise."
+
+"No," said Darcy, "I have made no such pretension.  I have
+faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding.
+My temper I dare not vouch for.  It is, I believe, too little
+yielding--certainly too little for the convenience of the world.
+I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought,
+nor their offenses against myself.  My feelings are not puffed
+about with every attempt to move them.  My temper would perhaps be
+called resentful.  My good opinion once lost, is lost forever."
+
+"_That_ is a failing indeed!" cried Elizabeth.  "Implacable
+resentment _is_ a shade in a character.  But you have chosen your
+fault well.  I really cannot _laugh_ at it.  You are safe from me."
+
+"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some
+particular evil--a natural defect, which not even the best
+education can overcome."
+
+"And _your_ defect is to hate everybody."
+
+"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to
+misunderstand them."
+
+"Do let us have a little music," cried Miss Bingley, tired of a
+conversation in which she had no share.  "Louisa, you will not
+mind my waking Mr. Hurst?"
+
+Her sister had not the smallest objection, and the pianoforte was
+opened; and Darcy, after a few moments' recollection, was not
+sorry for it.  He began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too
+much attention.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+
+In consequence of an agreement between the sisters, Elizabeth
+wrote the next morning to their mother, to beg that the carriage
+might be sent for them in the course of the day.  But Mrs.
+Bennet, who had calculated on her daughters remaining at
+Netherfield till the following Tuesday, which would exactly
+finish Jane's week, could not bring herself to receive them with
+pleasure before.  Her answer, therefore, was not propitious, at
+least not to Elizabeth's wishes, for she was impatient to get
+home.  Mrs. Bennet sent them word that they could not possibly
+have the carriage before Tuesday; and in her postscript it was
+added, that if Mr. Bingley and his sister pressed them to stay
+longer, she could spare them very well.  Against staying longer,
+however, Elizabeth was positively resolved--nor did she much
+expect it would be asked; and fearful, on the contrary, as being
+considered as intruding themselves needlessly long, she urged
+Jane to borrow Mr. Bingley's carriage immediately, and at
+length it was settled that their original design of leaving
+Netherfield that morning should be mentioned, and the request
+made.
+
+The communication excited many professions of concern; and
+enough was said of wishing them to stay at least till the
+following day to work on Jane; and till the morrow their going
+was deferred.  Miss Bingley was then sorry that she had
+proposed the delay, for her jealousy and dislike of one sister
+much exceeded her affection for the other.
+
+The master of the house heard with real sorrow that they were
+to go so soon, and repeatedly tried to persuade Miss Bennet that
+it would not be safe for her--that she was not enough recovered;
+but Jane was firm where she felt herself to be right.
+
+To Mr. Darcy it was welcome intelligence--Elizabeth had been
+at Netherfield long enough.  She attracted him more than he
+liked--and Miss Bingley was uncivil to _her_, and more teasing
+than usual to himself.  He wisely resolved to be particularly
+careful that no sign of admiration should _now_ escape him,
+nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his
+felicity; sensible that if such an idea had been suggested,
+his behaviour during the last day must have material weight in
+confirming or crushing it.  Steady to his purpose, he scarcely
+spoke ten words to her through the whole of Saturday, and
+though they were at one time left by themselves for half-an-hour,
+he adhered most conscientiously to his book, and would not
+even look at her.
+
+On Sunday, after morning service, the separation, so agreeable
+to almost all, took place.  Miss Bingley's civility to Elizabeth
+increased at last very rapidly, as well as her affection for Jane;
+and when they parted, after assuring the latter of the pleasure
+it would always give her to see her either at Longbourn or
+Netherfield, and embracing her most tenderly, she even shook
+hands with the former.  Elizabeth took leave of the whole party
+in the liveliest of spirits.
+
+They were not welcomed home very cordially by their mother.
+Mrs. Bennet wondered at their coming, and thought them very
+wrong to give so much trouble, and was sure Jane would have
+caught cold again.  But their father, though very laconic in his
+expressions of pleasure, was really glad to see them; he had felt
+their importance in the family circle.  The evening conversation,
+when they were all assembled, had lost much of its animation,
+and almost all its sense by the absence of Jane and Elizabeth.
+
+They found Mary, as usual, deep in the study of thorough-bass
+and human nature; and had some extracts to admire, and some
+new observations of threadbare morality to listen to.  Catherine
+and Lydia had information for them of a different sort.  Much
+had been done and much had been said in the regiment since the
+preceding Wednesday; several of the officers had dined lately
+with their uncle, a private had been flogged, and it had actually
+been hinted that Colonel Forster was going to be married.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+
+"I hope, my dear," said Mr. Bennet to his wife, as they were
+at breakfast the next morning, "that you have ordered a good
+dinner to-day, because I have reason to expect an addition to
+our family party."
+
+"Who do you mean, my dear?  I know of nobody that is coming,
+I am sure, unless Charlotte Lucas should happen to call in--and
+I hope _my_ dinners are good enough for her.  I do not believe
+she often sees such at home."
+
+"The person of whom I speak is a gentleman, and a stranger."
+
+Mrs. Bennet's eyes sparkled.  "A gentleman and a stranger!  It is
+Mr. Bingley, I am sure!  Well, I am sure I shall be extremely glad
+to see Mr. Bingley.  But--good Lord! how unlucky!  There is not
+a bit of fish to be got to-day.  Lydia, my love, ring the bell--I
+must speak to Hill this moment."
+
+"It is _not_ Mr. Bingley," said her husband; "it is a person whom
+I never saw in the whole course of my life."
+
+This roused a general astonishment; and he had the pleasure of
+being eagerly questioned by his wife and his five daughters at
+once.
+
+After amusing himself some time with their curiosity, he thus
+explained:
+
+"About a month ago I received this letter; and about a fortnight
+ago I answered it, for I thought it a case of some delicacy, and
+requiring early attention.  It is from my cousin, Mr. Collins, who,
+when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he
+pleases."
+
+"Oh! my dear," cried his wife, "I cannot bear to hear that
+mentioned.  Pray do not talk of that odious man.  I do think it is
+the hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed
+away from your own children; and I am sure, if I had been you, I
+should have tried long ago to do something or other about it."
+
+Jane and Elizabeth tried to explain to her the nature of an entail.
+They had often attempted to do it before, but it was a subject
+on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason, and she
+continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an
+estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man
+whom nobody cared anything about.
+
+"It certainly is a most iniquitous affair," said Mr. Bennet,
+"and nothing can clear Mr. Collins from the guilt of inheriting
+Longbourn.  But if you will listen to his letter, you may perhaps
+be a little softened by his manner of expressing himself."
+
+"No, that I am sure I shall not; and I think it is very impertinent
+of him to write to you at all, and very hypocritical.  I hate such
+false friends.  Why could he not keep on quarreling with you, as
+his father did before him?"
+
+"Why, indeed; he does seem to have had some filial scruples on
+that head, as you will hear."
+
+"Hunsford, near Westerham, Kent,
+15th October.
+
+"Dear Sir,--
+
+"The disagreement subsisting between yourself and my late
+honoured father always gave me much uneasiness, and since I
+have had the misfortune to lose him, I have frequently wished
+to heal the breach; but for some time I was kept back by my own
+doubts, fearing lest it might seem disrespectful to his memory
+for me to be on good terms with anyone with whom it had always
+pleased him to be at variance.--'There, Mrs. Bennet.'--My
+mind, however, is now made up on the subject, for having
+received ordination at Easter, I have been so fortunate as to
+be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady
+Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, whose
+bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory
+of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean
+myself with grateful respect towards her ladyship, and be ever
+ready to perform those rites and ceremonies which are instituted
+by the Church of England.  As a clergyman,  moreover, I feel it
+my duty to promote and establish the blessing of peace in all
+families within in the reach of my influence; and on these
+grounds I flatter myself that my present overtures are highly
+commendable, and that the circumstance of my being next in the
+entail of Longbourn estate will be kindly overlooked on your
+side, and not lead you to reject the offered olive-branch.
+I cannot be otherwise than concerned at being the means of
+injuring your amiable daughters, and beg leave to apologise for
+it, as well as to assure you of my readiness to make them every
+possible amends--but of this hereafter.  If you should have
+no objection to receive me into your house, I propose myself
+the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday,
+November 18th, by four o'clock, and shall probably trespass on
+your hospitality till the Saturday se'ennight following, which I
+can do without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from
+objecting to my occasional absence on a Sunday, provided that
+some other clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day.--I
+remain, dear sir, with respectful compliments to your lady and
+daughters, your well-wisher and friend,
+
+"WILLIAM COLLINS"
+
+"At four o'clock, therefore, we may expect this peace-making
+gentleman," said Mr. Bennet, as he folded up the letter.  "He
+seems to be a most conscientious and polite young man, upon
+my word, and I doubt not will prove a valuable acquaintance,
+especially if Lady Catherine should be so indulgent as to let
+him come to us again."
+
+"There is some sense in what he says about the girls, however,
+and if he is disposed to make them any amends, I shall not be
+the person to discourage him."
+
+"Though it is difficult," said Jane, "to guess in what way he can
+mean to make us the atonement he thinks our due, the wish is
+certainly to his credit."
+
+Elizabeth was chiefly struck by his extraordinary deference for
+Lady Catherine, and his kind intention of christening, marrying,
+and burying his parishioners whenever it were required.
+
+"He must be an oddity, I think," said she.  "I cannot make him
+out.--There is something very pompous in his style.--And what
+can he mean by apologising for being next in the entail?--We
+cannot suppose he would help it if he could.--Could he be a
+sensible man, sir?"
+
+"No, my dear, I think not.  I have great hopes of finding him
+quite the reverse.  There is a mixture of servility and
+self-importance in his letter, which promises well.  I am
+impatient to see him."
+
+"In point of composition," said Mary, "the letter does not seem
+defective.  The idea of the olive-branch perhaps is not wholly
+new, yet I think it is well expressed."
+
+To Catherine and Lydia, neither the letter nor its writer were
+in any degree interesting.  It was next to impossible that their
+cousin should come in a scarlet coat, and it was now some
+weeks since they had received pleasure from the society of a
+man in any other colour.  As for their mother, Mr. Collins's
+letter had done away much of her ill-will, and she was preparing
+to see him with a degree of composure which astonished her
+husband and daughters.
+
+Mr. Collins was punctual to his time, and was received with
+great politeness by the whole family.  Mr. Bennet indeed said
+little; but the ladies were ready enough to talk, and Mr. Collins
+seemed neither in need of encouragement, nor inclined to be
+silent himself.  He was a tall, heavy-looking young man of
+five-and-twenty.  His air was grave and stately, and his
+manners were very formal.  He had not been long seated before
+he complimented Mrs. Bennet on having so fine a family of
+daughters; said he had heard much of their beauty, but that in
+this instance fame had fallen short of the truth; and added,
+that he did not doubt her seeing them all in due time disposed
+of in marriage.  This gallantry was not much to the taste of
+some of his hearers; but Mrs. Bennet, who quarreled with no
+compliments, answered most readily.
+
+"You are very kind, I am sure; and I wish with all my heart it
+may prove so, for else they will be destitute enough.  Things are
+settled so oddly."
+
+"You allude, perhaps, to the entail of this estate."
+
+"Ah! sir, I do indeed.  It is a grievous affair to my poor girls,
+you must confess.  Not that I mean to find fault with _you_, for
+such things I know are all chance in this world.  There is no
+knowing how estates will go when once they come to be entailed."
+
+"I am very sensible, madam, of the hardship to my fair cousins,
+and could say much on the subject, but that I am cautious of
+appearing forward and precipitate.  But I can assure the young
+ladies that I come prepared to admire them.  At present I will
+not say more; but, perhaps, when we are better acquainted--"
+
+He was interrupted by a summons to dinner; and the girls smiled
+on each other.  They were not the only objects of Mr. Collins's
+admiration.  The hall, the dining-room, and all its furniture,
+were examined and praised; and his commendation of everything
+would have touched Mrs. Bennet's heart, but for the mortifying
+supposition of his viewing it all as his own future property.
+The dinner too in its turn was highly admired; and he begged to
+know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking
+was owing.  But he was set right there by Mrs. Bennet, who
+assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to
+keep a good cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in
+the kitchen.  He begged pardon for having displeased her.  In a
+softened tone she declared herself not at all offended; but he
+continued to apologise for about a quarter of an hour.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+
+During dinner, Mr. Bennet scarcely spoke at all; but when the
+servants were withdrawn, he thought it time to have some
+conversation with his guest, and therefore started a subject in
+which he expected him to shine, by observing that he seemed
+very fortunate in his patroness.  Lady Catherine de Bourgh's
+attention to his wishes, and consideration for his comfort,
+appeared very remarkable.  Mr. Bennet could not have chosen
+better.  Mr. Collins was eloquent in her praise.  The subject
+elevated him to more than usual solemnity of manner, and with a
+most important aspect he protested that "he had never in his life
+witnessed such behaviour in a person of rank--such affability
+and condescension, as he had himself experienced from Lady
+Catherine.  She had been graciously pleased to approve of both
+of the discourses which he had already had the honour of
+preaching before her.  She had also asked him twice to dine at
+Rosings, and had sent for him only the Saturday before, to make
+up her pool of quadrille in the evening.  Lady Catherine was
+reckoned proud by many people he knew, but _he_ had never
+seen anything but affability in her.  She had always spoken to
+him as she would to any other gentleman; she made not the
+smallest objection to his joining in the society of the
+neighbourhood nor to his leaving the parish occasionally for a
+week or two, to visit his relations.  She had even condescended
+to advise him to marry as soon as he could, provided he chose
+with discretion; and had once paid him a visit in his humble
+parsonage, where she had perfectly approved all the alterations
+he had been making, and had even vouchsafed to suggest some
+herself--some shelves in the closet upstairs."
+
+"That is all very proper and civil, I am sure," said Mrs. Bennet,
+"and I dare say she is a very agreeable woman.  It is a pity that
+great ladies in general are not more like her.  Does she live near
+you, sir?"
+
+"The garden in which stands my humble abode is separated only
+by a lane from Rosings Park, her ladyship's residence."
+
+"I think you said she was a widow, sir?  Has she any family?"
+
+"She has only one daughter, the heiress of Rosings, and of very
+extensive property."
+
+"Ah!" said Mrs. Bennet, shaking her head, "then she is better off
+than many girls.  And what sort of young lady is she?  Is she
+handsome?"
+
+"She is a most charming young lady indeed.  Lady Catherine
+herself says that, in point of true beauty, Miss de Bourgh is far
+superior to the handsomest of her sex, because there is that in
+her features which marks the young lady of distinguished birth.
+She is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which has prevented
+her from making that progress in many accomplishments which
+she could not have otherwise failed of, as I am informed by the
+lady who superintended her education, and who still resides with
+them.  But she is perfectly amiable, and often condescends to
+drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies."
+
+"Has she been presented?  I do not remember her name among
+the ladies at court."
+
+"Her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being
+in town; and by that means, as I told Lady Catherine one day,
+has deprived the British court of its brightest ornaments.
+Her ladyship seemed pleased with the idea; and you may imagine
+that I am happy on every occasion to offer those little
+delicate compliments which are always acceptable to ladies.
+I have more than once observed to Lady Catherine, that her
+charming daughter seemed born to be a duchess, and that the
+most elevated rank, instead of giving her consequence, would
+be adorned by her.  These are the kind of little things which
+please her ladyship, and it is a sort of attention which I
+conceive myself peculiarly bound to pay."
+
+"You judge very properly," said Mr. Bennet, "and it is happy for
+you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy.  May I
+ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse
+of the moment, or are the result of previous study?"
+
+"They arise chiefly from what is passing at the time, and though
+I sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging such
+little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions,
+I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible."
+
+Mr. Bennet's expectations were fully answered.  His cousin was
+as absurd as he had hoped, and he listened to him with the
+keenest enjoyment, maintaining at the same time the most
+resolute composure of countenance, and, except in an occasional
+glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure.
+
+By tea-time, however, the dose had been enough, and Mr.
+Bennet was glad to take his guest into the drawing-room again,
+and, when tea was over, glad to invite him to read aloud to the
+ladies.  Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book was produced;
+but, on beholding it (for everything announced it to be from a
+circulating library), he started back, and begging pardon,
+protested that he never read novels.  Kitty stared at him, and
+Lydia exclaimed.  Other books were produced, and after some
+deliberation he chose Fordyce's Sermons.  Lydia gaped as he
+opened the volume, and before he had, with very monotonous
+solemnity, read three pages, she interrupted him with:
+
+"Do you know, mamma, that my uncle Phillips talks of turning
+away Richard; and if he does, Colonel Forster will hire him.  My
+aunt told me so herself on Saturday.  I shall walk to Meryton
+to-morrow to hear more about it, and to ask when Mr. Denny
+comes back from town."
+
+Lydia was bid by her two eldest sisters to hold her tongue; but
+Mr. Collins, much offended, laid aside his book, and said:
+
+"I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by
+books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit.
+It amazes me, I confess; for, certainly, there can be nothing so
+advantageous to them as instruction.  But I will no longer
+importune my young cousin."
+
+Then turning to Mr. Bennet, he offered himself as his antagonist
+at backgammon.  Mr. Bennet accepted the challenge, observing
+that he acted very wisely in leaving the girls to their own trifling
+amusements.  Mrs. Bennet and her daughters apologised most
+civilly for Lydia's interruption, and promised that it should not
+occur again, if he would resume his book; but Mr. Collins, after
+assuring them that he bore his young cousin no ill-will, and
+should never resent her behaviour as any affront, seated himself
+at another table with Mr. Bennet, and prepared for backgammon.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+
+Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature
+had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest
+part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an
+illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of
+the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without
+forming at it any useful acquaintance.  The subjection in which
+his father had brought him up had given him originally great
+humility of manner; but it was now a good deal counteracted by
+the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the
+consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity.  A
+fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de
+Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect
+which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his
+patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his
+authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him
+altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness,
+self-importance and humility.
+
+Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, he
+intended to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the
+Longbourn family he had a wife in view, as he meant to choose
+one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable
+as they were represented by common report.  This was his plan
+of amends--of atonement--for inheriting their father's estate;
+and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and
+suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his
+own part.
+
+His plan did not vary on seeing them.  Miss Bennet's lovely face
+confirmed his views, and established all his strictest notions of
+what was due to seniority; and for the first evening _she_ was his
+settled choice.  The next morning, however, made an alteration;
+for in a quarter of an hour's tete-a-tete with Mrs. Bennet before
+breakfast, a conversation beginning with his parsonage-house,
+and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes, that a mistress
+might be found for it at Longbourn, produced from her, amid
+very complaisant smiles and general encouragement, a caution
+against the very Jane he had fixed on.  "As to her _younger_
+daughters, she could not take upon her to say--she could not
+positively answer--but she did not _know_ of any prepossession;
+her _eldest_ daughter, she must just mention--she felt it
+incumbent on her to hint, was likely to be very soon engaged."
+
+Mr. Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth--and it
+was soon done--done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire.
+Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded
+her of course.
+
+Mrs. Bennet treasured up the hint, and trusted that she might
+soon have two daughters married; and the man whom she could
+not bear to speak of the day before was now high in her good
+graces.
+
+Lydia's intention of walking to Meryton was not forgotten;
+every sister except Mary agreed to go with her; and Mr. Collins
+was to attend them, at the request of Mr. Bennet, who was most
+anxious to get rid of him, and have his library to himself; for
+thither Mr. Collins had followed him after breakfast; and there he
+would continue, nominally engaged with one of the largest folios
+in the collection, but really talking to Mr. Bennet, with little
+cessation, of his house and garden at Hunsford.  Such doings
+discomposed Mr. Bennet exceedingly.  In his library he had been
+always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared, as
+he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other
+room of the house, he was used to be free from them there; his
+civility, therefore, was most prompt in inviting Mr. Collins to
+join his daughters in their walk; and Mr. Collins, being in fact
+much better fitted for a walker than a reader, was extremely
+pleased to close his large book, and go.
+
+In pompous nothings on his side, and civil assents on that of
+his cousins, their time passed till they entered Meryton.  The
+attention of the younger ones was then no longer to be gained by
+him.  Their eyes were immediately wandering up in the street in
+quest of the officers, and nothing less than a very smart bonnet
+indeed, or a really new muslin in a shop window, could recall
+them.
+
+But the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man,
+whom they had never seen before, of most gentlemanlike
+appearance, walking with another officer on the other side of the
+way.  The officer was the very Mr. Denny concerning whose
+return from London Lydia came to inquire, and he bowed as
+they passed.  All were struck with the stranger's air, all
+wondered who he could be; and Kitty and Lydia, determined if
+possible to find out, led the way across the street, under pretense
+of wanting something in an opposite shop, and fortunately had
+just gained the pavement when the two gentlemen, turning back,
+had reached the same spot.  Mr. Denny addressed them directly,
+and entreated permission to introduce his friend, Mr. Wickham,
+who had returned with him the day before from town, and he
+was happy to say had accepted a commission in their corps.
+This was exactly as it should be; for the young man wanted only
+regimentals to make him completely charming.  His appearance
+was greatly in his favour; he had all the best part of beauty, a
+fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address.  The
+introduction was followed up on his side by a happy readiness of
+conversation--a readiness at the same time perfectly correct and
+unassuming; and the whole party were still standing and talking
+together very agreeably, when the sound of horses drew their
+notice, and Darcy and Bingley were seen riding down the street.
+On distinguishing the ladies of the group, the two gentlemen
+came directly towards them, and began the usual civilities.
+Bingley was the principal spokesman, and Miss Bennet the
+principal object.  He was then, he said, on his way to Longbourn
+on purpose to inquire after her.  Mr. Darcy corroborated it with
+a bow, and was beginning to determine not to fix his eyes on
+Elizabeth, when they were suddenly arrested by the sight of the
+stranger, and Elizabeth happening to see the countenance of
+both as they looked at each other, was all astonishment at the
+effect of the meeting.  Both changed colour, one looked white,
+the other red.  Mr. Wickham, after a few moments, touched his
+hat--a salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return.  What
+could be the meaning of it?  It was impossible to imagine; it was
+impossible not to long to know.
+
+In another minute, Mr. Bingley, but without seeming to have
+noticed what passed, took leave and rode on with his friend.
+
+Mr. Denny and Mr. Wickham walked with the young ladies to
+the door of Mr. Phillip's house, and then made their bows, in
+spite of Miss Lydia's pressing entreaties that they should come
+in, and even in spite of Mrs. Phillips's throwing up the parlour
+window and loudly seconding the invitation.
+
+Mrs. Phillips was always glad to see her nieces; and the two
+eldest, from their recent absence, were particularly welcome, and
+she was eagerly expressing her surprise at their sudden return
+home, which, as their own carriage had not fetched them, she
+should have known nothing about, if she had not happened to
+see Mr. Jones's shop-boy in the street, who had told her that
+they were not to send any more draughts to Netherfield because
+the Miss Bennets were come away, when her civility was
+claimed towards Mr. Collins by Jane's introduction of him.  She
+received him with her very best politeness, which he returned
+with as much more, apologising for his intrusion, without any
+previous acquaintance with her, which he could not help
+flattering himself, however, might be justified by his relationship
+to the young ladies who introduced him to her notice.  Mrs.
+Phillips was quite awed by such an excess of good breeding; but
+her contemplation of one stranger was soon put to an end by
+exclamations and inquiries about the other; of whom, however,
+she could only tell her nieces what they already knew, that Mr.
+Denny had brought him from London, and that he was to have a
+lieutenant's commission in the ----shire.  She had been watching
+him the last hour, she said, as he walked up and down the street,
+and had Mr. Wickham appeared, Kitty and Lydia would certainly
+have continued the occupation, but unluckily no one passed
+windows now except a few of the officers, who, in comparison
+with the stranger, were become "stupid, disagreeable fellows."
+Some of them were to dine with the Phillipses the next day, and
+their aunt promised to make her husband call on Mr. Wickham,
+and give him an invitation also, if the family from Longbourn
+would come in the evening.  This was agreed to, and Mrs.
+Phillips protested that they would have a nice comfortable noisy
+game of lottery tickets, and a little bit of hot supper afterwards.
+The prospect of such delights was very cheering, and they parted
+in mutual good spirits.  Mr. Collins repeated his apologies in
+quitting the room, and was assured with unwearying civility that
+they were perfectly needless.
+
+As they walked home, Elizabeth related to Jane what she had
+seen pass between the two gentlemen; but though Jane would
+have defended either or both, had they appeared to be in the
+wrong, she could no more explain such behaviour than her sister.
+
+Mr. Collins on his return highly gratified Mrs. Bennet by
+admiring Mrs. Phillips's manners and politeness.  He protested
+that, except Lady Catherine and her daughter, he had never seen
+a more elegant woman; for she had not only received him with
+the utmost civility, but even pointedly included him in her
+invitation for the next evening, although utterly unknown to her
+before.  Something, he supposed, might be attributed to his
+connection with them, but yet he had never met with so much
+attention in the whole course of his life.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+
+As no objection was made to the young people's engagement
+with their aunt, and all Mr. Collins's scruples of leaving Mr.
+and Mrs. Bennet for a single evening during his visit were most
+steadily resisted, the coach conveyed him and his five cousins
+at a suitable hour to Meryton; and the girls had the pleasure of
+hearing, as they entered the drawing-room, that Mr. Wickham
+had accepted their uncle's invitation, and was then in the house.
+
+When this information was given, and they had all taken their
+seats, Mr. Collins was at leisure to look around him and admire,
+and he was so much struck with the size and furniture of the
+apartment, that he declared he might almost have supposed
+himself in the small summer breakfast parlour at Rosings; a
+comparison that did not at first convey much gratification; but
+when Mrs. Phillips understood from him what Rosings was, and
+who was its proprietor--when she had listened to the description
+of only one of Lady Catherine's drawing-rooms, and found that
+the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt
+all the force of the compliment, and would hardly have resented
+a comparison with the housekeeper's room.
+
+In describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her
+mansion, with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble
+abode, and the improvements it was receiving, he was happily
+employed until the gentlemen joined them; and he found in
+Mrs. Phillips a very attentive listener, whose opinion of
+his consequence increased with what she heard, and who was
+resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as soon as she
+could.  To the girls, who could not listen to their cousin,
+and who had nothing to do but to wish for an instrument, and
+examine their own indifferent imitations of china on the
+mantelpiece, the interval of waiting appeared very long.  It was
+over at last, however.  The gentlemen did approach, and when
+Mr. Wickham walked into the room, Elizabeth felt that she had
+neither been seeing him before, nor thinking of him since, with
+the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration.  The officers of
+the ----shire were in general a very creditable, gentlemanlike
+set, and the best of them were of the present party; but Mr.
+Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air,
+and walk, as _they_ were superior to the broad-faced, stuffy
+uncle Phillips, breathing port wine, who followed them into
+the room.
+
+Mr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every
+female eye was turned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by
+whom he finally seated himself; and the agreeable manner in
+which he immediately fell into conversation, though it was only
+on its being a wet night, made her feel that the commonest,
+dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by
+the skill of the speaker.
+
+With such rivals for the notice of the fair as Mr. Wickham and
+the officers, Mr. Collins seemed to sink into insignificance; to
+the young ladies he certainly was nothing; but he had still at
+intervals a kind listener in Mrs. Phillips, and was by her
+watchfulness, most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin.
+When the card-tables were placed, he had the opportunity of
+obliging her in turn, by sitting down to whist.
+
+"I know little of the game at present," said he, "but I shall be
+glad to improve myself, for in my situation in life--" Mrs. Phillips
+was very glad for his compliance, but could not wait for his
+reason.
+
+Mr. Wickham did not play at whist, and with ready delight was he
+received at the other table between Elizabeth and Lydia.  At first
+there seemed danger of Lydia's engrossing him entirely, for she
+was a most determined talker; but being likewise extremely fond
+of lottery tickets, she soon grew too much interested in the
+game, too eager in making bets and exclaiming after prizes to
+have attention for anyone in particular.  Allowing for the
+common demands of the game, Mr. Wickham was therefore at leisure
+to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him,
+though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be
+told--the history of his acquaintance with Mr. Darcy.  She dared
+not even mention that gentleman.  Her curiosity, however, was
+unexpectedly relieved.  Mr. Wickham began the subject himself.
+He inquired how far Netherfield was from Meryton; and, after
+receiving her answer, asked in a hesitating manner how long
+Mr. Darcy had been staying there.
+
+"About a month," said Elizabeth; and then, unwilling to let the
+subject drop, added, "He is a man of very large property in
+Derbyshire, I understand."
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Wickham; "his estate there is a noble one.
+A clear ten thousand per annum.  You could not have met with a
+person more capable of giving you certain information on that
+head than myself, for I have been connected with his family in
+a particular manner from my infancy."
+
+Elizabeth could not but look surprised.
+
+"You may well be surprised, Miss Bennet, at such an assertion,
+after seeing, as you probably might, the very cold manner of our
+meeting yesterday.  Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?"
+
+"As much as I ever wish to be," cried Elizabeth very warmly.
+"I have spent four days in the same house with him, and I think
+him very disagreeable."
+
+"I have no right to give _my_ opinion," said Wickham, "as to his
+being agreeable or otherwise.  I am not qualified to form one.  I
+have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge.  It is
+impossible for _me_ to be impartial.  But I believe your opinion
+of him would in general astonish--and perhaps you would not
+express it quite so strongly anywhere else.  Here you are in your
+own family."
+
+"Upon my word, I say no more _here_ than I might say in any
+house in the neighbourhood, except Netherfield.  He is not at all
+liked in Hertfordshire.  Everybody is disgusted with his pride.
+You will not find him more favourably spoken of by anyone."
+
+"I cannot pretend to be sorry," said Wickham, after a short
+interruption, "that he or that any man should not be estimated
+beyond their deserts; but with _him_ I believe it does not often
+happen.  The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence,
+or frightened by his high and imposing manners, and sees him
+only as he chooses to be seen."
+
+"I should take him, even on _my_ slight acquaintance, to be an
+ill-tempered man."  Wickham only shook his head.
+
+"I wonder," said he, at the next opportunity of speaking,
+"whether he is likely to be in this country much longer."
+
+"I do not at all know; but I _heard_ nothing of his going away
+when I was at Netherfield.  I hope your plans in favour of the
+----shire will not be affected by his being in the neighbourhood."
+
+"Oh! no--it is not for _me_ to be driven away by Mr. Darcy.  If
+_he_ wishes to avoid seeing _me_, he must go.  We are not on
+friendly terms, and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I
+have no reason for avoiding _him_ but what I might proclaim
+before all the world, a sense of very great ill-usage, and most
+painful regrets at his being what he is.  His father, Miss Bennet,
+the late Mr. Darcy, was one of the best men that ever breathed,
+and the truest friend I ever had; and I can never be in company
+with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a
+thousand tender recollections.  His behaviour to myself has been
+scandalous; but I verily believe I could forgive him anything and
+everything, rather than his disappointing the hopes and
+disgracing the memory of his father."
+
+Elizabeth found the interest of the subject increase, and listened
+with all her heart; but the delicacy of it prevented further inquiry.
+
+Mr. Wickham began to speak on more general topics, Meryton,
+the neighbourhood, the society, appearing highly pleased with all
+that he had yet seen, and speaking of the latter with gentle but
+very intelligible gallantry.
+
+"It was the prospect of constant society, and good society," he
+added, "which was my chief inducement to enter the ----shire.
+I knew it to be a most respectable, agreeable corps, and my
+friend Denny tempted me further by his account of their
+present quarters, and the very great attentions and excellent
+acquaintances Meryton had procured them.  Society, I own, is
+necessary to me.  I have been a disappointed man, and my spirits
+will not bear solitude.  I _must_ have employment and society.
+A military life is not what I was intended for, but circumstances
+have now made it eligible.  The church _ought_ to have been
+my profession--I was brought up for the church, and I should at
+this time have been in possession of a most valuable living, had
+it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes--the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation
+of the best living in his gift.  He was my godfather, and
+excessively attached to me.  I cannot do justice to his kindness.
+He meant to provide for me amply, and thought he had done it;
+but when the living fell, it was given elsewhere."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Elizabeth; "but how could _that_ be?
+How could his will be disregarded?  Why did you not seek legal
+redress?"
+
+"There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest
+as to give me no hope from law.  A man of honour could not have
+doubted the intention, but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it--or to
+treat it as a merely conditional recommendation, and to assert that
+I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance, imprudence--in
+short anything or nothing.  Certain it is, that the living became
+vacant two years ago, exactly as I was of an age to hold it, and
+that it was given to another man; and no less certain is it, that
+I cannot accuse myself of having really done anything to deserve
+to lose it.  I have a warm, unguarded temper, and I may have
+spoken my opinion _of_ him, and _to_ him, too freely.  I can recall
+nothing worse.  But the fact is, that we are very different sort
+of men, and that he hates me."
+
+"This is quite shocking!  He deserves to be publicly disgraced."
+
+"Some time or other he _will_ be--but it shall not be by _me_.
+Till I can forget his father, I can never defy or expose _him_."
+
+Elizabeth honoured him for such feelings, and thought him
+handsomer than ever as he expressed them.
+
+"But what," said she, after a pause, "can have been his motive?
+What can have induced him to behave so cruelly?"
+
+"A thorough, determined dislike of me--a dislike which I cannot
+but attribute in some measure to jealousy.  Had the late Mr.
+Darcy liked me less, his son might have borne with me better;
+but his father's uncommon attachment to me irritated him, I
+believe, very early in life.  He had not a temper to bear the sort of
+competition in which we stood--the sort of preference which
+was often given me."
+
+"I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this--though I have
+never liked him.  I had not thought so very ill of him.  I had
+supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but
+did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge,
+such injustice, such inhumanity as this."
+
+After a few minutes' reflection, however, she continued,
+"I _do_ remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the
+implacability of his resentments, of his having an unforgiving
+temper.  His disposition must be dreadful."
+
+"I will not trust myself on the subject," replied Wickham; "I
+can hardly be just to him."
+
+Elizabeth was again deep in thought, and after a time exclaimed,
+"To treat in such a manner the godson, the friend, the favourite
+of his father!"  She could have added, "A young man, too,
+like _you_, whose very countenance may vouch for your being
+amiable"--but she contented herself with, "and one, too, who
+had probably been his companion from childhood, connected
+together, as I think you said, in the closest manner!"
+
+"We were born in the same parish, within the same park; the
+greatest part of our youth was passed together; inmates of the
+same house, sharing the same amusements, objects of the same
+parental care.  _My_ father began life in the profession which
+your uncle, Mr. Phillips, appears to do so much credit to--but
+he gave up everything to be of use to the late Mr. Darcy and
+devoted all his time to the care of the Pemberley property.
+He was most highly esteemed by Mr. Darcy, a most intimate,
+confidential friend.  Mr. Darcy often acknowledged himself
+to be under the greatest obligations to my father's active
+superintendence, and when, immediately before my father's
+death, Mr. Darcy gave him a voluntary promise of providing for
+me, I am convinced that he felt it to be as much a debt of
+gratitude to _him_, as of his affection to myself."
+
+"How strange!" cried Elizabeth.  "How abominable!  I wonder
+that the very pride of this Mr. Darcy has not made him just to
+you!  If from no better motive, that he should not have been too
+proud to be dishonest--for dishonesty I must call it."
+
+"It _is_ wonderful," replied Wickham, "for almost all his actions
+may be traced to pride; and pride had often been his best friend.
+It has connected him nearer with virtue than with any other
+feeling.  But we are none of us consistent, and in his behaviour
+to me there were stronger impulses even than pride."
+
+"Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good?"
+
+"Yes.  It has often led him to be liberal and generous, to give his
+money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and
+relieve the poor.  Family pride, and _filial_ pride--for he is very
+proud of what his father was--have done this.  Not to appear to
+disgrace his family, to degenerate from the popular qualities, or
+lose the influence of the Pemberley House, is a powerful motive.
+He has also _brotherly_ pride, which, with _some_ brotherly
+affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his
+sister, and you will hear him generally cried up as the most
+attentive and best of brothers."
+
+"What sort of girl is Miss Darcy?"
+
+He shook his head.  "I wish I could call her amiable.  It gives
+me pain to speak ill of a Darcy.  But she is too much like her
+brother--very, very proud.  As a child, she was affectionate
+and pleasing, and extremely fond of me; and I have devoted hours
+and hours to her amusement.  But she is nothing to me now.
+She is a handsome girl, about fifteen or sixteen, and, I
+understand, highly accomplished.  Since her father's death,
+her home has been London, where a lady lives with her, and
+superintends her education."
+
+After many pauses and many trials of other subjects, Elizabeth
+could not help reverting once more to the first, and saying:
+
+"I am astonished at his intimacy with Mr. Bingley!  How can Mr.
+Bingley, who seems good humour itself, and is, I really believe,
+truly amiable, be in friendship with such a man?  How can they
+suit each other?  Do you know Mr. Bingley?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"He is a sweet-tempered, amiable, charming man.  He cannot
+know what Mr. Darcy is."
+
+"Probably not; but Mr. Darcy can please where he chooses.  He
+does not want abilities.  He can be a conversible companion if he
+thinks it worth his while.  Among those who are at all his equals
+in consequence, he is a very different man from what he is to the
+less prosperous.  His pride never deserts him; but with the rich
+he is liberal-minded, just, sincere, rational, honourable, and
+perhaps agreeable--allowing something for fortune and figure."
+
+The whist party soon afterwards breaking up, the players
+gathered round the other table and Mr. Collins took his station
+between his cousin Elizabeth and Mrs. Phillips.  The usual
+inquiries as to his success was made by the latter.  It had not
+been very great; he had lost every point; but when Mrs. Phillips
+began to express her concern thereupon, he assured her with
+much earnest gravity that it was not of the least importance, that
+he considered the money as a mere trifle, and begged that she
+would not make herself uneasy.
+
+"I know very well, madam," said he, "that when persons sit down
+to a card-table, they must take their chances of these things, and
+happily I am not in such circumstances as to make five shillings
+any object.  There are undoubtedly many who could not say the
+same, but thanks to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I am removed
+far beyond the necessity of regarding little matters."
+
+Mr. Wickham's attention was caught; and after observing Mr.
+Collins for a few moments, he asked Elizabeth in a low voice
+whether her relation was very intimately acquainted with the
+family of de Bourgh.
+
+"Lady Catherine de Bourgh," she replied, "has very lately given
+him a living.  I hardly know how Mr. Collins was first
+introduced to her notice, but he certainly has not known her
+long."
+
+"You know of course that Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady
+Anne Darcy were sisters; consequently that she is aunt to the
+present Mr. Darcy."
+
+"No, indeed, I did not.  I knew nothing at all of Lady Catherine's
+connections.  I never heard of her existence till the day before
+yesterday."
+
+"Her daughter, Miss de Bourgh, will have a very large fortune,
+and it is believed that she and her cousin will unite the two
+estates."
+
+This information made Elizabeth smile, as she thought of poor
+Miss Bingley.  Vain indeed must be all her attentions, vain and
+useless her affection for his sister and her praise of himself,
+if he were already self-destined for another.
+
+"Mr. Collins," said she, "speaks highly both of Lady Catherine
+and her daughter; but from some particulars that he has related
+of her ladyship, I suspect his gratitude misleads him, and that in
+spite of her being his patroness, she is an arrogant, conceited
+woman."
+
+"I believe her to be both in a great degree," replied Wickham;
+"I have not seen her for many years, but I very well remember that
+I never liked her, and that her manners were dictatorial and
+insolent.  She has the reputation of being remarkably sensible
+and clever; but I rather believe she derives part of her abilities
+from her rank and fortune, part from her authoritative manner,
+and the rest from the pride for her nephew, who chooses that
+everyone connected with him should have an understanding of
+the first class."
+
+Elizabeth allowed that he had given a very rational account of it,
+and they continued talking together, with mutual satisfaction
+till supper put an end to cards, and gave the rest of the ladies
+their share of Mr. Wickham's attentions.  There could be no
+conversation in the noise of Mrs. Phillips's supper party, but
+his manners recommended him to everybody.  Whatever he said,
+was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully.  Elizabeth
+went away with her head full of him.  She could think of nothing
+but of Mr. Wickham, and of what he had told her, all the way
+home; but there was not time for her even to mention his name
+as they went, for neither Lydia nor Mr. Collins were once silent.
+Lydia talked incessantly of lottery tickets, of the fish she had
+lost and the fish she had won; and Mr. Collins in describing the
+civility of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, protesting that he did not in
+the least regard his losses at whist, enumerating all the dishes
+at supper, and repeatedly fearing that he crowded his cousins,
+had more to say than he could well manage before the carriage
+stopped at Longbourn House.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+
+Elizabeth related to Jane the next day what had passed between
+Mr. Wickham and herself.  Jane listened with astonishment and
+concern; she knew not how to believe that Mr. Darcy could be
+so unworthy of Mr. Bingley's regard; and yet, it was not in her
+nature to question the veracity of a young man of such amiable
+appearance as Wickham.  The possibility of his having endured
+such unkindness, was enough to interest all her tender feelings;
+and nothing remained therefore to be done, but to think well of
+them both, to defend the conduct of each, and throw into the
+account of accident or mistake whatever could not be otherwise
+explained.
+
+"They have both," said she, "been deceived, I dare say, in some
+way or other, of which we can form no idea.  Interested people
+have perhaps misrepresented each to the other.  It is, in short,
+impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances
+which may have alienated them, without actual blame on either
+side."
+
+"Very true, indeed; and now, my dear Jane, what have you got
+to say on behalf of the interested people who have probably been
+concerned in the business?  Do clear _them_ too, or we shall be
+obliged to think ill of somebody."
+
+"Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of
+my opinion.  My dearest Lizzy, do but consider in what a
+disgraceful light it places Mr. Darcy, to be treating his father's
+favourite in such a manner, one whom his father had promised to
+provide for.  It is impossible.  No man of common humanity, no
+man who had any value for his character, could be capable of it.
+Can his most intimate friends be so excessively deceived in him?
+Oh! no."
+
+"I can much more easily believe Mr. Bingley's being imposed on,
+than that Mr. Wickham should invent such a history of himself
+as he gave me last night; names, facts, everything mentioned
+without ceremony.  If it be not so, let Mr. Darcy contradict it.
+Besides, there was truth in his looks."
+
+"It is difficult indeed--it is distressing.  One does not know what
+to think."
+
+"I beg your pardon; one knows exactly what to think."
+
+But Jane could think with certainty on only one point--that Mr.
+Bingley, if he _had_ been imposed on, would have much to suffer
+when the affair became public.
+
+The two young ladies were summoned from the shrubbery,
+where this conversation passed, by the arrival of the very
+persons of whom they had been speaking; Mr. Bingley and his
+sisters came to give their personal invitation for the
+long-expected ball at Netherfield, which was fixed for the
+following Tuesday.  The two ladies were delighted to see their
+dear friend again, called it an age since they had met, and
+repeatedly asked what she had been doing with herself since
+their separation.  To the rest of the family they paid little
+attention; avoiding Mrs. Bennet as much as possible, saying not
+much to Elizabeth, and nothing at all to the others.  They were
+soon gone again, rising from their seats with an activity which
+took their brother by surprise, and hurrying off as if eager to
+escape from Mrs. Bennet's civilities.
+
+The prospect of the Netherfield ball was extremely agreeable to
+every female of the family.  Mrs. Bennet chose to consider it as
+given in compliment to her eldest daughter, and was particularly
+flattered by receiving the invitation from Mr. Bingley himself,
+instead of a ceremonious card.  Jane pictured to herself a happy
+evening in the society of her two friends, and the attentions of
+her brother; and Elizabeth thought with pleasure of dancing a
+great deal with Mr. Wickham, and of seeing a confirmation of
+everything in Mr. Darcy's look and behavior.  The happiness
+anticipated by Catherine and Lydia depended less on any single
+event, or any particular person, for though they each, like
+Elizabeth, meant to dance half the evening with Mr. Wickham,
+he was by no means the only partner who could satisfy them, and
+a ball was, at any rate, a ball.  And even Mary could assure her
+family that she had no disinclination for it.
+
+"While I can have my mornings to myself," said she, "it is
+enough--I think it is no sacrifice to join occasionally in evening
+engagements.  Society has claims on us all; and I profess myself
+one of those who consider intervals of recreation and amusement
+as desirable for everybody."
+
+Elizabeth's spirits were so high on this occasion, that though she
+did not often speak unnecessarily to Mr. Collins, she could not
+help asking him whether he intended to accept Mr. Bingley's
+invitation, and if he did, whether he would think it proper to join
+in the evening's amusement; and she was rather surprised to find
+that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head, and was
+very far from dreading a rebuke either from the Archbishop, or
+Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by venturing to dance.
+
+"I am by no means of the opinion, I assure you," said he, "that
+a ball of this kind, given by a young man of character, to
+respectable people, can have any evil tendency; and I am so
+far from objecting to dancing myself, that I shall hope to be
+honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of
+the evening; and I take this opportunity of soliciting yours, Miss
+Elizabeth, for the two first dances especially, a preference which
+I trust my cousin Jane will attribute to the right cause, and not
+to any disrespect for her."
+
+Elizabeth felt herself completely taken in.  She had fully
+proposed being engaged by Mr. Wickham for those very dances;
+and to have Mr. Collins instead! her liveliness had never been
+worse timed.  There was no help for it, however.  Mr. Wickham's
+happiness and her own were perforce delayed a little longer,
+and Mr. Collins's proposal accepted with as good a grace as she
+could.  She was not the better pleased with his gallantry from
+the idea it suggested of something more.  It now first struck
+her, that _she_ was selected from among her sisters as worthy of
+being mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form
+a quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible
+visitors.  The idea soon reached to conviction, as she observed
+his increasing civilities toward herself, and heard his
+frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity; and
+though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect
+of her charms, it was not long before her mother gave her to
+understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely
+agreeable to _her_.  Elizabeth, however, did not choose to take
+the hint, being well aware that a serious dispute must be the
+consequence of any reply.  Mr. Collins might never make the
+offer, and till he did, it was useless to quarrel about him.
+
+If there had not been a Netherfield ball to prepare for and talk
+of, the younger Miss Bennets would have been in a very pitiable
+state at this time, for from the day of the invitation, to the day
+of the ball, there was such a succession of rain as prevented their
+walking to Meryton once.  No aunt, no officers, no news could
+be sought after--the very shoe-roses for Netherfield were got
+by proxy.  Even Elizabeth might have found some trial of her
+patience in weather which totally suspended the improvement of
+her acquaintance with Mr. Wickham; and nothing less than a
+dance on Tuesday, could have made such a Friday, Saturday,
+Sunday, and Monday endurable to Kitty and Lydia.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+
+Till Elizabeth entered the drawing-room at Netherfield, and
+looked in vain for Mr. Wickham among the cluster of red coats
+there assembled, a doubt of his being present had never occurred
+to her.  The certainty of meeting him had not been checked by
+any of those recollections that might not unreasonably have
+alarmed her.  She had dressed with more than usual care, and
+prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that
+remained unsubdued of his heart, trusting that it was not more
+than might be won in the course of the evening.  But in an
+instant arose the dreadful suspicion of his being purposely
+omitted for Mr. Darcy's pleasure in the Bingleys' invitation
+to the officers; and though this was not exactly the case, the
+absolute fact of his absence was pronounced by his friend Denny,
+to whom Lydia eagerly applied, and who told them that Wickham
+had been obliged to go to town on business the day before, and
+was not yet returned; adding, with a significant smile, "I do not
+imagine his business would have called him away just now, if he
+had not wanted to avoid a certain gentleman here."
+
+This part of his intelligence, though unheard by Lydia, was
+caught by Elizabeth, and, as it assured her that Darcy was not
+less answerable for Wickham's absence than if her first surmise
+had been just, every feeling of displeasure against the former
+was so sharpened by immediate disappointment, that she could
+hardly reply with tolerable civility to the polite inquiries
+which he directly afterwards approached to make.  Attendance,
+forbearance, patience with Darcy, was injury to Wickham.  She
+was resolved against any sort of conversation with him, and
+turned away with a degree of ill-humour which she could not
+wholly surmount even in speaking to Mr. Bingley, whose blind
+partiality provoked her.
+
+But Elizabeth was not formed for ill-humour; and though every
+prospect of her own was destroyed for the evening, it could not
+dwell long on her spirits; and having told all her griefs to
+Charlotte Lucas, whom she had not seen for a week, she was
+soon able to make a voluntary transition to the oddities of her
+cousin, and to point him out to her particular notice.  The first
+two dances, however, brought a return of distress; they were
+dances of mortification.  Mr. Collins, awkward and solemn,
+apologising instead of attending, and often moving wrong
+without being aware of it, gave her all the shame and misery
+which a disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give.
+The moment of her release from him was ecstasy.
+
+She danced next with an officer, and had the refreshment of
+talking of Wickham, and of hearing that he was universally liked.
+When those dances were over, she returned to Charlotte Lucas,
+and was in conversation with her, when she found herself
+suddenly addressed by Mr. Darcy who took her so much by surprise
+in his application for her hand, that, without knowing what she
+did, she accepted him.  He walked away again immediately, and
+she was left to fret over her own want of presence of mind;
+Charlotte tried to console her:
+
+"I dare say you will find him very agreeable."
+
+"Heaven forbid!  _That_ would be the greatest misfortune of all!
+To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate!  Do not
+wish me such an evil."
+
+When the dancing recommenced, however, and Darcy approached to
+claim her hand, Charlotte could not help cautioning her in a
+whisper, not to be a simpleton, and allow her fancy for Wickham
+to make her appear unpleasant in the eyes of a man ten times his
+consequence.  Elizabeth made no answer, and took her place in
+the set, amazed at the dignity to which she was arrived in being
+allowed to stand opposite to Mr. Darcy, and reading in her
+neighbours' looks, their equal amazement in beholding it.  They
+stood for some time without speaking a word; and she began to
+imagine that their silence was to last through the two dances,
+and at first was resolved not to break it; till suddenly
+fancying that it would be the greater punishment to her partner
+to oblige him to talk, she made some slight observation on the
+dance.  He replied, and was again silent.  After a pause of
+some minutes, she addressed him a second time with:--"It is
+_your_ turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy.  I talked about
+the dance, and _you_ ought to make some sort of remark on the
+size of the room, or the number of couples."
+
+He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say
+should be said.
+
+"Very well.  That reply will do for the present.  Perhaps by and
+by I may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than
+public ones.  But _now_ we may be silent."
+
+"Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?"
+
+"Sometimes.  One must speak a little, you know.  It would look
+odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together; and yet for
+the advantage of _some_, conversation ought to be so arranged, as
+that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible."
+
+"Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do
+you imagine that you are gratifying mine?"
+
+"Both," replied Elizabeth archly; "for I have always seen a great
+similarity in the turn of our minds.  We are each of an unsocial,
+taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say
+something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down
+to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb."
+
+"This is no very striking resemblance of your own character,
+I am sure," said he.  "How near it may be to _mine_, I cannot
+pretend to say.  _You_ think it a faithful portrait undoubtedly."
+
+"I must not decide on my own performance."
+
+He made no answer, and they were again silent till they had gone
+down the dance, when he asked her if she and her sisters did not
+very often walk to Meryton.  She answered in the affirmative,
+and, unable to resist the temptation, added, "When you met us
+there the other day, we had just been forming a new acquaintance."
+
+The effect was immediate.  A deeper shade of _hauteur_ overspread
+his features, but he said not a word, and Elizabeth, though
+blaming herself for her own weakness, could not go on.  At
+length Darcy spoke, and in a constrained manner said, "Mr.
+Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his
+_making_ friends--whether he may be equally capable of _retaining_
+them, is less certain."
+
+"He has been so unlucky as to lose _your_ friendship," replied
+Elizabeth with emphasis, "and in a manner which he is likely to
+suffer from all his life."
+
+Darcy made no answer, and seemed desirous of changing the
+subject.  At that moment, Sir William Lucas appeared close to
+them, meaning to pass through the set to the other side of the
+room; but on perceiving Mr. Darcy, he stopped with a bow of
+superior courtesy to compliment him on his dancing and his
+partner.
+
+"I have been most highly gratified indeed, my dear sir.  Such
+very superior dancing is not often seen.  It is evident that you
+belong to the first circles.  Allow me to say, however, that your
+fair partner does not disgrace you, and that I must hope to have
+this pleasure often repeated, especially when a certain desirable
+event, my dear Eliza (glancing at her sister and Bingley) shall
+take place.  What congratulations will then flow in!  I appeal to
+Mr. Darcy:--but let me not interrupt you, sir.  You will not
+thank me for detaining you from the bewitching converse of that
+young lady, whose bright eyes are also upbraiding me."
+
+The latter part of this address was scarcely heard by Darcy;
+but Sir William's allusion to his friend seemed to strike him
+forcibly, and his eyes were directed with a very serious
+expression towards Bingley and Jane, who were dancing together.
+Recovering himself, however, shortly, he turned to his partner,
+and said, "Sir William's interruption has made me forget what
+we were talking of."
+
+"I do not think we were speaking at all.  Sir William could not
+have interrupted two people in the room who had less to say for
+themselves.  We have tried two or three subjects already without
+success, and what we are to talk of next I cannot imagine."
+
+"What think you of books?" said he, smiling.
+
+"Books--oh! no.  I am sure we never read the same, or not with
+the same feelings."
+
+"I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at
+least be no want of subject.  We may compare our different
+opinions."
+
+"No--I cannot talk of books in a ball-room; my head is always
+full of something else."
+
+"The _present_ always occupies you in such scenes--does it?"
+said he, with a look of doubt.
+
+"Yes, always," she replied, without knowing what she said,
+for her thoughts had wandered far from the subject, as soon
+afterwards appeared by her suddenly exclaiming, "I remember
+hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave,
+that your resentment once created was unappeasable.  You are
+very cautious, I suppose, as to its _being created_."
+
+"I am," said he, with a firm voice.
+
+"And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?"
+
+"I hope not."
+
+"It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their
+opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first."
+
+"May I ask to what these questions tend?"
+
+"Merely to the illustration of _your_ character," said she,
+endeavouring to shake off her gravity.  "I am trying to make
+it out."
+
+"And what is your success?"
+
+She shook her head.  "I do not get on at all.  I hear such
+different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly."
+
+"I can readily believe," answered he gravely, "that reports may
+vary greatly with respect to me; and I could wish, Miss Bennet,
+that you were not to sketch my character at the present moment,
+as there is reason to fear that the performance would reflect no
+credit on either."
+
+"But if I do not take your likeness now, I may never have
+another opportunity."
+
+"I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours," he coldly
+replied.  She said no more, and they went down the other dance
+and parted in silence; and on each side dissatisfied, though not
+to an equal degree, for in Darcy's breast there was a tolerable
+powerful feeling towards her, which soon procured her pardon,
+and directed all his anger against another.
+
+They had not long separated, when Miss Bingley came towards
+her, and with an expression of civil disdain accosted her:
+
+"So, Miss Eliza, I hear you are quite delighted with George
+Wickham!  Your sister has been talking to me about him, and
+asking me a thousand questions; and I find that the young man
+quite forgot to tell you, among his other communication, that
+he was the son of old Wickham, the late Mr. Darcy's steward.
+Let me recommend you, however, as a friend, not to give implicit
+confidence to all his assertions; for as to Mr. Darcy's using
+him ill, it is perfectly false; for, on the contrary, he has
+always been remarkably kind to him, though George Wickham has
+treated Mr. Darcy in a most infamous manner.  I do not know the
+particulars, but I know very well that Mr. Darcy is not in the
+least to blame, that he cannot bear to hear George Wickham
+mentioned, and that though my brother thought that he could not
+well avoid including him in his invitation to the officers, he
+was excessively glad to find that he had taken himself out of the
+way.  His coming into the country at all is a most insolent thing,
+indeed, and I wonder how he could presume to do it.  I pity you,
+Miss Eliza, for this discovery of your favourite's guilt; but
+really, considering his descent, one could not expect much better."
+
+"His guilt and his descent appear by your account to be the
+same," said Elizabeth angrily; "for I have heard you accuse him
+of nothing worse than of being the son of Mr. Darcy's steward,
+and of _that_, I can assure you, he informed me himself."
+
+"I beg your pardon," replied Miss Bingley, turning away with a
+sneer.  "Excuse my interference--it was kindly meant."
+
+"Insolent girl!" said Elizabeth to herself.  "You are much
+mistaken if you expect to influence me by such a paltry attack
+as this.  I see nothing in it but your own wilful ignorance and
+the malice of Mr. Darcy."  She then sought her eldest sister, who
+has undertaken to make inquiries on the same subject of Bingley.
+Jane met her with a smile of such sweet complacency, a glow of
+such happy expression, as sufficiently marked how well she was
+satisfied with the occurrences of the evening.  Elizabeth instantly
+read her feelings, and at that moment solicitude for Wickham,
+resentment against his enemies, and everything else, gave way
+before the hope of Jane's being in the fairest way for happiness.
+
+"I want to know," said she, with a countenance no less smiling
+than her sister's, "what you have learnt about Mr. Wickham.
+But perhaps you have been too pleasantly engaged to think of
+any third person; in which case you may be sure of my pardon."
+
+"No," replied Jane, "I have not forgotten him; but I have nothing
+satisfactory to tell you.  Mr. Bingley does not know the whole of
+his history, and is quite ignorant of the circumstances which have
+principally offended Mr. Darcy; but he will vouch for the good
+conduct, the probity, and honour of his friend, and is perfectly
+convinced that Mr. Wickham has deserved much less attention
+from Mr. Darcy than he has received; and I am sorry to say by
+his account as well as his sister's, Mr. Wickham is by no means a
+respectable young man.  I am afraid he has been very imprudent,
+and has deserved to lose Mr. Darcy's regard."
+
+"Mr. Bingley does not know Mr. Wickham himself?"
+
+"No; he never saw him till the other morning at Meryton."
+
+"This account then is what he has received from Mr. Darcy.
+I am satisfied.  But what does he say of the living?"
+
+"He does not exactly recollect the circumstances, though he has
+heard them from Mr. Darcy more than once, but he believes that
+it was left to him _conditionally_ only."
+
+"I have not a doubt of Mr. Bingley's sincerity," said Elizabeth
+warmly; "but you must excuse my not being convinced by
+assurances only.  Mr. Bingley's defense of his friend was a very
+able one, I dare say; but since he is unacquainted with several
+parts of the story, and has learnt the rest from that friend
+himself, I shall venture to still think of both gentlemen as I
+did before."
+
+She then changed the discourse to one more gratifying to each,
+and on which there could be no difference of sentiment.
+Elizabeth listened with delight to the happy, though modest
+hopes which Jane entertained of Mr. Bingley's regard, and said
+all in her power to heighten her confidence in it.  On their being
+joined by Mr. Bingley himself, Elizabeth withdrew to Miss
+Lucas; to whose inquiry after the pleasantness of her last partner
+she had scarcely replied, before Mr. Collins came up to them,
+and told her with great exultation that he had just been so
+fortunate as to make a most important discovery.
+
+"I have found out," said he, "by a singular accident, that there
+is now in the room a near relation of my patroness.  I happened
+to overhear the gentleman himself mentioning to the young lady who
+does the honours of the house the names of his cousin Miss de
+Bourgh, and of her mother Lady Catherine.  How wonderfully these
+sort of things occur!  Who would have thought of my meeting with,
+perhaps, a nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in this assembly!
+I am most thankful that the discovery is made in time for me to
+pay my respects to him, which I am now going to do, and trust
+he will excuse my not having done it before.  My total ignorance
+of the connection must plead my apology."
+
+"You are not going to introduce yourself to Mr. Darcy!"
+
+"Indeed I am.  I shall entreat his pardon for not having done it
+earlier.  I believe him to be Lady Catherine's _nephew_.  It will
+be in my power to assure him that her ladyship was quite well
+yesterday se'nnight."
+
+Elizabeth tried hard to dissuade him from such a scheme,
+assuring him that Mr. Darcy would consider his addressing him
+without introduction as an impertinent freedom, rather than a
+compliment to his aunt; that it was not in the least necessary
+there should be any notice on either side; and that if it were,
+it must belong to Mr. Darcy, the superior in consequence, to
+begin the acquaintance.  Mr. Collins listened to her with the
+determined air of following his own inclination, and, when she
+ceased speaking, replied thus:
+
+"My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world
+in your excellent judgement in all matters within the scope of
+your understanding; but permit me to say, that there must be a
+wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst
+the laity, and those which regulate the clergy; for, give me
+leave to observe that I consider the clerical office as equal in
+point of dignity with the highest rank in the kingdom--provided
+that a proper humility of behaviour is at the same time
+maintained.  You must therefore allow me to follow the dictates
+of my conscience on this occasion, which leads me to perform what
+I look on as a point of duty.  Pardon me for neglecting to profit
+by your advice, which on every other subject shall be my constant
+guide, though in the case before us I consider myself more fitted
+by education and habitual study to decide on what is right than
+a young lady like yourself."  And with a low bow he left her to
+attack Mr. Darcy, whose reception of his advances she eagerly
+watched, and whose astonishment at being so addressed was very
+evident.  Her cousin prefaced his speech with a solemn bow and
+though she could not hear a word of it, she felt as if hearing
+it all, and saw in the motion of his lips the words "apology,"
+"Hunsford," and "Lady Catherine de Bourgh."  It vexed her to
+see him expose himself to such a man.  Mr. Darcy was eyeing him
+with unrestrained wonder, and when at last Mr. Collins allowed
+him time to speak, replied with an air of distant civility.  Mr.
+Collins, however, was not discouraged from speaking again, and
+Mr. Darcy's contempt seemed abundantly increasing with the length
+of his second speech, and at the end of it he only made him a
+slight bow, and moved another way.  Mr. Collins then returned
+to Elizabeth.
+
+"I have no reason, I assure you," said he, "to be dissatisfied
+with my reception.  Mr. Darcy seemed much pleased with the
+attention.  He answered me with the utmost civility, and even
+paid me the compliment of saying that he was so well convinced
+of Lady Catherine's discernment as to be certain she could never
+bestow a favour unworthily.  It was really a very handsome
+thought.  Upon the whole, I am much pleased with him."
+
+As Elizabeth had no longer any interest of her own to pursue,
+she turned her attention almost entirely on her sister and Mr.
+Bingley; and the train of agreeable reflections which her
+observations gave birth to, made her perhaps almost as happy as
+Jane.  She saw her in idea settled in that very house, in all the
+felicity which a marriage of true affection could bestow; and she
+felt capable, under such circumstances, of endeavouring even to
+like Bingley's two sisters.  Her mother's thoughts she plainly
+saw were bent the same way, and she determined not to venture
+near her, lest she might hear too much.  When they sat down to
+supper, therefore, she considered it a most unlucky perverseness
+which placed them within one of each other; and deeply was she
+vexed to find that her mother was talking to that one person
+(Lady Lucas) freely, openly, and of nothing else but her
+expectation that Jane would soon be married to Mr. Bingley.  It
+was an animating subject, and Mrs. Bennet seemed incapable of
+fatigue while enumerating the advantages of the match.  His
+being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but
+three miles from them, were the first points of self-gratulation;
+and then it was such a comfort to think how fond the two sisters
+were of Jane, and to be certain that they must desire the
+connection as much as she could do.  It was, moreover, such a
+promising thing for her younger daughters, as Jane's marrying so
+greatly must throw them in the way of other rich men; and lastly,
+it was so pleasant at her time of life to be able to consign her
+single daughters to the care of their sister, that she might not
+be obliged to go into company more than she liked.  It was
+necessary to make this circumstance a matter of pleasure,
+because on such occasions it is the etiquette; but no one was less
+likely than Mrs. Bennet to find comfort in staying home at any
+period of her life.  She concluded with many good wishes that
+Lady Lucas might soon be equally fortunate,  though evidently
+and triumphantly believing there was no chance of it.
+
+In vain did Elizabeth endeavour to check the rapidity of her
+mother's words, or persuade her to describe her felicity in a
+less audible whisper; for, to her inexpressible vexation, she
+could perceive that the chief of it was overheard by Mr. Darcy,
+who sat opposite to them.  Her mother only scolded her for
+being nonsensical.
+
+"What is Mr. Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him?
+I am sure we owe him no such particular civility as to be obliged
+to say nothing _he_ may not like to hear."
+
+"For heaven's sake, madam, speak lower.  What advantage can
+it be for you to offend Mr. Darcy?  You will never recommend
+yourself to his friend by so doing!"
+
+Nothing that she could say, however, had any influence.  Her
+mother would talk of her views in the same intelligible tone.
+Elizabeth blushed and blushed again with shame and vexation.
+She could not help frequently glancing her eye at Mr. Darcy,
+though every glance convinced her of what she dreaded; for
+though he was not always looking at her mother, she was
+convinced that his attention was invariably fixed by her.
+The expression of his face changed gradually from indignant
+contempt to a composed and steady gravity.
+
+At length, however, Mrs. Bennet had no more to say; and Lady
+Lucas, who had been long yawning at the repetition of delights
+which she saw no likelihood of sharing, was left to the comforts
+of cold ham and chicken.  Elizabeth now began to revive.  But
+not long was the interval of tranquillity; for, when supper was
+over, singing was talked of, and she had the mortification of
+seeing Mary, after very little entreaty, preparing to oblige the
+company.  By many significant looks and silent entreaties, did
+she endeavour to prevent such a proof of complaisance, but in
+vain; Mary would not understand them; such an opportunity of
+exhibiting was delightful to her, and she began her song.
+Elizabeth's eyes were fixed on her with most painful sensations,
+and she watched her progress through the several stanzas with
+an impatience which was very ill rewarded at their close; for
+Mary, on receiving, amongst the thanks of the table, the hint of
+a hope that she might be prevailed on to favour them again, after
+the pause of half a minute began another.  Mary's powers were
+by no means fitted for such a display; her voice was weak, and
+her manner affected.  Elizabeth was in agonies.  She looked at
+Jane, to see how she bore it; but Jane was very composedly
+talking to Bingley.  She looked at his two sisters, and saw
+them making signs of derision at each other, and at Darcy, who
+continued, however, imperturbably grave.  She looked at her
+father to entreat his interference, lest Mary should be singing all
+night.  He took the hint, and when Mary had finished her second
+song, said aloud, "That will do extremely well, child.  You have
+delighted us long enough.  Let the other young ladies have time
+to exhibit."
+
+Mary, though pretending not to hear, was somewhat disconcerted;
+and Elizabeth, sorry for her, and sorry for her father's speech,
+was afraid her anxiety had done no good.  Others of the party
+were now applied to.
+
+"If I," said Mr. Collins, "were so fortunate as to be able to sing,
+I should have great pleasure, I am sure, in obliging the company
+with an air; for I consider music as a very innocent diversion,
+and perfectly compatible with the profession of a clergyman.  I do
+not mean, however, to assert that we can be justified in devoting
+too much of our time to music, for there are certainly other things
+to be attended to.  The rector of a parish has much to do.  In the
+first place, he must make such an agreement for tithes as may be
+beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron.  He must
+write his own sermons; and the time that remains will not be too
+much for his parish duties, and the care and improvement of his
+dwelling, which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable
+as possible.  And I do not think it of light importance that he
+should have attentive and conciliatory manner towards everybody,
+especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment.  I
+cannot acquit him of that duty; nor could I think well of the
+man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect
+towards anybody connected with the family."  And with a bow to
+Mr. Darcy, he concluded his speech, which had been spoken so
+loud as to be heard by half the room.  Many stared--many smiled;
+but no one looked more amused than Mr. Bennet himself, while
+his wife seriously commended Mr. Collins for having spoken so
+sensibly, and observed in a half-whisper to Lady Lucas, that he
+was a remarkably clever, good kind of young man.
+
+To Elizabeth it appeared that, had her family made an agreement
+to expose themselves as much as they could during the
+evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their
+parts with more spirit or finer success; and happy did she think
+it for Bingley and her sister that some of the exhibition had
+escaped his notice, and that his feelings were not of a sort to
+be much distressed by the folly which he must have witnessed.
+That his two sisters and Mr. Darcy, however, should have such
+an opportunity of ridiculing her relations, was bad enough, and
+she could not determine whether the silent contempt of the
+gentleman, or the insolent smiles of the ladies, were more
+intolerable.
+
+The rest of the evening brought her little amusement.  She was
+teased by Mr. Collins, who continued most perseveringly by her
+side, and though he could not prevail on her to dance with him
+again, put it out of her power to dance with others.  In vain
+did she entreat him to stand up with somebody else, and offer to
+introduce him to any young lady in the room.  He assured her,
+that as to dancing, he was perfectly indifferent to it; that his
+chief object was by delicate attentions to recommend himself to
+her and that he should therefore make a point of remaining close
+to her the whole evening.  There was no arguing upon such a
+project.  She owed her greatest relief to her friend Miss Lucas,
+who often joined them, and good-naturedly engaged Mr. Collins's
+conversation to herself.
+
+She was at least free from the offense of Mr. Darcy's further
+notice; though often standing within a very short distance of her,
+quite disengaged, he never came near enough to speak.  She felt
+it to be the probable consequence of her allusions to Mr. Wickham,
+and rejoiced in it.
+
+The Longbourn party were the last of all the company to depart,
+and, by a manoeuvre of Mrs. Bennet, had to wait for their
+carriage a quarter of an hour after everybody else was gone,
+which gave them time to see how heartily they were wished
+away by some of the family.  Mrs. Hurst and her sister scarcely
+opened their mouths, except to complain of fatigue, and were
+evidently impatient to have the house to themselves.  They
+repulsed every attempt of Mrs. Bennet at conversation, and by
+so doing threw a languor over the whole party, which was very
+little relieved by the long speeches of Mr. Collins, who was
+complimenting Mr. Bingley and his sisters on the elegance of
+their entertainment, and the hospitality and politeness which had
+marked their behaviour to their guests.  Darcy said nothing at all.
+Mr. Bennet, in equal silence, was enjoying the scene.  Mr.
+Bingley and Jane were standing together, a little detached from
+the rest, and talked only to each other.  Elizabeth preserved as
+steady a silence as either Mrs. Hurst or Miss Bingley; and even
+Lydia was too much fatigued to utter more than the occasional
+exclamation of "Lord, how tired I am!" accompanied by a
+violent yawn.
+
+When at length they arose to take leave, Mrs. Bennet was most
+pressingly civil in her hope of seeing the whole family soon
+at Longbourn, and addressed herself especially to Mr. Bingley,
+to assure him how happy he would make them by eating a family
+dinner with them at any time, without the ceremony of a formal
+invitation.  Bingley was all grateful pleasure, and he readily
+engaged for taking the earliest opportunity of waiting on her,
+after his return from London, whither he was obliged to go the
+next day for a short time.
+
+Mrs. Bennet was perfectly satisfied, and quitted the house under
+the delightful persuasion that, allowing for the necessary
+preparations of settlements, new carriages, and wedding clothes,
+she should undoubtedly see her daughter settled at Netherfield in
+the course of three or four months.  Of having another daughter
+married to Mr. Collins, she thought with equal certainty, and
+with considerable, though not equal, pleasure.  Elizabeth was the
+least dear to her of all her children; and though the man and the
+match were quite good enough for _her_, the worth of each was
+eclipsed by Mr. Bingley and Netherfield.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+
+The next day opened a new scene at Longbourn.  Mr. Collins
+made his declaration in form.  Having resolved to do it without
+loss of time, as his leave of absence extended only to the
+following Saturday, and having no feelings of diffidence to make
+it distressing to himself even at the moment, he set about it
+in a very orderly manner, with all the observances, which
+he supposed a regular part of the business.  On finding Mrs.
+Bennet, Elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon
+after breakfast, he addressed the mother in these words:
+
+"May I hope, madam, for your interest with your fair daughter
+Elizabeth, when I solicit for the honour of a private audience
+with her in the course of this morning?"
+
+Before Elizabeth had time for anything but a blush of surprise,
+Mrs. Bennet answered instantly, "Oh dear!--yes--certainly.  I
+am sure Lizzy will be very happy--I am sure she can have no
+objection.  Come, Kitty, I want you upstairs."  And, gathering
+her work together, she was hastening away, when Elizabeth
+called out:
+
+"Dear madam, do not go.  I beg you will not go.  Mr. Collins
+must excuse me.  He can have nothing to say to me that anybody
+need not hear.  I am going away myself."
+
+"No, no, nonsense, Lizzy.  I desire you to stay where you are."
+And upon Elizabeth's seeming really, with vexed and embarrassed
+looks, about to escape, she added: "Lizzy, I _insist_ upon your
+staying and hearing Mr. Collins."
+
+Elizabeth would not oppose such an injunction--and a moment's
+consideration making her also sensible that it would be wisest to
+get it over as soon and as quietly as possible, she sat down again
+and tried to conceal, by incessant employment the feelings which
+were divided between distress and diversion. Mrs. Bennet and Kitty
+walked off, and as soon as they were gone, Mr. Collins began.
+
+"Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so far
+from doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other
+perfections.  You would have been less amiable in my eyes had
+there _not_ been this little unwillingness; but allow me to assure
+you, that I have your respected mother's permission for this
+address.  You can hardly doubt the purport of my discourse,
+however your natural delicacy may lead you to dissemble; my
+attentions have been too marked to be mistaken.  Almost as soon
+as I entered the house, I singled you out as the companion of
+my future life.  But before I am run away with by my feelings on
+this subject, perhaps it would be advisable for me to state my
+reasons for marrying--and, moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire
+with the design of selecting a wife, as I certainly did."
+
+The idea of Mr. Collins, with all his solemn composure, being
+run away with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing,
+that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt
+to stop him further, and he continued:
+
+"My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right
+thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to
+set the example of matrimony in his parish; secondly, that I am
+convinced that it will add very greatly to my happiness; and
+thirdly--which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that
+it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble
+lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness.  Twice has
+she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!) on this
+subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I left
+Hunsford--between our pools at quadrille, while Mrs. Jenkinson
+was arranging Miss de Bourgh's footstool, that she said, 'Mr.
+Collins, you must marry.  A clergyman like you must marry.
+Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for _my_ sake; and for
+your _own_, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought
+up high, but able to make a small income go a good way.  This is
+my advice.  Find such a woman as soon as you can, bring her to
+Hunsford, and I will visit her.'  Allow me, by the way, to
+observe, my fair cousin, that I do not reckon the notice and
+kindness of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as among the least of the
+advantages in my power to offer.  You will find her manners
+beyond anything I can describe; and your wit and vivacity, I
+think, must be acceptable to her, especially when tempered with
+the silence and respect which her rank will inevitably excite.
+Thus much for my general intention in favour of matrimony;
+it remains to be told why my views were directed towards
+Longbourn instead of my own neighbourhood, where I can
+assure you there are many amiable young women.  But the fact
+is, that being, as I am, to inherit this estate after the death of
+your honoured father (who, however, may live many years
+longer), I could not satisfy myself without resolving to choose a
+wife from among his daughters, that the loss to them might be as
+little as possible, when the melancholy event takes place--which,
+however, as I have already said, may not be for several years.
+This has been my motive, my fair cousin, and I flatter myself it
+will not sink me in your esteem.  And now nothing remains but
+for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the
+violence of my affection.  To fortune I am perfectly indifferent,
+and shall make no demand of that nature on your father, since I
+am well aware that it could not be complied with; and that one
+thousand pounds in the four per cents, which will not be yours
+till after your mother's decease, is all that you may ever be
+entitled to.  On that head, therefore, I shall be uniformly silent;
+and you may assure yourself that no ungenerous reproach shall
+ever pass my lips when we are married."
+
+It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.
+
+"You are too hasty, sir," she cried.  "You forget that I have
+made no answer.  Let me do it without further loss of time.
+Accept my thanks for the compliment you are paying me.  I am
+very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but it is
+impossible for me to do otherwise than to decline them."
+
+"I am not now to learn," replied Mr. Collins, with a formal wave
+of the hand, "that it is usual with young ladies to reject the
+addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when
+he first applies for their favour; and that sometimes the refusal
+is repeated a second, or even a third time.  I am therefore by no
+means discouraged by what you have just said, and shall hope to
+lead you to the altar ere long."
+
+"Upon my word, sir," cried Elizabeth, "your hope is a rather
+extraordinary one after my declaration.  I do assure you that I
+am not one of those young ladies (if such young ladies there are)
+who are so daring as to risk their happiness on the chance of
+being asked a second time.  I am perfectly serious in my refusal.
+You could not make _me_ happy, and I am convinced that I am
+the last woman in the world who could make you so.  Nay, were
+your friend Lady Catherine to know me, I am persuaded she
+would find me in every respect ill qualified for the situation."
+
+"Were it certain that Lady Catherine would think so," said Mr.
+Collins very gravely--"but I cannot imagine that her ladyship
+would at all disapprove of you.  And you may be certain when I
+have the honour of seeing her again, I shall speak in the very
+highest terms of your modesty, economy, and other amiable
+qualification."
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Collins, all praise of me will be unnecessary.
+You must give me leave to judge for myself, and pay me the
+compliment of believing what I say.  I wish you very happy and
+very rich, and by refusing your hand, do all in my power to
+prevent your being otherwise.  In making me the offer, you must
+have satisfied the delicacy of your feelings with regard to my
+family, and may take possession of Longbourn estate whenever
+it falls, without any self-reproach.  This matter may be
+considered, therefore, as finally settled."  And rising as she
+thus spoke, she would have quitted the room, had Mr. Collins
+not thus addressed her:
+
+"When I do myself the honour of speaking to you next on the
+subject, I shall hope to receive a more favourable answer than
+you have now given me; though I am far from accusing you of
+cruelty at present, because I know it to be the established
+custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application, and
+perhaps you have even now said as much to encourage my suit
+as would be consistent with the true delicacy of the female
+character."
+
+"Really, Mr. Collins," cried Elizabeth with some warmth, "you
+puzzle me exceedingly.  If what I have hitherto said can appear
+to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express
+my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one."
+
+"You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin, that
+your refusal of my addresses is merely words of course.  My
+reasons for believing it are briefly these: It does not appear
+to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the
+establishment I can offer would be any other than highly
+desirable.  My situation in life, my connections with the family
+of de Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances
+highly in my favour; and you should take it into further
+consideration, that in spite of your manifold attractions, it is
+by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be
+made you.  Your portion is unhappily so small that it will in
+all likelihood undo the effects of your loveliness and amiable
+qualifications.  As I must therefore conclude that you are not
+serious in your rejection of me, I shall choose to attribute it
+to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the
+usual practice of elegant females."
+
+"I do assure you, sir, that I have no pretensions whatever to that
+kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.
+I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere.
+I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in
+your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible.  My
+feelings in every respect forbid it.  Can I speak plainer?  Do not
+consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you,
+but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart."
+
+"You are uniformly charming!" cried he, with an air of awkward
+gallantry; "and I am persuaded that when sanctioned by the
+express authority of both your excellent parents, my proposals
+will not fail of being acceptable."
+
+To such perseverance in wilful self-deception Elizabeth would
+make no reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew;
+determined, if he persisted in considering her repeated
+refusals as flattering encouragement, to apply to her father,
+whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be
+decisive, and whose behavior at least could not be mistaken
+for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+
+Mr. Collins was not left long to the silent contemplation of his
+successful love; for Mrs. Bennet, having dawdled about in the
+vestibule to watch for the end of the conference, no sooner saw
+Elizabeth open the door and with quick step pass her towards
+the staircase, than she entered the breakfast-room, and
+congratulated both him and herself in warm terms on the happy
+prospect or their nearer connection.  Mr. Collins received and
+returned these felicitations with equal pleasure, and then
+proceeded to relate the particulars of their interview, with the
+result of which he trusted he had every reason to be satisfied,
+since the refusal which his cousin had steadfastly given him
+would naturally flow from her bashful modesty and the genuine
+delicacy of her character.
+
+This information, however, startled Mrs. Bennet; she would
+have been glad to be equally satisfied that her daughter had
+meant to encourage him by protesting against his proposals,
+but she dared not believe it, and could not help saying so.
+
+"But, depend upon it, Mr. Collins," she added, "that Lizzy shall
+be brought to reason.  I will speak to her about it directly.
+She is a very headstrong, foolish girl, and does not know her
+own interest but I will _make_ her know it."
+
+"Pardon me for interrupting you, madam," cried Mr. Collins;
+"but if she is really headstrong and foolish, I know not whether
+she would altogether be a very desirable wife to a man in my
+situation, who naturally looks for happiness in the marriage
+state.  If therefore she actually persists in rejecting my suit,
+perhaps it were better not to force her into accepting me,
+because if liable to such defects of temper, she could not
+contribute much to my felicity."
+
+"Sir, you quite misunderstand me," said Mrs. Bennet, alarmed.
+"Lizzy is only headstrong in such matters as these.  In everything
+else she is as good-natured a girl as ever lived.  I will go
+directly to Mr. Bennet, and we shall very soon settle it with her,
+I am sure."
+
+She would not give him time to reply, but hurrying instantly to
+her husband, called out as she entered the library, "Oh! Mr.
+Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar.
+You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows
+she will not have him, and if you do not make haste he will
+change his mind and not have _her_."
+
+Mr. Bennet raised his eyes from his book as she entered, and
+fixed them on her face with a calm unconcern which was not in
+the least altered by her communication.
+
+"I have not the pleasure of understanding you," said he, when
+she had finished her speech.  "Of what are you talking?"
+
+"Of Mr. Collins and Lizzy.  Lizzy declares she will not have
+Mr. Collins, and Mr. Collins begins to say that he will not
+have Lizzy."
+
+"And what am I to do on the occasion?  It seems an hopeless
+business."
+
+"Speak to Lizzy about it yourself.  Tell her that you insist upon
+her marrying him."
+
+"Let her be called down.  She shall hear my opinion."
+
+Mrs. Bennet rang the bell, and Miss Elizabeth was summoned to
+the library.
+
+"Come here, child," cried her father as she appeared.  "I have
+sent for you on an affair of importance.  I understand that Mr.
+Collins has made you an offer of marriage.  Is it true?"  Elizabeth
+replied that it was.  "Very well--and this offer of marriage you
+have refused?"
+
+"I have, sir."
+
+"Very well.  We now come to the point.  Your mother insists
+upon your accepting it.  Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?"
+
+"Yes, or I will never see her again."
+
+"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth.  From this day
+you must be a stranger to one of your parents.  Your mother will
+never see you again if you do _not_ marry Mr. Collins, and I will
+never see you again if you _do_."
+
+Elizabeth could not but smile at such a conclusion of such a
+beginning, but Mrs. Bennet, who had persuaded herself that her
+husband regarded the affair as she wished, was excessively
+disappointed.
+
+"What do you mean, Mr. Bennet, in talking this way?  You
+promised me to _insist_ upon her marrying him."
+
+"My dear," replied her husband, "I have two small favours to
+request.  First, that you will allow me the free use of my
+understanding on the present occasion; and secondly, of my
+room.  I shall be glad to have the library to myself as soon as
+may be."
+
+Not yet, however, in spite of her disappointment in her husband,
+did Mrs. Bennet give up the point.  She talked to Elizabeth again
+and again; coaxed and threatened her by turns.  She endeavoured
+to secure Jane in her interest; but Jane, with all possible
+mildness, declined interfering; and Elizabeth, sometimes with
+real earnestness, and sometimes with playful gaiety, replied to
+her attacks.  Though her manner varied, however, her determination
+never did.
+
+Mr. Collins, meanwhile, was meditating in solitude on what had
+passed.  He thought too well of himself to comprehend on what
+motives his cousin could refuse him; and though his pride was
+hurt, he suffered in no other way.  His regard for her was quite
+imaginary; and the possibility of her deserving her mother's
+reproach prevented his feeling any regret.
+
+While the family were in this confusion, Charlotte Lucas came to
+spend the day with them.  She was met in the vestibule by Lydia,
+who, flying to her, cried in a half whisper, "I am glad you are
+come, for there is such fun here!  What do you think has
+happened this morning?  Mr. Collins has made an offer to Lizzy,
+and she will not have him."
+
+Charlotte hardly had time to answer, before they were joined by
+Kitty, who came to tell the same news; and no sooner had they
+entered the breakfast-room, where Mrs. Bennet was alone, than
+she likewise began on the subject, calling on Miss Lucas for her
+compassion, and entreating her to persuade her friend Lizzy to
+comply with the wishes of all her family.  "Pray do, my dear
+Miss Lucas," she added in a melancholy tone, "for nobody is on
+my side, nobody takes part with me.  I am cruelly used, nobody
+feels for my poor nerves."
+
+Charlotte's reply was spared by the entrance of Jane and
+Elizabeth.
+
+"Aye, there she comes," continued Mrs. Bennet, "looking as
+unconcerned as may be, and caring no more for us than if we
+were at York, provided she can have her own way.  But I tell
+you, Miss Lizzy--if you take it into your head to go on refusing
+every offer of marriage in this way, you will never get a husband
+at all--and I am sure I do not know who is to maintain you
+when your father is dead.  I shall not be able to keep you--and
+so I warn you.  I have done with you from this very day.  I told
+you in the library, you know, that I should never speak to you
+again, and you will find me as good as my word.  I have no
+pleasure in talking to undutiful children.  Not that I have much
+pleasure, indeed, in talking to anybody.  People who suffer as
+I do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for
+talking.  Nobody can tell what I suffer!  But it is always so.
+Those who do not complain are never pitied."
+
+Her daughters listened in silence to this effusion, sensible
+that any attempt to reason with her or soothe her would only
+increase the irritation.  She talked on, therefore, without
+interruption from any of them, till they were joined by Mr.
+Collins, who entered the room with an air more stately than
+usual, and on perceiving whom, she said to the girls, "Now, I do
+insist upon it, that you, all of you, hold your tongues, and
+let me and Mr. Collins have a little conversation together."
+
+Elizabeth passed quietly out of the room, Jane and Kitty
+followed, but Lydia stood her ground, determined to hear all she
+could; and Charlotte, detained first by the civility of Mr. Collins,
+whose inquiries after herself and all her family were very minute,
+and then by a little curiosity, satisfied herself with walking to
+the window and pretending not to hear.  In a doleful voice Mrs.
+Bennet began the projected conversation: "Oh! Mr. Collins!"
+
+"My dear madam," replied he, "let us be for ever silent on this
+point.  Far be it from me," he presently continued, in a voice that
+marked his displeasure, "to resent the behaviour of your daughter.
+Resignation to inevitable evils is the evil duty of us all; the
+peculiar duty of a young man who has been so fortunate as I
+have been in early preferment; and I trust I am resigned.
+Perhaps not the less so from feeling a doubt of my positive
+happiness had my fair cousin honoured me with her hand; for I
+have often observed that resignation is never so perfect as when
+the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our
+estimation.  You will not, I hope, consider me as showing any
+disrespect to your family, my dear madam, by thus withdrawing
+my pretensions to your daughter's favour, without having paid
+yourself and Mr. Bennet the compliment of requesting you to
+interpose your authority in my behalf.  My conduct may, I fear,
+be objectionable in having accepted my dismission from your
+daughter's lips instead of your own.  But we are all liable to
+error.  I have certainly meant well through the whole affair.  My
+object has been to secure an amiable companion for myself, with
+due consideration for the advantage of all your family, and if
+my _manner_ has been at all reprehensible, I here beg leave to
+apologise."
+
+
+
+Chapter 21
+
+
+The discussion of Mr. Collins's offer was now nearly at an end,
+and Elizabeth had only to suffer from the uncomfortable feelings
+necessarily attending it, and occasionally from some peevish
+allusions of her mother.  As for the gentleman himself, _his_
+feelings were chiefly expressed, not by embarrassment or
+dejection, or by trying to avoid her, but by stiffness of manner
+and resentful silence.  He scarcely ever spoke to her, and the
+assiduous attentions which he had been so sensible of himself
+were transferred for the rest of the day to Miss Lucas, whose
+civility in listening to him was a seasonable relief to them all,
+and especially to her friend.
+
+The morrow produced no abatement of Mrs. Bennet's ill-humour
+or ill health.  Mr. Collins was also in the same state of angry
+pride.  Elizabeth had hoped that his resentment might shorten his
+visit, but his plan did not appear in the least affected by it.
+He was always to have gone on Saturday, and to Saturday he meant
+to stay.
+
+After breakfast, the girls walked to Meryton to inquire if Mr.
+Wickham were returned, and to lament over his absence from
+the Netherfield ball.  He joined them on their entering the town,
+and attended them to their aunt's where his regret and vexation,
+and the concern of everybody, was well talked over.  To
+Elizabeth, however, he voluntarily acknowledged that the
+necessity of his absence _had_ been self-imposed.
+
+"I found," said he, "as the time drew near that I had better not
+meet Mr. Darcy; that to be in the same room, the same party
+with him for so many hours together, might be more than I could
+bear, and that scenes might arise unpleasant to more than
+myself."
+
+She highly approved his forbearance, and they had leisure for a
+full discussion of it, and for all the commendation which they
+civilly bestowed on each other, as Wickham and another officer
+walked back with them to Longbourn, and during the walk he
+particularly attended to her.  His accompanying them was a
+double advantage; she felt all the compliment it offered to
+herself, and it was most acceptable as an occasion of introducing
+him to her father and mother.
+
+Soon after their return, a letter was delivered to Miss Bennet;
+it came from Netherfield.  The envelope contained a sheet of
+elegant, little, hot-pressed paper, well covered with a lady's fair,
+flowing hand; and Elizabeth saw her sister's countenance change
+as she read it, and saw her dwelling intently on some particular
+passages.  Jane recollected herself soon, and putting the letter
+away, tried to join with her usual cheerfulness in the general
+conversation; but Elizabeth felt an anxiety on the subject which
+drew off her attention even from Wickham; and no sooner had
+he and he companion taken leave, than a glance from Jane
+invited her to follow her upstairs.  When they had gained their
+own room, Jane, taking out the letter, said:
+
+"This is from Caroline Bingley; what it contains has surprised me
+a good deal.  The whole party have left Netherfield by this time,
+and are on their way to town--and without any intention of coming
+back again.  You shall hear what she says."
+
+She then read the first sentence aloud, which comprised the
+information of their having just resolved to follow their brother
+to town directly, and of their meaning to dine in Grosvenor
+Street, where Mr. Hurst had a house.  The next was in these
+words: "I do not pretend to regret anything I shall leave in
+Hertfordshire, except your society, my dearest friend; but we
+will hope, at some future period, to enjoy many returns of that
+delightful intercourse we have known, and in the meanwhile may
+lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most
+unreserved correspondence.  I depend on you for that."  To
+these highflown expressions Elizabeth listened with all the
+insensibility of distrust; and though the suddenness of their
+removal surprised her, she saw nothing in it really to lament;
+it was not to be supposed that their absence from Netherfield
+would prevent Mr. Bingley's being there; and as to the loss of
+their society, she was persuaded that Jane must cease to regard
+it, in the enjoyment of his.
+
+"It is unlucky," said she, after a short pause, "that you should
+not be able to see your friends before they leave the country.
+But may we not hope that the period of future happiness to
+which Miss Bingley looks forward may arrive earlier than she is
+aware, and that the delightful intercourse you have known as
+friends will be renewed with yet greater satisfaction as sisters?
+Mr. Bingley will not be detained in London by them."
+
+"Caroline decidedly says that none of the party will return into
+Hertfordshire this winter.  I will read it to you:"
+
+"When my brother left us yesterday, he imagined that the
+business which took him to London might be concluded in three
+or four days; but as we are certain it cannot be so, and at the
+same time convinced that when Charles gets to town he will be
+in no hurry to leave it again, we have determined on following
+him thither, that he may not be obliged to spend his vacant hours
+in a comfortless hotel.  Many of my acquaintances are already
+there for the winter; I wish that I could hear that you, my dearest
+friend, had any intention of making one of the crowd--but of
+that I despair.  I sincerely hope your Christmas in Hertfordshire
+may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings,
+and that your beaux will be so numerous as to prevent your
+feeling the loss of the three of whom we shall deprive you."
+
+"It is evident by this," added Jane, "that he comes back no more
+this winter."
+
+"It is only evident that Miss Bingley does not mean that he
+_should_."
+
+"Why will you think so?  It must be his own doing.  He is his
+own master.  But you do not know _all_.  I _will_ read you the
+passage which particularly hurts me.  I will have no reserves
+from _you_."
+
+"Mr. Darcy is impatient to see his sister; and, to confess the
+truth, _we_ are scarcely less eager to meet her again.  I really do
+not think Georgiana Darcy has her equal for beauty, elegance,
+and accomplishments; and the affection she inspires in Louisa
+and myself is heightened into something still more interesting,
+from the hope we dare entertain of her being hereafter our
+sister.  I do not know whether I ever before mentioned to you
+my feelings on this subject; but I will not leave the country
+without confiding them, and I trust you will not esteem them
+unreasonable.  My brother admires her greatly already; he will
+have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most
+intimate footing; her relations all wish the connection as much as
+his own; and a sister's partiality is not misleading me, I think,
+when I call Charles most capable of engaging any woman's
+heart.  With all these circumstances to favour an attachment, and
+nothing to prevent it, am I wrong, my dearest Jane, in indulging
+the hope of an event which will secure the happiness of so many?"
+
+"What do you think of _this_ sentence, my dear Lizzy?" said
+Jane as she finished it.  "Is it not clear enough?  Does it not
+expressly declare that Caroline neither expects nor wishes me to
+be her sister; that she is perfectly convinced of her brother's
+indifference; and that if she suspects the nature of my feelings
+for him, she means (most kindly!) to put me on my guard?  Can
+there be any other opinion on the subject?"
+
+"Yes, there can; for mine is totally different.  Will you hear it?"
+
+"Most willingly."
+
+"You shall have it in a few words.  Miss Bingley sees that her
+brother is in love with you, and wants him to marry Miss Darcy.
+She follows him to town in hope of keeping him there, and tries
+to persuade you that he does not care about you."
+
+Jane shook her head.
+
+"Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me.  No one who has ever
+seen you together can doubt his affection.  Miss Bingley, I am
+sure, cannot.  She is not such a simpleton.  Could she have seen
+half as much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would have
+ordered her wedding clothes.  But the case is this: We are not
+rich enough or grand enough for them; and she is the more
+anxious to get Miss Darcy for her brother, from the notion that
+when there has been _one_ intermarriage, she may have less
+trouble in achieving a second; in which there is certainly some
+ingenuity, and I dare say it would succeed, if Miss de Bourgh
+were out of the way.  But, my dearest Jane, you cannot seriously
+imagine that because Miss Bingley tells you her brother greatly
+admires Miss Darcy, he is in the smallest degree less sensible
+of _your_ merit than when he took leave of you on Tuesday, or
+that it will be in her power to persuade him that, instead of
+being in love with you, he is very much in love with her friend."
+
+"If we thought alike of Miss Bingley," replied Jane, "your
+representation of all this might make me quite easy.  But I know
+the foundation is unjust.  Caroline is incapable of wilfully
+deceiving anyone; and all that I can hope in this case is that
+she is deceiving herself."
+
+"That is right.  You could not have started a more happy idea,
+since you will not take comfort in mine.  Believe her to be
+deceived, by all means.  You have now done your duty by her,
+and must fret no longer."
+
+"But, my dear sister, can I be happy, even supposing the best, in
+accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to
+marry elsewhere?"
+
+"You must decide for yourself," said Elizabeth; "and if, upon
+mature deliberation, you find that the misery of disobliging his
+two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his
+wife, I advise you by all means to refuse him."
+
+"How can you talk so?" said Jane, faintly smiling.  "You must
+know that though I should be exceedingly grieved at their
+disapprobation, I could not hesitate."
+
+"I did not think you would; and that being the case, I cannot
+consider your situation with much compassion."
+
+"But if he returns no more this winter, my choice will never be
+required.  A thousand things may arise in six months!"
+
+The idea of his returning no more Elizabeth treated with the
+utmost contempt.  It appeared to her merely the suggestion of
+Caroline's interested wishes, and she could not for a moment
+suppose that those wishes, however openly or artfully spoken,
+could influence a young man so totally independent of everyone.
+
+She represented to her sister as forcibly as possible what she
+felt on the subject, and had soon the pleasure of seeing its
+happy effect.  Jane's temper was not desponding, and she was
+gradually led to hope, though the diffidence of affection
+sometimes overcame the hope, that Bingley would return to
+Netherfield and answer every wish of her heart.
+
+They agreed that Mrs. Bennet should only hear of the departure
+of the family, without being alarmed on the score of the
+gentleman's conduct; but even this partial communication gave
+her a great deal of concern, and she bewailed it as exceedingly
+unlucky that the ladies should happen to go away just as they
+were all getting so intimate together.  After lamenting it,
+however, at some length, she had the consolation that Mr.
+Bingley would be soon down again and soon dining at Longbourn,
+and the conclusion of all was the comfortable declaration,
+that though he had been invited only to a family dinner, she
+would take care to have two full courses.
+
+
+
+Chapter 22
+
+
+The Bennets were engaged to dine with the Lucases and again
+during the chief of the day was Miss Lucas so kind as to listen
+to Mr. Collins.  Elizabeth took an opportunity of thanking her.
+"It keeps him in good humour," said she, "and I am more obliged
+to you than I can express."  Charlotte assured her friend of
+her satisfaction in being useful, and that it amply repaid her
+for the little sacrifice of her time.  This was very amiable,
+but Charlotte's kindness extended farther than Elizabeth had
+any conception of; its object was nothing else than to secure
+her from any return of Mr. Collins's addresses, by engaging
+them towards herself.  Such was Miss Lucas's scheme; and
+appearances were so favourable, that when they parted at night,
+she would have felt almost secure of success if he had not been
+to leave Hertfordshire so very soon.  But here she did injustice
+to the fire and independence of his character, for it led
+him to escape out of Longbourn House the next morning with
+admirable slyness, and hasten to Lucas Lodge to throw himself
+at her feet.  He was anxious to avoid the notice of his cousins,
+from a conviction that if they saw him depart, they could not
+fail to conjecture his design, and he was not willing to have
+the attempt known till its success might be known likewise; for
+though feeling almost secure, and with reason, for Charlotte had
+been tolerably encouraging, he was comparatively diffident since
+the adventure of Wednesday.  His reception, however, was of
+the most flattering kind.  Miss Lucas perceived him from an
+upper window as he walked towards the house, and instantly set
+out to meet him accidentally in the lane.  But little had she
+dared to hope that so much love and eloquence awaited her there.
+
+In as short a time as Mr. Collins's long speeches would allow,
+everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both;
+and as they entered the house he earnestly entreated her to name
+the day that was to make him the happiest of men; and though
+such a solicitation must be waived for the present, the lady felt
+no inclination to trifle with his happiness.  The stupidity with
+which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from
+any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance;
+and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and
+disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon
+that establishment were gained.
+
+Sir William and Lady Lucas were speedily applied to for their
+consent; and it was bestowed with a most joyful alacrity.  Mr.
+Collins's present circumstances made it a most eligible match for
+their daughter, to whom they could give little fortune; and his
+prospects of future wealth were exceedingly fair.  Lady Lucas
+began directly to calculate, with more interest than the
+matter had ever excited before, how many years longer Mr.
+Bennet was likely to live; and Sir William gave it as his decided
+opinion, that whenever Mr. Collins should be in possession of the
+Longbourn estate, it would be highly expedient that both he and
+his wife should make their appearance at St. James's.  The whole
+family, in short, were properly overjoyed on the occasion.
+The younger girls formed hopes of _coming out_ a year or two
+sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were
+relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte's dying an old
+maid.  Charlotte herself was tolerably composed.  She had
+gained her point, and had time to consider of it.  Her reflections
+were in general satisfactory.  Mr. Collins, to be sure, was
+neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his
+attachment to her must be imaginary.  But still he would be her
+husband.  Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony,
+marriage had always been her object; it was the only provision
+for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however
+uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest
+preservative from want.  This preservative she had now
+obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever
+been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.  The least
+agreeable circumstance in the business was the surprise it must
+occasion to Elizabeth Bennet, whose friendship she valued
+beyond that of any other person.  Elizabeth would wonder, and
+probably would blame her; and though her resolution was not to
+be shaken, her feelings must be hurt by such a disapprobation.
+She resolved to give her the information herself, and therefore
+charged Mr. Collins, when he returned to Longbourn to dinner,
+to drop no hint of what had passed before any of the family.  A
+promise of secrecy was of course very dutifully given, but it
+could not be kept without difficulty; for the curiosity excited
+by his long absence burst forth in such very direct questions on
+his return as required some ingenuity to evade, and he was at the
+same time exercising great self-denial, for he was longing to
+publish his prosperous love.
+
+As he was to begin his journey too early on the morrow to see
+any of the family, the ceremony of leave-taking was performed
+when the ladies moved for the night; and Mrs. Bennet, with
+great politeness and cordiality, said how happy they should be
+to see him at Longbourn again, whenever his engagements might
+allow him to visit them.
+
+"My dear madam," he replied, "this invitation is particularly
+gratifying, because it is what I have been hoping to receive; and
+you may be very certain that I shall avail myself of it as soon
+as possible."
+
+They were all astonished; and Mr. Bennet, who could by no
+means wish for so speedy a return, immediately said:
+
+"But is there not danger of Lady Catherine's disapprobation
+here, my good sir?  You had better neglect your relations than
+run the risk of offending your patroness."
+
+"My dear sir," replied Mr. Collins, "I am particularly obliged
+to you for this friendly caution, and you may depend upon my not
+taking so material a step without her ladyship's concurrence."
+
+"You cannot be too much upon your guard.  Risk anything
+rather than her displeasure; and if you find it likely to be raised
+by your coming to us again, which I should think exceedingly
+probable, stay quietly at home, and be satisfied that _we_ shall
+take no offence."
+
+"Believe me, my dear sir, my gratitude is warmly excited by
+such affectionate attention; and depend upon it, you will speedily
+receive from me a letter of thanks for this, and for every other
+mark of your regard during my stay in Hertfordshire.  As for my
+fair cousins, though my absence may not be long enough to
+render it necessary, I shall now take the liberty of wishing them
+health and happiness, not excepting my cousin Elizabeth."
+
+With proper civilities the ladies then withdrew; all of them
+equally surprised that he meditated a quick return.  Mrs. Bennet
+wished to understand by it that he thought of paying his
+addresses to one of her younger girls, and Mary might have been
+prevailed on to accept him.  She rated his abilities much higher
+than any of the others; there was a solidity in his reflections
+which often struck her, and though by no means so clever as
+herself, she thought that if encouraged to read and improve
+himself by such an example as hers, he might become a very
+agreeable companion.  But on the following morning, every
+hope of this kind was done away.  Miss Lucas called soon after
+breakfast, and in a private conference with Elizabeth related the
+event of the day before.
+
+The possibility of Mr. Collins's fancying herself in love with her
+friend had once occurred to Elizabeth within the last day or two;
+but that Charlotte could encourage him seemed almost as far
+from possibility as she could encourage him herself, and her
+astonishment was consequently so great as to overcome at first
+the bounds of decorum, and she could not help crying out:
+
+"Engaged to Mr. Collins!  My dear Charlotte--impossible!"
+
+The steady countenance which Miss Lucas had commanded in
+telling her story, gave way to a momentary confusion here on
+receiving so direct a reproach; though, as it was no more than
+she expected, she soon regained her composure, and calmly
+replied:
+
+"Why should you be surprised, my dear Eliza?  Do you think it
+incredible that Mr. Collins should be able to procure any
+woman's good opinion, because he was not so happy as to
+succeed with you?"
+
+But Elizabeth had now recollected herself, and making a strong
+effort for it, was able to assure with tolerable firmness that the
+prospect of their relationship was highly grateful to her, and
+that she wished her all imaginable happiness.
+
+"I see what you are feeling," replied Charlotte.  "You must be
+surprised, very much surprised--so lately as Mr. Collins was
+wishing to marry you.  But when you have had time to think it
+over, I hope you will be satisfied with what I have done.  I am
+not romantic, you know; I never was.  I ask only a comfortable
+home; and considering Mr. Collins's character, connection, and
+situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness
+with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the
+marriage state."
+
+Elizabeth quietly answered "Undoubtedly;" and after an
+awkward pause, they returned to the rest of the family.
+Charlotte did not stay much longer, and Elizabeth was then left
+to reflect on what she had heard.  It was a long time before she
+became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match.
+The strangeness of Mr. Collins's making two offers of marriage
+within three days was nothing in comparison of his being now
+accepted.  She had always felt that Charlotte's opinion of
+matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she had not
+supposed it to be possible that, when called into action, she
+would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage.
+Charlotte the wife of Mr. Collins was a most humiliating picture!
+And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her
+esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was
+impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot
+she had chosen.
+
+
+
+Chapter 23
+
+
+Elizabeth was sitting with her mother and sisters, reflecting on
+what she had heard, and doubting whether she was authorised to
+mention it, when Sir William Lucas himself appeared, sent by his
+daughter, to announce her engagement to the family.  With many
+compliments to them, and much self-gratulation on the prospect
+of a connection between the houses, he unfolded the matter--to
+an audience not merely wondering, but incredulous; for Mrs.
+Bennet, with more perseverance than politeness, protested he
+must be entirely mistaken; and Lydia, always unguarded and
+often uncivil, boisterously exclaimed:
+
+"Good Lord! Sir William, how can you tell such a story?  Do not
+you know that Mr. Collins wants to marry Lizzy?"
+
+Nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have
+borne without anger such treatment; but Sir William's good
+breeding carried him through it all; and though he begged leave
+to be positive as to the truth of his information, he listened
+to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy.
+
+Elizabeth, feeling it incumbent on her to relieve him from so
+unpleasant a situation, now put herself forward to confirm his
+account, by mentioning her prior knowledge of it from Charlotte
+herself; and endeavoured to put a stop to the exclamations of her
+mother and sisters by the earnestness of her congratulations to
+Sir William, in which she was readily joined by Jane, and by
+making a variety of remarks on the happiness that might be
+expected from the match, the excellent character of Mr. Collins,
+and the convenient distance of Hunsford from London.
+
+Mrs. Bennet was in fact too much overpowered to say a great
+deal while Sir William remained; but no sooner had he left them
+than her feelings found a rapid vent.  In the first place, she
+persisted in disbelieving the whole of the matter; secondly, she
+was very sure that Mr. Collins had been taken in; thirdly, she
+trusted that they would never be happy together; and fourthly,
+that the match might be broken off.  Two inferences, however,
+were plainly deduced from the whole: one, that Elizabeth was
+the real cause of the mischief; and the other that she herself had
+been barbarously misused by them all; and on these two points
+she principally dwelt during the rest of the day.  Nothing could
+console and nothing could appease her.  Nor did that day wear
+out her resentment.  A week elapsed before she could see
+Elizabeth without scolding her, a month passed away before she
+could speak to Sir William or Lady Lucas without being rude,
+and many months were gone before she could at all forgive their
+daughter.
+
+Mr. Bennet's emotions were much more tranquil on the occasion,
+and such as he did experience he pronounced to be of a most
+agreeable sort; for it gratified him, he said, to discover that
+Charlotte Lucas, whom he had been used to think tolerably
+sensible, was as foolish as his wife, and more foolish than his
+daughter!
+
+Jane confessed herself a little surprised at the match; but she
+said less of her astonishment than of her earnest desire for their
+happiness; nor could Elizabeth persuade her to consider it as
+improbable.  Kitty and Lydia were far from envying Miss Lucas,
+for Mr. Collins was only a clergyman; and it affected them in no
+other way than as a piece of news to spread at Meryton.
+
+Lady Lucas could not be insensible of triumph on being able to
+retort on Mrs. Bennet the comfort of having a daughter well
+married; and she called at Longbourn rather oftener than usual
+to say how happy she was, though Mrs. Bennet's sour looks and
+ill-natured remarks might have been enough to drive happiness
+away.
+
+Between Elizabeth and Charlotte there was a restraint which
+kept them mutually silent on the subject; and Elizabeth felt
+persuaded that no real confidence could ever subsist between
+them again.  Her disappointment in Charlotte made her turn with
+fonder regard to her sister, of whose rectitude and delicacy
+she was sure her opinion could never be shaken, and for whose
+happiness she grew daily more anxious, as Bingley had now been
+gone a week and nothing more was heard of his return.
+
+Jane had sent Caroline an early answer to her letter, and was
+counting the days till she might reasonably hope to hear again.
+The promised letter of thanks from Mr. Collins arrived on
+Tuesday, addressed to their father, and written with all the
+solemnity of gratitude which a twelvemonth's abode in the
+family might have prompted.  After discharging his conscience
+on that head, he proceeded to inform them, with many rapturous
+expressions, of his happiness in having obtained the affection of
+their amiable neighbour, Miss Lucas, and then explained that it
+was merely with the view of enjoying her society that he had
+been so ready to close with their kind wish of seeing him again
+at Longbourn, whither he hoped to be able to return on Monday
+fortnight; for Lady Catherine, he added, so heartily approved
+his marriage, that she wished it to take place as soon as possible,
+which he trusted would be an unanswerable argument with his
+amiable Charlotte to name an early day for making him the
+happiest of men.
+
+Mr. Collins's return into Hertfordshire was no longer a matter
+of pleasure to Mrs. Bennet.  On the contrary, she was as much
+disposed to complain of it as her husband.  It was very strange
+that he should come to Longbourn instead of to Lucas Lodge; it
+was also very inconvenient and exceedingly troublesome.  She
+hated having visitors in the house while her health was so
+indifferent, and lovers were of all people the most disagreeable.
+Such were the gentle murmurs of Mrs. Bennet, and they gave way
+only to the greater distress of Mr. Bingley's continued absence.
+
+Neither Jane nor Elizabeth were comfortable on this subject.
+Day after day passed away without bringing any other tidings of
+him than the report which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his
+coming no more to Netherfield the whole winter; a report which
+highly incensed Mrs. Bennet, and which she never failed to
+contradict as a most scandalous falsehood.
+
+Even Elizabeth began to fear--not that Bingley was indifferent--but
+that his sisters would be successful in keeping him away.
+Unwilling as she was to admit an idea so destructive of Jane's
+happiness, and so dishonorable to the stability of her lover, she
+could not prevent its frequently occurring.  The united efforts of
+his two unfeeling sisters and of his overpowering friend, assisted
+by the attractions of Miss Darcy and the amusements of London
+might be too much, she feared, for the strength of his attachment.
+
+As for Jane, _her_ anxiety under this suspense was, of course,
+more painful than Elizabeth's, but whatever she felt she was
+desirous of concealing, and between herself and Elizabeth,
+therefore, the subject was never alluded to.  But as no such
+delicacy restrained her mother, an hour seldom passed in which
+she did not talk of Bingley, express her impatience for his arrival,
+or even require Jane to confess that if he did not come back she
+would think herself very ill used.  It needed all Jane's steady
+mildness to bear these attacks with tolerable tranquillity.
+
+Mr. Collins returned most punctually on Monday fortnight, but
+his reception at Longbourn was not quite so gracious as it had
+been on his first introduction.  He was too happy, however, to
+need much attention; and luckily for the others, the business
+of love-making relieved them from a great deal of his company.
+The chief of every day was spent by him at Lucas Lodge, and he
+sometimes returned to Longbourn only in time to make an
+apology for his absence before the family went to bed.
+
+Mrs. Bennet was really in a most pitiable state.  The very
+mention of anything concerning the match threw her into an
+agony of ill-humour, and wherever she went she was sure of
+hearing it talked of.  The sight of Miss Lucas was odious to
+her.  As her successor in that house, she regarded her with
+jealous abhorrence.  Whenever Charlotte came to see them,
+she concluded her to be anticipating the hour of possession;
+and whenever she spoke in a low voice to Mr. Collins, was
+convinced that they were talking of the Longbourn estate, and
+resolving to turn herself and her daughters out of the house,
+as soon as Mr. Bennet were dead.  She complained bitterly of
+all this to her husband.
+
+"Indeed, Mr. Bennet," said she, "it is very hard to think that
+Charlotte Lucas should ever be mistress of this house, that I
+should be forced to make way for _her_, and live to see her take
+her place in it!"
+
+"My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts.  Let us
+hope for better things.  Let us flatter ourselves that I may be
+the survivor."
+
+This was not very consoling to Mrs. Bennet, and therefore, instead
+of making any answer, she went on as before.
+
+"I cannot bear to think that they should have all this estate.
+If it was not for the entail, I should not mind it."
+
+"What should not you mind?"
+
+"I should not mind anything at all."
+
+"Let us be thankful that you are preserved from a state of such
+insensibility."
+
+"I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for anything about the
+entail.  How anyone could have the conscience to entail away an
+estate from one's own daughters, I cannot understand; and all
+for the sake of Mr. Collins too!  Why should _he_ have it more
+than anybody else?"
+
+"I leave it to yourself to determine," said Mr. Bennet.
+
+
+
+Chapter 24
+
+
+Miss Bingley's letter arrived, and put an end to doubt.  The very
+first sentence conveyed the assurance of their being all settled
+in London for the winter, and concluded with her brother's regret
+at not having had time to pay his respects to his friends in
+Hertfordshire before he left the country.
+
+Hope was over, entirely over; and when Jane could attend to the
+rest of the letter, she found little, except the professed affection
+of the writer, that could give her any comfort.  Miss Darcy's
+praise occupied the chief of it.  Her many attractions were again
+dwelt on, and Caroline boasted joyfully of their increasing
+intimacy, and ventured to predict the accomplishment of the
+wishes which had been unfolded in her former letter.  She wrote
+also with great pleasure of her brother's being an inmate of Mr.
+Darcy's house, and mentioned with raptures some plans of the
+latter with regard to new furniture.
+
+Elizabeth, to whom Jane very soon communicated the chief of
+all this, heard it in silent indignation.  Her heart was divided
+between concern for her sister, and resentment against all others.
+To Caroline's assertion of her brother's being partial to Miss
+Darcy she paid no credit.  That he was really fond of Jane, she
+doubted no more than she had ever done; and much as she had
+always been disposed to like him, she could not think without
+anger, hardly without contempt, on that easiness of temper, that
+want of proper resolution, which now made him the slave of his
+designing friends, and led him to sacrifice of his own happiness
+to the caprice of their inclination.  Had his own happiness,
+however, been the only sacrifice, he might have been allowed to
+sport with it in whatever manner he thought best, but her sister's
+was involved in it, as she thought he must be sensible himself.
+It was a subject, in short, on which reflection would be long
+indulged, and must be unavailing.  She could think of nothing
+else; and yet whether Bingley's regard had really died away, or
+were suppressed by his friends' interference; whether he had
+been aware of Jane's attachment, or whether it had escaped his
+observation; whatever were the case, though her opinion of him
+must be materially affected by the difference, her sister's
+situation remained the same, her peace equally wounded.
+
+A day or two passed before Jane had courage to speak of her
+feelings to Elizabeth; but at last, on Mrs. Bennet's leaving them
+together, after a longer irritation than usual about Netherfield
+and its master, she could not help saying:
+
+"Oh, that my dear mother had more command over herself!  She
+can have no idea of the pain she gives me by her continual
+reflections on him.  But I will not repine.  It cannot last long.
+He will be forgot, and we shall all be as we were before."
+
+Elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude, but
+said nothing.
+
+"You doubt me," cried Jane, slightly colouring; "indeed, you
+have no reason.  He may live in my memory as the most amiable
+man of my acquaintance, but that is all.  I have nothing either
+to hope or fear, and nothing to reproach him with.  Thank God! I
+have not _that_ pain.  A little time, therefore--I shall certainly
+try to get the better."
+
+With a stronger voice she soon added, "I have this comfort
+immediately, that it has not been more than an error of fancy on
+my side, and that it has done no harm to anyone but myself."
+
+"My dear Jane!" exclaimed Elizabeth, "you are too good.  Your
+sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic; I do not know
+what to say to you.  I feel as if I had never done you justice, or
+loved you as you deserve."
+
+Miss Bennet eagerly disclaimed all extraordinary merit, and
+threw back the praise on her sister's warm affection.
+
+"Nay," said Elizabeth, "this is not fair.  _You_ wish to think all
+the world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of anybody.  I
+only want to think _you_ perfect, and you set yourself against it.
+Do not be afraid of my running into any excess, of my encroaching
+on your privilege of universal good-will.  You need not.  There
+are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think
+well.  The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied
+with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of
+all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be
+placed on the appearance of merit or sense.  I have met with two
+instances lately, one I will not mention; the other is Charlotte's
+marriage.  It is unaccountable!  In every view it is unaccountable!"
+
+"My dear Lizzy, do not give way to such feelings as these.  They
+will ruin your happiness.  You do not make allowance enough
+for difference of situation and temper.  Consider Mr. Collins's
+respectability, and Charlotte's steady, prudent character.
+Remember that she is one of a large family; that as to fortune,
+it is a most eligible match; and be ready to believe, for
+everybody's sake, that she may feel something like regard and
+esteem for our cousin."
+
+"To oblige you, I would try to believe almost anything, but no
+one else could be benefited by such a belief as this; for were I
+persuaded that Charlotte had any regard for him, I should only
+think worse of her understanding than I now do of her heart.
+My dear Jane, Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded,
+silly man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel,
+as well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a
+proper way of thinking.  You shall not defend her, though it is
+Charlotte Lucas.  You shall not, for the sake of one individual,
+change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to
+persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and
+insensibility of danger security for happiness."
+
+"I must think your language too strong in speaking of both,"
+replied Jane; "and I hope you will be convinced of it by seeing
+them happy together.  But enough of this.  You alluded to
+something else.  You mentioned _two_ instances.  I cannot
+misunderstand you, but I entreat you, dear Lizzy, not to pain
+me by thinking _that person_ to blame, and saying your opinion
+of him is sunk.  We must not be so ready to fancy ourselves
+intentionally injured.  We must not expect a lively young man to
+be always so guarded and circumspect.  It is very often nothing
+but our own vanity that deceives us.  Women fancy admiration
+means more than it does."
+
+"And men take care that they should."
+
+"If it is designedly done, they cannot be justified; but I have no
+idea of there being so much design in the world as some persons
+imagine."
+
+"I am far from attributing any part of Mr. Bingley's conduct to
+design," said Elizabeth; "but without scheming to do wrong, or
+to make others unhappy, there may be error, and there may be
+misery.  Thoughtlessness, want of attention to other people's
+feelings, and want of resolution, will do the business."
+
+"And do you impute it to either of those?"
+
+"Yes; to the last.  But if I go on, I shall displease you by saying
+what I think of persons you esteem.  Stop me whilst you can."
+
+"You persist, then, in supposing his sisters influence him?"
+
+"Yes, in conjunction with his friend."
+
+"I cannot believe it.  Why should they try to influence him?
+They can only wish his happiness; and if he is attached to me,
+no other woman can secure it."
+
+"Your first position is false.  They may wish many things besides
+his happiness; they may wish his increase of wealth and
+consequence; they may wish him to marry a girl who has all the
+importance of money, great connections, and pride."
+
+"Beyond a doubt, they _do_ wish him to choose Miss Darcy,"
+replied Jane; "but this may be from better feelings than you are
+supposing.  They have known her much longer than they have
+known me; no wonder if they love her better.  But, whatever
+may be their own wishes, it is very unlikely they should have
+opposed their brother's.  What sister would think herself at
+liberty to do it, unless there were something very objectionable?
+If they believed him attached to me, they would not try to part
+us; if he were so, they could not succeed.  By supposing such
+an affection, you make everybody acting unnaturally and wrong,
+and me most unhappy.  Do not distress me by the idea.  I am not
+ashamed of having been mistaken--or, at least, it is light, it
+is nothing in comparison of what I should feel in thinking ill
+of him or his sisters.  Let me take it in the best light, in
+the light in which it may be understood."
+
+Elizabeth could not oppose such a wish; and from this time
+Mr. Bingley's name was scarcely ever mentioned between them.
+
+Mrs. Bennet still continued to wonder and repine at his returning
+no more, and though a day seldom passed in which Elizabeth did
+not account for it clearly, there was little chance of her ever
+considering it with less perplexity.  Her daughter endeavoured
+to convince her of what she did not believe herself, that his
+attentions to Jane had been merely the effect of a common and
+transient liking, which ceased when he saw her no more; but
+though the probability of the statement was admitted at the time,
+she had the same story to repeat every day.  Mrs. Bennet's best
+comfort was that Mr. Bingley must be down again in the
+summer.
+
+Mr. Bennet treated the matter differently.  "So, Lizzy," said he
+one day, "your sister is crossed in love, I find.  I congratulate
+her.  Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in
+love now and then.  It is something to think of, and it gives her a
+sort of distinction among her companions.  When is your turn to
+come?  You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane.  Now is
+your time.  Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all
+the young ladies in the country.  Let Wickham be _your_ man.  He
+is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably."
+
+"Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me.  We
+must not all expect Jane's good fortune."
+
+"True," said Mr. Bennet, "but it is a comfort to think that
+whatever of that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate
+mother who will make the most of it."
+
+Mr. Wickham's society was of material service in dispelling the
+gloom which the late perverse occurrences had thrown on many
+of the Longbourn family.  They saw him often, and to his other
+recommendations was now added that of general unreserve.
+The whole of what Elizabeth had already heard, his claims on
+Mr. Darcy, and all that he had suffered from him, was now
+openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed; and everybody
+was pleased to know how much they had always disliked Mr.
+Darcy before they had known anything of the matter.
+
+Miss Bennet was the only creature who could suppose there might
+be any extenuating circumstances in the case, unknown to the
+society of Hertfordshire; her mild and steady candour always
+pleaded for allowances, and urged the possibility of mistakes--but
+by everybody else Mr. Darcy was condemned as the worst of men.
+
+
+
+Chapter 25
+
+
+After a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity,
+Mr. Collins was called from his amiable Charlotte by the arrival
+of Saturday.  The pain of separation, however, might be
+alleviated on his side, by preparations for the reception of his
+bride; as he had reason to hope, that shortly after his return into
+Hertfordshire, the day would be fixed that was to make him the
+happiest of men.  He took leave of his relations at Longbourn
+with as much solemnity as before; wished his fair cousins health
+and happiness again, and promised their father another letter of
+thanks.
+
+On the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of
+receiving her brother and his wife, who came as usual to spend
+the Christmas at Longbourn.  Mr. Gardiner was a sensible,
+gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, as well by
+nature as education.  The Netherfield ladies would have had
+difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade, and within
+view of his own warehouses, could have been so well-bred and
+agreeable.  Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger than
+Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Phillips, was an amiable, intelligent,
+elegant woman, and a great favourite with all her Longbourn
+nieces.  Between the two eldest and herself especially, there
+subsisted a particular regard.  They had frequently been staying
+with her in town.
+
+The first part of Mrs. Gardiner's business on her arrival was to
+distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions.  When
+this was done she had a less active part to play.  It became her
+turn to listen.  Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and
+much to complain of.  They had all been very ill-used since she
+last saw her sister.  Two of her girls had been upon the point of
+marriage, and after all there was nothing in it.
+
+"I do not blame Jane," she continued, "for Jane would have got
+Mr. Bingley if she could.  But Lizzy!  Oh, sister!  It is very hard
+to think that she might have been Mr. Collins's wife by this time,
+had it not been for her own perverseness.  He made her an offer
+in this very room, and she refused him.  The consequence of it is,
+that Lady Lucas will have a daughter married before I have, and
+that the Longbourn estate is just as much entailed as ever.  The
+Lucases are very artful people indeed, sister.  They are all for
+what they can get.  I am sorry to say it of them, but so it is.
+It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted so in my own
+family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves before
+anybody else.  However, your coming just at this time is the
+greatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us,
+of long sleeves."
+
+Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given
+before, in the course of Jane and Elizabeth's correspondence
+with her, made her sister a slight answer, and, in compassion to
+her nieces, turned the conversation.
+
+When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on the
+subject.  "It seems likely to have been a desirable match for
+Jane," said she.  "I am sorry it went off.  But these things
+happen so often!  A young man, such as you describe Mr. Bingley,
+so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks, and
+when accident separates them, so easily forgets her, that these
+sort of inconsistencies are very frequent."
+
+"An excellent consolation in its way," said Elizabeth, "but it will
+not do for _us_.  We do not suffer by _accident_.  It does not often
+happen that the interference of friends will persuade a young
+man of independent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he
+was violently in love with only a few days before."
+
+"But that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed,
+so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea.
+It is as often applied to feelings which arise from a half-hour's
+acquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment.  Pray, how
+_violent was_ Mr. Bingley's love?"
+
+"I never saw a more promising inclination; he was growing quite
+inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her.  Every
+time they met, it was more decided and remarkable.  At his own
+ball he offended two or three young ladies, by not asking them to
+dance; and I spoke to him twice myself, without receiving an answer.
+Could there be finer symptoms?  Is not general incivility the very
+essence of love?"
+
+"Oh, yes!--of that kind of love which I suppose him to have felt.
+Poor Jane!  I am sorry for her, because, with her disposition, she
+may not get over it immediately.  It had better have happened to
+_you_, Lizzy; you would have laughed yourself out of it sooner.
+But do you think she would be prevailed upon to go back with
+us?  Change of scene might be of service--and perhaps a little
+relief from home may be as useful as anything."
+
+Elizabeth was exceedingly pleased with this proposal, and felt
+persuaded of her sister's ready acquiescence.
+
+"I hope," added Mrs. Gardiner, "that no consideration with
+regard to this young man will influence her.  We live in so
+different a part of town, all our connections are so different, and,
+as you well know, we go out so little, that it is very improbable
+that they should meet at all, unless he really comes to see her."
+
+"And _that_ is quite impossible; for he is now in the custody of
+his friend, and Mr. Darcy would no more suffer him to call on
+Jane in such a part of London!  My dear aunt, how could you
+think of it?  Mr. Darcy may perhaps have _heard_ of such a
+place as Gracechurch Street, but he would hardly think a
+month's ablution enough to cleanse him from its impurities, were
+he once to enter it; and depend upon it, Mr. Bingley never stirs
+without him."
+
+"So much the better.  I hope they will not meet at all.  But does
+not Jane correspond with his sister?  _She_ will not be able to
+help calling."
+
+"She will drop the acquaintance entirely."
+
+But in spite of the certainty in which Elizabeth affected to place
+this point, as well as the still more interesting one of Bingley's
+being withheld from seeing Jane, she felt a solicitude on the
+subject which convinced her, on examination, that she did not
+consider it entirely hopeless.  It was possible, and sometimes she
+thought it probable, that his affection might be reanimated, and
+the influence of his friends successfully combated by the more
+natural influence of Jane's attractions.
+
+Miss Bennet accepted her aunt's invitation with pleasure; and
+the Bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the same time,
+than as she hoped by Caroline's not living in the same house
+with her brother, she might occasionally spend a morning with
+her, without any danger of seeing him.
+
+The Gardiners stayed a week at Longbourn; and what with the
+Phillipses, the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day
+without its engagement.  Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided
+for the entertainment of her brother and sister, that they did
+not once sit down to a family dinner.  When the engagement was
+for home, some of the officers always made part of it--of
+which officers Mr. Wickham was sure to be one; and on these
+occasion, Mrs. Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth's
+warm commendation, narrowly observed them both.  Without
+supposing them, from what she saw, to be very seriously in love,
+their preference of each other was plain enough to make her a
+little uneasy; and she resolved to speak to Elizabeth on the
+subject before she left Hertfordshire, and represent to her the
+imprudence of encouraging such an attachment.
+
+To Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham had one means of affording pleasure,
+unconnected with his general powers.  About ten or a dozen years
+ago, before her marriage, she had spent a considerable time in
+that very part of Derbyshire to which he belonged.  They had,
+therefore, many acquaintances in common; and though Wickham had
+been little there since the death of Darcy's father, it was yet
+in his power to give her fresher intelligence of her former
+friends than she had been in the way of procuring.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner had seen Pemberley, and known the late Mr. Darcy
+by character perfectly well.  Here consequently was an
+inexhaustible subject of discourse.  In comparing her recollection
+of Pemberley with the minute description which Wickham could
+give, and in bestowing her tribute of praise on the character of
+its late possessor, she was delighting both him and herself.  On
+being made acquainted with the present Mr. Darcy's treatment
+of him, she tried to remember some of that gentleman's reputed
+disposition when quite a lad which might agree with it, and was
+confident at last that she recollected having heard Mr.
+Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-natured
+boy.
+
+
+
+Chapter 26
+
+
+Mrs. Gardiner's caution to Elizabeth was punctually and kindly
+given on the first favourable opportunity of speaking to her
+alone; after honestly telling her what she thought, she thus went
+on:
+
+"You are too sensible a girl, Lizzy, to fall in love merely because
+you are warned against it; and, therefore, I am not afraid of
+speaking openly.  Seriously, I would have you be on your guard.
+Do not involve yourself or endeavour to involve him in an
+affection which the want of fortune would make so very
+imprudent.  I have nothing to say against _him_; he is a most
+interesting young man; and if he had the fortune he ought to
+have, I should think you could not do better.  But as it is, you
+must not let your fancy run away with you.  You have sense, and
+we all expect you to use it.  Your father would depend on
+_your_ resolution and good conduct, I am sure.  You must not
+disappoint your father."
+
+"My dear aunt, this is being serious indeed."
+
+"Yes, and I hope to engage you to be serious likewise."
+
+"Well, then, you need not be under any alarm.  I will take care
+of myself, and of Mr. Wickham too.  He shall not be in love with
+me, if I can prevent it."
+
+"Elizabeth, you are not serious now."
+
+"I beg your pardon, I will try again.  At present I am not in
+love with Mr. Wickham; no, I certainly am not.  But he is, beyond
+all comparison, the most agreeable man I ever saw--and if he
+becomes really attached to me--I believe it will be better that
+he should not.  I see the imprudence of it.  Oh! _that_ abominable
+Mr. Darcy!  My father's opinion of me does me the greatest
+honour, and I should be miserable to forfeit it.  My father,
+however, is partial to Mr. Wickham.  In short, my dear aunt,
+I should be very sorry to be the means of making any of you
+unhappy; but since we see every day that where there is
+affection, young people are seldom withheld by immediate want
+of fortune from entering into engagements with each other, how
+can I promise to be wiser than so many of my fellow-creatures
+if I am tempted, or how am I even to know that it would be
+wisdom  to resist?  All that I can promise you, therefore, is not
+to be in a hurry.  I will not be in a hurry to believe myself his
+first object.  When I am in company with him, I will not be
+wishing.  In short, I will do my best."
+
+"Perhaps it will be as well if you discourage his coming here so
+very often.  At least, you should not _remind_ you mother of
+inviting him."
+
+"As I did the other day," said Elizabeth with a conscious smile:
+"very true, it will be wise in me to refrain from _that_.  But do
+not imagine that he is always here so often.  It is on your
+account that he has been so frequently invited this week.  You
+know my mother's ideas as to the necessity of constant company
+for her friends.  But really, and upon my honour, I will try to do
+what I think to be the wisest; and now I hope you are satisfied."
+
+Her aunt assured her that she was, and Elizabeth having thanked
+her for the kindness of her hints, they parted; a wonderful
+instance of advice being given on such a point, without being
+resented.
+
+Mr. Collins returned into Hertfordshire soon after it had been
+quitted by the Gardiners and Jane; but as he took up his abode
+with the Lucases, his arrival was no great inconvenience to Mrs.
+Bennet.  His marriage was now fast approaching, and she was at
+length so far resigned as to think it inevitable, and even
+repeatedly to say, in an ill-natured tone, that she "_wished_ they
+might be happy."  Thursday was to be the wedding day, and on
+Wednesday Miss Lucas paid her farewell visit; and when she
+rose to take leave, Elizabeth, ashamed of her mother's
+ungracious and reluctant good wishes, and sincerely affected
+herself, accompanied her out of the room.  As they went
+downstairs together, Charlotte said:
+
+"I shall depend on hearing from you very often, Eliza."
+
+"_That_ you certainly shall."
+
+"And I have another favour to ask you.  Will you come and see
+me?"
+
+"We shall often meet, I hope, in Hertfordshire."
+
+"I am not likely to leave Kent for some time.  Promise me,
+therefore, to come to Hunsford."
+
+Elizabeth could not refuse, though she foresaw little pleasure
+in the visit.
+
+"My father and Maria are coming to me in March," added
+Charlotte, "and I hope you will consent to be of the party.
+Indeed, Eliza, you will be as welcome as either of them."
+
+The wedding took place; the bride and bridegroom set off for
+Kent from the church door, and everybody had as much to say,
+or to hear, on the subject as usual.  Elizabeth soon heard from
+her friend; and their correspondence was as regular and frequent
+as it had ever been; that it should be equally unreserved was
+impossible.  Elizabeth could never address her without feeling
+that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and though determined
+not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what
+had been, rather than what was.  Charlotte's first letters were
+received with a good deal of eagerness; there could not but be
+curiosity to know how she would speak of her new home, how
+she would like Lady Catherine, and how happy she would dare
+pronounce herself to be; though, when the letters were read,
+Elizabeth felt that Charlotte expressed herself on every point
+exactly as she might have foreseen.  She wrote cheerfully,
+seemed surrounded with comforts, and mentioned nothing which
+she could not praise.  The house, furniture, neighbourhood, and
+roads, were all to her taste, and Lady Catherine's behaviour
+was most friendly and obliging.  It was Mr. Collins's picture
+of Hunsford and Rosings rationally softened; and Elizabeth
+perceived that she must wait for her own visit there to know the
+rest.
+
+Jane had already written a few lines to her sister to announce
+their safe arrival in London; and when she wrote again, Elizabeth
+hoped it would be in her power to say something of the
+Bingleys.
+
+Her impatience for this second letter was as well rewarded as
+impatience generally is.  Jane had been a week in town without
+either seeing or hearing from Caroline.  She accounted for it,
+however, by supposing that her last letter to her friend from
+Longbourn had by some accident been lost.
+
+"My aunt," she continued, "is going to-morrow into that part of
+the town, and I shall take the opportunity of calling in Grosvenor
+Street."
+
+She wrote again when the visit was paid, and she had seen Miss
+Bingley.  "I did not think Caroline in spirits," were her words,
+"but she was very glad to see me, and reproached me for giving
+her no notice of my coming to London.  I was right, therefore,
+my last letter had never reached her.  I inquired after their
+brother, of course.  He was well, but so much engaged with Mr.
+Darcy that they scarcely ever saw him.  I found that Miss Darcy
+was expected to dinner.  I wish I could see her.  My visit was
+not long, as Caroline and Mrs. Hurst were going out.  I dare say
+I shall see them soon here."
+
+Elizabeth shook her head over this letter.  It convinced her that
+accident only could discover to Mr. Bingley her sister's being in
+town.
+
+Four weeks passed away, and Jane saw nothing of him.  She
+endeavoured to persuade herself that she did not regret it; but
+she could no longer be blind to Miss Bingley's inattention.  After
+waiting at home every morning for a fortnight, and inventing
+every evening a fresh excuse for her, the visitor did at last
+appear; but the shortness of her stay, and yet more, the alteration
+of her manner would allow Jane to deceive herself no longer.
+The letter which she wrote on this occasion to her sister will
+prove what she felt.
+
+"My dearest Lizzy will, I am sure, be incapable of triumphing in
+her better judgement, at my expense, when I confess myself to
+have been entirely deceived in Miss Bingley's regard for me.
+But, my dear sister, though the event has proved you right, do
+not think me obstinate if I still assert that, considering what
+her behaviour was, my confidence was as natural as your suspicion.
+I do not at all comprehend her reason for wishing to be intimate
+with me; but if the same circumstances were to happen again, I
+am sure I should be deceived again.  Caroline did not return my
+visit till yesterday; and not a note, not a line, did I receive
+in the meantime.  When she did come, it was very evident that she
+had no pleasure in it; she made a slight, formal apology, for not
+calling before, said not a word of wishing to see me again, and
+was in every respect so altered a creature, that when she went
+away I was perfectly resolved to continue the acquaintance no
+longer.  I pity, though I cannot help blaming her.  She was very
+wrong in singling me out as she did; I can safely say that every
+advance to intimacy began on her side.  But I pity her, because
+she must feel that she has been acting wrong, and because I am
+very sure that anxiety for her brother is the cause of it.  I need
+not explain myself farther; and though _we_ know this anxiety to
+be quite needless, yet if she feels it, it will easily account
+for her behaviour to me; and so deservedly dear as he is to his
+sister, whatever anxiety she must feel on his behalf is natural
+and amiable.  I cannot but wonder, however, at her having any
+such fears now, because, if he had at all cared about me, we
+must have met, long ago.  He knows of my being in town, I am
+certain, from something she said herself; and yet it would seem,
+by her manner of talking, as if she wanted to persuade herself
+that he is really partial to Miss Darcy.  I cannot understand it.
+If I were not afraid of judging harshly, I should be almost
+tempted to say that there is a strong appearance of duplicity in
+all this.  But I will endeavour to banish every painful thought,
+and think only of what will make me happy--your affection, and
+the invariable kindness of my dear uncle and aunt.  Let me hear
+from you very soon.  Miss Bingley said something of his never
+returning to Netherfield again, of giving up the house, but not
+with any certainty.  We had better not mention it.  I am extremely
+glad that you have such pleasant accounts from our friends at
+Hunsford.  Pray go to see them, with Sir William and Maria.  I am
+sure you will be very comfortable there.--Yours, etc."
+
+This letter gave Elizabeth some pain; but her spirits returned as
+she considered that Jane would no longer be duped, by the sister
+at least.  All expectation from the brother was now absolutely
+over.  She would not even wish for a renewal of his attentions.
+His character sunk on every review of it; and as a punishment for
+him, as well as a possible advantage to Jane, she seriously hoped
+he might really soon marry Mr. Darcy's sister, as by Wickham's
+account, she would make him abundantly regret what he had
+thrown away.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner about this time reminded Elizabeth of her promise
+concerning that gentleman, and required information; and
+Elizabeth had such to send as might rather give contentment to
+her aunt than to herself.  His apparent partiality had subsided,
+his attentions were over, he was the admirer of some one else.
+Elizabeth was watchful enough to see it all, but she could see it
+and write of it without material pain.  Her heart had been but
+slightly touched, and her vanity was satisfied with believing that
+_she_ would have been his only choice, had fortune permitted it.
+The sudden acquisition of ten thousand pounds was the most
+remarkable charm of the young lady to whom he was now rendering
+himself agreeable; but Elizabeth, less clear-sighted perhaps in
+this case than in Charlotte's, did not quarrel with him for his
+wish of independence.  Nothing, on the contrary, could be more
+natural; and while able to suppose that it cost him a few struggles
+to relinquish her, she was ready to allow it a wise and desirable
+measure for both, and could very sincerely wish him happy.
+
+All this was acknowledged to Mrs. Gardiner; and after relating
+the circumstances, she thus went on: "I am now convinced, my
+dear aunt, that I have never been much in love; for had I really
+experienced that pure and elevating passion, I should at present
+detest his very name, and wish him all manner of evil.  But my
+feelings are not only cordial towards _him_; they are even
+impartial towards Miss King.  I cannot find out that I hate her at
+all, or that I am in the least unwilling to think her a very good
+sort of girl.  There can be no love in all this.  My watchfulness
+has been effectual; and though I certainly should be a more
+interesting object to all my acquaintances were I distractedly
+in love with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative
+insignificance.  Importance may sometimes be purchased too
+dearly.  Kitty and Lydia take his defection much more to heart
+than I do.  They are young in the ways of the world, and not
+yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men
+must have something to live on as well as the plain."
+
+
+
+Chapter 27
+
+
+With no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and
+otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton,
+sometimes dirty and sometimes cold, did January and February
+pass away.  March was to take Elizabeth to Hunsford.  She had
+not at first thought very seriously of going thither; but Charlotte,
+she soon found, was depending on the plan and she gradually
+learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as
+greater certainty.  Absence had increased her desire of seeing
+Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins.  There
+was novelty in the scheme, and as, with such a mother and such
+uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little
+change was not unwelcome for its own sake.  The journey
+would moreover give her a peep at Jane; and, in short, as the
+time drew near, she would have been very sorry for any delay.
+Everything, however, went on smoothly, and was finally settled
+according to Charlotte's first sketch.  She was to accompany Sir
+William and his second daughter.  The improvement of spending
+a night in London was added in time, and the plan became
+perfect as plan could be.
+
+The only pain was in leaving her father, who would certainly
+miss her, and who, when it came to the point, so little liked her
+going, that he told her to write to him, and almost promised to
+answer her letter.
+
+The farewell between herself and Mr. Wickham was perfectly
+friendly; on his side even more.  His present pursuit could not
+make him forget that Elizabeth had been the first to excite and to
+deserve his attention, the first to listen and to pity, the first
+to be admired; and in his manner of bidding her adieu, wishing
+her every enjoyment, reminding her of what she was to expect in
+Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and trusting their opinion of her--their
+opinion of everybody--would always coincide, there was a solicitude,
+an interest which she felt must ever attach her to him with a most
+sincere regard; and she parted from him convinced that, whether
+married or single, he must always be her model of the amiable and
+pleasing.
+
+Her fellow-travellers the next day were not of a kind to make her
+think him less agreeable.  Sir William Lucas, and his daughter
+Maria, a good-humoured girl, but as empty-headed as himself,
+had nothing to say that could be worth hearing, and were
+listened to with about as much delight as the rattle of the chaise.
+Elizabeth loved absurdities, but she had known Sir William's too
+long.  He could tell her nothing new of the wonders of his
+presentation and knighthood; and his civilities were worn out,
+like his information.
+
+It was a journey of only twenty-four miles, and they began it so
+early as to be in Gracechurch Street by noon.  As they drove
+to Mr. Gardiner's door, Jane was at a drawing-room window
+watching their arrival; when they entered the passage she was
+there to welcome them, and Elizabeth, looking earnestly in her
+face, was pleased to see it healthful and lovely as ever.  On the
+stairs were a troop of little boys and girls, whose eagerness for
+their cousin's appearance would not allow them to wait in the
+drawing-room, and whose shyness, as they had not seen her for
+a twelvemonth, prevented their coming lower.  All was joy and
+kindness.  The day passed most pleasantly away; the morning in
+bustle and shopping, and the evening at one of the theatres.
+
+Elizabeth then contrived to sit by her aunt.  Their first object was
+her sister; and she was more grieved than astonished to hear, in
+reply to her minute inquiries, that though Jane always struggled
+to support her spirits, there were periods of dejection.  It was
+reasonable, however, to hope that they would not continue long.
+Mrs. Gardiner gave her the particulars also of Miss Bingley's
+visit in Gracechurch Street, and repeated conversations
+occurring at different times between Jane and herself, which
+proved that the former had, from her heart, given up the
+acquaintance.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner then rallied her niece on  Wickham's desertion,
+and complimented her on bearing it so well.
+
+"But my dear Elizabeth," she added, "what sort of girl is Miss
+King?  I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary."
+
+"Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial
+affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive?  Where
+does discretion end, and avarice begin?  Last Christmas you
+were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent;
+and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten
+thousand pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary."
+
+"If you will only tell me what sort of girl Miss King is, I shall
+know what to think."
+
+"She is a very good kind of girl, I believe.  I know no harm of
+her."
+
+"But he paid her not the smallest attention till her grandfather's
+death made her mistress of this fortune."
+
+"No--what should he?  If it were not allowable for him to gain
+_my_ affections because I had no money, what occasion could
+there be for making love to a girl whom he did not care about,
+and who was equally poor?"
+
+"But there seems an indelicacy in directing his attentions
+towards her so soon after this event."
+
+"A man in distressed circumstances has not time for all those
+elegant decorums which other people may observe.  If _she_ does
+not object to it, why should _we_?"
+
+"_Her_ not objecting does not justify _him_.  It only shows her
+being deficient in something herself--sense or feeling."
+
+"Well," cried Elizabeth, "have it as you choose.  _He_ shall be
+mercenary, and _she_ shall be foolish."
+
+"No, Lizzy, that is what I do _not_ choose.  I should be sorry,
+you know, to think ill of a young man who has lived so long in
+Derbyshire."
+
+"Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men
+who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live
+in Hertfordshire are not much better.  I am sick of them all.
+Thank Heaven!  I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man
+who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor
+sense to recommend him.  Stupid men are the only ones worth
+knowing, after all."
+
+"Take care, Lizzy; that speech savours strongly of disappointment."
+
+Before they were separated by the conclusion of the play, she
+had the unexpected happiness of an invitation to accompany her
+uncle and aunt in a tour of pleasure which they proposed taking
+in the summer.
+
+"We have not determined how far it shall carry us," said Mrs.
+Gardiner, "but, perhaps, to the Lakes."
+
+No scheme could have been more agreeable to Elizabeth, and
+her acceptance of the invitation was most ready and grateful.
+"Oh, my dear, dear aunt," she rapturously cried, "what delight!
+what felicity!  You give me fresh life and vigour.  Adieu to
+disappointment and spleen.  What are young men to rocks and
+mountains?  Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend!  And
+when we _do_ return, it shall not be like other travellers,
+without being able to give one accurate idea of anything.  We
+_will_ know where we have gone--we _will_ recollect what we have
+seen.  Lakes, mountains, and rivers shall not be jumbled together
+in our imaginations; nor when we attempt to describe any
+particular scene, will we begin quarreling about its relative
+situation.  Let _our_ first effusions be less insupportable than
+those of the generality of travellers."
+
+
+
+Chapter 28
+
+
+Every object in the next day's journey was new and interesting
+to Elizabeth; and her spirits were in a state of enjoyment; for
+she had seen her sister looking so well as to banish all fear for
+her health, and the prospect of her northern tour was a constant
+source of delight.
+
+When they left the high road for the lane to Hunsford, every eye
+was in search of the Parsonage, and every turning expected to
+bring it in view.  The palings of Rosings Park was their boundary
+on one side.  Elizabeth smiled at the recollection of all that she
+had heard of its inhabitants.
+
+At length the Parsonage was discernible.  The garden sloping to
+the road, the house standing in it, the green pales, and the laurel
+hedge, everything declared they were arriving.  Mr. Collins and
+Charlotte appeared at the door, and the carriage stopped at the
+small gate which led by a short gravel walk to the house, amidst
+the nods and smiles of the whole party.  In a moment they were
+all out of the chaise, rejoicing at the sight of each other.
+Mrs. Collins welcomed her friend with the liveliest pleasure,
+and Elizabeth was more and more satisfied with coming when she
+found herself so affectionately received.  She saw instantly that
+her cousin's manners were not altered by his marriage; his formal
+civility was just what it had been, and he detained her some
+minutes at the gate to hear and satisfy his inquiries after
+all her family.  They were then, with no other delay than his
+pointing out the neatness of the entrance, taken into the house;
+and as soon as they were in the parlour, he welcomed them a
+second time, with ostentatious formality to his humble abode,
+and punctually repeated all his wife's offers of refreshment.
+
+Elizabeth was prepared to see him in his glory; and she could
+not help in fancying that in displaying the good proportion of
+the room, its aspect and its furniture, he addressed himself
+particularly to her, as if wishing to make her feel what she
+had lost in refusing him.  But though everything seemed neat
+and comfortable, she was not able to gratify him by any sigh of
+repentance, and rather looked with wonder at her friend that
+she could have so cheerful an air with such a companion.  When
+Mr. Collins said anything of which his wife might reasonably be
+ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she involuntarily
+turned her eye on Charlotte.  Once or twice she could discern
+a faint blush; but in general Charlotte wisely did not hear.
+After sitting long enough to admire every article of furniture in
+the room, from the sideboard to the fender, to give an account
+of their journey, and of all that had happened in London, Mr.
+Collins invited them to take a stroll in the garden, which was
+large and well laid out, and to the cultivation of which he
+attended himself.  To work in this garden was one of his most
+respectable pleasures; and Elizabeth admired the command of
+countenance with which Charlotte talked of the healthfulness of
+the exercise, and owned she encouraged it as much as possible.
+Here, leading the way through every walk and cross walk, and
+scarcely allowing them an interval to utter the praises he asked
+for, every view was pointed out with a minuteness which left
+beauty entirely behind.  He could number the fields in every
+direction, and could tell how many tress there were in the most
+distant clump.  But of all the views which his garden, or which
+the country or kingdom could boast, none were to be compared
+with the prospect of Rosings, afforded by an opening in the trees
+that bordered the park nearly opposite the front of his house.  It
+was a handsome modern building, well situated on rising ground.
+
+From his garden, Mr. Collins would have led them round his two
+meadows; but the ladies, not having shoes to encounter the
+remains of a white frost, turned back; and while Sir William
+accompanied him, Charlotte took her sister and friend over the
+house, extremely well pleased, probably, to have the opportunity
+of showing it without her husband's help.  It was rather small,
+but well built and convenient; and everything was fitted up and
+arranged with a neatness and consistency of which Elizabeth
+gave Charlotte all the credit.  When Mr. Collins could be
+forgotten, there was really an air of great comfort throughout,
+and by Charlotte's evident enjoyment of it, Elizabeth supposed
+he must be often forgotten.
+
+She had already learnt that Lady Catherine was still in the
+country.  It was spoken of again while they were at dinner,
+when Mr. Collins joining in, observed:
+
+"Yes, Miss Elizabeth, you will have the honour of seeing Lady
+Catherine de Bourgh on the ensuing Sunday at church, and I
+need not say you will be delighted with her.  She is all affability
+and condescension, and I doubt not but you will be honoured
+with some portion of her notice when service is over.  I have
+scarcely any hesitation in saying she will include you and my
+sister Maria in every invitation with which she honours us during
+your stay here.  Her behaviour to my dear Charlotte is charming.
+We dine at Rosings twice every week, and are never allowed to
+walk home.  Her ladyship's carriage is regularly ordered for us.
+I _should_ say, one of her ladyship's carriages, for she has
+several."
+
+"Lady Catherine is a very respectable, sensible woman indeed,"
+added Charlotte, "and a most attentive neighbour."
+
+"Very true, my dear, that is exactly what I say.  She is the sort
+of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference."
+
+The evening was  spent chiefly in talking over Hertfordshire
+news, and telling again what had already been written; and when
+it closed, Elizabeth, in the solitude of her chamber, had to
+meditate upon Charlotte's degree of contentment, to understand
+her address in guiding, and composure in bearing with, her
+husband, and to acknowledge that it was all done very well.  She
+had also to anticipate how her visit would pass, the quiet tenor
+of their usual employments, the vexatious interruptions of Mr.
+Collins, and the gaieties of their intercourse with Rosings.
+A lively imagination soon settled it all.
+
+About the middle of the next day, as she was in her room getting
+ready for a walk, a sudden noise below seemed to speak the
+whole house in confusion; and, after listening a moment, she
+heard somebody running upstairs in a violent hurry, and calling
+loudly after her.  She opened the door and met Maria in the
+landing place, who, breathless with agitation, cried out--
+
+"Oh, my dear Eliza! pray make haste and come into the dining-room,
+for there is such a sight to be seen!  I will not tell you what
+it is.  Make haste, and come down this moment."
+
+Elizabeth asked questions in vain; Maria would tell her nothing
+more, and down they ran into the dining-room, which fronted
+the lane, in quest of this wonder; It was two ladies stopping in
+a low phaeton at the garden gate.
+
+"And is this all?" cried Elizabeth.  "I expected at least that the
+pigs were got into the garden, and here is nothing but Lady
+Catherine and her daughter."
+
+"La! my dear," said Maria, quite shocked at the mistake, "it is
+not Lady Catherine.  The old lady is Mrs. Jenkinson, who lives
+with them; the other is Miss de Bourgh.  Only look at her.  She
+is quite a little creature.  Who would have thought that she could
+be so thin and small?"
+
+"She is abominably rude to keep Charlotte out of doors in all this
+wind.  Why does she not come in?"
+
+"Oh, Charlotte says she hardly ever does.  It is the greatest of
+favours when Miss de Bourgh comes in."
+
+"I like her appearance," said Elizabeth, struck with other ideas.
+"She looks sickly and cross.  Yes, she will do for him very well.
+She will make him a very proper wife."
+
+Mr. Collins and Charlotte were both standing at the gate in
+conversation with the ladies; and Sir William, to Elizabeth's
+high diversion, was stationed in the doorway, in earnest
+contemplation of the greatness before him, and constantly
+bowing whenever Miss de Bourgh looked that way.
+
+At length there was nothing more to be said; the ladies drove on,
+and the others returned into the house.  Mr. Collins no sooner
+saw the two girls than he began to congratulate them on their
+good fortune, which Charlotte explained by letting them know
+that the whole party was asked to dine at Rosings the next day.
+
+
+
+Chapter 29
+
+
+Mr. Collins's triumph, in consequence of this invitation, was
+complete.  The power of displaying the grandeur of his patroness
+to his wondering visitors, and of letting them see her civility
+towards himself and his wife, was exactly what he had wished
+for; and that an opportunity of doing it should be given so soon,
+was such an instance of Lady Catherine's condescension, as he
+knew not how to admire enough.
+
+"I confess," said he, "that I should not have been at all surprised
+by her ladyship's asking us on Sunday to drink tea and spend the
+evening at Rosings.  I rather expected, from my knowledge of
+her affability, that it would happen.  But who could have
+foreseen such an attention as this?  Who could have imagined
+that we should receive an invitation to dine there (an invitation,
+moreover, including the whole party) so immediately after your
+arrival!"
+
+"I am the less surprised at what has happened," replied Sir
+William, "from that knowledge of what the manners of the great
+really are, which my situation in life has allowed me to acquire.
+About the court, such instances of elegant breeding are not
+uncommon."
+
+Scarcely anything was talked of the whole day or next morning
+but their visit to Rosings.  Mr. Collins was carefully instructing
+them in what they were to expect, that the sight of such rooms,
+so many servants, and so splendid a dinner, might not wholly
+overpower them.
+
+When the ladies were separating for the toilette, he said to
+Elizabeth--
+
+"Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your
+apparel.  Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of
+dress in us which becomes herself and her daughter.  I would
+advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior
+to the rest--there is no occasion for anything more.  Lady
+Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply
+dressed.  She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved."
+
+While they were dressing, he came two or three times to their
+different doors, to recommend their being quick, as Lady
+Catherine very much objected to be kept waiting for her dinner.
+Such formidable accounts of her ladyship, and her manner of
+living, quite frightened Maria Lucas who had been little used to
+company, and she looked forward to her introduction at Rosings
+with as much apprehension as her father had done to his
+presentation at St. James's.
+
+As the weather was fine, they had a pleasant walk of about half
+a mile across the park.  Every park has its beauty and its
+prospects; and Elizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though
+she could not be in such raptures as Mr. Collins expected the
+scene to inspire, and was but slightly affected by his enumeration
+of the windows in front of the house, and his relation of what the
+glazing altogether had originally cost Sir Lewis de Bourgh.
+
+When they ascended the steps to the hall, Maria's alarm was
+every moment increasing, and even Sir William did not look
+perfectly calm.  Elizabeth's courage did not fail her.  She had
+heard nothing of Lady Catherine that spoke her awful from any
+extraordinary talents or miraculous virtue, and the mere
+stateliness of money or rank she thought she could witness
+without trepidation.
+
+From the entrance-hall, of which Mr. Collins pointed out, with a
+rapturous air, the fine proportion and the finished ornaments,
+they followed the servants through an ante-chamber, to the room
+where Lady Catherine, her daughter, and Mrs. Jenkinson were
+sitting.  Her ladyship, with great condescension, arose to receive
+them; and as Mrs. Collins had settled it with her husband that the
+office of introduction should be hers, it was performed in a
+proper manner, without any of those apologies and thanks which
+he would have thought necessary.
+
+In spite of having been at St. James's Sir William was so
+completely awed by the grandeur surrounding him, that he had
+but just courage enough to make a very low bow, and take his
+seat without saying a word; and his daughter, frightened almost
+out of her senses, sat on the edge of her chair, not knowing
+which way to look.  Elizabeth found herself quite equal to the
+scene, and could observe the three ladies before her composedly.
+Lady Catherine was a tall, large woman, with strongly-marked
+features, which might once have been handsome.  Her air was
+not conciliating, nor was her manner of receiving them such as
+to make her visitors forget their inferior rank.  She was not
+rendered formidable by silence; but whatever she said was
+spoken in so authoritative a tone, as marked her self-importance,
+and brought Mr. Wickham immediately to Elizabeth's mind; and
+from the observation of the day altogether, she believed Lady
+Catherine to be exactly what he represented.
+
+When, after examining the mother, in whose countenance and
+deportment she soon found some resemblance of Mr. Darcy, she
+turned her eyes on the daughter, she could almost have joined
+in Maria's astonishment at her being so thin and so small.  There
+was neither in figure nor face any likeness between the ladies.
+Miss de Bourgh was pale and sickly; her features, though not
+plain, were insignificant; and she spoke very little, except in
+a low voice, to Mrs. Jenkinson, in whose appearance there was
+nothing remarkable, and who was entirely engaged in listening to
+what she said, and placing a screen in the proper direction before
+her eyes.
+
+After sitting a few minutes, they were all sent to one of the
+windows to admire the view, Mr. Collins attending them to
+point out its beauties, and Lady Catherine kindly informing
+them that it was much better worth looking at in the summer.
+
+The dinner was exceedingly handsome, and there were all the
+servants and all the articles of plate which Mr. Collins had
+promised; and, as he had likewise foretold, he took his seat at
+the bottom of the table, by her ladyship's desire, and looked as
+if he felt that life could furnish nothing greater.  He carved,
+and ate, and praised with delighted alacrity; and every dish was
+commended, first by him and then by Sir William, who was now
+enough recovered to echo whatever his son-in-law said, in a
+manner which Elizabeth wondered Lady Catherine could bear.
+But Lady Catherine seemed gratified by their excessive admiration,
+and gave most gracious smiles, especially when any dish on the
+table proved a novelty to them.  The party did not supply much
+conversation.  Elizabeth was ready to speak whenever there was
+an opening, but she was seated between Charlotte and Miss de
+Bourgh--the former of whom was engaged in listening to Lady
+Catherine, and the latter said not a word to her all dinner-time.
+Mrs. Jenkinson was chiefly employed in watching how little Miss
+de Bourgh ate, pressing her to try some other dish, and fearing
+she was indisposed.  Maria thought speaking out of the question,
+and the gentlemen did nothing but eat and admire.
+
+When the ladies returned to the drawing-room, there was little
+to be done but to hear Lady Catherine talk, which she did
+without any intermission till coffee came in, delivering her
+opinion on every subject in so decisive a manner, as proved
+that she was not used to have her judgement controverted.  She
+inquired into Charlotte's domestic concerns familiarly and
+minutely, gave her a great deal of advice as to the management
+of them all; told her how everything ought to be regulated in so
+small a family as hers, and instructed her as to the care of her
+cows and her poultry.  Elizabeth found that nothing was beneath
+this great lady's attention, which could furnish her with an
+occasion of dictating to others.  In the intervals of her discourse
+with Mrs. Collins, she addressed a variety of questions to Maria
+and Elizabeth, but especially to the latter, of whose connections
+she knew the least, and who she observed to Mrs. Collins was a
+very genteel, pretty kind of girl.  She asked her, at different
+times, how many sisters she had, whether they were older or
+younger than herself, whether any of them were likely to be
+married, whether they were handsome, where they had been
+educated, what carriage her father kept, and what had been her
+mother's maiden name?  Elizabeth felt all the impertinence of her
+questions but answered them very composedly.  Lady Catherine
+then observed,
+
+"Your father's estate is entailed on Mr. Collins, I think.  For
+your sake," turning to Charlotte, "I am glad of it; but otherwise I
+see no occasion for entailing estates from the female line.  It was
+not thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh's family.  Do you
+play and sing, Miss Bennet?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"Oh! then--some time or other we shall be happy to hear you.
+Our instrument is a capital one, probably superior to----You
+shall try it some day.  Do your sisters play and sing?"
+
+"One of them does."
+
+"Why did not you all learn?  You ought all to have learned.  The
+Miss Webbs all play, and their father has not so good an income
+as yours.  Do you draw?"
+
+"No, not at all."
+
+"What, none of you?"
+
+"Not one."
+
+"That is very strange.  But I suppose you had no opportunity.
+Your mother should have taken you to town every spring for the
+benefit of masters."
+
+"My mother would have had no objection, but my father hates
+London."
+
+"Has your governess left you?"
+
+"We never had any governess."
+
+"No governess!  How was that possible?  Five daughters brought
+up at home without a governess!  I never heard of such a thing.
+Your mother must have been quite a slave to your education."
+
+Elizabeth could hardly help smiling as she assured her that had
+not been the case.
+
+"Then, who taught you?  who attended to you?  Without a
+governess, you must have been neglected."
+
+"Compared with some families, I believe we were; but such of us
+as wished to learn never wanted the means.  We were always
+encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary.
+Those who chose to be idle, certainly might."
+
+"Aye, no doubt; but that is what a governess will prevent, and
+if I had known your mother, I should have advised her most
+strenuously to engage one.  I always say that nothing is to be
+done in education without steady and regular instruction, and
+nobody but a governess can give it.  It is wonderful how many
+families I have been the means of supplying in that way.  I am
+always glad to get a young person well placed out.  Four nieces
+of Mrs. Jenkinson are most delightfully situated through my
+means; and it was but the other day that I recommended another
+young person, who was merely accidentally mentioned to me,
+and the family are quite delighted with her.  Mrs. Collins, did I
+tell you of Lady Metcalf's calling yesterday to thank me?  She
+finds Miss Pope a treasure.  'Lady Catherine,' said she, 'you
+have given me a treasure.'  Are any of your younger sisters out,
+Miss Bennet?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, all."
+
+"All!  What, all five out at once?  Very odd!  And you only
+the second.  The younger ones out before the elder ones are
+married!  Your younger sisters must be very young?"
+
+"Yes, my youngest is not sixteen.  Perhaps _she_ is full young to
+be much in company.  But really, ma'am, I think it would be
+very hard upon younger sisters, that they should not have their
+share of society and amusement, because the elder may not have
+the means or inclination to marry early.  The last-born has as
+good a right to the pleasures of youth at the first.  And to be
+kept back on _such_ a motive!  I think it would not be very likely
+to promote sisterly affection or delicacy of mind."
+
+"Upon my word," said her ladyship, "you give your opinion very
+decidedly for so young a person.  Pray, what is your age?"
+
+"With three younger sisters grown up," replied Elizabeth,
+smiling, "your ladyship can hardly expect me to own it."
+
+Lady Catherine seemed quite astonished at not receiving a direct
+answer; and Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature
+who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.
+
+"You cannot be more than twenty, I am sure, therefore you need
+not conceal your age."
+
+"I am not one-and-twenty."
+
+When the gentlemen had joined them, and tea was over, the
+card-tables were placed.  Lady Catherine, Sir William, and Mr.
+and Mrs. Collins sat down to quadrille; and as Miss de Bourgh
+chose to play at cassino, the two girls had the honour of
+assisting Mrs. Jenkinson to make up her party.  Their table was
+superlatively stupid.  Scarcely a syllable was uttered that did
+not relate to the game, except when Mrs. Jenkinson expressed her
+fears of Miss de Bourgh's being too hot or too cold, or having
+too much or too little light.  A great deal more passed at the
+other table.  Lady Catherine was generally speaking--stating
+the mistakes of the three others, or relating some anecdote of
+herself.  Mr. Collins was employed in agreeing to everything
+her ladyship said, thanking her for every fish he won, and
+apologising if he thought he won too many.  Sir William did not
+say much.  He was storing his memory with anecdotes and noble
+names.
+
+When Lady Catherine and her daughter had played as long as
+they chose, the tables were broken up, the carriage was offered
+to Mrs. Collins, gratefully accepted and immediately ordered.
+The party then gathered round the fire to hear Lady Catherine
+determine what weather they were to have on the morrow.  From
+these instructions they were summoned by the arrival of the
+coach; and with many speeches of thankfulness on Mr. Collins's
+side and as many bows on Sir William's they departed.  As soon
+as they had driven from the door, Elizabeth was called on by her
+cousin to give her opinion of all that she had seen at Rosings,
+which, for Charlotte's sake, she made more favourable than it
+really was.  But her commendation, though costing her some
+trouble, could by no means satisfy Mr. Collins, and he was very
+soon obliged to take her ladyship's praise into his own hands.
+
+
+
+Chapter 30
+
+
+Sir William stayed only a week at Hunsford, but his visit was
+long enough to convince him of his daughter's being most
+comfortably settled, and of her possessing such a husband and
+such a neighbour as were not often met with.  While Sir William
+was with them, Mr. Collins devoted his morning to driving him
+out in his gig, and showing him the country; but when he went
+away, the whole family returned to their usual employments, and
+Elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of
+her cousin by the alteration, for the chief of the time between
+breakfast and dinner was now passed by him either at work in
+the garden or in reading and writing, and looking out of the
+window in his own book-room, which fronted the road.  The
+room in which the ladies sat was backwards.  Elizabeth had at
+first rather wondered that Charlotte should not prefer the
+dining-parlour for common use; it was a better sized room, and
+had a more pleasant aspect; but she soon saw that her friend
+had an excellent reason for what she did, for Mr. Collins would
+undoubtedly have been much less in his own apartment, had they
+sat in one equally lively; and she gave Charlotte credit for
+the arrangement.
+
+From the drawing-room they could distinguish nothing in the
+lane, and were indebted to Mr. Collins for the knowledge of
+what carriages went along, and how often especially Miss de
+Bourgh drove by in her phaeton, which he never failed coming
+to inform them of, though it happened almost every day.  She
+not unfrequently stopped at the Parsonage, and had a few
+minutes' conversation with Charlotte, but was scarcely ever
+prevailed upon to get out.
+
+Very few days passed in which Mr. Collins did not walk to
+Rosings, and not many in which his wife did not think it
+necessary to go likewise; and till Elizabeth recollected that
+there might be other family livings to be disposed of, she could
+not understand the sacrifice of so many hours.  Now and then
+they were honoured with a call from her ladyship, and nothing
+escaped her observation that was passing in the room during
+these visits.  She examined into their employments, looked at
+their work, and advised them to do it differently; found fault
+with the arrangement of the furniture; or detected the housemaid
+in negligence; and if she accepted any refreshment, seemed to do
+it only for the sake of finding out that Mrs. Collins's joints of
+meat were too large for her family.
+
+Elizabeth soon perceived, that though this great lady was not in
+commission of the peace of the county, she was a most active
+magistrate in her own parish, the minutest concerns of which
+were carried to her by Mr. Collins; and whenever any of the
+cottagers were disposed to be quarrelsome, discontented, or
+too poor, she sallied forth into the village to settle their
+differences, silence their complaints, and scold them into
+harmony and plenty.
+
+The entertainment of dining at Rosings was repeated about twice
+a week; and, allowing for the loss of Sir William, and there being
+only one card-table in the evening, every such entertainment was
+the counterpart of the first.  Their other engagements were few,
+as the style of living in the neighbourhood in general was beyond
+Mr. Collins's reach.  This, however, was no evil to Elizabeth,
+and upon the whole she spent her time comfortably enough;
+there were half-hours of pleasant conversation with Charlotte,
+and the weather was so fine for the time of year that she had
+often great enjoyment out of doors.  Her favourite walk, and
+where she frequently went while the others were calling on Lady
+Catherine, was along the open grove which edged that side of
+the park, where there was a nice sheltered path, which no one
+seemed to value but herself, and where she felt beyond the reach
+of Lady Catherine's curiosity.
+
+In this quiet way, the first fortnight of her visit soon passed
+away.  Easter was approaching, and the week preceding it was
+to bring an addition to the family at Rosings, which in so small
+a circle must be important.  Elizabeth had heard soon after her
+arrival that Mr. Darcy was expected there in the course of a few
+weeks, and though there were not many of her acquaintances whom
+she did not prefer, his coming would furnish one comparatively
+new to look at in their Rosings parties, and she might be amused
+in seeing how hopeless Miss Bingley's designs on him were, by
+his behaviour to his cousin, for whom he was evidently destined
+by Lady Catherine, who talked of his coming with the greatest
+satisfaction, spoke of him in terms of the highest admiration,
+and seemed almost angry to find that he had already been
+frequently seen by Miss Lucas and herself.
+
+His arrival was soon known at the Parsonage; for Mr. Collins
+was walking the whole morning within view of the lodges
+opening into Hunsford Lane, in order to have the earliest
+assurance of it, and after making his bow as the carriage turned
+into the Park, hurried home with the great intelligence.  On the
+following morning he hastened to Rosings to pay his respects.
+There were two nephews of Lady Catherine to require them, for
+Mr. Darcy had brought with him a Colonel Fitzwilliam, the
+younger son of his uncle Lord ----, and, to the great surprise
+of all the party, when Mr. Collins returned, the gentleman
+accompanied him.  Charlotte had seen them from her husband's
+room, crossing the road, and immediately running into the other,
+told the girls what an honour they might expect, adding:
+
+"I may thank you, Eliza, for this piece of civility.  Mr. Darcy
+would never have come so soon to wait upon me."
+
+Elizabeth had scarcely time to disclaim all right to the
+compliment, before their approach was announced by the
+door-bell, and shortly afterwards the three gentlemen entered
+the room.  Colonel Fitzwilliam, who led the way, was about
+thirty, not handsome, but in person and address most truly the
+gentleman.  Mr. Darcy looked just as he had been used to look
+in Hertfordshire--paid his compliments, with his usual reserve,
+to Mrs. Collins, and whatever might be his feelings toward her
+friend, met her with every appearance of composure.  Elizabeth
+merely curtseyed to him without saying a word.
+
+Colonel Fitzwilliam entered into conversation directly with
+the readiness and ease of a well-bred man, and talked very
+pleasantly; but his cousin, after having addressed a slight
+observation on the house and garden to Mrs. Collins, sat for
+some time without speaking to anybody.  At length, however,
+his civility was so far awakened as to inquire of Elizabeth after
+the health of her family.  She answered him in the usual way,
+and after a moment's pause, added:
+
+"My eldest sister has been in town these three months.  Have
+you never happened to see her there?"
+
+She was perfectly sensible that he never had; but she wished
+to see whether he would betray any consciousness of what had
+passed between the Bingleys and Jane, and she thought he
+looked a little confused as he answered that he had never been
+so fortunate as to meet Miss Bennet.  The subject was pursued
+no farther, and the gentlemen soon afterwards went away.
+
+
+
+Chapter 31
+
+
+Colonel Fitzwilliam's manners were very much admired at the
+Parsonage, and the ladies all felt that he must add considerably
+to the pleasures of their engagements at Rosings.  It was some
+days, however, before they received any invitation thither--for
+while there were visitors in the house, they could not be
+necessary; and it was not till Easter-day, almost a week after the
+gentlemen's arrival, that they were honoured by such an
+attention, and then they were merely asked on leaving church to
+come there in the evening.  For the last week they had seen very
+little of Lady Catherine or her daughter.  Colonel Fitzwilliam had
+called at the Parsonage more than once during the time, but Mr.
+Darcy they had seen only at church.
+
+The invitation was accepted of course, and at a proper hour they
+joined the party in Lady Catherine's drawing-room.  Her ladyship
+received them civilly, but it was plain that their company was by
+no means so acceptable as when she could get nobody else; and
+she was, in fact, almost engrossed by her nephews, speaking to
+them, especially to Darcy, much more than to any other person
+in the room.
+
+Colonel Fitzwilliam seemed really glad to see them; anything
+was a welcome relief to him at Rosings; and Mrs. Collins's
+pretty friend had moreover caught his fancy very much.  He now
+seated himself by her, and talked so agreeably of Kent and
+Hertfordshire, of travelling and staying at home, of new books
+and music, that Elizabeth had never been half so well entertained
+in that room before; and they conversed with so much spirit and
+flow, as to draw the attention of Lady Catherine herself, as well
+as of Mr. Darcy.  _His_ eyes had been soon and repeatedly turned
+towards them with a look of curiosity; and that her ladyship,
+after a while, shared the feeling, was more openly acknowledged,
+for she did not scruple to call out:
+
+"What is that you are saying, Fitzwilliam?  What is it you are
+talking of?  What are you telling Miss Bennet?  Let me hear
+what it is."
+
+"We are speaking of music, madam," said he, when no longer
+able to avoid a reply.
+
+"Of music!  Then pray speak aloud.  It is of all subjects my
+delight.  I must have my share in the conversation if you are
+speaking of music.  There are few people in England, I suppose,
+who have more true enjoyment of music than myself, or a better
+natural taste.  If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great
+proficient.  And so would Anne, if her health had allowed her to
+apply.  I am confident that she would have performed delightfully.
+How does Georgiana get on, Darcy?"
+
+Mr. Darcy spoke with affectionate praise of his sister's
+proficiency.
+
+"I am very glad to hear such a good account of her," said Lady
+Catherine; "and pray tell her from me, that she cannot expect to
+excel if she does not practice a good deal."
+
+"I assure you, madam," he replied, "that she does not need such
+advice.  She practises very constantly."
+
+"So much the better.  It cannot be done too much; and when I
+next write to her, I shall charge her not to neglect it on any
+account.  I often tell young ladies that no excellence in music
+is to be acquired without constant practice.  I have told Miss
+Bennet several times, that she will never play really well unless
+she practises more; and though Mrs. Collins has no instrument,
+she is very welcome, as I have often told her, to come to Rosings
+every day, and play on the pianoforte in Mrs. Jenkinson's room.
+She would be in nobody's way, you know, in that part of the house."
+
+Mr. Darcy looked a little ashamed of his aunt's ill-breeding, and
+made no answer.
+
+When coffee was over, Colonel Fitzwilliam reminded Elizabeth
+of having promised to play to him; and she sat down directly to
+the instrument.  He drew a chair near her.  Lady Catherine
+listened to half a song, and then talked, as before, to her other
+nephew; till the latter walked away from her, and making with
+his usual deliberation towards the pianoforte stationed himself
+so as to command a full view of the fair performer's countenance.
+Elizabeth saw what he was doing, and at the first convenient
+pause, turned to him with an arch smile, and said:
+
+"You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state
+to hear me?  I will not be alarmed though your sister _does_ play
+so well.  There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to
+be frightened at the will of others.  My courage always rises at
+every attempt to intimidate me."
+
+"I shall not say you are mistaken," he replied, "because you
+could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming
+you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long
+enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally
+professing opinions which in fact are not your own."
+
+Elizabeth laughed heartily at this picture of herself, and said to
+Colonel Fitzwilliam, "Your cousin will give you a very pretty
+notion of me, and teach you not to believe a word I say.  I am
+particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so able to expose
+my real character, in a part of the world where I had hoped to
+pass myself off with some degree of credit.  Indeed, Mr. Darcy,
+it is very ungenerous in you to mention all that you knew to my
+disadvantage in Hertfordshire--and, give me leave to say, very
+impolitic too--for it is provoking me to retaliate, and such
+things may come out as will shock your relations to hear."
+
+"I am not afraid of you," said he, smilingly.
+
+"Pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of," cried
+Colonel Fitzwilliam.  "I should like to know how he behaves
+among strangers."
+
+"You shall hear then--but prepare yourself for something very
+dreadful.  The first time of my ever seeing him in Hertfordshire,
+you must know, was at a ball--and at this ball, what do you
+think he did?  He danced only four dances, though gentlemen
+were scarce; and, to my certain knowledge, more than one
+young lady was sitting down in want of a partner.  Mr. Darcy,
+you cannot deny the fact."
+
+"I had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the
+assembly beyond my own party."
+
+"True; and nobody can ever be introduced in a ball-room.  Well,
+Colonel Fitzwilliam, what do I play next?  My fingers wait your
+orders."
+
+"Perhaps," said Darcy, "I should have judged better, had I
+sought an introduction; but I am ill-qualified to recommend
+myself to strangers."
+
+"Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?" said Elizabeth,
+still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam.  "Shall we ask him why a
+man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is
+ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers?"
+
+"I can answer your question," said Fitzwilliam, "without
+applying to him.  It is because he will not give himself the
+trouble."
+
+"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said
+Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before.
+I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested
+in their concerns, as I often see done."
+
+"My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument
+in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do.  They
+have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the
+same expression.  But then I have always supposed it to be my
+own fault--because I will not take the trouble of practising.
+It is not that I do not believe _my_ fingers as capable as any
+other woman's of superior execution."
+
+Darcy smiled and said, "You are perfectly right.  You have
+employed your time much better.  No one admitted to the
+privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting.  We neither
+of us perform to strangers."
+
+Here they were interrupted by Lady Catherine, who called out to
+know what they were talking of.  Elizabeth immediately began
+playing again.  Lady Catherine approached, and, after listening
+for a few minutes, said to Darcy:
+
+"Miss Bennet would not play at all amiss if she practised more,
+and could have the advantage of a London master.  She has a
+very good notion of fingering, though her taste is not equal to
+Anne's.  Anne would have been a delightful performer, had her
+health allowed her to learn."
+
+Elizabeth looked at Darcy to see how cordially he assented to
+his cousin's praise; but neither at that moment nor at any other
+could she discern any symptom of love; and from the whole of
+his behaviour to Miss de Bourgh she derived this comfort for
+Miss Bingley, that he might have been just as likely to marry
+_her_, had she been his relation.
+
+Lady Catherine continued her remarks on Elizabeth's performance,
+mixing with them many instructions on execution and taste.
+Elizabeth received them with all the forbearance of civility,
+and, at the request of the gentlemen, remained at the instrument
+till her ladyship's carriage was ready to take them all home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 32
+
+
+Elizabeth was sitting by herself the next morning, and writing to
+Jane while Mrs. Collins and Maria were gone on business into
+the village, when she was startled by a ring at the door, the
+certain signal of a visitor.  As she had heard no carriage, she
+thought it not unlikely to be Lady Catherine, and under that
+apprehension was putting away her half-finished letter that she
+might escape all impertinent questions, when the door opened,
+and, to her very great surprise, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Darcy only,
+entered the room.
+
+He seemed astonished too on finding her alone, and apologised
+for his intrusion by letting her know that he had understood all
+the ladies were to be within.
+
+They then sat down, and when her inquiries after Rosings were
+made, seemed in danger of sinking into total silence.  It was
+absolutely necessary, therefore, to think of something, and in
+this emergence recollecting _when_ she had seen him last in
+Hertfordshire, and feeling curious to know what he would say
+on the subject of their hasty departure, she observed:
+
+"How very suddenly you all quitted Netherfield last November,
+Mr. Darcy!  It must have been a most agreeable surprise to Mr.
+Bingley to see you all after him so soon; for, if I recollect right,
+he went but the day before.  He and his sisters were well, I hope,
+when you left London?"
+
+"Perfectly so, I thank you."
+
+She found that she was to receive no other answer, and, after a
+short pause added:
+
+"I think I have understood that Mr. Bingley has not much idea of
+ever returning to Netherfield again?"
+
+"I have never heard him say so; but it is probable that he may
+spend very little of his time there in the future.  He has many
+friends, and is at a time of life when friends and engagements are
+continually increasing."
+
+"If he means to be but little at Netherfield, it would be better for
+the neighbourhood that he should give up the place entirely, for
+then we might possibly get a settled family there.  But, perhaps,
+Mr. Bingley did not take the house so much for the convenience
+of the neighbourhood as for his own, and we must expect him to
+keep it or quit it on the same principle."
+
+"I should not be surprised," said Darcy, "if he were to give it up
+as soon as any eligible purchase offers."
+
+Elizabeth made no answer.  She was afraid of talking longer of
+his friend; and, having nothing else to say, was now determined
+to leave the trouble of finding a subject to him.
+
+He took the hint, and soon began with, "This seems a very
+comfortable house.  Lady Catherine, I believe, did a great deal to
+it when Mr. Collins first came to Hunsford."
+
+"I believe she did--and I am sure she could not have bestowed
+her kindness on a more grateful object."
+
+"Mr. Collins appears to be very fortunate in his choice of a wife."
+
+"Yes, indeed, his friends may well rejoice in his having met with
+one of the very few sensible women who would have accepted
+him, or have made him happy if they had.  My friend has an
+excellent understanding--though I am not certain that I consider
+her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest thing she ever did.  She
+seems perfectly happy, however, and in a prudential light it is
+certainly a very good match for her."
+
+"It must be very agreeable for her to be settled within so easy a
+distance of her own family and friends."
+
+"An easy distance, do you call it?  It is nearly fifty miles."
+
+"And what is fifty miles of good road?  Little more than half a
+day's journey.  Yes, I call it a _very_ easy distance."
+
+"I should never have considered the distance as one of the
+_advantages_ of the match," cried Elizabeth.  "I should never
+have said Mrs. Collins was settled _near_ her family."
+
+"It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire.
+Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I
+suppose, would appear far."
+
+As he spoke there was a sort of smile which Elizabeth fancied
+she understood; he must be supposing her to be thinking of Jane
+and Netherfield, and she blushed as she answered:
+
+"I do not mean to say that a woman may not be settled too near
+her family.  The far and the near must be relative, and depend on
+many varying circumstances.  Where there is fortune to make the
+expenses of travelling unimportant, distance becomes no evil.
+But that is not the case _here_.  Mr. and Mrs. Collins have a
+comfortable income, but not such a one as will allow of frequent
+journeys--and I am persuaded my friend would not call herself
+_near_ her family under less than _half_ the present distance."
+
+Mr. Darcy drew his chair a little towards her, and said, "_You_
+cannot have a right to such very strong local attachment.
+_You_ cannot have been always at Longbourn."
+
+Elizabeth looked surprised.  The gentleman experienced some
+change of feeling; he drew back his chair, took a newspaper
+from the table, and glancing over it, said, in a colder voice:
+
+"Are you pleased with Kent?"
+
+A short dialogue on the subject of the country ensued, on either
+side calm and concise--and soon put an end to by the entrance
+of Charlotte and her sister, just returned from her walk.  The
+tete-a-tete surprised them.  Mr. Darcy related the mistake which
+had occasioned his intruding on Miss Bennet, and after sitting a
+few minutes longer without saying much to anybody, went away.
+
+"What can be the meaning of this?" said Charlotte, as soon as he
+was gone.  "My dear, Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he
+would never have called us in this familiar way."
+
+But when Elizabeth told of his silence; it did not seem very
+likely, even to Charlotte's wishes, to be the case; and after
+various conjectures, they could at last only suppose his visit to
+proceed from the difficulty of finding anything to do, which was
+the more probable from the time of year.  All field sports were
+over.  Within doors there was Lady Catherine, books, and a
+billiard-table, but gentlemen cannot always be within doors; and
+in the nearness of the Parsonage, or the pleasantness of the walk
+to it, or of the people who lived in it, the two cousins found a
+temptation from this period of walking thither almost every day.
+They called at various times of the morning, sometimes
+separately, sometimes together, and now and then accompanied
+by their aunt.  It was plain to them all that Colonel Fitzwilliam
+came because he had pleasure in their society, a persuasion
+which of course recommended him still more; and Elizabeth was
+reminded by her own satisfaction in being with him, as well as by
+his evident admiration of her, of her former favourite George
+Wickham; and though, in comparing them, she saw there was
+less captivating softness in Colonel Fitzwilliam's manners, she
+believed he might have the best informed mind.
+
+But why Mr. Darcy came so often to the Parsonage, it was more
+difficult to understand.  It could not be for society, as he
+frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his
+lips; and when he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity
+rather than of choice--a sacrifice to propriety, not a pleasure
+to himself.  He seldom appeared really animated.  Mrs. Collins
+knew not what to make of him.  Colonel Fitzwilliam's occasionally
+laughing at his stupidity, proved that he was generally different,
+which her own knowledge of him could not have told her; and as
+she would liked to have believed this change the effect of love,
+and the object of that love her friend Eliza, she set herself
+seriously to work to find it out.  She watched him whenever they
+were at Rosings, and whenever he came to Hunsford; but without
+much success.  He certainly looked at her friend a great deal,
+but the expression of that look was disputable.  It was an
+earnest, steadfast gaze, but she often doubted whether there
+were much admiration in it, and sometimes it seemed nothing but
+absence of mind.
+
+She had once or twice suggested to Elizabeth the possibility of
+his being partial to her, but Elizabeth always laughed at the idea;
+and Mrs. Collins did not think it right to press the subject, from
+the danger of raising expectations which might only end in
+disappointment; for in her opinion it admitted not of a doubt,
+that all her friend's dislike would vanish, if she could suppose
+him to be in her power.
+
+
+In her kind schemes for Elizabeth, she sometimes planned her
+marrying Colonel Fitzwilliam.  He was beyond comparison the
+most pleasant man; he certainly admired her, and his situation in
+life was most eligible; but, to counterbalance these advantages,
+Mr. Darcy had considerable patronage in the church, and his
+cousin could have none at all.
+
+
+
+Chapter 33
+
+
+More than once did Elizabeth, in her ramble within the park,
+unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy.  She felt all the perverseness of
+the mischance that should bring him where no one else was brought,
+and, to prevent its ever happening again, took care to inform him
+at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers.  How it could occur
+a second time, therefore, was very odd!  Yet it did, and even a
+third.  It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance,
+for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries
+and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it
+necessary to turn back and walk with her.  He never said a great
+deal, nor did she give herself the trouble of talking or of
+listening much; but it struck her in the course of their third
+rencontre that he was asking some odd unconnected questions--about
+her pleasure in being at Hunsford, her love of solitary walks, and
+her opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Collins's happiness; and that in
+speaking of Rosings and her not perfectly understanding the house,
+he seemed to expect that whenever she came into Kent again she
+would be staying _there_ too.  His words seemed to imply it.  Could
+he have Colonel Fitzwilliam in his thoughts?  She supposed, if he
+meant anything, he must mean an allusion to what might arise in
+that quarter.  It distressed her a little, and she was quite glad
+to find herself at the gate in the pales opposite the Parsonage.
+
+She was engaged one day as she walked, in perusing Jane's last
+letter, and dwelling on some passages which proved that Jane
+had not written in spirits, when, instead of being again surprised
+by Mr. Darcy, she saw on looking up that Colonel Fitzwilliam
+was meeting her.  Putting away the letter immediately and
+forcing a smile, she said:
+
+"I did not know before that you ever walked this way."
+
+"I have been making the tour of the park," he replied, "as I
+generally do every year, and intend to close it with a call at the
+Parsonage.  Are you going much farther?"
+
+"No, I should have turned in a moment."
+
+And accordingly she did turn, and they walked towards the
+Parsonage together.
+
+"Do you certainly leave Kent on Saturday?" said she.
+
+"Yes--if Darcy does not put it off again.  But I am at his
+disposal.  He arranges the business just as he pleases."
+
+"And if not able to please himself in the arrangement, he has
+at least pleasure in the great power of choice.  I do not know
+anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he
+likes than Mr. Darcy."
+
+"He likes to have his own way very well," replied Colonel
+Fitzwilliam.  "But so we all do.  It is only that he has better
+means of having it than many others, because he is rich, and
+many others are poor.  I speak feelingly.  A younger son, you
+know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence."
+
+"In my opinion, the younger son of an earl can know very
+little of either.  Now seriously, what have you ever known of
+self-denial and dependence?  When have you been prevented by
+want of money from going wherever you chose, or procuring
+anything you had a fancy for?"
+
+"These are home questions--and perhaps I cannot say that I
+have experienced many hardships of that nature.  But in matters
+of greater weight, I may suffer from want of money.  Younger
+sons cannot marry where they like."
+
+"Unless where they like women of fortune, which I think they
+very often do."
+
+"Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are too
+many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some
+attention to money."
+
+"Is this," thought Elizabeth, "meant for me?" and she coloured
+at the idea; but, recovering herself, said in a lively tone, "And
+pray, what is the usual price of an earl's younger son?  Unless
+the elder brother is very sickly, I suppose you would not ask
+above fifty thousand pounds."
+
+He answered her in the same style, and the subject dropped.  To
+interrupt a silence which might make him fancy her affected with
+what had passed, she soon afterwards said:
+
+"I imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for
+the sake of  having someone at his disposal.  I wonder he does
+not marry, to secure a lasting convenience of that kind.  But,
+perhaps, his sister does as well for the present, and, as she is
+under his sole care, he may do what he likes with her."
+
+"No," said Colonel Fitzwilliam, "that is an advantage which he
+must divide with me.  I am joined with him in the guardianship
+of Miss Darcy."
+
+"Are you indeed?  And pray what sort of guardians do you
+make?  Does your charge give you much trouble?  Young ladies
+of her age are sometimes a little difficult to manage, and if she
+has the true Darcy spirit, she may like to have her own way."
+
+As she spoke she observed him looking at her earnestly; and
+the manner in which he immediately asked her why she supposed
+Miss Darcy likely to give them any uneasiness, convinced her
+that she had somehow or other got pretty near the truth.  She
+directly replied:
+
+"You need not be frightened.  I never heard any harm of her; and
+I dare say she is one of the most tractable creatures in the world.
+She is a very great favourite with some ladies of my acquaintance,
+Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley.  I think I have heard you say that
+you know them."
+
+"I know them a little.  Their brother is a pleasant gentlemanlike
+man--he is a great friend of Darcy's."
+
+"Oh! yes," said Elizabeth drily; "Mr. Darcy is uncommonly kind
+to Mr. Bingley, and takes a prodigious deal of care of him."
+
+"Care of him!  Yes, I really believe Darcy _does_ take care of
+him in those points where he most wants care.  From something
+that he told me in our journey hither, I have reason to think
+Bingley very much indebted to him.  But I ought to beg his
+pardon, for I have no right to suppose that Bingley was the
+person meant.  It was all conjecture."
+
+"What is it you mean?"
+
+"It is a circumstance which Darcy could not wish to be generally
+known, because if it were to get round to the lady's family, it
+would be an unpleasant thing."
+
+"You may depend upon my not mentioning it."
+
+"And remember that I have not much reason for supposing it
+to be Bingley.  What he told me was merely this: that he
+congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from
+the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without
+mentioning names or any other particulars, and I only suspected
+it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get
+into a scrape of that sort, and from knowing them to have been
+together the whole of last summer."
+
+"Did Mr. Darcy give you reasons for this interference?"
+
+"I understood that there were some very strong objections
+against the lady."
+
+"And what arts did he use to separate them?"
+
+"He did not talk to me of his own arts," said Fitzwilliam, smiling.
+"He only told me what I have now told you."
+
+Elizabeth made no answer, and walked on, her heart swelling
+with indignation.  After watching her a little, Fitzwilliam asked
+her why she was so thoughtful.
+
+"I am thinking of what you have been telling me," said she.
+"Your cousin's conduct does not suit my feelings.  Why was he
+to be the judge?"
+
+"You are rather disposed to call his interference officious?"
+
+"I do not see what right Mr. Darcy had to decide on the
+propriety of his friend's inclination, or why, upon his own
+judgement alone, he was to determine and direct in what manner
+his friend was to be happy.  But," she continued, recollecting
+herself, "as we know none of the particulars, it is not fair to
+condemn him.  It is not to be supposed that there was much
+affection in the case."
+
+"That is not an unnatural surmise," said Fitzwilliam, "but it is a
+lessening of the honour of my cousin's triumph very sadly."
+
+This was spoken jestingly; but it appeared to her so just a picture
+of Mr. Darcy, that she would not trust herself with an answer,
+and therefore, abruptly changing the conversation talked on
+indifferent matters until they reached the Parsonage.  There, shut
+into her own room, as soon as their visitor left them, she could
+think without interruption of all that she had heard.  It was not
+to be supposed that any other people could be meant than those
+with whom she was connected.  There could not exist in the
+world _two_ men over whom Mr. Darcy could have such boundless
+influence.  That he had been concerned in the measures taken to
+separate Bingley and Jane she had never doubted; but she had
+always attributed to Miss Bingley the principal design and
+arrangement of them.  If his own vanity, however, did not mislead
+him, _he_ was the cause, his pride and caprice were the cause, of
+all that Jane had suffered, and still continued to suffer.  He
+had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most
+affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could say
+how lasting an evil he might have inflicted.
+
+"There were some very strong objections against the lady,"
+were Colonel Fitzwilliam's words; and those strong objections
+probably were, her having one uncle who was a country attorney,
+and another who was in business in London.
+
+"To Jane herself," she exclaimed, "there could be no possibility
+of objection; all loveliness and goodness as she is!--her
+understanding excellent, her mind improved, and her manners
+captivating.  Neither could anything be urged against my father,
+who, though with some peculiarities, has abilities Mr. Darcy
+himself need not disdain, and respectability which he will
+probably never each."  When she thought of her mother, her
+confidence gave way a little; but she would not allow that any
+objections _there_ had material weight with Mr. Darcy, whose
+pride, she was convinced, would receive a deeper wound from
+the want of importance in his friend's connections, than from
+their want of sense; and she was quite decided, at last, that he
+had been partly governed by this worst kind of pride, and partly
+by the wish of retaining Mr. Bingley for his sister.
+
+The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned, brought on
+a headache; and it grew so much worse towards the evening,
+that, added to her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, it determined
+her not to attend her cousins to Rosings, where they were
+engaged to drink tea.  Mrs. Collins, seeing that she was really
+unwell, did not press her to go and as much as possible
+prevented her husband from pressing her; but Mr. Collins could
+not conceal his apprehension of Lady Catherine's being rather
+displeased by her staying at home.
+
+
+
+Chapter 34
+
+
+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 characterise 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.  It was some consolation to think that his visit
+to Rosings was to end on the day after the next--and, a still
+greater, that in less than a fortnight she should herself be with
+Jane again, and enabled to contribute to the recovery of her
+spirits, by all that affection could do.
+
+She could not think of Darcy's leaving Kent without remembering
+that his cousin was to go with him; but Colonel Fitzwilliam had
+made it clear that he had no intentions at all, and agreeable
+as he was, she did not mean to be unhappy about him.
+
+While settling this point, she was suddenly roused by the sound
+of the door-bell, and her spirits were a little fluttered by the
+idea of its being Colonel Fitzwilliam himself, who had once
+before called late in the evening, and might now come to inquire
+particularly after her.  But this idea was soon banished, and
+her spirits were very differently affected, when, to her utter
+amazement, she saw Mr. Darcy walk into the room.  In an
+hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health,
+imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better.
+She answered him with cold civility.  He sat down for a few
+moments, and then getting up, walked about the room.  Elizabeth
+was surprised, but said not a word.  After a silence of
+several minutes, he came towards her in an agitated manner,
+and thus began:
+
+"In vain I have struggled.  It will not do.  My feelings will not
+be repressed.  You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire
+and love you."
+
+Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression.  She stared,
+coloured, doubted, and was silent.  This he considered sufficient
+encouragement; and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long
+felt for her, immediately followed.  He spoke well; but there
+were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed; and he
+was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride.
+His sense of her inferiority--of its being a degradation--of the
+family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination, were
+dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he
+was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.
+
+In spite of her deeply-rooted dislike, she could not be insensible
+to the compliment of such a man's affection, and though her
+intentions did not vary for an instant, she was at first sorry for
+the pain he was to receive; till, roused to resentment by his
+subsequent language, she lost all compassion in anger.  She
+tried, however, to compose herself to answer him with patience,
+when he should have done.  He concluded with representing to
+her the strength of that attachment which, in spite of all his
+endeavours, he had found impossible to conquer; and with
+expressing his hope that it would now be rewarded by her
+acceptance of his hand.  As he said this, she could easily
+see that he had no doubt of a favourable answer.  He _spoke_ of
+apprehension and anxiety, but his countenance expressed real
+security.  Such a circumstance could only exasperate farther,
+and, when he ceased, the colour rose into her cheeks, and she
+said:
+
+"In such cases as this, it is, I believe, the established mode
+to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed,
+however unequally they may be returned.  It is natural that
+obligation should be felt, and if I could _feel_ gratitude, I would
+now thank you.  But I cannot--I have never desired your good
+opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly.  I
+am sorry to have occasioned pain to anyone.  It has been most
+unconsciously done, however, and I hope will be of short
+duration.  The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented
+the acknowledgment of your regard, can have little difficulty in
+overcoming it after this explanation."
+
+Mr. Darcy, who was leaning against the mantelpiece with his
+eyes fixed on her face, seemed to catch her words with no less
+resentment than surprise.  His complexion became pale with
+anger, and the disturbance of his mind was visible in every
+feature.  He was struggling for the appearance of composure,
+and would not open his lips till he believed himself to have
+attained it.  The pause was to Elizabeth's feelings dreadful.
+At length, with a voice of forced calmness, he said:
+
+"And this is all the reply which I am to have the honour of
+expecting!  I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so
+little _endeavour_ at civility, I am thus rejected.  But it is of
+small importance."
+
+"I might as well inquire," replied she, "why with so evident a
+desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that
+you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even
+against your character?  Was not this some excuse for incivility,
+if I _was_ uncivil?  But I have other provocations.  You know I
+have.  Had not my feelings decided against you--had they been
+indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that
+any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has
+been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a
+most beloved sister?"
+
+As she pronounced these words, Mr. Darcy changed colour; but
+the emotion was short, and he listened without attempting
+to interrupt her while she continued:
+
+"I have every reason in the world to think ill of you.  No motive
+can excuse the unjust and ungenerous part you acted _there_.
+You dare not, you cannot deny, that you have been the principal,
+if not the only means of dividing them from each other--of
+exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and
+instability, and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes,
+and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind."
+
+She paused, and saw with no slight indignation that he was
+listening with an air which proved him wholly unmoved by any
+feeling of remorse.  He even looked at her with a smile of
+affected incredulity.
+
+"Can you deny that you have done it?" she repeated.
+
+With assumed tranquillity he then replied: "I have no wish of
+denying that I did everything in my power to separate my friend
+from your sister, or that I rejoice in my success.  Towards _him_
+I have been kinder than towards myself."
+
+Elizabeth disdained the appearance of noticing this civil
+reflection, but its meaning did not escape, nor was it likely to
+conciliate her.
+
+"But it is not merely this affair," she continued, "on which my
+dislike is founded.  Long before it had taken place my opinion
+of you was decided.  Your character was unfolded in the recital
+which I received many months ago from Mr. Wickham.  On this
+subject, what can you have to say?  In what imaginary act
+of friendship can you here defend yourself?  or under what
+misrepresentation can you here impose upon others?"
+
+"You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns," said
+Darcy, in a less tranquil tone, and with a heightened colour.
+
+"Who that knows what his misfortunes have been, can help
+feeling an interest in him?"
+
+"His misfortunes!" repeated Darcy contemptuously; "yes, his
+misfortunes have been great indeed."
+
+"And of your infliction," cried Elizabeth with energy.  "You
+have reduced him to his present state of poverty--comparative
+poverty.  You have withheld the advantages which you must
+know to have been designed for him.  You have deprived the
+best years of his life of that independence which was no less his
+due than his desert.  You have done all this!  and yet you can
+treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule."
+
+"And this," cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across
+the room, "is your opinion of me!  This is the estimation in
+which you hold me!  I thank you for explaining it so fully.  My
+faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed!  But
+perhaps," added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards
+her, "these offenses might have been overlooked, had not your
+pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had
+long prevented my forming any serious design.  These bitter
+accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater
+policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief
+of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by
+reason, by reflection, by everything.  But disguise of every sort
+is my abhorrence.  Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related.
+They were natural and just.  Could you expect me to rejoice in
+the inferiority of your connections?--to congratulate myself on
+the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly
+beneath my own?"
+
+Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she
+tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said:
+
+"You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of
+your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared
+the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you
+behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner."
+
+She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and she continued:
+
+"You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible
+way that would have tempted me to accept it."
+
+Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with
+an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification.  She went
+on:
+
+"From the very beginning--from the first moment, I may almost
+say--of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me
+with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your
+selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the
+groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have
+built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month
+before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I
+could ever be prevailed on to marry."
+
+"You have said quite enough, madam.  I perfectly comprehend
+your feelings, and have now only to be ashamed of what my own
+have been.  Forgive me for having taken up so much of your
+time, and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness."
+
+And with these words he hastily left the room, and Elizabeth
+heard him the next moment open the front door and quit the
+house.
+
+The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great.  She knew not
+how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and
+cried for half-an-hour.  Her astonishment, as she reflected on
+what had passed, was increased by every review of it.  That she
+should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy!  That he
+should have been in love with her for so many months!  So much
+in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections
+which had made him prevent his friend's marrying her sister,
+and which must appear at least with equal force in his own
+case--was almost incredible!  It was gratifying to have inspired
+unconsciously so strong an affection.  But his pride, his
+abominable pride--his shameless avowal of what he had done with
+respect to Jane--his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging,
+though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in
+which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom
+he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the
+consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.  She
+continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of Lady
+Catherine's carriage made her feel how unequal she was to
+encounter Charlotte's observation, and hurried her away to
+her room.
+
+
+
+Chapter 35
+
+
+Elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and
+meditations which had at length closed her eyes.  She could
+not yet recover from the surprise of what had happened; it was
+impossible to think of anything else; and, totally indisposed
+for employment, she resolved, soon after breakfast, to indulge
+herself in air and exercise.  She was proceeding directly to her
+favourite walk, when the recollection of Mr. Darcy's sometimes
+coming there stopped her, and instead of entering the park, she
+turned up the lane, which led farther from the turnpike-road.
+The park paling was still the boundary on one side, and she
+soon passed one of the gates into the ground.
+
+After walking two or three times along that part of the lane, she
+was tempted, by the pleasantness of the morning, to stop at the
+gates and look into the park.  The five weeks which she had now
+passed in Kent had made a great difference in the country, and
+every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees.  She was
+on the point of continuing her walk, when she caught a glimpse
+of a gentleman within the sort of grove which edged the park;
+he was moving that way; and, fearful of its being Mr. Darcy,
+she was directly retreating.  But the person who advanced was
+now near enough to see her, and stepping forward with eagerness,
+pronounced her name.  She had turned away; but on hearing
+herself called, though in a voice which proved it to be Mr.
+Darcy, she moved again towards the gate.  He had by that time
+reached it also, and, holding out a letter, which she instinctively
+took, said, with a look of haughty composure, "I have been
+walking in the grove some time in the hope of meeting you.  Will
+you do me the honour of reading that letter?"  And then, with a
+slight bow, turned again into the plantation, and was soon out of
+sight.
+
+With no expectation of pleasure, but with the strongest curiosity,
+Elizabeth opened the letter, and, to her still increasing wonder,
+perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letter-paper,
+written quite through, in a very close hand.  The envelope itself
+was likewise full.  Pursuing her way along the lane, she then
+began it.  It was dated from Rosings, at eight o'clock in the
+morning, and was as follows:--
+
+"Be not alarmed, madam, on receiving this letter, by the
+apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments
+or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to
+you.  I write without any intention of paining you, or humbling
+myself, by dwelling on wishes which, for the happiness of both,
+cannot be too soon forgotten; and the effort which the formation
+and the perusal of this letter must occasion, should have been
+spared, had not my character required it to be written and read.
+You must, therefore, pardon the freedom with which I demand
+your attention; your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly,
+but I demand it of your justice.
+
+"Two offenses of a very different nature, and by no means of
+equal magnitude, you last night laid to my charge.  The first
+mentioned was, that, regardless of the sentiments of either, I had
+detached Mr. Bingley from your sister, and the other, that I had,
+in defiance of various claims, in defiance of honour and
+humanity, ruined the immediate prosperity and blasted the
+prospects of Mr. Wickham.  Wilfully and wantonly to have
+thrown off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged
+favourite of my father, a young man who had scarcely any other
+dependence than on our patronage, and who had been brought
+up to expect its exertion, would be a depravity, to which the
+separation of two young persons, whose affection could be the
+growth of only a few weeks, could bear no comparison.  But
+from the severity of that blame which was last night so liberally
+bestowed, respecting each circumstance, I shall hope to be in the
+future secured, when the following account of my actions and
+their motives has been read.  If, in the explanation of them,
+which is due to myself, I am under the necessity of relating
+feelings which may be offensive to yours, I can only say that I
+am sorry.  The necessity must be obeyed, and further apology
+would be absurd.
+
+"I had not been long in Hertfordshire, before I saw, in common
+with others, that Bingley preferred your elder sister to any other
+young woman in the country.  But it was not till the evening of
+the dance at Netherfield that I had any apprehension of his
+feeling a serious attachment.  I had often seen him in love before.
+At that ball, while I had the honour of dancing with you, I was
+first made acquainted, by Sir William Lucas's accidental
+information, that Bingley's attentions to your sister had given
+rise to a general expectation of their marriage.  He spoke of it
+as a certain event, of which the time alone could be undecided.
+From that moment I observed my friend's behaviour attentively;
+and I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet
+was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him.  Your sister I
+also watched.  Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and
+engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard,
+and I remained convinced from the evening's scrutiny, that
+though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not
+invite them by any participation of sentiment.  If _you_ have not
+been mistaken here, _I_ must have been in error.  Your superior
+knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable.  If it be
+so, if I have been misled by such error to inflict pain on her,
+your resentment has not been unreasonable.  But I shall not scruple
+to assert, that the serenity of your sister's countenance and air
+was such as might have given the most acute observer a conviction
+that, however amiable her temper, her heart was not likely to be
+easily touched.  That I was desirous of believing her indifferent
+is certain--but I will venture to say that my investigation and
+decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears.  I did
+not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it; I believed
+it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.
+My objections to the marriage were not merely those which I last
+night acknowledged to have the utmost force of passion to put
+aside, in my own case; the want of connection could not be so
+great an evil to my friend as to me.  But there were other causes
+of repugnance; causes which, though still existing, and existing
+to an equal degree in both instances, I had myself endeavoured
+to forget, because they were not immediately before me.  These
+causes must be stated, though briefly.  The situation of
+your mother's family, though objectionable, was nothing in
+comparison to that total want of propriety so frequently, so
+almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger
+sisters, and occasionally even by your father.  Pardon me.  It
+pains me to offend you.  But amidst your concern for the defects
+of  your nearest relations, and your displeasure at this
+representation of them, let it give you consolation to consider
+that, to have conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of
+the like censure, is praise no less generally bestowed on you and
+your elder sister, than it is honourable to the sense and
+disposition of both.  I will only say farther that from what passed
+that evening, my opinion of all parties was confirmed, and every
+inducement heightened which could have led me before, to
+preserve my friend from what I esteemed a most unhappy
+connection.  He left Netherfield for London, on the day
+following, as you, I am certain, remember, with the design of
+soon returning.
+
+"The part which I acted is now to be explained.  His sisters'
+uneasiness had been equally excited with my own; our coincidence
+of feeling was soon discovered, and, alike sensible that no time
+was to be lost in detaching their brother, we shortly resolved
+on joining him directly in London.  We accordingly went--and
+there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my
+friend the certain evils of such a choice.  I described, and
+enforced them earnestly.  But, however this remonstrance might
+have staggered or delayed his determination, I do not suppose
+that it would ultimately have prevented the marriage, had it not
+been seconded by the assurance that I hesitated not in giving, of
+your sister's indifference.  He had before believed her to return
+his affection with sincere, if not with equal regard.  But Bingley
+has great natural modesty, with a stronger dependence on my
+judgement than on his own.  To convince him, therefore, that he
+had deceived himself, was no very difficult point.  To persuade
+him against returning into Hertfordshire, when that conviction
+had been given, was scarcely the work of a moment.  I cannot
+blame myself for having done thus much.  There is but one part
+of my conduct in the whole affair on which I do not reflect with
+satisfaction; it is that I condescended to adopt the measures of
+art so far as to conceal from him your sister's being in town.  I
+knew it myself, as it was known to Miss Bingley; but her brother
+is even yet ignorant of it.  That they might have met without ill
+consequence is perhaps probable; but his regard did not appear
+to me enough extinguished for him to see her without some danger.
+Perhaps this concealment, this disguise was beneath me; it is
+done, however, and it was done for the best.  On this subject
+I have nothing more to say, no other apology to offer.  If I
+have wounded your sister's feelings, it was unknowingly done and
+though the motives which governed me may to you very naturally
+appear insufficient, I have not yet learnt to condemn them.
+
+"With respect to that other, more weighty accusation, of having
+injured Mr. Wickham, I can only refute it by laying before you
+the whole of his connection with my family.  Of what he has
+_particularly_ accused me I am ignorant; but of the truth of
+what I shall relate, I can summon more than one witness of
+undoubted veracity.
+
+"Mr. Wickham is the son of a very respectable man, who had for
+many years the management of all the Pemberley estates, and
+whose good conduct in the discharge of his trust naturally
+inclined my father to be of service to him; and on George
+Wickham, who was his godson, his kindness was therefore
+liberally bestowed.  My father supported him at school, and
+afterwards at Cambridge--most important assistance, as his own
+father, always poor from the extravagance of his wife, would
+have been unable to give him a gentleman's education.  My
+father was not only fond of this young man's society, whose
+manner were always engaging; he had also the highest opinion of
+him, and hoping the church would be his profession, intended to
+provide for him in it.  As for myself, it is many, many years since
+I first began to think of him in a very different manner.  The
+vicious propensities--the want of principle, which he was careful
+to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape
+the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with
+himself, and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded
+moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have.  Here again shall
+give you pain--to what degree you only can tell.  But whatever
+may be the sentiments which Mr. Wickham has created, a
+suspicion of their nature shall not prevent me from unfolding
+his real character--it adds even another motive.
+
+"My excellent father died about five years ago; and his attachment
+to Mr. Wickham was to the last so steady, that in his will he
+particularly recommended it to me, to promote his advancement in
+the best manner that his profession might allow--and if he took
+orders, desired that a valuable family living might be his as soon
+as it became vacant.  There was also a legacy of one thousand
+pounds.  His own father did not long survive mine, and within half
+a year from these events, Mr. Wickham wrote to inform me that,
+having finally resolved against taking orders, he hoped I should
+not think it unreasonable for him to expect some more immediate
+pecuniary advantage, in lieu of the preferment, by which he could
+not be benefited.  He had some intention, he added, of studying
+law, and I must be aware that the interest of one thousand pounds
+would be a very insufficient support therein.  I rather wished,
+than believed him to be sincere; but, at any rate, was perfectly
+ready to accede to his proposal.  I knew that Mr. Wickham
+ought not to be a clergyman; the business was therefore soon
+settled--he resigned all claim to assistance in the church, were
+it possible that he could ever be in a situation to receive it,
+and accepted in return three thousand pounds.  All connection
+between us seemed now dissolved.  I thought too ill of him to
+invite him to Pemberley, or admit his society in town.  In town
+I believe he chiefly lived, but his studying the law was a mere
+pretence, and being now free from all restraint, his life was a
+life of idleness and dissipation.  For about three years I heard
+little of him; but on the decease of the incumbent of the living
+which had been designed for him, he applied to me again by letter
+for the presentation.  His circumstances, he assured me, and I
+had no difficulty in believing it, were exceedingly bad.  He had
+found the law a most unprofitable study, and was now absolutely
+resolved on being ordained, if I would present him to the living
+in question--of which he trusted there could be little doubt, as
+he was well assured that I had no other person to provide for,
+and I could not have forgotten my revered father's intentions.
+You will hardly blame me for refusing to comply with this entreaty,
+or for resisting every repetition to it.  His resentment was in
+proportion to the distress of his circumstances--and he was
+doubtless as violent in his abuse of me to others as in his
+reproaches to myself.  After this period every appearance of
+acquaintance was dropped.  How he lived I know not.  But last
+summer he was again most painfully obtruded on my notice.
+
+"I must now mention a circumstance which I would wish to
+forget myself, and which no obligation less than the present
+should induce me to unfold to any human being.  Having said
+thus much, I feel no doubt of your secrecy.  My sister, who is
+more than ten years my junior, was left to the guardianship of
+my mother's nephew, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and myself.  About a
+year ago, she was taken from school, and an establishment
+formed for her in London; and last summer she went with the
+lady who presided over it, to Ramsgate; and thither also went
+Mr. Wickham, undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have
+been a prior acquaintance between him and Mrs. Younge, in
+whose character we were most unhappily deceived; and by
+her connivance and aid, he so far recommended himself to
+Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression
+of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to
+believe herself in love, and to consent to an elopement.  She was
+then but fifteen, which must be her excuse; and after stating her
+imprudence, I am happy to add, that I owed the knowledge of it
+to herself.  I joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the
+intended elopement, and then Georgiana, unable to support the
+idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost
+looked up to as a father, acknowledged the whole to me.  You
+may imagine what I felt and how I acted.  Regard for my sister's
+credit and feelings prevented any public exposure; but I wrote
+to Mr. Wickham, who left the place immediately, and Mrs. Younge
+was of course removed from her charge.  Mr. Wickham's chief
+object was unquestionably my sister's fortune, which is thirty
+thousand pounds; but I cannot help supposing that the hope of
+revenging himself on me was a strong inducement.  His revenge
+would have been complete indeed.
+
+"This, madam, is a faithful narrative of every event in which
+we have been concerned together; and if you do not absolutely
+reject it as false, you will, I hope, acquit me henceforth
+of cruelty towards Mr. Wickham.  I know not in what manner,
+under what form of falsehood he had imposed on you; but his
+success is not perhaps to be wondered at.  Ignorant as you
+previously were of everything concerning either, detection
+could not be in your power, and suspicion certainly not in
+your inclination.
+
+"You may possibly wonder why all this was not told you last
+night; but I was not then master enough of myself to know what
+could or ought to be revealed.  For the truth of everything here
+related, I can appeal more particularly to the testimony of
+Colonel Fitzwilliam, who, from our near relationship and
+constant intimacy, and, still more, as one of the executors of
+my father's will, has been unavoidably acquainted with every
+particular of these transactions.  If your abhorrence of _me_
+should make _my_ assertions valueless, you cannot be prevented
+by the same cause from confiding in my cousin; and that there
+may be the possibility of consulting him, I shall endeavour to
+find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in
+the course of the morning.  I will only add, God bless you.
+
+"FITZWILLIAM DARCY"
+
+
+
+Chapter 36
+
+
+If Elizabeth, when Mr. Darcy gave her the letter, did not expect
+it to contain a renewal of his offers, she had formed no
+expectation at all of its contents.  But such as they were, it
+may well be supposed how eagerly she went through them, and what
+a contrariety of emotion they excited.  Her feelings as she
+read were scarcely to be defined.  With amazement did she first
+understand that he believed any apology to be in his power; and
+steadfastly was she persuaded, that he could have no explanation
+to give, which a just sense of shame would not conceal.  With a
+strong prejudice against everything he might say, she began his
+account of what had happened at Netherfield.  She read with an
+eagerness which hardly left her power of comprehension, and
+from impatience of knowing what the next sentence might bring,
+was incapable of attending to the sense of the one before her
+eyes.  His belief of her sister's insensibility she instantly
+resolved to be false; and his account of the real, the worst
+objections to the match, made her too angry to have any wish of
+doing him justice.  He expressed no regret for what he had done
+which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty.
+It was all pride and insolence.
+
+But when this subject was succeeded by his account of Mr.
+Wickham--when she read with somewhat clearer attention a
+relation of events which, if true, must overthrow every cherished
+opinion of his worth, and which bore so alarming an affinity to
+his own history of himself--her feelings were yet more acutely
+painful and more difficult of definition.  Astonishment,
+apprehension, and even horror, oppressed her.  She wished to
+discredit it entirely, repeatedly exclaiming, "This must be false!
+This cannot be!  This must be the grossest falsehood!"--and
+when she had gone through the whole letter, though scarcely
+knowing anything of the last page or two, put it hastily away,
+protesting that she would not regard it, that she would never
+look in it again.
+
+In this perturbed state of mind, with thoughts that could rest on
+nothing, she walked on; but it would not do; in half a minute the
+letter was unfolded again, and collecting herself as well as she
+could, she again began the mortifying perusal of all that related
+to Wickham, and commanded herself so far as to examine the
+meaning of every sentence.  The account of his connection with
+the Pemberley family was exactly what he had related himself;
+and the kindness of the late Mr. Darcy, though she had not
+before known its extent, agreed equally well with his own
+words.  So far each recital confirmed the other; but when she
+came to the will, the difference was great.  What Wickham had
+said of the living was fresh in her memory, and as she recalled
+his very words, it was impossible not to feel that there was gross
+duplicity on one side or the other; and, for a few moments, she
+flattered herself that her wishes did not err.  But when she
+read and re-read with the closest attention, the particulars
+immediately following of Wickham's resigning all pretensions to
+the living, of his receiving in lieu so considerable a sum as
+three thousand pounds, again was she forced to hesitate.  She
+put down the letter, weighed every circumstance with what she
+meant to be impartiality--deliberated on the probability of each
+statement--but with little success.  On both sides it was only
+assertion.  Again she read on; but every line proved more clearly
+that the affair, which she had believed it impossible that any
+contrivance could so represent as to render Mr. Darcy's conduct
+in it less than infamous, was capable of a turn which must make
+him entirely blameless throughout the whole.
+
+The extravagance and general profligacy which he scrupled not
+to lay at Mr. Wickham's charge, exceedingly shocked her; the
+more so, as she could bring no proof of its injustice.  She had
+never heard of him before his entrance into the ----shire Militia,
+in which he had engaged at the persuasion of the young man
+who, on meeting him accidentally in town, had there renewed a
+slight acquaintance.  Of his former way of life nothing had been
+known in Hertfordshire but what he told himself.  As to his real
+character, had information been in her power, she had never felt
+a wish of inquiring.  His countenance, voice, and manner had
+established him at once in the possession of every virtue.  She
+tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished
+trait of integrity or benevolence, that might rescue him from the
+attacks of Mr. Darcy; or at least, by the predominance of virtue,
+atone for those casual errors under which she would endeavour
+to class what Mr. Darcy had described as the idleness and vice
+of many years' continuance.  But no such recollection befriended
+her.  She could see him instantly before her, in every charm of
+air and address; but she could remember no more substantial
+good than the general approbation of the neighbourhood, and
+the regard which his social powers had gained him in the mess.
+After pausing on this point a considerable while, she once more
+continued to read.  But, alas! the story which followed, of his
+designs on Miss Darcy, received some confirmation from what
+had passed between Colonel Fitzwilliam and herself only the
+morning before; and at last she was referred for the truth of
+every particular to Colonel Fitzwilliam himself--from whom she
+had previously received the information of his near concern in
+all his cousin's affairs, and whose character she had no reason
+to question.  At one time she had almost resolved on applying
+to him, but the idea was checked by the awkwardness of the
+application, and at length wholly banished by the conviction
+that Mr. Darcy would never have hazarded such a proposal, if
+he had not been well assured of his cousin's corroboration.
+
+She perfectly remembered everything that had passed in
+conversation between Wickham and herself, in their first evening
+at Mr. Phillips's.  Many of his expressions were still fresh in
+her memory.  She was _now_ struck with the impropriety of such
+communications to a stranger, and wondered it had escaped her
+before.  She saw the indelicacy of putting himself forward as
+he had done, and the inconsistency of his professions with his
+conduct.  She remembered that he had boasted of having no fear
+of seeing Mr. Darcy--that Mr. Darcy might leave the country,
+but that _he_ should stand his ground; yet he had avoided the
+Netherfield ball the very next week.  She remembered also that,
+till the Netherfield family had quitted the country, he had told
+his story to no one but herself; but that after their removal it
+had been everywhere discussed; that he had then no reserves, no
+scruples in sinking Mr. Darcy's character, though he had assured
+her that respect for the father would always prevent his exposing
+the son.
+
+How differently did everything now appear in which he was
+concerned!  His attentions to Miss King were now the consequence
+of views solely and hatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of
+her fortune proved no longer the moderation of his wishes, but
+his eagerness to grasp at anything.  His behaviour to herself
+could now have had no tolerable motive; he had either been
+deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying his
+vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had
+most incautiously shown.  Every lingering struggle in his favour
+grew fainter and fainter; and in farther justification of Mr.
+Darcy, she could not but allow Mr. Bingley, when questioned
+by Jane, had long ago asserted his blamelessness in the affair;
+that proud and repulsive as were his manners, she had never, in
+the whole course of their acquaintance--an acquaintance which
+had latterly brought them much together, and given her a sort of
+intimacy with his ways--seen anything that betrayed him to be
+unprincipled or unjust--anything that spoke him of irreligious
+or immoral habits; that among his own connections he was
+esteemed and valued--that even Wickham had allowed him
+merit as a brother, and that she had often heard him speak so
+affectionately of his sister as to prove him capable of _some_
+amiable feeling; that had his actions been what Mr. Wickham
+represented them, so gross a violation of everything right could
+hardly have been concealed from the world; and that friendship
+between a person capable of it, and such an amiable man as Mr.
+Bingley, was incomprehensible.
+
+She grew absolutely ashamed of herself.  Of neither Darcy nor
+Wickham could she think without feeling she had been blind,
+partial, prejudiced, absurd.
+
+"How despicably I have acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided
+myself on my discernment!  I, who have valued myself on my
+abilities!  who have often disdained the generous candour of my
+sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust!
+How humiliating is this discovery!  Yet, how just a humiliation!
+Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind!
+But vanity, not love, has been my folly.  Pleased with the
+preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other,
+on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted
+prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where
+either were concerned.  Till this moment I never knew myself."
+
+From herself to Jane--from Jane to Bingley, her thoughts were
+in a line which soon brought to her recollection that Mr. Darcy's
+explanation _there_ had appeared very insufficient, and she read
+it again.  Widely different was the effect of a second perusal.
+How could she deny that credit to his assertions in one instance,
+which she had been obliged to give in the other?  He declared
+himself to be totally unsuspicious of her sister's attachment;
+and she could not help remembering what Charlotte's opinion
+had always been.  Neither could she deny the justice of his
+description of Jane.  She felt that Jane's feelings, though fervent,
+were little displayed, and that there was a constant complacency
+in her air and manner not often united with great sensibility.
+
+When she came to that part of the letter in which her family were
+mentioned in terms of such mortifying, yet merited reproach, her
+sense of shame was severe.  The justice of the charge struck her
+too forcibly for denial, and the circumstances to which he
+particularly alluded as having passed at the Netherfield ball,
+and as confirming all his first disapprobation, could not have
+made a stronger impression on his mind than on hers.
+
+The compliment to herself and her sister was not unfelt.  It
+soothed, but it could not console her for the contempt which had
+thus been self-attracted by the rest of her family; and as she
+considered that Jane's disappointment had in fact been the work
+of her nearest relations, and reflected how materially the credit
+of both must be hurt by such impropriety of conduct, she felt
+depressed beyond anything she had ever known before.
+
+After wandering along the lane for two hours, giving way to
+every variety of thought--re-considering events, determining
+probabilities, and reconciling herself, as well as she could, to
+a change so sudden and so important, fatigue, and a recollection
+of her long absence, made her at length return home; and she
+entered the house with the wish of appearing cheerful as usual,
+and the resolution of repressing such reflections as must make
+her unfit for conversation.
+
+She was immediately told that the two gentlemen from Rosings
+had each called during her absence; Mr. Darcy, only for a few
+minutes, to take leave--but that Colonel Fitzwilliam had been
+sitting with them at least an hour, hoping for her return, and
+almost resolving to walk after her till she could be found.
+Elizabeth could but just _affect_ concern in missing him; she
+really rejoiced at it.  Colonel Fitzwilliam was no longer an
+object; she could think only of her letter.
+
+
+
+Chapter 37
+
+
+The two gentlemen left Rosings the next morning, and Mr.
+Collins having been in waiting near the lodges, to make them
+his parting obeisance, was able to bring home the pleasing
+intelligence, of their appearing in very good health, and in as
+tolerable spirits as could be expected, after the melancholy scene
+so lately gone through at Rosings.  To Rosings he then hastened,
+to console Lady Catherine and her daughter; and on his return
+brought back, with great satisfaction, a message from her
+ladyship, importing that she felt herself so dull as to make
+her very desirous of having them all to dine with her.
+
+Elizabeth could not see Lady Catherine without recollecting that,
+had she chosen it, she might by this time have been presented to
+her as her future niece; nor could she think, without a smile, of
+what her ladyship's indignation would have been.  "What would
+she have said? how would she have behaved?" were questions with
+which she amused herself.
+
+Their first subject was the diminution of the Rosings party.
+"I assure you, I feel it exceedingly," said Lady Catherine; "I
+believe no one feels the loss of friends so much as I do.  But
+I am particularly attached to these young men, and know them to
+be so much attached to me!  They were excessively sorry to go!
+But so they always are.  The dear Colonel rallied his spirits
+tolerably till just at last; but Darcy seemed to feel it most
+acutely, more, I think, than last year.  His attachment to
+Rosings certainly increases."
+
+Mr. Collins had a compliment, and an allusion to throw in here,
+which were kindly smiled on by the mother and daughter.
+
+Lady Catherine observed, after dinner, that Miss Bennet seemed
+out of spirits, and immediately accounting for it by herself,
+by supposing that she did not like to go home again so soon,
+she added:
+
+"But if that is the case, you must write to your mother and beg
+that you may stay a little longer.  Mrs. Collins will be very glad
+of your company, I am sure."
+
+"I am much obliged to your ladyship for your kind invitation,"
+replied Elizabeth, "but it is not in my power to accept it.
+I must be in town next Saturday."
+
+"Why, at that rate, you will have been here only six weeks.  I
+expected you to stay two months.  I told Mrs. Collins so before
+you came.  There can be no occasion for your going so soon.
+Mrs. Bennet could certainly spare you for another fortnight."
+
+"But my father cannot.  He wrote last week to hurry my return."
+
+"Oh! your father of course may spare you, if your mother can.
+Daughters are never of so much consequence to a father.  And if
+you will stay another _month_ complete, it will be in my power
+to take one of you as far as London, for I am going there early
+in June, for a week; and as Dawson does not object to the
+barouche-box, there will be very good room for one of you--and
+indeed, if the weather should happen to be cool, I should not
+object to taking you both, as you are neither of you large."
+
+"You are all kindness, madam; but I believe we must abide by
+our original plan."
+
+Lady Catherine seemed resigned.  "Mrs. Collins, you must send
+a servant with them.  You know I always speak my mind, and I
+cannot bear the idea of two young women travelling post by
+themselves.  It is highly improper.  You must contrive to send
+somebody.  I have the greatest dislike in the world to that sort
+of thing.  Young women should always be properly guarded and
+attended, according to their situation in life.  When my niece
+Georgiana went to Ramsgate last summer, I made a point of her
+having two men-servants go with her.  Miss Darcy, the daughter
+of Mr. Darcy, of Pemberley, and Lady Anne, could not have
+appeared with propriety in a different manner.  I am excessively
+attentive to all those things.  You must send John with the young
+ladies, Mrs. Collins.  I am glad it occurred to me to mention it;
+for it would really be discreditable to _you_ to let them go
+alone."
+
+"My uncle is to send a servant for us."
+
+"Oh!  Your uncle!  He keeps a man-servant, does he?  I am very
+glad you have somebody who thinks of these things.  Where
+shall you change horses?  Oh!  Bromley, of course.  If you
+mention my name at the Bell, you will be attended to."
+
+Lady Catherine had many other questions to ask respecting their
+journey, and as she did not answer them all herself, attention was
+necessary, which Elizabeth believed to be lucky for her; or, with
+a mind so occupied, she might have forgotten where she was.
+Reflection must be reserved for solitary hours; whenever she
+was alone, she gave way to it as the greatest relief; and not a
+day went by without a solitary walk, in which she might indulge
+in all the delight of unpleasant recollections.
+
+Mr. Darcy's letter she was in a fair way of soon knowing by
+heart.  She studied every sentence; and her feelings towards its
+writer were at times widely different.  When she remembered the
+style of his address, she was still full of indignation; but when
+she considered how unjustly she had condemned and upbraided him,
+her anger was turned against herself; and his disappointed
+feelings became the object of compassion.  His attachment
+excited gratitude, his general character respect; but she could
+not approve him; nor could she for a moment repent her refusal,
+or feel the slightest inclination ever to see him again.  In
+her own past behaviour, there was a constant source of vexation
+and regret; and in the unhappy defects of her family, a subject
+of yet heavier chagrin.  They were hopeless of remedy.  Her father,
+contented with laughing at them, would never exert himself to
+restrain the wild giddiness of his youngest daughters; and her
+mother, with manners so far from right herself, was entirely
+insensible of the evil.  Elizabeth had frequently united with Jane
+in an endeavour to check the imprudence of Catherine and Lydia;
+but while they were supported by their mother's indulgence, what
+chance could there be of improvement?  Catherine, weak-spirited,
+irritable, and completely under Lydia's guidance, had been always
+affronted by their advice; and Lydia, self-willed and careless,
+would scarcely give them a hearing.  They were ignorant, idle, and
+vain.  While there was an officer in Meryton, they would flirt
+with him; and while Meryton was within a walk of Longbourn, they
+would be going there forever.
+
+Anxiety on Jane's behalf was another prevailing concern; and
+Mr. Darcy's explanation, by restoring Bingley to all her former
+good opinion, heightened the sense of what Jane had lost.  His
+affection was proved to have been sincere, and his conduct
+cleared of all blame, unless any could attach to the implicitness
+of his confidence in his friend.  How grievous then was the
+thought that, of a situation so desirable in every respect, so
+replete with advantage, so promising for happiness, Jane had
+been deprived, by the folly and indecorum of her own family!
+
+When to these recollections was added the development of Wickham's
+character, it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which
+had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to
+make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.
+
+Their engagements at Rosings were as frequent during the last
+week of her stay as they had been at first.  The very last evening
+was spent there; and her ladyship again inquired minutely into
+the particulars of their journey, gave them directions as to the
+best method of packing, and was so urgent on the necessity of
+placing gowns in the only right way, that Maria thought herself
+obliged, on her return, to undo all the work of the morning, and
+pack her trunk afresh.
+
+When they parted, Lady Catherine, with great condescension,
+wished them a good journey, and invited them to come to
+Hunsford again next year; and Miss de Bourgh exerted herself
+so far as to curtsey and hold out her hand to both.
+
+
+
+Chapter 38
+
+
+On Saturday morning Elizabeth and Mr. Collins met for breakfast
+a few minutes before the others appeared; and he took the
+opportunity of paying the parting civilities which he deemed
+indispensably necessary.
+
+"I know not, Miss Elizabeth," said he, "whether Mrs. Collins has
+yet expressed her sense of your kindness in coming to us; but I
+am very certain you will not leave the house without receiving
+her thanks for it.  The favor of your company has been much
+felt, I assure you.  We know how little there is to tempt anyone
+to our humble abode.  Our plain manner of living, our small
+rooms and few domestics, and the little we see of the world,
+must make Hunsford extremely dull to a young lady like
+yourself; but I hope you will believe us grateful for the
+condescension, and that we have done everything in our power
+to prevent your spending your time unpleasantly."
+
+Elizabeth was eager with her thanks and assurances of happiness.
+She had spent six weeks with great enjoyment; and the pleasure
+of being with Charlotte, and the kind attentions she had received,
+must make _her_ feel the obliged.  Mr. Collins was gratified, and
+with a more smiling solemnity replied:
+
+"It gives me great pleasure to hear that you have passed your
+time not disagreeably.  We have certainly done our best; and
+most fortunately having it in our power to introduce you to very
+superior society, and, from our connection with Rosings, the
+frequent means of varying the humble home scene, I think we
+may flatter ourselves that your Hunsford visit cannot have been
+entirely irksome.  Our situation with regard to Lady Catherine's
+family is indeed the sort of extraordinary advantage and blessing
+which few can boast.  You see on what a footing we are.  You
+see how continually we are engaged there.  In truth I must
+acknowledge that, with all the disadvantages of this humble
+parsonage, I should not think anyone abiding in it an object of
+compassion, while they are sharers of our intimacy at Rosings."
+
+Words were insufficient for the elevation of his feelings; and
+he was obliged to walk about the room, while Elizabeth tried to
+unite civility and truth in a few short sentences.
+
+"You may, in fact, carry a very favourable report of us into
+Hertfordshire, my dear cousin.  I flatter myself at least that you
+will be able to do so.  Lady Catherine's great attentions to Mrs.
+Collins you have been a daily witness of; and altogether I trust
+it does not appear that your friend has drawn an unfortunate--but
+on this point it will be as well to be silent.  Only let me
+assure you, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that I can from my heart most
+cordially wish you equal felicity in marriage.  My dear Charlotte
+and I have but one mind and one way of thinking.  There is in
+everything a most remarkable resemblance of character and ideas
+between us.  We seem to have been designed for each other."
+
+Elizabeth could safely say that it was a great happiness where
+that was the case, and with equal sincerity could add, that she
+firmly believed and rejoiced in his domestic comforts.  She was
+not sorry, however, to have the recital of them interrupted by
+the lady from whom they sprang.  Poor Charlotte!  it was
+melancholy to leave her to such society!  But she had chosen it
+with her eyes open; and though evidently regretting that her
+visitors were to go, she did not seem to ask for compassion.
+Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and
+all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.
+
+At length the chaise arrived, the trunks were fastened on, the
+parcels placed within, and it was pronounced to be ready.  After
+an affectionate parting between the friends, Elizabeth was
+attended to the carriage by Mr. Collins, and as they walked
+down the garden he was commissioning her with his best
+respects to all her family, not forgetting his thanks for the
+kindness he had received at Longbourn in the winter, and his
+compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, though unknown.  He
+then handed her in, Maria followed, and the door was on the
+point of being closed, when he suddenly reminded them, with
+some consternation, that they had hitherto forgotten to leave
+any message for the ladies at Rosings.
+
+"But," he added, "you will of course wish to have your humble
+respects delivered to them, with your grateful thanks for their
+kindness to you while you have been here."
+
+Elizabeth made no objection; the door was then allowed to be
+shut, and the carriage drove off.
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Maria, after a few minutes' silence, "it
+seems but a day or two since we first came! and yet how many
+things have happened!"
+
+"A great many indeed," said her companion with a sigh.
+
+"We have dined nine times at Rosings, besides drinking tea there
+twice!  How much I shall have to tell!"
+
+Elizabeth added privately, "And how much I shall have to conceal!"
+
+Their journey was performed without much conversation, or any
+alarm; and within four hours of their leaving Hunsford they
+reached Mr. Gardiner's house, where they were to remain a few
+days.
+
+Jane looked well, and Elizabeth had little opportunity of
+studying her spirits, amidst the various engagements which the
+kindness of her aunt had reserved for them.  But Jane was to go
+home with her, and at Longbourn there would be leisure enough
+for observation.
+
+It was not without an effort, meanwhile, that she could wait
+even for Longbourn, before she told her sister of Mr. Darcy's
+proposals.  To know that she had the power of revealing what
+would so exceedingly astonish Jane, and must, at the same time,
+so highly gratify whatever of her own vanity she had not yet
+been able to reason away, was such a temptation to openness
+as nothing could have conquered but the state of indecision
+in which she remained as to the extent of what she should
+communicate; and her fear, if she once entered on the subject,
+of being hurried into repeating something of Bingley which
+might only grieve her sister further.
+
+
+
+Chapter 39
+
+
+It was the second week in May, in which the three young ladies
+set out together from Gracechurch Street for the town of ----,
+in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where
+Mr. Bennet's carriage was to meet them, they quickly perceived,
+in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia
+looking out of a dining-room upstairs.  These two girls had been
+above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an
+opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing a
+salad and cucumber.
+
+After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table
+set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords,
+exclaiming, "Is not this nice?  Is not this an agreeable surprise?"
+
+"And we mean to treat you all," added Lydia, "but you must lend
+us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there."
+Then, showing her purchases--"Look here, I have bought this bonnet.
+I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well
+buy it as not.  I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home,
+and see if I can make it up any better."
+
+And when her sisters abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect
+unconcern, "Oh! but there were two or three much uglier in the
+shop; and when I have bought some prettier-coloured satin to
+trim it with fresh, I think it will be very tolerable.  Besides,
+it will not much signify what one wears this summer, after the
+----shire have left Meryton, and they are going in a fortnight."
+
+"Are they indeed!" cried Elizabeth, with the greatest satisfaction.
+
+"They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so
+want papa to take us all there for the summer!  It would be such
+a delicious scheme; and I dare say would hardly cost anything at
+all.  Mamma would like to go too of all things!  Only think what
+a miserable summer else we shall have!"
+
+"Yes," thought Elizabeth, "_that_ would be a delightful scheme
+indeed, and completely do for us at once.  Good Heaven!
+Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been
+overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly
+balls of Meryton!"
+
+"Now I have got some news for you," said Lydia, as they sat down
+at table.  "What do you think?  It is excellent news--capital
+news--and about a certain person we all like!"
+
+Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was told
+he need not stay.  Lydia laughed, and said:
+
+"Aye, that is just like your formality and discretion.  You
+thought the waiter must not hear, as if he cared!  I dare say he
+often hears worse things said than I am going to say.  But he is
+an ugly fellow!  I am glad he is gone.  I never saw such a long
+chin in my life.  Well, but now for my news; it is about dear
+Wickham; too good for the waiter, is it not?  There is no danger
+of Wickham's marrying Mary King.  There's for you!  She is gone
+down to her uncle at Liverpool: gone to stay.  Wickham is safe."
+
+"And Mary King is safe!" added Elizabeth; "safe from a
+connection imprudent as to fortune."
+
+"She is a great fool for going away, if she liked him."
+
+"But I hope there is no strong attachment on either side,"
+said Jane.
+
+"I am sure there is not on _his_.  I will answer for it, he never
+cared three straws about her--who could about such a nasty
+little freckled thing?"
+
+Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of
+such coarseness of _expression_ herself, the coarseness of the
+_sentiment_ was little other than her own breast had harboured
+and fancied liberal!
+
+As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was
+ordered; and after some contrivance, the whole party, with all
+their boxes, work-bags, and parcels, and the unwelcome addition
+of Kitty's and Lydia's purchases, were seated in it.
+
+"How nicely we are all crammed in," cried Lydia.  "I am glad I
+bought my bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another
+bandbox!  Well, now let us be quite comfortable and snug, and
+talk and laugh all the way home.  And in the first place, let
+us hear what has happened to you all since you went away.  Have
+you seen any pleasant men?  Have you had any flirting?  I was
+in great hopes that one of you would have got a husband before
+you came back.  Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare.
+She is almost three-and-twenty!  Lord, how ashamed I should be of
+not being married before three-and-twenty!  My aunt Phillips wants
+you so to get husbands, you can't think.  She says Lizzy had
+better have taken Mr. Collins; but _I_ do not think there would
+have been any fun in it.  Lord! how I should like to be married
+before any of you; and then I would chaperon you about to all
+the balls.  Dear me! we had such a good piece of fun the other
+day at Colonel Forster's.  Kitty and me were to spend the day
+there, and Mrs. Forster promised to have a little dance in the
+evening; (by the bye, Mrs. Forster and me are _such_ friends!) and
+so she asked the two Harringtons to come, but Harriet was ill,
+and so Pen was forced to come by herself; and then, what do you
+think we did?  We dressed up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes on
+purpose to pass for a lady, only think what fun!  Not a soul
+knew of it, but Colonel and Mrs. Forster, and Kitty and me,
+except my aunt, for we were forced to borrow one of her gowns;
+and you cannot imagine how well he looked!  When Denny, and
+Wickham, and Pratt, and two or three more of the men came in,
+they did not know him in the least.  Lord! how I laughed! and
+so did Mrs. Forster.  I thought I should have died.  And _that_
+made the men suspect something, and then they soon found out
+what was the matter."
+
+With such kinds of histories of their parties and good jokes, did
+Lydia, assisted by Kitty's hints and additions, endeavour to
+amuse her companions all the way to Longbourn.  Elizabeth
+listened as little as she could, but there was no escaping the
+frequent mention of Wickham's name.
+
+Their reception at home was most kind.  Mrs. Bennet rejoiced to
+see Jane in undiminished beauty; and more than once during
+dinner did Mr. Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth:
+
+"I am glad you are come back, Lizzy."
+
+Their party in the dining-room was large, for almost all the
+Lucases came to meet Maria and hear the news; and various
+were the subjects that occupied them: Lady Lucas was inquiring
+of Maria, after the welfare and poultry of her eldest daughter;
+Mrs. Bennet was doubly engaged, on one hand collecting an
+account of the present fashions from Jane, who sat some way
+below her, and, on the other, retailing them all to the younger
+Lucases; and Lydia, in a voice rather louder than any other
+person's, was enumerating the various pleasures of the morning
+to anybody who would hear her.
+
+"Oh! Mary," said she, "I wish you had gone with us, for we had
+such fun!  As we went along, Kitty and I drew up the blinds,
+and pretended there was nobody in the coach; and I should have
+gone so all the way, if Kitty had not been sick; and when we got
+to the George, I do think we behaved very handsomely, for we
+treated the other three with the nicest cold luncheon in the
+world, and if you would have gone, we would have treated you
+too.  And then when we came away it was such fun!  I thought
+we never should have got into the coach.  I was ready to die
+of laughter.  And then we were so merry all the way home! we
+talked and laughed so loud, that anybody might have heard us
+ten miles off!"
+
+To this Mary very gravely replied, "Far be it from me, my dear
+sister, to depreciate such pleasures!  They would doubtless be
+congenial with the generality of female minds.  But I confess
+they would have no charms for _me_--I should infinitely prefer a
+book."
+
+But of this answer Lydia heard not a word.  She seldom listened
+to anybody for more than half a minute, and never attended to
+Mary at all.
+
+In the afternoon Lydia was urgent with the rest of the girls
+to walk to Meryton, and to see how everybody went on; but
+Elizabeth steadily opposed the scheme.  It should not be said
+that the Miss Bennets could not be at home half a day before
+they were in pursuit of the officers.  There was another reason
+too for her opposition.  She dreaded seeing Mr. Wickham again,
+and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible.  The comfort
+to _her_ of the regiment's approaching removal was indeed beyond
+expression.  In a fortnight they were to go--and once gone, she
+hoped there could be nothing more to plague her on his account.
+
+She had not been many hours at home before she found that the
+Brighton scheme, of which Lydia had given them a hint at the inn,
+was under frequent discussion between her parents.  Elizabeth
+saw directly that her father had not the smallest intention of
+yielding; but his answers were at the same time so vague and
+equivocal, that her mother, though often disheartened, had never
+yet despaired of succeeding at last.
+
+
+
+Chapter 40
+
+
+Elizabeth's impatience to acquaint Jane with what had happened
+could no longer be overcome; and at length, resolving to
+suppress every particular in which her sister was concerned,
+and preparing her to be surprised, she related to her the next
+morning the chief of the scene between Mr. Darcy and herself.
+
+Miss Bennet's astonishment was soon lessened by the strong
+sisterly partiality which made any admiration of Elizabeth appear
+perfectly natural; and all surprise was shortly lost in other
+feelings.  She was sorry that Mr. Darcy should have delivered his
+sentiments in a manner so little suited to recommend them; but
+still more was she grieved for the unhappiness which her sister's
+refusal must have given him.
+
+"His being so sure of succeeding was wrong," said she, "and
+certainly ought not to have appeared; but consider how much it
+must increase his disappointment!"
+
+"Indeed," replied Elizabeth, "I am heartily sorry for him; but he
+has other feelings, which will probably soon drive away his
+regard for me.  You do not blame me, however, for refusing him?"
+
+"Blame you!  Oh, no."
+
+"But you blame me for having spoken so warmly of Wickham?"
+
+"No--I do not know that you were wrong in saying what you
+did."
+
+"But you _will_ know it, when I tell you what happened the very
+next day."
+
+She then spoke of the letter, repeating the whole of its contents
+as far as they concerned George Wickham.  What a stroke was
+this for poor Jane! who would willingly have gone through the
+world without believing that so much wickedness existed in the
+whole race of mankind, as was here collected in one individual.
+Nor was Darcy's vindication, though grateful to her feelings,
+capable of consoling her for such discovery.  Most earnestly did
+she labour to prove the probability of error, and seek to clear the
+one without involving the other.
+
+"This will not do," said Elizabeth; "you never will be able to
+make both of them good for anything.  Take your choice, but
+you must be satisfied with only one.  There is but such a quantity
+of merit between them; just enough to make one good sort of
+man; and of late it has been shifting about pretty much.  For my
+part, I am inclined to believe it all Darcy's; but you shall do
+as you choose."
+
+It was some time, however, before a smile could be extorted
+from Jane.
+
+"I do not know when I have been more shocked," said she.
+"Wickham so very bad!  It is almost past belief.  And poor Mr.
+Darcy!  Dear Lizzy, only consider what he must have suffered.
+Such a disappointment! and with the knowledge of your ill
+opinion, too! and having to relate such a thing of his sister!
+It is really too distressing.  I am sure you must feel it so."
+
+"Oh! no, my regret and compassion are all done away by seeing
+you so full of both.  I know you will do him such ample justice,
+that I am growing every moment more unconcerned and indifferent.
+Your profusion makes me saving; and if you lament over him much
+longer, my heart will be as light as a feather."
+
+"Poor Wickham! there is such an expression of goodness in his
+countenance! such an openness and gentleness in his manner!"
+
+"There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education
+of those two young men.  One has got all the goodness, and the
+other all the appearance of it."
+
+"I never thought Mr. Darcy so deficient in the _appearance_
+of it as you used to do."
+
+"And yet I meant to be uncommonly clever in taking so decided
+a dislike to him, without any reason.  It is such a spur to one's
+genius, such an opening for wit, to have a dislike of that kind.
+One may be continually abusive without saying anything just; but
+one cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then
+stumbling on something witty."
+
+"Lizzy, when you first read that letter, I am sure you could not
+treat the matter as you do now."
+
+"Indeed, I could not.  I was uncomfortable enough, I may say
+unhappy.  And with no one to speak to about what I felt, no
+Jane to comfort me and say that I had not been so very weak and
+vain and nonsensical as I knew I had!  Oh! how I wanted you!"
+
+"How unfortunate that you should have used such very strong
+expressions in speaking of Wickham to Mr. Darcy, for now they
+_do_ appear wholly undeserved."
+
+"Certainly.  But the misfortune of speaking with bitterness
+is a most natural consequence of the prejudices I had been
+encouraging.  There is one point on which I want your advice.
+I want to be told whether I ought, or ought not, to make our
+acquaintances in general understand Wickham's character."
+
+Miss Bennet paused a little, and then replied, "Surely there can
+be no occasion for exposing him so dreadfully.  What is your
+opinion?"
+
+"That it ought not to be attempted.  Mr. Darcy has not
+authorised me to make his communication public.  On the
+contrary, every particular relative to his sister was meant to
+be kept as much as possible to myself; and if I endeavour to
+undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct, who will believe
+me?  The general prejudice against Mr. Darcy is so violent, that
+it would be the death of half the good people in Meryton to
+attempt to place him in an amiable light.  I am not equal to it.
+Wickham will soon be gone; and therefore it will not signify to
+anyone here what he really is.  Some time hence it will be all
+found out, and then we may laugh at their stupidity in not
+knowing it before.  At present I will say nothing about it."
+
+"You are quite right.  To have his errors made public might ruin
+him for ever.  He is now, perhaps, sorry for what he has done,
+and anxious to re-establish a character.  We must not make him
+desperate."
+
+The tumult of Elizabeth's mind was allayed by this conversation.
+She had got rid of two of the secrets which had weighed on her
+for a fortnight, and was certain of a willing listener in Jane,
+whenever she might wish to talk again of either.  But there was
+still something lurking behind, of which prudence forbade the
+disclosure.  She dared not relate the other half of Mr. Darcy's
+letter, nor explain to her sister how sincerely she had been
+valued by her friend.  Here was knowledge in which no one
+could partake; and she was sensible that nothing less than a
+perfect understanding between the parties could justify her in
+throwing off this last encumbrance of mystery.  "And then," said
+she, "if that very improbable event should ever take place, I
+shall merely be able to tell what Bingley may tell in a much more
+agreeable manner himself.  The liberty of communication cannot
+be mine till it has lost all its value!"
+
+She was now, on being settled at home, at leisure to observe the
+real state of her sister's spirits.  Jane was not happy.  She still
+cherished a very tender affection for Bingley.  Having never even
+fancied herself in love before, her regard had all the warmth of
+first attachment, and, from her age and disposition, greater
+steadiness than most first attachments often boast; and so
+fervently did she value his remembrance, and prefer him to every
+other man, that all her good sense, and all her attention to the
+feelings of her friends, were requisite to check the indulgence of
+those regrets which must have been injurious to her own health
+and their tranquillity.
+
+"Well, Lizzy," said Mrs. Bennet one day, "what is your opinion
+_now_ of this sad business of Jane's?  For my part, I am
+determined never to speak of it again to anybody.  I told my
+sister Phillips so the other day.  But I cannot find out that Jane
+saw anything of him in London.  Well, he is a very undeserving
+young man--and I do not suppose there's the least chance in the
+world of her ever getting him now.  There is no talk of his
+coming to Netherfield again in the summer; and I have inquired
+of everybody, too, who is likely to know."
+
+"I do not believe he will ever live at Netherfield any more."
+
+"Oh well! it is just as he chooses.  Nobody wants him to come.
+Though I shall always say he used my daughter extremely ill; and
+if I was her, I would not have put up with it.  Well, my comfort
+is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart; and then he will
+be sorry for what he has done."
+
+But as Elizabeth could not receive comfort from any such
+expectation, she made no answer.
+
+"Well, Lizzy," continued her mother, soon afterwards, "and so
+the Collinses live very comfortable, do they?  Well, well, I only
+hope it will last.  And what sort of table do they keep?  Charlotte
+is an excellent manager, I dare say.  If she is half as sharp as
+her mother, she is saving enough.  There is nothing extravagant in
+_their_ housekeeping, I dare say."
+
+"No, nothing at all."
+
+"A great deal of good management, depend upon it.  Yes, yes.
+_they_ will take care not to outrun their income.  _They_ will
+never be distressed for money.  Well, much good may it do
+them!  And so, I suppose, they often talk of having Longbourn
+when your father is dead.  They look upon it as quite their own,
+I dare say, whenever that happens."
+
+"It was a subject which they could not mention before me."
+
+"No; it would have been strange if they had; but I make no
+doubt they often talk of it between themselves.  Well, if they
+can be easy with an estate that is not lawfully their own, so
+much the better.  I should be ashamed of having one that was
+only entailed on me."
+
+
+
+Chapter 41
+
+
+The first week of their return was soon gone.  The second began.
+It was the last of the regiment's stay in Meryton, and all the
+young ladies in the neighbourhood were drooping apace.  The
+dejection was almost universal.  The elder Miss Bennets alone
+were still able to eat, drink, and sleep, and pursue the usual
+course of their employments.  Very frequently were they
+reproached for this insensibility by Kitty and Lydia, whose
+own misery was extreme, and who could not comprehend such
+hard-heartedness in any of the family.
+
+"Good Heaven! what is to become of us?  What are we to do?"
+would they often exclaim in the bitterness of woe.  "How can
+you be smiling so, Lizzy?"
+
+Their affectionate mother shared all their grief; she remembered
+what she had herself endured on a similar occasion, five-and-twenty
+years ago.
+
+"I am sure," said she, "I cried for two days together when
+Colonel Miller's regiment went away.  I thought I should have
+broken my heart."
+
+"I am sure I shall break _mine_," said Lydia.
+
+"If one could but go to Brighton!" observed Mrs. Bennet.
+
+"Oh, yes!--if one could but go to Brighton!  But papa is so
+disagreeable."
+
+"A little sea-bathing would set me up forever."
+
+"And my aunt Phillips is sure it would do _me_ a great deal of
+good," added Kitty.
+
+Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually
+through Longbourn House.  Elizabeth tried to be diverted by
+them; but all sense of pleasure was lost in shame.  She felt anew
+the justice of Mr. Darcy's objections; and never had she been so
+much disposed to pardon his interference in the views of his
+friend.
+
+But the gloom of Lydia's prospect was shortly cleared away; for
+she received an invitation from Mrs. Forster, the wife of the
+colonel of the regiment, to accompany her to Brighton.  This
+invaluable friend was a very young woman, and very lately
+married.  A resemblance in good humour and good spirits had
+recommended her and Lydia to each other, and out of their
+_three_ months' acquaintance they had been intimate _two_.
+
+The rapture of Lydia on this occasion, her adoration of Mrs.
+Forster, the delight of Mrs. Bennet, and the mortification of
+Kitty, are scarcely to be described.  Wholly inattentive to her
+sister's feelings, Lydia flew about the house in restless ecstasy,
+calling for everyone's congratulations, and laughing and talking
+with more violence than ever; whilst the luckless Kitty continued
+in the parlour repined at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her
+accent was peevish.
+
+"I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask _me_ as well as
+Lydia," said she, "Though I am _not_ her particular friend.  I
+have just as much right to be asked as she has, and more too,
+for I am two years older."
+
+In vain did Elizabeth attempt to make her reasonable, and Jane
+to make her resigned.  As for Elizabeth herself, this invitation
+was so far from exciting in her the same feelings as in her mother
+and Lydia, that she considered it as the death warrant of all
+possibility of common sense for the latter; and detestable as such
+a step must make her were it known, she could not help secretly
+advising her father not to let her go.  She represented to him all
+the improprieties of Lydia's general behaviour, the little
+advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman
+as Mrs. Forster, and the probability of her being yet more
+imprudent with such a companion at Brighton, where the
+temptations must be greater than at home.  He heard her
+attentively, and then said:
+
+"Lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some
+public place or other, and we can never expect her to do it with
+so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the
+present circumstances."
+
+"If you were aware," said Elizabeth, "of the very great
+disadvantage to us all which must arise from the public notice
+of Lydia's unguarded and imprudent manner--nay, which has
+already arisen from it, I am sure you would judge differently in
+the affair."
+
+"Already arisen?" repeated Mr. Bennet.  "What, has she
+frightened away some of your lovers?  Poor little Lizzy!  But do
+not be cast down.  Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be
+connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.  Come,
+let me see the list of pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof
+by Lydia's folly."
+
+"Indeed you are mistaken.  I have no such injuries to resent.
+It is not of particular, but of general evils, which I am now
+complaining.  Our importance, our respectability in the world must
+be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of
+all restraint which mark Lydia's character.  Excuse me, for I must
+speak plainly.  If you, my dear father, will not take the trouble
+of checking her exuberant spirits, and of teaching her that her
+present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will
+soon be beyond the reach of amendment.  Her character will be
+fixed, and she will, at sixteen, be the most determined flirt that
+ever made herself or her family ridiculous; a flirt, too, in the
+worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction
+beyond youth and a tolerable person; and, from the ignorance and
+emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of
+that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite.
+In this danger Kitty also is comprehended.  She will follow wherever
+Lydia leads.  Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled!
+Oh! my dear father, can you suppose it possible that they will not
+be censured and despised wherever they are known, and that their
+sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?"
+
+Mr. Bennet saw that her whole heart was in the subject, and
+affectionately taking her hand said in reply:
+
+"Do not make yourself uneasy, my love.  Wherever you and Jane
+are known you must be respected and valued; and you will not
+appear to less advantage for having a couple of--or I may say,
+three--very silly sisters.  We shall have no peace at Longbourn
+if Lydia does not go to Brighton.  Let her go, then.  Colonel
+Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real
+mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey
+to anybody.  At Brighton she will be of less importance even as
+a common flirt than she has been here.  The officers will find
+women better worth their notice.  Let us hope, therefore, that
+her being there may teach her her own insignificance.  At any
+rate, she cannot grow many degrees worse, without authorising
+us to lock her up for the rest of her life."
+
+With this answer Elizabeth was forced to be content; but her
+own opinion continued the same, and she left him disappointed
+and sorry.  It was not in her nature, however, to increase her
+vexations by dwelling on them.  She was confident of having
+performed her duty, and to fret over unavoidable evils, or
+augment them by anxiety, was no part of her disposition.
+
+Had Lydia and her mother known the substance of her conference
+with her father, their indignation would hardly have found
+expression in their united volubility.  In Lydia's imagination,
+a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly
+happiness.  She saw, with the creative eye of fancy, the streets
+of that gay bathing-place covered with officers.  She saw
+herself the object of attention, to tens and to scores of them
+at present unknown.  She saw all the glories of the camp--its
+tents stretched forth in beauteous uniformity of lines, crowded
+with the young and the gay, and dazzling with scarlet; and, to
+complete the view, she saw herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly
+flirting with at least six officers at once.
+
+Had she known her sister sought to tear her from such prospects
+and such realities as these, what would have been her sensations?
+They could have been understood only by her mother, who might
+have felt nearly the same.  Lydia's going to Brighton was all
+that consoled her for her melancholy conviction of her husband's
+never intending to go there himself.
+
+But they were entirely ignorant of what had passed; and their
+raptures continued, with little intermission, to the very day of
+Lydia's leaving home.
+
+Elizabeth was now to see Mr. Wickham for the last time.
+Having been frequently in company with him since her return,
+agitation was pretty well over; the agitations of formal partiality
+entirely so.  She had even learnt to detect, in the very gentleness
+which had first delighted her, an affectation and a sameness to
+disgust and weary.  In his present behaviour to herself,
+moreover, she had a fresh source of displeasure, for the
+inclination he soon testified of renewing those intentions which
+had marked the early part of their acquaintance could only serve,
+after what had since passed, to provoke her.  She lost all concern
+for him in finding herself thus selected as the object of such idle
+and frivolous gallantry; and while she steadily repressed it, could
+not but feel the reproof contained in his believing, that however
+long, and for whatever cause, his attentions had been withdrawn,
+her vanity would be gratified, and her preference secured at any
+time by their renewal.
+
+On the very last day of the regiment's remaining at Meryton, he
+dined, with other of the officers, at Longbourn; and so little
+was Elizabeth disposed to part from him in good humour, that on
+his making some inquiry as to the manner in which her time had
+passed at Hunsford, she mentioned Colonel Fitzwilliam's and
+Mr. Darcy's having both spent three weeks at Rosings, and
+asked him, if he was acquainted with the former.
+
+He looked surprised, displeased, alarmed; but with a moment's
+recollection and a returning smile, replied, that he had formerly
+seen him often; and, after observing that he was a very
+gentlemanlike man, asked her how she had liked him.  Her
+answer was warmly in his favour.  With an air of indifference he
+soon afterwards added:
+
+"How long did you say he was at Rosings?"
+
+"Nearly three weeks."
+
+"And you saw him frequently?"
+
+"Yes, almost every day."
+
+"His manners are very different from his cousin's."
+
+"Yes, very different.  But I think Mr. Darcy improves upon
+acquaintance."
+
+"Indeed!" cried Mr. 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 his mind or his manners were in a state of improvement, but
+that, from knowing him better, his disposition was better
+understood."
+
+Wickham's alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and
+agitated look; for a few minutes he was silent, till, shaking
+off his embarrassment, he turned to her again, and said in the
+gentlest of accents:
+
+"You, who so well know my feeling towards Mr. Darcy, will
+readily comprehend how sincerely I must rejoice that he is
+wise enough to assume even the _appearance_ of what is right.
+His pride, in that direction, may be of service, if not to himself,
+to many others, for it must only deter him from such foul
+misconduct as I have suffered by.  I only fear that the sort of
+cautiousness to which you, I imagine, have been alluding, is
+merely adopted on his visits to his aunt, of whose good opinion
+and judgement he stands much in awe.  His fear of her has
+always operated, I know, when they were together; and a good
+deal is to be imputed to his wish of forwarding the match with
+Miss de Bourgh, which I am certain he has very much at heart."
+
+Elizabeth could not repress a smile at this, but she answered only
+by a slight inclination of the head.  She saw that he wanted to
+engage her on the old subject of his grievances, and she was in
+no humour to indulge him.  The rest of the evening passed with
+the _appearance_, on his side, of usual cheerfulness, but with
+no further attempt to distinguish Elizabeth; and they parted at
+last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never
+meeting again.
+
+When the party broke up, Lydia returned with Mrs. Forster to
+Meryton, from whence they were to set out early the next
+morning.  The separation between her and her family was rather
+noisy than pathetic.  Kitty was the only one who shed tears; but
+she did weep from vexation and envy.  Mrs. Bennet was diffuse
+in her good wishes for the felicity of her daughter, and
+impressive in her injunctions that she should not miss the
+opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possible--advice
+which there was every reason to believe would be well attended
+to; and in the clamorous happiness of Lydia herself in bidding
+farewell, the more gentle adieus of her sisters were uttered
+without being heard.
+
+
+
+Chapter 42
+
+
+Had Elizabeth's opinion been all drawn from her own family,
+she could not have formed a very pleasing opinion of conjugal
+felicity or domestic comfort.  Her father, captivated by youth
+and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth
+and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak
+understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage
+put an end to all real affection for her.  Respect, esteem, and
+confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic
+happiness were overthrown.  But Mr. Bennet was not of a
+disposition to seek comfort for the disappointment which his
+own imprudence had brought on, in any of those pleasures which
+too often console the unfortunate for their folly of their vice.
+He was fond of the country and of books; and from these tastes had
+arisen his principal enjoyments.  To his wife he was very little
+otherwise indebted, than as her ignorance and folly had
+contributed to his amusement.  This is not the sort of happiness
+which a man would in general wish to owe to his wife; but
+where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true
+philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.
+
+Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of
+her father's behaviour as a husband.  She had always seen it with
+pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his affectionate
+treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what she could
+not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual
+breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in exposing
+his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so highly
+reprehensible.  But she had never felt so strongly as now the
+disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable a
+marriage, nor ever been so fully aware of the evils arising from
+so ill-judged a direction of talents; talents, which, rightly used,
+might at least have preserved the respectability of his daughters,
+even if incapable of enlarging the mind of his wife.
+
+When Elizabeth had rejoiced over Wickham's departure she
+found little other cause for satisfaction in the loss of the
+regiment.  Their parties abroad were less varied than before, and
+at home she had a mother and sister whose constant repinings at
+the dullness of everything around them threw a real gloom over
+their domestic circle; and, though Kitty might in time regain her
+natural degree of sense, since the disturbers of her brain were
+removed, her other sister, from whose disposition greater evil
+might be apprehended, was likely to be hardened in all her
+folly and assurance by a situation of such double danger as a
+watering-place and a camp.  Upon the whole, therefore, she
+found, what has been sometimes been found before, that an
+event to which she had been looking with impatient desire did
+not, in taking place, bring all the satisfaction she had promised
+herself.  It was consequently necessary to name some other
+period for the commencement of actual felicity--to have some
+other point on which her wishes and hopes might be fixed, and
+by again enjoying the pleasure of anticipation, console herself for
+the present, and prepare for another disappointment.  Her tour
+to the Lakes was now the object of her happiest thoughts; it was
+her best consolation for all the uncomfortable hours which the
+discontentedness of her mother and Kitty made inevitable; and
+could she have included Jane in the scheme, every part of it
+would have been perfect.
+
+"But it is fortunate," thought she, "that I have something to wish
+for.  Were the whole arrangement complete, my disappointment
+would be certain.  But here, by carrying with me one ceaseless
+source of regret in my sister's absence, I may reasonably hope to
+have all my expectations of pleasure realised.  A scheme of
+which every part promises delight can never be successful; and
+general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of
+some little peculiar vexation."
+
+When Lydia went away she promised to write very often and
+very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were
+always long expected, and always very short.  Those to her
+mother contained little else than that they were just returned
+from the library, where such and such officers had attended
+them, and where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made
+her quite wild; that she had a new gown, or a new parasol, which
+she would have described more fully, but was obliged to leave
+off in a violent hurry, as Mrs. Forster called her, and they were
+going off to the camp; and from her correspondence with her
+sister,  there was still less to be learnt--for her letters to
+Kitty, though rather longer, were much too full of lines under the
+words to be made public.
+
+After the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence, health,
+good humour, and cheerfulness began to reappear at Longbourn.
+Everything wore a happier aspect.  The families who had been in
+town for the winter came back again, and summer finery and
+summer engagements arose.  Mrs. Bennet was restored to her
+usual querulous serenity; and, by the middle of June, Kitty was
+so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears;
+an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth hope that
+by the following Christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable
+as not to mention an officer above once a day, unless, by some
+cruel and malicious arrangement at the War Office, another
+regiment should be quartered in Meryton.
+
+The time fixed for the beginning of their northern tour was now
+fast approaching, and a fortnight only was wanting of it, when
+a letter arrived from Mrs. Gardiner, which at once delayed its
+commencement and curtailed its extent.  Mr. Gardiner would be
+prevented by business from setting out till a fortnight later in
+July, and must be in London again within a month, and as that
+left too short a period for them to go so far, and see so much
+as they had proposed, or at least to see it with the leisure and
+comfort they had built on, they were obliged to give up the
+Lakes, and substitute a more contracted tour, and, according
+to the present plan, were to go no farther northwards than
+Derbyshire.  In that county there was enough to be seen to
+occupy the chief of their three weeks; and to Mrs. Gardiner it
+had a peculiarly strong attraction.  The town where she had
+formerly passed some years of her life, and where they were now
+to spend a few days, was probably as great an object of her
+curiosity as all the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth,
+Dovedale, or the Peak.
+
+Elizabeth was excessively disappointed; she had set her heart on
+seeing the Lakes, and still thought there might have been time
+enough.  But it was her business to be satisfied--and certainly
+her temper to be happy; and all was soon right again.
+
+With the mention of Derbyshire there were many ideas connected.
+It was impossible for her to see the word without thinking of
+Pemberley and its owner.  "But surely," said she, "I may enter
+his county without impunity, and rob it of a few petrified spars
+without his perceiving me."
+
+The period of expectation was now doubled.  Four weeks were to
+pass away before her uncle and aunt's arrival.  But they did pass
+away, and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, with their four children, did
+at length appear at Longbourn.  The children, two girls of six
+and eight years old, and two younger boys, were to be left under
+the particular care of their cousin Jane, who was the general
+favourite, and whose steady sense and sweetness of temper exactly
+adapted her for attending to them in every way--teaching them,
+playing with them, and loving them.
+
+The Gardiners stayed only one night at Longbourn, and set off
+the next morning with Elizabeth in pursuit of novelty and
+amusement.  One enjoyment was certain--that of suitableness
+of companions; a suitableness which comprehended health and
+temper to bear inconveniences--cheerfulness to enhance every
+pleasure--and affection and intelligence, which might supply
+it among themselves if there were disappointments abroad.
+
+It is not the object of this work to give a description of
+Derbyshire, nor of any of the remarkable places through which
+their route thither lay; Oxford, Blenheim, Warwick, Kenilworth,
+Birmingham, etc. are sufficiently known.  A small part of
+Derbyshire is all the present concern.  To the little town of
+Lambton, the scene of Mrs. Gardiner's former residence, and
+where she had lately learned some acquaintance still remained,
+they bent their steps, after having seen all the principal wonders
+of the country; and within five miles of Lambton, Elizabeth
+found from her aunt that Pemberley was situated.  It was not in
+their direct road, nor more than a mile or two out of it.  In
+talking over their route the evening before, Mrs. Gardiner
+expressed an inclination to see the place again.  Mr. Gardiner
+declared his willingness, and Elizabeth was applied to for her
+approbation.
+
+"My love, should not you like to see a place of which you have
+heard so much?" said her aunt; "a place, too, with which so
+many of your acquaintances are connected.  Wickham passed all
+his youth there, you know."
+
+Elizabeth was distressed.  She felt that she had no business at
+Pemberley, and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing
+it.  She must own that she was tired of seeing great houses; after
+going over so many, she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or
+satin curtains.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner abused her stupidity.  "If it were merely a fine
+house richly furnished," said she, "I should not care about it
+myself; but the grounds are delightful.  They have some of the
+finest woods in the country."
+
+Elizabeth said no more--but her mind could not acquiesce.
+The possibility of meeting Mr. Darcy, while viewing the place,
+instantly occurred.  It would be dreadful!  She blushed at the
+very idea, and thought it would be better to speak openly to
+her aunt than to run such a risk.  But against this there were
+objections; and she finally resolved that it could be the last
+resource, if her private inquiries to the absence of the family
+were unfavourably answered.
+
+Accordingly, when she retired at night, she asked the chambermaid
+whether Pemberley were not a very fine place? what was the name
+of its proprietor? and, with no little alarm, whether the family
+were down for the summer?  A most welcome negative followed the
+last question--and her alarms now being removed, she was at
+leisure to feel a great deal of curiosity to see the house herself;
+and when the subject was revived the next morning, and she was
+again applied to, could readily answer, and with a proper air of
+indifference, that she had not really any dislike to the scheme.
+To Pemberley, therefore, they were to go.
+
+
+
+Chapter 43
+
+
+Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance
+of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at
+length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high
+flutter.
+
+The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground.
+They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some
+time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.
+
+Elizabeth's mind was too full for conversation, but she saw and
+admired every remarkable spot and point of view.  They
+gradually ascended for half-a-mile, and then found themselves
+at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased,
+and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated
+on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some
+abruptness wound.  It was a large, handsome stone building,
+standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high
+woody hills; and in front, a stream of some natural importance
+was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance.
+Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned.  Elizabeth
+was delighted.  She had never seen a place for which nature
+had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little
+counteracted by an awkward taste.  They were all of them warm
+in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be
+mistress of Pemberley might be something!
+
+They descended the hill, crossed the bridge, and drove to the
+door; and, while examining the nearer aspect of the house, all
+her apprehension of meeting its owner returned.  She dreaded
+lest the chambermaid had been mistaken.  On applying to see
+the place, they were admitted into the hall; and Elizabeth, as
+they waited for the housekeeper, had leisure to wonder at her
+being where she was.
+
+The housekeeper came; a respectable-looking elderly woman,
+much less fine, and more civil, than she had any notion of
+finding her.  They followed her into the dining-parlour.
+It was a large, well proportioned room, handsomely fitted up.
+Elizabeth, after slightly surveying it, went to a window to enjoy
+its prospect.  The hill, crowned with wood, which they had
+descended, receiving increased abruptness from the distance,
+was a beautiful object.  Every disposition of the ground was
+good; and she looked on the whole scene, the river, the trees
+scattered on its banks and the winding of the valley, as far as
+she could trace it, with delight.  As they passed into other
+rooms these objects were taking different positions; but from
+every window there were beauties to be seen.  The rooms were
+lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune
+of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste,
+that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of
+splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
+
+"And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress!
+With these rooms I might now have been familiarly acquainted!
+Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might have rejoiced
+in them as my own, and welcomed to them as visitors my uncle
+and aunt.  But no,"--recollecting herself--"that could never
+be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not
+have been allowed to invite them."
+
+This was a lucky recollection--it saved her from something
+very like regret.
+
+She longed to inquire of the housekeeper whether her master
+was really absent, but had not the courage for it.  At length
+however, the question was asked by her uncle; and she turned
+away with alarm, while Mrs. Reynolds replied that he was,
+adding, "But we expect him to-morrow, with a large party of
+friends."  How rejoiced was Elizabeth that their own journey
+had not by any circumstance been delayed a day!
+
+Her aunt now called her to look at a picture.  She approached
+and saw the likeness of Mr. Wickham, suspended, amongst
+several other miniatures, over the mantelpiece.  Her aunt asked
+her, smilingly, how she liked it.  The housekeeper came forward,
+and told them it was a picture of a young gentleman, the son of
+her late master's steward, who had been brought up by him at
+his own expense.  "He is now gone into the army," she added;
+"but I am afraid he has turned out very wild."
+
+Mrs. Gardiner looked at her niece with a smile, but Elizabeth
+could not return it.
+
+"And that," said Mrs. Reynolds, pointing to another of the
+miniatures, "is my master--and very like him.  It was drawn at
+the same time as the other--about eight years ago."
+
+"I have heard much of your master's fine person," said Mrs.
+Gardiner, looking at the picture; "it is a handsome face.
+But, Lizzy, you can tell us whether it is like or not."
+
+Mrs. Reynolds respect for Elizabeth seemed to increase on this
+intimation of her knowing her master.
+
+"Does that young lady know Mr. Darcy?"
+
+Elizabeth coloured, and said: "A little."
+
+"And do not you think him a very handsome gentleman, ma'am?"
+
+"Yes, very handsome."
+
+"I am sure I know none so handsome; but in the gallery
+upstairs you will see a finer, larger picture of him than this.
+This room was my late master's favourite room, and these
+miniatures are just as they used to be then.  He was very fond
+of them."
+
+This accounted to Elizabeth for Mr. Wickham's being among them.
+
+Mrs. Reynolds then directed their attention to one of Miss Darcy,
+drawn when she was only eight years old.
+
+"And is Miss Darcy as handsome as her brother?" said Mrs. Gardiner.
+
+"Oh! yes--the handsomest young lady that ever was seen; and
+so accomplished!--She plays and sings all day long.  In the next
+room is a new instrument just come down for her--a present
+from my master; she comes here to-morrow with him."
+
+Mr. Gardiner, whose manners were very easy and pleasant,
+encouraged her communicativeness by his questions and remarks;
+Mrs. Reynolds, either by pride or attachment, had evidently
+great pleasure in talking of her master and his sister.
+
+"Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?"
+
+"Not so much as I could wish, sir; but I dare say he may spend
+half his time here; and Miss Darcy is always down for the
+summer months."
+
+"Except," thought Elizabeth, "when she goes to Ramsgate."
+
+"If your master would marry, you might see more of him."
+
+"Yes, sir; but I do not know when _that_ will be.  I do not
+know who is good enough for him."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner smiled.  Elizabeth could not help saying,
+"It is very much to his credit, I am sure, that you should think
+so."
+
+"I say no more than the truth, and everybody will say that
+knows him," replied the other.  Elizabeth thought this was
+going pretty far; and she listened with increasing astonishment
+as the housekeeper added, "I have never known a cross word
+from him in my life, and I have known him ever since he was
+four years old."
+
+This was praise, of all others most extraordinary, most opposite
+to her ideas.  That he was not a good-tempered man had been
+her firmest opinion.  Her keenest attention was awakened; she
+longed to hear more, and was grateful to her uncle for saying:
+
+"There are very few people of whom so much can be said.  You
+are lucky in having such a master."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know I am.  If I were to go through the world, I
+could not meet with a better.  But I have always observed, that
+they who are good-natured when children, are good-natured
+when they grow up; and he was always the sweetest-tempered,
+most generous-hearted boy in the world."
+
+Elizabeth almost stared at her.  "Can this be Mr. Darcy?"
+thought she.
+
+"His father was an excellent man," said Mrs. Gardiner.
+
+"Yes, ma'am, that he was indeed; and his son will be just like
+him--just as affable to the poor."
+
+Elizabeth listened, wondered, doubted, and was impatient for
+more.  Mrs. Reynolds could interest her on no other point.  She
+related the subjects of the pictures, the dimensions of the rooms,
+and the price of the furniture, in vain, Mr. Gardiner, highly
+amused by the kind of family prejudice to which he attributed
+her excessive commendation of her master, soon led again to
+the subject; and she dwelt with energy on his many merits as
+they proceeded together up the great staircase.
+
+"He is the best landlord, and the best master," said she, "that
+ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of
+nothing but themselves.  There is not one of his tenants or
+servants but will give him a good name.  Some people call him
+proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it.  To my fancy, it
+is only because he does not rattle away like other young men."
+
+"In what an amiable light does this place him!" thought
+Elizabeth.
+
+"This fine account of him," whispered her aunt as they walked,
+"is not quite consistent with his behaviour to our poor friend."
+
+"Perhaps we might be deceived."
+
+"That is not very likely; our authority was too good."
+
+On reaching the spacious lobby above they were shown into a
+very pretty sitting-room, lately fitted up with greater elegance
+and lightness than the apartments below; and were informed that
+it was but just done to give pleasure to Miss Darcy, who had
+taken a liking to the room when last at Pemberley.
+
+"He is certainly a good brother," said Elizabeth, as she walked
+towards one of the windows.
+
+Mrs. Reynolds anticipated Miss Darcy's delight, when she
+should enter the room.  "And this is always the way with him,"
+she added.  "Whatever can give his sister any pleasure is sure
+to be done in a moment.  There is nothing he would not do for
+her."
+
+The picture-gallery, and two or three of the principal bedrooms,
+were all that remained to be shown.  In the former were many
+good paintings; but Elizabeth knew nothing of the art; and from
+such as had been already visible below, she had willingly turned
+to look at some drawings of Miss Darcy's, in crayons, whose
+subjects were usually more interesting, and also more intelligible.
+
+In the gallery there were many family portraits, but they could
+have little to fix the attention of a stranger.  Elizabeth walked
+in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her.
+At last it arrested her--and she beheld a striking resemblance
+to Mr. Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered
+to have sometimes seen when he looked at her.  She stood
+several minutes before the picture, in earnest contemplation,
+and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery.  Mrs.
+Reynolds informed them that it had been taken in his father's
+lifetime.
+
+There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth's mind, a more
+gentle sensation towards the original than she had ever felt at
+the height of their acquaintance.  The commendation bestowed
+on him by Mrs. Reynolds was of no trifling nature.  What praise
+is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?  As a
+brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people's
+happiness were in his guardianship!--how much of pleasure or
+pain was it in his power to bestow!--how much of good or evil
+must be done by him!  Every idea that had been brought forward
+by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she
+stood before the canvas on which he was represented, and fixed
+his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper
+sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she
+remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of
+expression.
+
+When all of the house that was open to general inspection had
+been seen, they returned downstairs, and, taking leave of the
+housekeeper, were consigned over to the gardener, who met
+them at the hall-door.
+
+As they walked across the hall towards the river, Elizabeth
+turned back to look again; her uncle and aunt stopped also, and
+while the former was conjecturing as to the date of the building,
+the owner of it himself suddenly came forward from the road,
+which led behind it to the stables.
+
+They were within twenty yards of each other, and so abrupt was
+his appearance, that it was impossible to avoid his sight.  Their
+eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with
+the deepest blush.  He absolutely started, and for a moment
+seemed immovable from surprise; but shortly recovering himself,
+advanced towards the party, and spoke to Elizabeth, if not in
+terms of perfect composure, at least of perfect civility.
+
+She had instinctively turned away; but stopping on his approach,
+received his compliments with an embarrassment impossible to
+be overcome.  Had his first appearance, or his resemblance to
+the picture they had just been examining, been insufficient
+to assure the other two that they now saw Mr. Darcy, the
+gardener's expression of surprise, on beholding his master,
+must immediately have told it.  They stood a little aloof while
+he was talking to their niece, who, astonished and confused,
+scarcely dared lift her eyes to his face, and knew not what
+answer she returned to his civil inquiries after her family.
+Amazed at the alteration of his manner since they last parted,
+every sentence that he uttered was increasing her embarrassment;
+and every idea of the impropriety of her being found there
+recurring to her mind, the few minutes in which they continued
+were some of the most uncomfortable in her life.  Nor did he
+seem much more at ease; when he spoke, his accent had none of
+its usual sedateness; and he repeated his inquiries as to the
+time of her having left Longbourn, and of her having stayed in
+Derbyshire, so often, and in so hurried a way, as plainly spoke
+the distraction of his thoughts.
+
+At length every idea seemed to fail him; and, after standing a
+few moments without saying a word, he suddenly recollected
+himself, and took leave.
+
+The others then joined her, and expressed admiration of his
+figure; but Elizabeth heard not a word, and wholly engrossed
+by her own feelings, followed them in silence.  She was
+overpowered by shame and vexation.  Her coming there was
+the most unfortunate, the most ill-judged thing in the world!
+How strange it must appear to him!  In what a disgraceful light
+might it not strike so vain a man!  It might seem as if she
+had purposely thrown herself in his way again!  Oh! why did she
+come?  Or, why did he thus come a day before he was expected?
+Had they been only ten minutes sooner, they should have been
+beyond the reach of his discrimination; for it was plain that
+he was that moment arrived--that moment alighted from his
+horse or his carriage.  She blushed again and again over the
+perverseness of the meeting.  And his behaviour, so strikingly
+altered--what could it mean?  That he should even speak to her
+was amazing!--but to speak with such civility, to inquire after
+her family!  Never in her life had she seen his manners so little
+dignified, never had he spoken with such gentleness as on this
+unexpected meeting.  What a contrast did it offer to his last
+address in Rosings Park, when he put his letter into her hand!
+She  knew not what to think, or how to account for it.
+
+They had now entered a beautiful walk by the side of the water,
+and every step was bringing forward a nobler fall of ground, or
+a finer reach of the woods to which they were approaching; but
+it was some time before Elizabeth was sensible of any of it;
+and, though she answered mechanically to the repeated appeals
+of her uncle and aunt, and seemed to direct her eyes to such
+objects as they pointed out, she distinguished no part of
+the scene.  Her thoughts were all fixed on that one spot of
+Pemberley House, whichever it might be, where Mr. Darcy then
+was.  She longed to know what at the moment was passing in
+his mind--in what manner he thought of her, and whether, in
+defiance of everything, she was still dear to him.  Perhaps he
+had been civil only because he felt himself at ease; yet there
+had been _that_ in his voice which was not like ease.  Whether he
+had felt more of pain or of pleasure in seeing her she could
+not tell, but he certainly had not seen her with composure.
+
+At length, however, the remarks of her companions on her
+absence of mind aroused her, and she felt the necessity of
+appearing more like herself.
+
+They entered the woods, and bidding adieu to the river for a
+while, ascended some of the higher grounds; when, in spots where
+the opening of the trees gave the eye power to wander, were many
+charming views of the valley, the opposite hills, with the long
+range of woods overspreading many, and occasionally part of the
+stream.  Mr. Gardiner expressed a wish of going round the whole
+park, but feared it might be beyond a walk.  With a triumphant
+smile they were told that it was ten miles round.  It settled the
+matter; and they pursued the accustomed circuit; which brought
+them again, after some time, in a descent among hanging woods,
+to the edge of the water, and one of its narrowest parts.  They
+crossed it by a simple bridge, in character with the general air
+of the scene; it was a spot less adorned than any they had yet
+visited; and the valley, here contracted into a glen, allowed
+room only for the stream, and a narrow walk amidst the rough
+coppice-wood which bordered it.  Elizabeth longed to explore its
+windings; but when they had crossed the bridge, and perceived
+their distance from the house, Mrs. Gardiner, who was not a
+great walker, could go no farther, and thought only of returning
+to the carriage as quickly as possible.  Her niece was, therefore,
+obliged to submit, and they took their way towards the house on
+the opposite side of the river, in the nearest direction; but
+their progress was slow, for Mr. Gardiner, though seldom able to
+indulge the taste, was very fond of fishing, and was so much
+engaged in watching the occasional appearance of some trout in
+the water, and talking to the man about them, that he advanced
+but little.  Whilst wandering on in this slow manner, they were
+again surprised, and Elizabeth's astonishment was quite equal to
+what it had been at first, by the sight of Mr. Darcy approaching
+them, and at no great distance.  The walk here being here less
+sheltered than on the other side, allowed them to see him before
+they met.  Elizabeth, however astonished, was at least more
+prepared for an interview than before, and resolved to appear
+and to speak with calmness, if he really intended to meet them.
+For a few moments, indeed, she felt that he would probably strike
+into some other path.  The idea lasted while a turning in the
+walk concealed him from their view; the turning past, he was
+immediately before them.  With a glance, she saw that he had lost
+none of his recent civility; and, to imitate his politeness, she
+began, as they met, to admire the beauty of the place; but she
+had not got beyond the words "delightful," and "charming," when
+some unlucky recollections obtruded, and she fancied that praise
+of Pemberley from her might be mischievously construed.  Her
+colour changed, and she said no more.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner was standing a little behind; and on her pausing,
+he asked her if she would do him the honour of introducing him
+to her friends.  This was a stroke of civility for which she
+was quite unprepared; and she could hardly suppress a smile at
+his being now seeking the acquaintance of some of those very
+people against whom his pride had revolted in his offer to
+herself.  "What will be his surprise," thought she, "when he
+knows who they are?  He takes them now for people of fashion."
+
+The introduction, however, was immediately made; and as she
+named their relationship to herself, she stole a sly look at
+him, to see how he bore it, and was not without the expectation
+of his decamping as fast as he could from such disgraceful
+companions.  That he was _surprised_ by the connection was
+evident; he sustained it, however, with fortitude, and so far
+from going away, turned his back with them, and entered into
+conversation with Mr. Gardiner.  Elizabeth could not but be
+pleased, could not but triumph.  It was consoling that he should
+know she had some relations for whom there was no need to
+blush.  She listened most attentively to all that passed between
+them, and gloried in every expression, every sentence of her
+uncle, which marked his intelligence, his taste, or his good
+manners.
+
+The conversation soon turned upon fishing; and she heard Mr.
+Darcy invite him, with the greatest civility, to fish there as often
+as he chose while he continued in the neighbourhood, offering
+at the same time to supply him with fishing tackle, and pointing
+out those parts of the stream where there was usually most
+sport.  Mrs. Gardiner, who was walking arm-in-arm with
+Elizabeth, gave her a look expressive of wonder.  Elizabeth
+said nothing, but it gratified her exceedingly; the compliment
+must be all for herself.  Her astonishment, however, was
+extreme, and continually was she repeating, "Why is he so
+altered?  From what can it proceed?  It cannot be for _me_--it
+cannot be for _my_ sake that his manners are thus softened.  My
+reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this.
+It is impossible that he should still love me."
+
+After walking some time in this way, the two ladies in front,
+the two gentlemen behind, on resuming their places, after
+descending to the brink of the river for the better inspection of
+some curious water-plant, there chanced to be a little alteration.
+It originated in Mrs. Gardiner, who, fatigued by the exercise of
+the morning, found Elizabeth's arm inadequate to her support, and
+consequently preferred her husband's.  Mr. Darcy took her place
+by her niece, and they walked on together.  After a short silence,
+the lady first spoke.  She wished him to know that she had
+been assured of his absence before she came to the place, and
+accordingly began by observing, that his arrival had been very
+unexpected--"for your housekeeper," she added, "informed us that
+you would certainly not be here till to-morrow; and indeed, before
+we left Bakewell, we understood that you were not immediately
+expected in the country."  He acknowledged the truth of it all,
+and said that business with his steward had occasioned his coming
+forward a few hours before the rest of the party with whom he
+had been travelling.  "They will join me early to-morrow," he
+continued, "and among them are some who will claim an acquaintance
+with you--Mr. Bingley and his sisters."
+
+Elizabeth answered only by a slight bow.  Her thoughts were
+instantly driven back to the time when Mr. Bingley's name had
+been the last mentioned between them; and, if she might judge
+by his complexion, _his_ mind was not very differently engaged.
+
+"There is also one other person in the party," he continued after
+a pause, "who more particularly wishes to be known to you.
+Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister
+to your acquaintance during your stay at Lambton?"
+
+The surprise of such an application was great indeed; it was too
+great for her to know in what manner she acceded to it.  She
+immediately felt that whatever desire Miss Darcy might have of
+being acquainted with her must be the work of her brother, and,
+without looking farther, it was satisfactory; it was gratifying to
+know that his resentment had not made him think really ill of her.
+
+They now walked on in silence, each of them deep in thought.
+Elizabeth was not comfortable; that was impossible; but she was
+flattered and pleased.  His wish of introducing his sister to her
+was a compliment of the highest kind.  They soon outstripped the
+others, and when they had reached the carriage, Mr. and Mrs.
+Gardiner were half a quarter of a mile behind.
+
+He then asked her to walk into the house--but she declared
+herself not tired, and they stood together on the lawn.  At
+such a time much might have been said, and silence was very
+awkward.  She wanted to talk, but there seemed to be an
+embargo on every subject.  At last she recollected that she had
+been travelling, and they talked of Matlock and Dove Dale with
+great perseverance.  Yet time and her aunt moved slowly--and
+her patience and her ideas were nearly worn our before the
+tete-a-tete was over.  On Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner's coming up
+they were all pressed to go into the house and take some
+refreshment; but this was declined, and they parted on each
+side with utmost politeness.  Mr. Darcy handed the ladies into
+the carriage; and when it drove off, Elizabeth saw him walking
+slowly towards the house.
+
+The observations of her uncle and aunt now began; and each of
+them pronounced him to be infinitely superior to anything they
+had expected.  "He is perfectly well behaved, polite, and
+unassuming," said her uncle.
+
+"There _is_ something a little stately in him, to be sure," replied
+her aunt, "but it is confined to his air, and is not unbecoming.
+I can now say with the housekeeper, that though some people may
+call him proud, I have seen nothing of it."
+
+"I was never more surprised than by his behaviour to us.  It was
+more than civil; it was really attentive; and there was no
+necessity for such attention.  His acquaintance with Elizabeth
+was very trifling."
+
+"To be sure, Lizzy," said her aunt, "he is not so handsome as
+Wickham; or, rather, he has not Wickham's countenance, for
+his features are perfectly good.  But how came you to tell me
+that he was so disagreeable?"
+
+Elizabeth excused herself as well as she could; said that she had
+liked him better when they had met in Kent than before, and that
+she had never seen him so pleasant as this morning.
+
+"But perhaps he may be a little whimsical in his civilities,"
+replied her uncle.  "Your great men often are; and therefore I
+shall not take him at his word, as he might change his mind
+another day, and warn me off his grounds."
+
+Elizabeth felt that they had entirely misunderstood his character,
+but said nothing.
+
+"From what we have seen of him," continued Mrs. Gardiner, "I
+really should not have thought that he could have behaved in so
+cruel a way by anybody as he has done by poor Wickham.  He
+has not an ill-natured look.  On the contrary, there is something
+pleasing about his mouth when he speaks.  And there is something
+of dignity in his countenance that would not give one an
+unfavourable idea of his heart.  But, to be sure, the good lady
+who showed us his house did give him a most flaming character!
+I could hardly help laughing aloud sometimes.  But he is a
+liberal master, I suppose, and _that_ in the eye of a servant
+comprehends every virtue."
+
+Elizabeth here felt herself called on to say something in
+vindication of his behaviour to Wickham; and therefore gave
+them to understand, in as guarded a manner as she could, that
+by what she had heard from his relations in Kent, his actions
+were capable of a very different construction; and that his
+character was by no means so faulty, nor Wickham's so amiable,
+as they had been considered in Hertfordshire.  In confirmation
+of this, she related the particulars of all the pecuniary
+transactions in which they had been connected, without actually
+naming her authority, but stating it to be such as such as might
+be relied on.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner was surprised and concerned; but as they were
+now approaching the scene of her former pleasures, every idea
+gave way to the charm of recollection; and she was too much
+engaged in pointing out to her husband all the interesting spots
+in its environs to think of anything else.  Fatigued as she had
+been by the morning's walk they had no sooner dined than she
+set off again in quest of her former acquaintance, and the
+evening was spent in the satisfactions of a intercourse renewed
+after many years' discontinuance.
+
+The occurrences of the day were too full of interest to leave
+Elizabeth much attention for any of these new friends; and she
+could do nothing but think, and think with wonder, of Mr.
+Darcy's civility, and, above all, of his wishing her to be
+acquainted with his sister.
+
+
+
+Chapter 44
+
+
+Elizabeth had settled it that Mr. Darcy would bring his sister
+to visit her the very day after her reaching Pemberley; and was
+consequently resolved not to be out of sight of the inn the whole
+of that morning.  But her conclusion was false; for on the very
+morning after their arrival at Lambton, these visitors came.
+They had been walking about the place with some of their new
+friends, and were just returning to the inn to dress themselves
+for dining with the same family, when the sound of a carriage
+drew them to a window, and they saw a gentleman and a lady
+in a curricle driving up the street.  Elizabeth immediately
+recognizing the livery, guessed what it meant, and imparted no
+small degree of her surprise to her relations by acquainting
+them with the honour which she expected.  Her uncle and aunt
+were all amazement; and the embarrassment of her manner as
+she spoke, joined to the circumstance itself, and many of the
+circumstances of the preceding day, opened to them a new idea
+on the business.  Nothing had ever suggested it before, but they
+felt that there was no other way of accounting for such attentions
+from such a quarter than by supposing a partiality for their
+niece.  While these newly-born notions were passing in their heads,
+the perturbation of Elizabeth's feelings was at every moment
+increasing.  She was quite amazed at her own discomposure; but
+amongst other causes of disquiet, she dreaded lest the partiality
+of the brother should have said too much in her favour; and, more
+than commonly anxious to please, she naturally suspected that
+every power of pleasing would fail her.
+
+She retreated from the window, fearful of being seen; and as
+she walked up and down the room, endeavouring to compose
+herself, saw such looks of inquiring surprise in her uncle and
+aunt as made everything worse.
+
+Miss Darcy and her brother appeared, and this formidable
+introduction took place.  With astonishment did Elizabeth see
+that her new acquaintance was at least as much embarrassed as
+herself.  Since her being at Lambton, she had heard that Miss
+Darcy was exceedingly proud; but the observation of a very few
+minutes convinced her that she was only exceedingly shy.  She
+found it difficult to obtain even a word from her beyond a
+monosyllable.
+
+Miss Darcy was tall, and on a larger scale than Elizabeth;
+and, though little more than sixteen, her figure was formed,
+and her appearance womanly and graceful.  She was less handsome
+than her brother; but there was sense and good humour in her
+face, and her manners were perfectly unassuming and gentle.
+Elizabeth, who had expected to find in her as acute and
+unembarrassed an observer as ever Mr. Darcy had been, was
+much relieved by discerning such different feelings.
+
+They had not long been together before Mr. Darcy told her that
+Bingley was also coming to wait on her; and she had barely time
+to express her satisfaction, and prepare for such a visitor, when
+Bingley's quick step was heard on the stairs, and in a moment he
+entered the room.  All Elizabeth's anger against him had been
+long done away; but had she still felt any, it could hardly have
+stood its ground against the unaffected cordiality with which he
+expressed himself on seeing her again.  He inquired in a friendly,
+though general way, after her family, and looked and spoke with
+the same good-humoured ease that he had ever done.
+
+To Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner he was scarcely a less interesting
+personage than to herself.  They had long wished to see him.
+The whole party before them, indeed, excited a lively attention.
+The suspicions which had just arisen of Mr. Darcy and their niece
+directed their observation towards each with an earnest though
+guarded inquiry; and they soon drew from those inquiries the full
+conviction that one of them at least knew what it was to love.
+Of the lady's sensations they remained a little in doubt; but that
+the gentleman was overflowing with admiration was evident enough.
+
+Elizabeth, on her side, had much to do.  She wanted to
+ascertain the feelings of each of her visitors; she wanted to
+compose her own, and to make herself agreeable to all; and in
+the latter object, where she feared most to fail, she was most
+sure of success, for those to whom she endeavoured to give
+pleasure were prepossessed in her favour.  Bingley was ready,
+Georgiana was eager, and Darcy determined, to be pleased.
+
+In seeing Bingley, her thoughts naturally flew to her sister;
+and, oh! how ardently did she long to know whether any of his were
+directed in a like manner.  Sometimes she could fancy that he
+talked less than on former occasions, and once or twice pleased
+herself with the notion that, as he looked at her, he was trying
+to trace a resemblance.  But, though this might be imaginary,
+she could not be deceived as to his behaviour to Miss Darcy, who
+had been set up as a rival to Jane.  No look appeared on either
+side that spoke particular regard.  Nothing occurred between
+them that could justify the hopes of his sister.  On this point
+she was soon satisfied; and two or three little circumstances
+occurred ere they parted, which, in her anxious interpretation,
+denoted a recollection of Jane not untinctured by tenderness,
+and a wish of saying more that might lead to the mention of her,
+had he dared.  He observed to her, at a moment when the others
+were talking together, and in a tone which had something of real
+regret, that it "was a very long time since he had had the
+pleasure of seeing her;" and, before she could reply, he added,
+"It is above eight months.  We have not met since the 26th of
+November, when we were all dancing together at Netherfield."
+
+Elizabeth was pleased to find his memory so exact; and he
+afterwards took occasion to ask her, when unattended to by
+any of the rest, whether _all_ her sisters were at Longbourn.
+There was not much in the question, nor in the preceding
+remark; but there was a look and a manner which gave them
+meaning.
+
+It was not often that she could turn her eyes on Mr. Darcy
+himself; but, whenever she did catch a glimpse, she saw an
+expression of general complaisance, and in all that he said
+she heard an accent so removed from _hauteur_ or disdain of his
+companions, as convinced her that the improvement of manners
+which she had yesterday witnessed however temporary its
+existence might prove, had at least outlived one day.  When she
+saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good
+opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago
+would have been a disgrace--when she saw him thus civil, not
+only to herself, but to the very relations whom he had openly
+disdained, and recollected their last lively scene in Hunsford
+Parsonage--the difference, the change was so great, and struck
+so forcibly on her mind, that she could hardly restrain her
+astonishment from being visible.  Never, even in the company
+of his dear friends at Netherfield, or his dignified relations
+at Rosings, had she seen him so desirous to please, so free
+from self-consequence or unbending reserve, as now, when no
+importance could result from the success of his endeavours, and
+when even the acquaintance of those to whom his attentions
+were addressed would draw down the ridicule and censure of
+the ladies both of Netherfield and Rosings.
+
+Their visitors stayed with them above half-an-hour; and when
+they arose to depart, Mr. Darcy called on his sister to join him
+in expressing their wish of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, and
+Miss Bennet, to dinner at Pemberley, before they left the
+country.  Miss Darcy, though with a diffidence which marked
+her little in the habit of giving invitations, readily obeyed.
+Mrs. Gardiner looked at her niece, desirous of knowing how _she_,
+whom the invitation most concerned, felt disposed as to its
+acceptance, but Elizabeth had turned away her head.  Presuming
+however, that this studied avoidance spoke rather a momentary
+embarrassment than any dislike of the proposal, and seeing in
+her husband, who was fond of society, a perfect willingness to
+accept it, she ventured to engage for her attendance, and the
+day after the next was fixed on.
+
+Bingley expressed great pleasure in the certainty of seeing
+Elizabeth again, having still a great deal to say to her, and many
+inquiries to make after all their Hertfordshire friends.  Elizabeth,
+construing all this into a wish of hearing her speak of her sister,
+was pleased, and on this account, as well as some others, found
+herself, when their visitors left them, capable of considering
+the last half-hour with some satisfaction, though while it was
+passing, the enjoyment of it had been little.  Eager to be alone,
+and fearful of inquiries or hints from her uncle and aunt, she
+stayed with them only long enough to hear their favourable
+opinion of Bingley, and then hurried away to dress.
+
+But she had no reason to fear Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner's curiosity;
+it was not their wish to force her communication.  It was evident
+that she was much better acquainted with Mr. Darcy than they
+had before any idea of; it was evident that he was very much in
+love with her.  They saw much to interest, but nothing to justify
+inquiry.
+
+Of Mr. Darcy it was now a matter of anxiety to think well; and,
+as far as their acquaintance reached, there was no fault to find.
+They could not be untouched by his politeness; and had they
+drawn his character from their own feelings and his servant's
+report, without any reference to any other account, the circle
+in Hertfordshire to which he was known would not have recognized
+it for Mr. Darcy.  There was now an interest, however, in
+believing the housekeeper; and they soon became sensible that
+the authority of a servant who had known him since he was four
+years old, and whose own manners indicated respectability, was
+not to be hastily rejected.  Neither had anything occurred in
+the intelligence of their Lambton friends that could materially
+lessen its weight.  They had nothing to accuse him of but pride;
+pride he probably had, and if not, it would certainly be imputed
+by the inhabitants of a small market-town where the family did
+not visit.  It was acknowledged, however, that he was a liberal
+man, and did much good among the poor.
+
+With respect to Wickham, the travellers soon found that he was
+not held there in much estimation; for though the chief of his
+concerns with the son of his patron were imperfectly understood,
+it was yet a well-known fact that, on his quitting Derbyshire,
+he had left many debts behind him, which Mr. Darcy afterwards
+discharged.
+
+As for Elizabeth, her thoughts were at Pemberley this evening
+more than the last; and the evening, though as it passed it
+seemed long, was not long enough to determine her feelings
+towards _one_ in that mansion; and she lay awake two whole
+hours endeavouring to make them out.  She certainly did not
+hate him.  No; hatred had vanished long ago, and she had
+almost as long been ashamed of ever feeling a dislike against
+him, that could be so called.  The respect created by the
+conviction of his valuable qualities, though at first unwillingly
+admitted, had for some time ceased to be repugnant to her
+feeling; and it was now heightened into somewhat of a friendlier
+nature, by the testimony so highly in his favour, and bringing
+forward his disposition in so amiable a light, which yesterday
+had produced.  But above all, above respect and esteem, there
+was  a motive within her of goodwill which could not be
+overlooked.  It was gratitude; gratitude, not merely for having
+once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive
+all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and
+all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.  He who,
+she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy,
+seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the
+acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or
+any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were
+concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends,
+and bent on making her known to his sister.  Such a change
+in a man of so much pride exciting not only astonishment but
+gratitude--for to love, ardent love, it must be attributed; and
+as such its impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged, as
+by no means unpleasing, though it could not be exactly defined.
+She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt
+a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how
+far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far
+it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the
+power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing
+on her the renewal of his addresses.
+
+It had been settled in the evening between the aunt and the
+niece, that such a striking civility as Miss Darcy's in coming to
+see them on the very day of her arrival at Pemberley, for she
+had reached it only to a late breakfast, ought to be imitated,
+though it could not be equalled, by some exertion of politeness
+on their side; and, consequently, that it would be highly
+expedient to wait on her at Pemberley the following morning.
+They were, therefore, to go.  Elizabeth was pleased; though
+when she asked herself the reason, she had very little to say in
+reply.
+
+Mr. Gardiner left them soon after breakfast.  The fishing scheme
+had been renewed the day before, and a positive engagement
+made of his meeting some of the gentlemen at Pemberley before
+noon.
+
+
+
+Chapter 45
+
+
+Convinced as Elizabeth now was that Miss Bingley's dislike of
+her had originated in jealousy, she could not help feeling how
+unwelcome her appearance at Pemberley must be to her, and
+was curious to know with how much civility on that lady's side
+the acquaintance would now be renewed.
+
+On reaching the house, they were shown through the hall into
+the saloon, whose northern aspect rendered it delightful for
+summer.  Its windows opening to the ground, admitted a most
+refreshing view of the high woody hills behind the house,
+and of the beautiful oaks and Spanish chestnuts which were
+scattered over the intermediate lawn.
+
+In this house they were received by Miss Darcy, who was
+sitting there with Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley, and the lady
+with whom she lived in London.  Georgiana's reception of them
+was very civil, but attended with all the embarrassment which,
+though proceeding from shyness and the fear of doing wrong,
+would easily give to those who felt themselves inferior the
+belief of her being proud and reserved.  Mrs. Gardiner and her
+niece, however, did her justice, and pitied her.
+
+By Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley they were noticed only by a
+curtsey; and, on their being seated, a pause, awkward as such
+pauses must always be, succeeded for a few moments.  It was
+first broken by Mrs. Annesley, a genteel, agreeable-looking
+woman, whose endeavour to introduce some kind of discourse
+proved her to be more truly well-bred than either of the others;
+and between her and Mrs. Gardiner, with occasional help from
+Elizabeth, the conversation was carried on.  Miss Darcy looked
+as if she wished for courage enough to join in it; and sometimes
+did venture a short sentence when there was least danger of its
+being heard.
+
+Elizabeth soon saw that she was herself closely watched by Miss
+Bingley, and that she could not speak a word, especially to Miss
+Darcy, without calling her attention.  This observation would not
+have prevented her from trying to talk to the latter, had they
+not been seated at an inconvenient distance; but she was not sorry
+to be spared the necessity of saying much.  Her own thoughts
+were employing her.  She expected every moment that some of the
+gentlemen would enter the room.  She wished, she feared that
+the master of the house might be amongst them; and whether
+she wished or feared it most, she could scarcely determine.
+After sitting in this manner a quarter of an hour without hearing
+Miss Bingley's voice, Elizabeth was roused by receiving from
+her a cold inquiry after the health of her family.  She answered
+with equal indifference and brevity, and the others said no more.
+
+The next variation which their visit afforded was produced by
+the entrance of servants with cold meat, cake, and a variety of
+all the finest fruits in season; but this did not take place till
+after many a significant look and smile from Mrs. Annesley to
+Miss Darcy had been given, to remind her of her post.  There was
+now employment for the whole party--for though they could not all
+talk, they could all eat; and the beautiful pyramids of grapes,
+nectarines, and peaches soon collected them round the table.
+
+While thus engaged, Elizabeth had a fair opportunity of deciding
+whether she most feared or wished for the appearance of Mr.
+Darcy, by the feelings which prevailed on his entering the room;
+and then, though but a moment before she had believed her
+wishes to predominate, she began to regret that he came.
+
+He had been some time with Mr. Gardiner, who, with two or
+three other gentlemen from the house, was engaged by the river,
+and had left him only on learning that the ladies of the family
+intended a visit to Georgiana that morning.  No sooner did he
+appear than Elizabeth wisely resolved to be perfectly easy and
+unembarrassed; a resolution the more necessary to be made, but
+perhaps not the more easily kept, because she saw that the
+suspicions of the whole party were awakened against them, and
+that there was scarcely an eye which did not watch his
+behaviour when he first came into the room.  In no countenance
+was attentive curiosity so strongly marked as in Miss Bingley's,
+in spite of the smiles which overspread her face whenever she
+spoke to one of its objects; for jealousy had not yet made her
+desperate, and her attentions to Mr. Darcy were by no means
+over.  Miss Darcy, on her brother's entrance, exerted herself
+much more to talk, and Elizabeth saw that he was anxious for
+his sister and herself to get acquainted, and forwarded as much
+as possible, every attempt at conversation on either side.  Miss
+Bingley saw all this likewise; and, in the imprudence of anger,
+took the first opportunity of saying, with sneering civility:
+
+"Pray, Miss Eliza, are not the ----shire Militia removed from
+Meryton?  They must be a great loss to _your_ family."
+
+In Darcy's presence she dared not mention Wickham's name;
+but Elizabeth instantly comprehended that he was uppermost in
+her thoughts; and the various recollections connected with him
+gave her a moment's distress; but exerting herself vigorously to
+repel the ill-natured attack, she presently answered the question
+in a tolerably detached tone.  While she spoke, an involuntary
+glance showed her Darcy, with a heightened complexion,
+earnestly looking at her, and his sister overcome with confusion,
+and unable to lift up her eyes.  Had Miss Bingley known what
+pain she was then giving her beloved friend, she undoubtedly
+would have refrained from the hint; but she had merely intended
+to discompose Elizabeth by bringing forward the idea of a man
+to whom she believed her partial, to make her betray a sensibility
+which might injure her in Darcy's opinion, and, perhaps, to
+remind the latter of all the follies and absurdities by which
+some part of her family were connected with that corps.  Not a
+syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy's meditated
+elopement.  To no creature had it been revealed, where secrecy
+was possible, except to Elizabeth; and from all Bingley's
+connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it,
+from the very wish which Elizabeth had long ago attributed to
+him, of their becoming hereafter her own.  He had certainly
+formed such a plan, and without meaning that it should effect
+his endeavour to separate him from Miss Bennet, it is probable
+that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare
+of his friend.
+
+Elizabeth's collected behaviour, however, soon quieted his
+emotion; and as Miss Bingley, vexed and disappointed, dared
+not approach nearer to Wickham, Georgiana also recovered in
+time, though not enough to be able to speak any more.  Her
+brother, whose eye she feared to meet, scarcely recollected her
+interest in the affair, and the very circumstance which had
+been designed to turn his thoughts from Elizabeth seemed to
+have fixed them on her more and more cheerfully.
+
+Their visit did not continue long after the question and answer
+above mentioned; and while Mr. Darcy was attending them to
+their carriage Miss Bingley was venting her feelings in criticisms
+on Elizabeth's person, behaviour, and dress.  But Georgiana
+would not join her.  Her brother's recommendation was enough
+to ensure her favour; his judgement could not err.  And he had
+spoken in such terms of Elizabeth as to leave Georgiana without
+the power of finding her otherwise than lovely and amiable.
+When Darcy returned to the saloon, Miss Bingley could not help
+repeating to him some part of what she had been saying to his
+sister.
+
+"How very ill Miss Eliza Bennet looks this morning, Mr. Darcy,"
+she cried; "I never in my life saw anyone so much altered as she
+is since the winter.  She is grown so brown and coarse!  Louisa
+and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again."
+
+However little Mr. Darcy might have liked such an address, he
+contented himself with coolly replying that he perceived no
+other alteration than her being rather tanned, no miraculous
+consequence of travelling in the summer.
+
+"For my own part," she rejoined, "I must confess that I never
+could see any beauty in her.  Her face is too thin; her
+complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at all
+handsome.  Her nose wants character--there is nothing marked
+in its lines.  Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common
+way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so
+fine, I could never see anything extraordinary in them.  They
+have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her
+air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which
+is intolerable."
+
+Persuaded as Miss Bingley was that Darcy admired Elizabeth,
+this was not the best method of recommending herself; but
+angry people are not always wise; and in seeing him at last look
+somewhat nettled, she had all the success she expected.  He was
+resolutely silent, however, and, from a determination of making
+him speak, she continued:
+
+"I remember, when we first knew her in Hertfordshire, how
+amazed we all were to find that she was a reputed beauty; and I
+particularly recollect your saying one night, after they had been
+dining at Netherfield, '_She_ a beauty!--I should as soon call her
+mother a wit.'  But afterwards she seemed to improve on you,
+and I believe you thought her rather pretty at one time."
+
+"Yes," replied Darcy, who could contain himself no longer,
+"but _that_ was only when I first saw her, for it is many months
+since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of
+my acquaintance."
+
+He then went away, and Miss Bingley was left to all the
+satisfaction of having forced him to say what gave no one any
+pain but herself.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth talked of all that had occurred during
+their visit, as they returned, except what had particularly
+interested them both.  The look and behaviour of everybody they
+had seen were discussed, except of the person who had mostly
+engaged their attention.  They talked of his sister, his friends,
+his house, his fruit--of everything but himself; yet Elizabeth
+was longing to know what Mrs. Gardiner thought of him, and Mrs.
+Gardiner would have been highly gratified by her niece's beginning
+the subject.
+
+
+
+Chapter 46
+
+
+Elizabeth had been a good deal disappointed in not finding a
+letter from Jane on their first arrival at Lambton; and this
+disappointment had been renewed on each of the mornings that
+had now been spent there; but on the third her repining was
+over, and her sister justified, by the receipt of two letters
+from her at once, on one of which was marked that it had been
+missent elsewhere.  Elizabeth was not surprised at it, as Jane
+had written the direction remarkably ill.
+
+They had just been preparing to walk as the letters came in;
+and her uncle and aunt, leaving her to enjoy them in quiet, set
+off by themselves.  The one missent must first be attended to;
+it had been written five days ago.  The beginning contained an
+account of all their little parties and engagements, with such
+news as the country afforded; but the latter half, which was
+dated a day later, and written in evident agitation, gave more
+important intelligence.  It was to this effect:
+
+"Since writing the above, dearest Lizzy, something has occurred
+of a most unexpected and serious nature; but I am afraid of
+alarming you--be assured that we are all well.  What I have to
+say relates to poor Lydia.  An express came at twelve last night,
+just as we were all gone to bed, from Colonel Forster, to
+inform us that she was gone off to Scotland with one of his
+officers; to own the truth, with Wickham!  Imagine our surprise.
+To Kitty, however, it does not seem so wholly unexpected.  I
+am very, very sorry.  So imprudent a match on both sides! But
+I am willing to hope the best, and that his character has been
+misunderstood.  Thoughtless and indiscreet I can easily believe
+him, but this step (and let us rejoice over it) marks nothing bad
+at heart.  His choice is disinterested at least, for he must know
+my father can give her nothing.  Our poor mother is sadly
+grieved.  My father bears it better.  How thankful am I that we
+never let them know what has been said against him; we must
+forget it ourselves.  They were off Saturday night about twelve,
+as is conjectured, but were not missed till yesterday morning at
+eight.  The express was sent off directly.  My dear Lizzy, they
+must have passed within ten miles of us.  Colonel Forster gives
+us reason to expect him here soon.  Lydia left a few lines for
+his wife, informing her of their intention.  I must conclude, for
+I cannot be long from my poor mother.  I am afraid you will not
+be able to make it out, but I hardly know what I have written."
+
+Without allowing herself time for consideration, and scarcely
+knowing what she felt, Elizabeth on finishing this letter instantly
+seized the other, and opening it with the utmost impatience, read
+as follows: it had been written a day later than the conclusion of
+the first.
+
+"By this time, my dearest sister, you have received my hurried
+letter; I wish this may be more intelligible, but though not
+confined for time, my head is so bewildered that I cannot answer
+for being coherent.  Dearest Lizzy, I hardly know what I would
+write, but I have bad news for you, and it cannot be delayed.
+Imprudent as the marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor
+Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken
+place, for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone
+to Scotland.  Colonel Forster came yesterday, having left
+Brighton the day before, not many hours after the express.
+Though Lydia's short letter to Mrs. F. gave them to understand
+that they were going to Gretna Green, something was dropped
+by Denny expressing his belief that W. never intended to go
+there, or to marry Lydia at all, which was repeated to Colonel
+F., who, instantly taking the alarm, set off from B. intending to
+trace their route.  He did trace them easily to Clapham, but no
+further; for on entering that place, they removed into a hackney
+coach, and dismissed the chaise that brought them from Epsom.
+All that is known after this is, that they were seen to continue
+the London road.  I know not what to think.  After making every
+possible inquiry on that side London, Colonel F. came on into
+Hertfordshire, anxiously renewing them at all the turnpikes, and
+at the inns in Barnet and Hatfield, but without any success--no
+such people had been seen to pass through.  With the kindest
+concern he came on to Longbourn, and broke his apprehensions
+to us in a manner most creditable to his heart.  I am sincerely
+grieved for him and Mrs. F., but no one can throw any blame
+on them.  Our distress, my dear Lizzy, is very great.  My father
+and mother believe the worst, but I cannot think so ill of him.
+Many circumstances might make it more eligible for them to be
+married privately in town than to pursue their first plan;
+and even if _he_ could form such a design against a young woman
+of Lydia's connections, which is not likely, can I suppose her
+so lost to everything?  Impossible!  I grieve to find, however,
+that Colonel F. is not disposed to depend upon their marriage;
+he shook his head when I expressed my hopes, and said he fear
+W. was not a man to be trusted.  My poor mother is really ill,
+and keeps her room.  Could she exert herself, it would be better;
+but this is not to be expected.  And as to my father, I never in
+my life saw him so affected.  Poor Kitty has anger for having
+concealed their attachment; but as it was a matter of confidence,
+one cannot wonder.  I am truly glad, dearest Lizzy, that you
+have been spared something of these distressing scenes; but
+now, as the first shock is over, shall I own that I long for
+your return?  I am not so selfish, however, as to press for it,
+if inconvenient.  Adieu!  I take up my pen again to do what I
+have just told you I would not; but circumstances are such that
+I cannot help earnestly begging you all to come here as soon as
+possible.  I know my dear uncle and aunt so well, that I am not
+afraid of requesting it, though I have still something more to
+ask of the former.  My father is going to London with Colonel
+Forster instantly, to try to discover her.  What he means to do
+I am sure I know not; but his excessive distress will not allow
+him to pursue any measure in the best and safest way, and
+Colonel Forster is obliged to be at Brighton again to-morrow
+evening.  In such an exigence, my uncle's advice and assistance
+would be everything in the world; he will immediately comprehend
+what I must feel, and I rely upon his goodness."
+
+"Oh! where, where is my uncle?" cried Elizabeth, darting from
+her seat as she finished the letter, in eagerness to follow him,
+without losing a moment of the time so precious; but as she
+reached the door it was opened by a servant, and Mr. Darcy
+appeared.  Her pale face and impetuous manner made him start,
+and before he could recover himself to speak, she, in whose
+mind every idea was superseded by Lydia's situation, hastily
+exclaimed, "I beg your pardon, but I must leave you.  I must
+find Mr. Gardiner this moment, on business that cannot be
+delayed; I have not an instant to lose."
+
+"Good God! what is the matter?" cried he, with more feeling
+than politeness; then recollecting himself, "I will not detain you
+a minute; but let me, or let the servant go after Mr. and Mrs.
+Gardiner.  You are not well enough; you cannot go yourself."
+
+Elizabeth hesitated, but her knees trembled under her and she
+felt how little would be gained by her attempting to pursue them.
+Calling back the servant, therefore, she commissioned him,
+though in so breathless an accent as made her almost unintelligible,
+to fetch his master and mistress home instantly.
+
+On his quitting the room she sat down, unable to support
+herself, and looking so miserably ill, that it was impossible
+for Darcy to leave her, or to refrain from saying, in a tone
+of gentleness and commiseration, "Let me call your maid.  Is
+there nothing you could take to give you present relief?  A
+glass of wine; shall I get you one?  You are very ill."
+
+"No, I thank you," she replied, endeavouring to recover herself.
+"There is nothing the matter with me.  I am quite well; I am
+only distressed by some dreadful news which I have just
+received from Longbourn."
+
+She burst into tears as she alluded to it, and for a few minutes
+could not speak another word.  Darcy, in wretched suspense,
+could only say something indistinctly of his concern, and
+observe her in compassionate silence.  At length she spoke
+again.  "I have just had a letter from Jane, with such dreadful
+news.  It cannot be concealed from anyone.  My younger sister
+has left all her friends--has eloped; has thrown herself into
+the power of--of Mr. Wickham.  They are gone off together from
+Brighton.  _You_ know him too well to doubt the rest.  She has
+no money, no connections, nothing that can tempt him to--she
+is lost for ever."
+
+Darcy was fixed in astonishment.  "When I consider," she added
+in a yet more agitated voice, "that I might have prevented it!
+I, who knew what he was.  Had I but explained some part of
+it only--some part of what I learnt, to my own family!  Had his
+character been known, this could not have happened.  But it is
+all--all too late now."
+
+"I am grieved indeed," cried Darcy; "grieved--shocked.  But is
+it certain--absolutely certain?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  They left Brighton together on Sunday night, and
+were traced almost to London, but not beyond; they are
+certainly not gone to Scotland."
+
+"And what has been done, what has been attempted, to recover
+her?"
+
+"My father is gone to London, and Jane has written to beg my
+uncle's immediate assistance; and we shall be off, I hope, in
+half-an-hour.  But nothing can be done--I know very well that
+nothing can be done.  How is such a man to be worked on?  How
+are they even to be discovered?  I have not the smallest hope.
+It is every way horrible!"
+
+Darcy shook his head in silent acquiescence.
+
+"When _my_ eyes were opened to his real character--Oh! had I
+known what I ought, what I dared to do!  But I knew not--I
+was afraid of doing too much.  Wretched, wretched mistake!"
+
+Darcy made no answer.  He seemed scarcely to hear her, and
+was walking up and down the room in earnest meditation, his
+brow contracted, his air gloomy.  Elizabeth soon observed, and
+instantly understood it.  Her power was sinking; everything
+_must_ sink under such a proof of family weakness, such an
+assurance of the deepest disgrace.  She could neither wonder
+nor condemn, but the belief of his self-conquest brought nothing
+consolatory to her bosom, afforded no palliation of her
+distress.  It was, on the contrary, exactly calculated to make
+her understand her own wishes; and never had she so honestly felt
+that she could have loved him, as now, when all love must be vain.
+
+But self, though it would intrude, could not engross her.
+Lydia--the humiliation, the misery she was bringing on them all,
+soon swallowed up every private care; and covering her face with
+her handkerchief, Elizabeth was soon lost to everything else;
+and, after a pause of several minutes, was only recalled to a
+sense of her situation by the voice of her companion, who, in a
+manner which, though it spoke compassion, spoke likewise restraint,
+said, "I am afraid you have been long desiring my absence, nor
+have I anything to plead in excuse of my stay, but real, though
+unavailing concern.  Would to Heaven that anything could be
+either said or done on my part that might offer consolation to
+such distress!  But I will not torment you with vain wishes, which
+may seem purposely to ask for your thanks.  This unfortunate
+affair will, I fear, prevent my sister's having the pleasure of
+seeing you at Pemberley to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes.  Be so kind as to apologise for us to Miss Darcy.  Say
+that urgent business calls us home immediately.  Conceal the
+unhappy truth as long as it is possible, I know it cannot be long."
+
+He readily assured her of his secrecy; again expressed his sorrow
+for her distress, wished it a happier conclusion than there was
+at present reason to hope, and leaving his compliments for her
+relations, with only one serious, parting look, went away.
+
+As he quitted the room, Elizabeth felt how improbable it was
+that they should ever see each other again on such terms of
+cordiality as had marked their several meetings in Derbyshire;
+and as she threw a retrospective glance over the whole of their
+acquaintance, so full of contradictions and varieties, sighed
+at the perverseness of those feelings which would now have
+promoted its continuance, and would formerly have rejoiced in
+its termination.
+
+If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection,
+Elizabeth's change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor
+faulty.  But if otherwise--if regard springing from such sources
+is unreasonable or unnatural, in comparison of what is so often
+described as arising on a first interview with its object, and even
+before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be said in
+her defence, except that she had given somewhat of a trial to the
+latter method in her partiality for Wickham, and that its ill
+success might, perhaps, authorise her to seek the other less
+interesting mode of attachment.  Be that as it may, she saw him
+go with regret; and in this early example of what Lydia's infamy
+must produce, found additional anguish as she reflected on that
+wretched business.  Never, since reading Jane's second letter,
+had she entertained a hope of Wickham's meaning to marry her.
+No one but Jane, she thought, could flatter herself with such an
+expectation.  Surprise was the least of her feelings on this
+development.  While the contents of the first letter remained in
+her mind, she was all surprise--all astonishment that Wickham
+should marry a girl whom it was impossible he could marry
+for money; and how Lydia could ever have attached him had
+appeared incomprehensible.  But now it was all too natural.  For
+such an attachment as this she might have sufficient charms; and
+though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in
+an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no
+difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her
+understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey.
+
+She had never perceived, while the regiment was in Hertfordshire,
+that Lydia had any partiality for him; but she was convinced that
+Lydia wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody.
+Sometimes one officer, sometimes another, had been her favourite,
+as their attentions raised them in her opinion.  Her affections
+had continually been fluctuating but never without an object.
+The mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence towards such a
+girl--oh! how acutely did she now feel it!
+
+She was wild to be at home--to hear, to see, to be upon the
+spot to share with Jane in the cares that must now fall wholly
+upon her, in a family so deranged, a father absent, a mother
+incapable of exertion, and requiring constant attendance; and
+though almost persuaded that nothing could be done for Lydia,
+her uncle's interference seemed of the utmost importance, and
+till he entered the room her impatience was severe.  Mr. and
+Mrs. Gardiner had hurried back in alarm, supposing by the
+servant's account that their niece was taken suddenly ill; but
+satisfying them instantly on that head, she eagerly communicated
+the cause of their summons, reading the two letters aloud, and
+dwelling on the postscript of the last with trembling energy,
+though Lydia had never been a favourite with them, Mr. and
+Mrs. Gardiner could not but be deeply afflicted.  Not Lydia
+only, but all were concerned in it; and after the first
+exclamations of surprise and horror, Mr. Gardiner promised
+every assistance in his power.  Elizabeth, though expecting no
+less, thanked him with tears of gratitude; and all three being
+actuated by one spirit, everything relating to their journey was
+speedily settled.  They were to be off as soon as possible.  "But
+what is to be done about Pemberley?" cried Mrs. Gardiner.
+"John told us Mr. Darcy was here when you sent for us; was it
+so?"
+
+"Yes; and I told him we should not be able to keep our
+engagement.  _That_ is all settled."
+
+"What is all settled?" repeated the other, as she ran into her
+room to prepare.  "And are they upon such terms as for her to
+disclose the real truth?  Oh, that I knew how it was!"
+
+But wishes were vain, or at least could only serve to amuse her
+in the hurry and confusion of the following hour.  Had Elizabeth
+been at leisure to be idle, she would have remained certain that
+all employment was impossible to one so wretched as herself;
+but she had her share of business as well as her aunt, and
+amongst the rest there were notes to be written to all their
+friends at Lambton, with false excuses for their sudden
+departure.  An hour, however, saw the whole completed; and
+Mr. Gardiner meanwhile having settled his account at the inn,
+nothing remained to be done but to go; and Elizabeth, after all
+the misery of the morning, found herself, in a shorter space of
+time than she could have supposed, seated in the carriage, and
+on the road to Longbourn.
+
+
+
+Chapter 47
+
+
+"I have been thinking it over again, Elizabeth," said her uncle,
+as they drove from the town; "and really, upon serious
+consideration, I am much more inclined than I was to judge as
+your eldest sister does on the matter.  It appears to me so very
+unlikely that any young man should form such a design against
+a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless, and who
+was actually staying in his colonel's family, that I am strongly
+inclined to hope the best.  Could he expect that her friends
+would not step forward?  Could he expect to be noticed again
+by the regiment, after such an affront to Colonel Forster?  His
+temptation is not adequate to the risk!"
+
+"Do you really think so?" cried Elizabeth, brightening up for a
+moment.
+
+"Upon my word," said Mrs. Gardiner, "I begin to be of your
+uncle's opinion.  It is really too great a violation of decency,
+honour, and interest, for him to be guilty of.  I cannot think
+so very ill of Wickham.  Can you yourself, Lizzy, so wholly give
+him up, as to believe him capable of it?"
+
+"Not, perhaps, of neglecting his own interest; but of every other
+neglect I can believe him capable.  If, indeed, it should be so!
+But I dare not hope it.  Why should they not go on to Scotland
+if that had been the case?"
+
+"In the first place," replied Mr. Gardiner, "there is no absolute
+proof that they are not gone to Scotland."
+
+"Oh! but their removing from the chaise into a hackney coach is
+such a presumption!  And, besides, no traces of them were to be
+found on the Barnet road."
+
+"Well, then--supposing them to be in London.  They may be there,
+though for the purpose of concealment, for no more exceptional
+purpose.  It is not likely that money should be very abundant on
+either side; and it might strike them that they could be more
+economically, though less expeditiously, married in London
+than in Scotland."
+
+"But why all this secrecy?  Why any fear of detection?  Why must
+their marriage be private?  Oh, no, no--this is not likely.
+His most particular friend, you see by Jane's account, was
+persuaded of his never intending to marry her.  Wickham will
+never marry a woman without some money.  He cannot afford
+it.  And what claims has Lydia--what attraction has she beyond
+youth, health, and good humour that could make him, for her
+sake, forego every chance of benefiting himself by marrying
+well?  As to what restraint the apprehensions of disgrace in the
+corps might throw on a dishonourable elopement with her, I am
+not able to judge; for I know nothing of the effects that such a
+step might produce.  But as to your other objection, I am afraid
+it will hardly hold good.  Lydia has no brothers to step forward;
+and he might imagine, from my father's behaviour, from his
+indolence and the little attention he has ever seemed to give
+to what was going forward in his family, that _he_ would do as
+little, and think as little about it, as any father could do,
+in such a matter."
+
+"But can you think that Lydia is so lost to everything but love
+of him as to consent to live with him on any terms other than
+marriage?"
+
+"It does seem, and it is most shocking indeed," replied Elizabeth,
+with tears in her eyes, "that a sister's sense of decency and
+virtue in such a point should admit of doubt.  But, really,
+I know not what to say.  Perhaps I am not doing her justice.
+But she is very young; she has never been taught to think
+on serious subjects; and for the last half-year, nay, for a
+twelvemonth--she has been given up to nothing but amusement
+and vanity.  She has been allowed to dispose of her time in the
+most idle and frivolous manner, and to adopt any opinions that
+came in her way.  Since the ----shire were first quartered in
+Meryton, nothing but love, flirtation, and officers have been
+in her head.  She has been doing everything in her power by
+thinking and talking on the subject, to give greater--what shall
+I call it? susceptibility to her feelings; which are naturally
+lively enough.  And we all know that Wickham has every charm of
+person and address that can captivate a woman."
+
+"But you see that Jane," said her aunt, "does not think so very
+ill of Wickham as to believe him capable of the attempt."
+
+"Of whom does Jane ever think ill?  And who is there, whatever
+might be their former conduct, that she would think capable of
+such an attempt, till it were proved against them?  But Jane
+knows, as well as I do, what Wickham really is.  We both know
+that he has been profligate in every sense of the word; that he
+has neither integrity nor honour; that he is as false and
+deceitful as he is insinuating."
+
+"And do you really know all this?" cried Mrs. Gardiner, whose
+curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive.
+
+"I do indeed," replied Elizabeth, colouring.  "I told you, the
+other day, of his infamous behaviour to Mr. Darcy; and you
+yourself, when last at Longbourn, heard in what manner he
+spoke of the man who had behaved with such forbearance and
+liberality towards him.  And there are other circumstances which
+I am not at liberty--which it is not worth while to relate; but
+his lies about the whole Pemberley family are endless.  From what
+he said of Miss Darcy I was thoroughly prepared to see a proud,
+reserved, disagreeable girl.  Yet he knew to the contrary himself.
+He must know that she was as amiable and unpretending as we
+have found her."
+
+"But does Lydia know nothing of this?  can she be ignorant of
+what you and Jane seem so well to understand?"
+
+"Oh, yes!--that, that is the worst of all.  Till I was in Kent,
+and saw so much both of Mr. Darcy and his relation Colonel
+Fitzwilliam, I was ignorant of the truth myself.  And when I
+returned home, the ----shire was to leave Meryton in a week or
+fortnight's time.  As that was the case, neither Jane, to whom
+I related the whole, nor I, thought it necessary to make our
+knowledge public; for of what use could it apparently be to any
+one, that the good opinion which all the neighbourhood had of
+him should then be overthrown?  And even when it was settled
+that Lydia should go with Mrs. Forster, the necessity of opening
+her eyes to his character never occurred to me.  That _she_ could
+be in any danger from the deception never entered my head.
+That such a consequence as _this_ could ensue, you may easily
+believe, was far enough from my thoughts."
+
+"When they all removed to Brighton, therefore, you had no
+reason, I suppose, to believe them fond of each other?"
+
+"Not the slightest.  I can remember no symptom of affection on
+either side; and had anything of the kind been perceptible, you
+must be aware that ours is not a family on which it could be
+thrown away.  When first he entered the corps, she was ready
+enough to admire him; but so we all were.  Every girl in or
+near Meryton was out of her senses about him for the first
+two months; but he never distinguished _her_ by any particular
+attention; and, consequently, after a moderate period of
+extravagant and wild admiration, her fancy for him gave
+way, and others of the regiment, who treated her with more
+distinction, again became her favourites."
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+It may be easily believed, that however little of novelty could be
+added to their fears, hopes, and conjectures, on this interesting
+subject, by its repeated discussion, no other could detain them
+from it long, during the whole of the journey.  From Elizabeth's
+thoughts it was never absent.  Fixed there by the keenest of all
+anguish, self-reproach, she could find no interval of ease or
+forgetfulness.
+
+They travelled as expeditiously as possible, and, sleeping one
+night on the road, reached Longbourn by dinner time the next
+day.  It was a comfort to Elizabeth to consider that Jane could
+not have been wearied by long expectations.
+
+The little Gardiners, attracted by the sight of a chaise, were
+standing on the steps of the house as they entered the paddock;
+and, when the carriage drove up to the door, the joyful surprise
+that lighted up their faces, and displayed itself over their whole
+bodies, in a variety of capers and frisks, was the first pleasing
+earnest of their welcome.
+
+Elizabeth jumped out; and, after giving each of them a hasty
+kiss, hurried into the vestibule, where Jane, who came running
+down from her mother's apartment, immediately met her.
+
+Elizabeth, as she affectionately embraced her, whilst tears filled
+the eyes of both, lost not a moment in asking whether anything
+had been heard of the fugitives.
+
+"Not yet," replied Jane.  "But now that my dear uncle is come,
+I hope everything will be well."
+
+"Is my father in town?"
+
+"Yes, he went on Tuesday, as I wrote you word."
+
+"And have you heard from him often?"
+
+"We have heard only twice.  He wrote me a few lines on
+Wednesday to say that he had arrived in safety, and to give me
+his directions, which I particularly begged him to do.  He merely
+added that he should not write again till he had something of
+importance to mention."
+
+"And my mother--how is she?  How are you all?"
+
+"My mother is tolerably well, I trust; though her spirits are
+greatly shaken.  She is upstairs and will have great satisfaction
+in seeing you all.  She does not yet leave her dressing-room.
+Mary and Kitty, thank Heaven, are quite well."
+
+"But you--how are you?" cried Elizabeth.  "You look pale.
+How much you must have gone through!"
+
+Her sister, however, assured her of her being perfectly well;
+and their conversation, which had been passing while Mr. and
+Mrs. Gardiner were engaged with their children, was now put an
+end to by the approach of the whole party.  Jane ran to her uncle
+and aunt, and welcomed and thanked them both, with alternate
+smiles and tears.
+
+When they were all in the drawing-room, the questions which
+Elizabeth had already asked were of course repeated by the
+others, and they soon found that Jane had no intelligence
+to give.  The sanguine hope of good, however, which the
+benevolence of her heart suggested had not yet deserted her;
+she still expected that it would all end well, and that every
+morning would bring some letter, either from Lydia or her
+father, to explain their proceedings, and, perhaps, announce
+their marriage.
+
+Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired, after a few
+minutes' conversation together, received them exactly as might
+be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives
+against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of
+her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the
+person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her
+daughter must principally be owing.
+
+"If I had been able," said she, "to carry my point in going to
+Brighton, with all my family, _this_ would not have happened;
+but poor dear Lydia had nobody to take care of her.  Why did
+the Forsters ever let her go out of their sight?  I am sure there
+was some great neglect or other on their side, for she is not the
+kind of girl to do such a thing if she had been well looked after.
+I always thought they were very unfit to have the charge of her;
+but I was overruled, as I always am.  Poor dear child!  And
+now here's Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight
+Wickham, wherever he meets him and then he will be killed, and
+what is to become of us all?  The Collinses will turn us out
+before he is cold in his grave, and if you are not kind to us,
+brother, I do not know what we shall do."
+
+They all exclaimed against such terrific ideas; and Mr. Gardiner,
+after general assurances of his affection for her and all her
+family, told her that he meant to be in London the very next day,
+and would assist Mr. Bennet in every endeavour for recovering
+Lydia.
+
+"Do not give way to useless alarm," added he; "though it is
+right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look
+on it as certain.  It is not quite a week since they left Brighton.
+In a few days more we may gain some news of them; and till we
+know that they are not married, and have no design of marrying,
+do not let us give the matter over as lost.  As soon as I get to
+town I shall go to my brother, and make him come home with
+me to Gracechurch Street; and then we may consult together as
+to what is to be done."
+
+"Oh! my dear brother," replied Mrs. Bennet, "that is exactly
+what I could most wish for.  And now do, when you get to
+town, find them out, wherever they may be; and if they are
+not married already, _make_ them marry.  And as for wedding
+clothes, do not let them wait for that, but tell Lydia she
+shall have as much money as she chooses to buy them, after they
+are married.  And, above all, keep Mr. Bennet from fighting.
+Tell him what a dreadful state I am in, that I am frighted out
+of my wits--and have such tremblings, such flutterings, all
+over me--such spasms in my side and pains in my head, and
+such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by
+day.  And tell my dear Lydia not to give any directions about
+her clothes till she has seen me, for she does not know which
+are the best warehouses.  Oh, brother, how kind you are!  I
+know you will contrive it all."
+
+But Mr. Gardiner, though he assured her again of his earnest
+endeavours in the cause, could not avoid recommending moderation
+to her, as well in her hopes as her fear; and after talking with
+her in this manner till dinner was on the table, they all left
+her to vent all her feelings on the housekeeper, who attended
+in the absence of her daughters.
+
+Though her brother and sister were persuaded that there was no
+real occasion for such a seclusion from the family, they did not
+attempt to oppose it, for they knew that she had not prudence
+enough to hold her tongue before the servants, while they
+waited at table, and judged it better that _one_ only of the
+household, and the one whom they could most trust should
+comprehend all her fears and solicitude on the subject.
+
+In the dining-room they were soon joined by Mary and Kitty,
+who had been  too busily engaged in their separate apartments
+to make their appearance before.  One came from her books,
+and the other from her toilette.  The faces of both, however,
+were tolerably calm; and no change was visible in either, except
+that the loss of her favourite sister, or the anger which she had
+herself incurred in this business, had given more of fretfulness
+than usual to the accents of Kitty.  As for Mary, she was
+mistress enough of herself to whisper to Elizabeth, with a
+countenance of grave reflection, soon after they were seated
+at table:
+
+"This is a most unfortunate affair, and will probably be much
+talked of.  But we must stem the tide of malice, and pour into
+the wounded bosoms of each other the balm of sisterly consolation."
+
+Then, perceiving in Elizabeth no inclination of replying, she
+added, "Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw
+from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is
+irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin;
+that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and
+that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the
+undeserving of the other sex."
+
+Elizabeth lifted up her eyes in amazement, but was too much
+oppressed to make any reply.  Mary, however, continued to
+console herself with such kind of moral extractions from the
+evil before them.
+
+In the afternoon, the two elder Miss Bennets were able to be
+for half-an-hour by themselves; and Elizabeth instantly availed
+herself of the opportunity of making any inquiries, which Jane
+was equally eager to satisfy.  After joining in general
+lamentations over the dreadful sequel of this event, which
+Elizabeth considered as all but certain, and Miss Bennet could
+not assert to be wholly impossible, the former continued the
+subject, by saying, "But tell me all and everything about it
+which I have not already heard.  Give me further particulars.
+What did Colonel Forster say?  Had they no apprehension of
+anything before the elopement took place?  They must have seen
+them together for ever."
+
+"Colonel Forster did own that he had often suspected some
+partiality, especially on Lydia's side, but nothing to give him any
+alarm.  I am so grieved for him!  His behaviour was attentive and
+kind to the utmost.  He _was_ coming to us, in order to assure us
+of his concern, before he had any idea of their not being gone to
+Scotland: when that apprehension first got abroad, it hastened
+his journey."
+
+"And was Denny convinced that Wickham would not marry?  Did
+he know of their intending to go off?  Had Colonel Forster
+seen Denny himself?"
+
+"Yes; but, when questioned by _him_, Denny denied knowing
+anything of their plans, and would not give his real opinion
+about it.  He did not repeat his persuasion of their not
+marrying--and from _that_, I am inclined to hope, he might
+have been misunderstood before."
+
+"And till Colonel Forster came himself, not one of you
+entertained a doubt, I suppose, of their being really married?"
+
+"How was it possible that such an idea should enter our brains?
+I felt a little uneasy--a little fearful of my sister's happiness
+with him in marriage, because I knew that his conduct had not been
+always quite right.  My father and mother knew nothing of that;
+they only felt how imprudent a match it must be.  Kitty then
+owned, with a very natural triumph on knowing more than the
+rest of us, that in Lydia's last letter she had prepared her for
+such a step.  She had known, it seems, of their being in love with
+each other, many weeks."
+
+"But not before they went to Brighton?"
+
+"No, I believe not."
+
+"And did Colonel Forster appear to think well of Wickham
+himself?  Does he know his real character?"
+
+"I must confess that he did not speak so well of Wickham as he
+formerly did.  He believed him to be imprudent and extravagant.
+And since this sad affair has taken place, it is said that he
+left Meryton greatly in debt; but I hope this may be false."
+
+"Oh, Jane, had we been less secret, had we told what we knew
+of him, this could not have happened!"
+
+"Perhaps it would have been better," replied her sister.  "But to
+expose the former faults of any person without knowing what
+their present feelings were, seemed unjustifiable.  We acted with
+the best intentions."
+
+"Could Colonel Forster repeat the particulars of Lydia's note to
+his wife?"
+
+"He brought it with him for us to see."
+
+Jane then took it from her pocket-book, and gave it to Elizabeth.
+These were the contents:
+
+"MY DEAR HARRIET,
+
+"You will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot
+help laughing myself at your surprise to-morrow morning, as
+soon as I am missed.  I am going to Gretna Green, and if you
+cannot guess with who, I shall think you a simpleton, for there
+is but one man in the world I love, and he is an angel.  I should
+never be happy without him, so think it no harm to be off.  You
+need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do
+not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater, when I
+write to them and sign my name 'Lydia Wickham.'  What a good
+joke it will be!  I can hardly write for laughing.  Pray make
+my excuses to Pratt for not keeping my engagement, and dancing
+with him to-night.  Tell him I hope he will excuse me when he
+knows all; and tell him I will dance with him at the next ball
+we meet, with great pleasure.  I shall send for my clothes when
+I get to Longbourn; but I wish you would tell Sally to mend a
+great slit in my worked muslin gown before they are packed up.
+Good-bye.  Give my love to Colonel Forster.  I hope you will
+drink to our good journey.
+
+"Your affectionate friend,
+
+"LYDIA BENNET."
+
+"Oh! thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia!" cried Elizabeth when she
+had finished it.  "What a letter is this, to be written at such
+a moment!  But at least it shows that _she_ was serious on the
+subject of their journey.  Whatever he might afterwards
+persuade her to, it was not on her side a _scheme_ of infamy.
+My poor father! how he must have felt it!"
+
+"I never saw anyone so shocked.  He could not speak a word
+for full ten minutes.  My mother was taken ill immediately,
+and the whole house in such confusion!"
+
+"Oh! Jane," cried Elizabeth, "was there a servant belonging to it
+who did not know the whole story before the end of the day?"
+
+"I do not know.  I hope there was.  But to be guarded at such a
+time is very difficult.  My mother was in hysterics, and though
+I endeavoured to give her every assistance in my power, I am
+afraid I did not do so much as I might have done!  But the
+horror of what might possibly happen almost took from me
+my faculties."
+
+"Your attendance upon her has been too much for you.  You do
+not look well.  Oh that I had been with you!  you have had
+every care and anxiety upon yourself alone."
+
+"Mary and Kitty have been very kind, and would have shared in
+every fatigue, I am sure; but I did not think it right for either
+of them.  Kitty is slight and delicate; and Mary studies so much,
+that her hours of repose should not be broken in on.  My aunt
+Phillips came to Longbourn on Tuesday, after my father went
+away; and was so good as to stay till Thursday with me.  She
+was of great use and comfort to us all.  And Lady Lucas has
+been very kind; she walked here on Wednesday morning to
+condole with us, and offered her services, or any of her
+daughters', if they should be of use to us."
+
+"She had better have stayed at home," cried Elizabeth; "perhaps
+she _meant_ well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one
+cannot see too little of one's neighbours.  Assistance is
+impossible; condolence insufferable.  Let them triumph over us
+at a distance, and be satisfied."
+
+She then proceeded to inquire into the measures which her
+father had intended to pursue, while in town, for the recovery
+of his daughter.
+
+"He meant I believe," replied Jane, "to go to Epsom, the place
+where they last changed horses, see the postilions and try if
+anything could be made out from them.  His principal object
+must be to discover the number of the hackney coach which
+took them from Clapham.  It had come with a fare from London;
+and as he thought that the circumstance of a gentleman and lady's
+removing from one carriage into another might be remarked he
+meant to make inquiries at Clapham. If he could anyhow discover
+at what house the coachman had before set down his fare, he
+determined to make inquiries there, and hoped it might not be
+impossible to find out the stand and number of the coach.  I do
+not know of any other designs that he had formed; but he was in
+such a hurry to be gone, and his spirits so greatly discomposed,
+that I had difficulty in finding out even so much as this."
+
+
+
+Chapter 48
+
+
+The whole party were in hopes of a letter from Mr. Bennet the
+next morning, but the post came in without bringing a single line
+from him.  His family knew him to be, on all common occasions,
+a most negligent and dilatory correspondent; but at such a time
+they had hoped for exertion.  They were forced to conclude that
+he had no pleasing intelligence to send; but even of _that_ they
+would have been glad to be certain.  Mr. Gardiner had waited
+only for the letters before he set off.
+
+When he was gone, they were certain at least of receiving
+constant information of what was going on, and their uncle
+promised, at parting, to prevail on Mr. Bennet to return to
+Longbourn, as soon as he could, to the great consolation of his
+sister, who considered it as the only security for her husband's
+not being killed in a duel.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner and the children were to remain in Hertfordshire
+a few days longer, as the former thought her presence might be
+serviceable to her nieces.  She shared in their attendance on
+Mrs. Bennet, and was a great comfort to them in their hours of
+freedom.  Their other aunt also visited them frequently, and
+always, as she said, with the design of cheering and heartening
+them up--though, as she never came without reporting some
+fresh instance of Wickham's extravagance or irregularity, she
+seldom went away without leaving them more dispirited than
+she found them.
+
+All Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three
+months before, had been almost an angel of light.  He was
+declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his
+intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been
+extended into every tradesman's family.  Everybody declared
+that he was the wickedest young man in the world; and everybody
+began to find out that they had always distrusted the appearance
+of his goodness.  Elizabeth, though she did not credit above
+half of what was said, believed enough to make her former
+assurance of her sister's ruin more certain; and even Jane,
+who believed still less of it, became almost hopeless, more
+especially as the time was now come when, if they had gone to
+Scotland, which she had never before entirely despaired of,
+they must in all probability have gained some news of them.
+
+Mr. Gardiner left Longbourn on Sunday; on Tuesday his wife
+received a letter from him; it told them that, on his arrival,
+he had immediately found out his brother, and persuaded him to
+come to Gracechurch Street; that Mr. Bennet had been to
+Epsom and Clapham, before his arrival, but without gaining
+any satisfactory information; and that he was now determined
+to inquire at all the principal hotels in town, as Mr. Bennet
+thought it possible they might have gone to one of them, on
+their first coming to London, before they procured lodgings.
+Mr. Gardiner himself did not expect any success from this
+measure, but as his brother was eager in it, he meant to assist
+him in pursuing it.  He added that Mr. Bennet seemed wholly
+disinclined at present to leave London and promised to write
+again very soon.  There was also a postscript to this effect:
+
+"I have written to Colonel Forster to desire him to find out,
+if possible, from some of the young man's intimates in the
+regiment, whether Wickham has any relations or connections
+who would be likely to know in what part of town he has now
+concealed himself.  If there were anyone that one could apply
+to with a probability of gaining such a clue as that, it might be
+of essential consequence.  At present we have nothing to guide
+us.  Colonel Forster will, I dare say, do everything in his power
+to satisfy us on this head.  But, on second thoughts, perhaps,
+Lizzy could tell us what relations he has now living, better than
+any other person."
+
+Elizabeth was at no loss to understand from whence this
+deference to her authority proceeded; but it was not in her
+power to give any information of so satisfactory a nature as the
+compliment deserved.  She had never heard of his having had
+any relations, except a father and mother, both of whom had
+been dead many years.  It was possible, however, that some of
+his companions in the ----shire might be able to give more
+information; and though she was not very sanguine in expecting
+it, the application was a something to look forward to.
+
+Every day at Longbourn was now a day of anxiety; but the most
+anxious part of each was when the post was expected.  The
+arrival of letters was the grand object of every morning's
+impatience.  Through letters, whatever of good or bad was to
+be told would be communicated, and every succeeding day was
+expected to bring some news of importance.
+
+But before they heard again from Mr. Gardiner, a letter arrived
+for their father, from a different quarter, from Mr. Collins;
+which, as Jane had received directions to open all that came for
+him in his absence, she accordingly read; and Elizabeth, who
+knew what curiosities his letters always were, looked over her,
+and read it likewise.  It was as follows:
+
+"MY DEAR SIR,
+
+"I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation
+in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now
+suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter
+from Hertfordshire.  Be assured, my dear sir, that Mrs. Collins
+and myself sincerely sympathise with you and all your respectable
+family, in your present distress, which must be of the bitterest
+kind, because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove.
+No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so
+severe a misfortune--or that may comfort you, under a circumstance
+that must be of all others the most afflicting to a parent's mind.
+The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison
+of this.  And it is the more to be lamented, because there is
+reason to suppose as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this
+licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from
+a faulty degree of indulgence; though, at the same time, for the
+consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think
+that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not
+be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age.  Howsoever that
+may be, you are grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not
+only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and
+her daughter, to whom I have related the affair.  They agree with
+me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be
+injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady
+Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves
+with such a family?  And this consideration leads me moreover
+to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event
+of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been
+involved in all your sorrow and disgrace.  Let me then advise you,
+dear sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off
+your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her
+to reap the fruits of her own heinous offense.
+
+"I am, dear sir, etc., etc."
+
+Mr. Gardiner did not write again till he had received an answer
+from Colonel Forster; and then he had nothing of a pleasant
+nature to send.  It was not known that Wickham had a single
+relationship with whom he kept up any connection, and it
+was certain that he had no near one living.  His former
+acquaintances had been numerous; but since he had been in the
+militia, it did not appear that he was on terms of particular
+friendship with any of them.  There was no one, therefore, who
+could be pointed out as likely to give any news of him.  And
+in the wretched state of his own finances, there was a very
+powerful motive for secrecy, in addition to his fear of discovery
+by Lydia's relations, for it had just transpired that he had
+left gaming debts behind him to a very considerable amount.
+Colonel Forster believed that more than a thousand pounds
+would be necessary to clear his expenses at Brighton.  He owed
+a good deal in town, but his debts of honour were still more
+formidable.  Mr. Gardiner did not attempt to conceal these
+particulars from the Longbourn family.  Jane heard them with
+horror.  "A gamester!" she cried.  "This is wholly unexpected.
+I had not an idea of it."
+
+Mr. Gardiner added in his letter, that they might expect to see
+their father at home on the following day, which was Saturday.
+Rendered spiritless by the ill-success of all their endeavours, he
+had yielded to his brother-in-law's entreaty that he would return
+to his family, and leave it to him to do whatever occasion might
+suggest to be advisable for continuing their pursuit.  When Mrs.
+Bennet was told of this, she did not express so much satisfaction
+as her children expected, considering what her anxiety for his
+life had been before.
+
+"What, is he coming home, and without poor Lydia?" she cried.
+"Sure he will not leave London before he has found them.  Who
+is to fight Wickham, and make him marry her, if he comes away?"
+
+As Mrs. Gardiner began to wish to be at home, it was settled
+that she and the children should go to London, at the same time
+that Mr. Bennet came from it.  The coach, therefore, took them
+the first stage of their journey, and brought its master back
+to Longbourn.
+
+Mrs. Gardiner went away in all the perplexity about Elizabeth
+and her Derbyshire friend that had attended her from that part
+of the world.  His name had never been voluntarily mentioned
+before them by her niece; and the kind of half-expectation which
+Mrs. Gardiner had formed, of their being followed by a letter
+from him, had ended in nothing.  Elizabeth had received none
+since her return that could come from Pemberley.
+
+The present unhappy state of the family rendered any other
+excuse for the lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing,
+therefore, could be fairly conjectured from _that_, though
+Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with
+her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known
+nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's
+infamy somewhat better.  It would have spared her, she thought,
+one sleepless night out of two.
+
+When Mr. Bennet arrived, he had all the appearance of his usual
+philosophic composure.  He said as little as he had ever been in
+the habit of saying; made no mention of the business that had
+taken him away, and it was some time before his daughters had
+courage to speak of it.
+
+It was not till the afternoon, when he had joined them at tea,
+that Elizabeth ventured to introduce the subject; and then, on
+her briefly expressing her sorrow for what he must have
+endured, he replied, "Say nothing of that.  Who should suffer
+but myself?  It has been my own doing, and I ought to feel it."
+
+"You must not be too severe upon yourself," replied Elizabeth.
+
+"You may well warn me against such an evil.  Human nature is
+so prone to fall into it!  No, Lizzy, let me once in my life
+feel how much I have been to blame.  I am not afraid of being
+overpowered by the impression.  It will pass away soon enough."
+
+"Do you suppose them to be in London?"
+
+"Yes; where else can they be so well concealed?"
+
+"And Lydia used to want to go to London," added Kitty.
+
+"She is happy then," said her father drily; "and her residence
+there will probably be of some duration."
+
+Then after a short silence he continued:
+
+"Lizzy, I bear you no ill-will for being justified in your advice
+to me last May, which, considering the event, shows some
+greatness of mind."
+
+They were interrupted by Miss Bennet, who came to fetch her
+mother's tea.
+
+"This is a parade," he cried, "which does one good; it gives such
+an elegance to misfortune!  Another day I will do the same; I
+will sit in my library, in my nightcap and powdering gown, and
+give as much trouble as I can; or, perhaps, I may defer it till
+Kitty runs away."
+
+"I am not going to run away, papa," said Kitty fretfully.  "If I
+should ever go to Brighton, I would behave better than Lydia."
+
+"_You_ go to Brighton.  I would not trust you so near it as
+Eastbourne for fifty pounds!  No, Kitty, I have at last learnt to
+be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it.  No officer is ever
+to enter into my house again, nor even to pass through the
+village.  Balls will be absolutely prohibited, unless you stand up
+with one of your sisters.  And you are never to stir out of doors
+till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day
+in a rational manner."
+
+Kitty, who took all these threats in a serious light, began to cry.
+
+"Well, well," said he, "do not make yourself unhappy.  If you
+are a good girl for the next ten years, I will take you to a review
+at the end of them."
+
+
+
+Chapter 49
+
+
+Two days after Mr. Bennet's return, as Jane and Elizabeth were
+walking together in the shrubbery behind the house, they saw
+the housekeeper coming towards them, and, concluding that she
+came to call them to their mother, went forward to meet her;
+but, instead of the expected summons, when they approached
+her, she said to Miss Bennet, "I beg your pardon, madam, for
+interrupting you, but I was in hopes you might have got some
+good news from town, so I took the liberty of coming to ask."
+
+"What do you mean, Hill?  We have heard nothing from town."
+
+"Dear madam," cried Mrs. Hill, in great astonishment, "don't
+you know there is an express come for master from Mr. Gardiner?
+He has been here this half-hour, and master has had a letter."
+
+Away ran the girls, too eager to get in to have time for speech.
+They ran through the vestibule into the breakfast-room; from
+thence to the library; their father was in neither; and they
+were on the point of seeking him upstairs with their mother,
+when they were met by the butler, who said:
+
+"If you are looking for my master, ma'am, he is walking
+towards the little copse."
+
+Upon this information, they instantly passed through the hall
+once more, and ran across the lawn after their father, who was
+deliberately pursuing his way towards a small wood on one side
+of the paddock.
+
+Jane, who was not so light nor so much in the habit of running
+as Elizabeth, soon lagged behind, while her sister, panting for
+breath, came up with him, and eagerly cried out:
+
+"Oh, papa, what news--what news?  Have you heard from my
+uncle?"
+
+"Yes I have had a letter from him by express."
+
+"Well, and what news does it bring--good or bad?"
+
+"What is there of good to be expected?" said he, taking the
+letter from his pocket.  "But perhaps you would like to read it."
+
+Elizabeth impatiently caught it from his hand.  Jane now came up.
+
+"Read it aloud," said their father, "for I hardly know myself what
+it is about."
+
+"Gracechurch Street, Monday,
+August 2.
+
+"MY DEAR BROTHER,
+
+"At last I am able to send you some tidings of my niece, and
+such as, upon the whole, I hope it will give you satisfaction.
+Soon after you left me on Saturday, I was fortunate enough to
+find out in what part of London they were.  The particulars I
+reserve till we meet; it is enough to know they are discovered.
+I have seen them both--"
+
+"Then it is as I always hoped," cried Jane; "they are married!"
+
+Elizabeth read on:
+
+"I have seen them both.  They are not married, nor can I find
+there was any intention of being so; but if you are willing to
+perform the engagements which I have ventured to make on your
+side, I hope it will not be long before they are.  All that is
+required of you is, to assure to your daughter, by settlement,
+her equal share of the five thousand pounds secured among your
+children after the decease of yourself and my sister; and,
+moreover, to enter into an engagement of allowing her, during
+your life, one hundred pounds per annum.  These are conditions
+which, considering everything, I had no hesitation in complying
+with, as far as I thought myself privileged, for you.  I shall
+send this by express, that no time may be lost in bringing me
+your answer.  You will easily comprehend, from these particulars,
+that Mr. Wickham's circumstances are not so hopeless as they
+are generally believed to be.  The world has been deceived in
+that respect; and I am happy to say there will be some little
+money, even when all his debts are discharged, to settle on my
+niece, in addition to her own fortune.  If, as I conclude will
+be the case, you send me full powers to act in your name
+throughout the whole of this business, I will immediately give
+directions to Haggerston for preparing a proper settlement.
+There will not be the smallest occasion for your coming to town
+again; therefore stay quiet at Longbourn, and depend on my
+diligence and care.  Send back your answer as fast as you can,
+and be careful to write explicitly.  We have judged it best that
+my niece should be married from this house, of which I hope
+you will approve.  She comes to us to-day.  I shall write again
+as soon as anything more is determined on.  Yours, etc.,
+
+"EDW. GARDINER."
+
+"Is it possible?" cried Elizabeth, when she had finished.  "Can it
+be possible that he will marry her?"
+
+"Wickham is not so undeserving, then, as we thought him," said
+her sister.  "My dear father, I congratulate you."
+
+"And have you answered the letter?" cried Elizabeth.
+
+"No; but it must be done soon."
+
+Most earnestly did she then entreaty him to lose no more time
+before he wrote.
+
+"Oh! my dear father," she cried, "come back and write immediately.
+Consider how important every moment is in such a case."
+
+"Let me write for you," said Jane, "if you dislike the trouble
+yourself."
+
+"I dislike it very much," he replied; "but it must be done."
+
+And so saying, he turned back with them, and walked towards
+the house.
+
+"And may I ask--" said Elizabeth; "but the terms, I suppose,
+must be complied with."
+
+"Complied with!  I am only ashamed of his asking so little."
+
+"And they _must_ marry!  Yet he is _such_ a man!"
+
+"Yes, yes, they must marry.  There is nothing else to be done.
+But there are two things that I want very much to know; one is,
+how much money your uncle has laid down to bring it about;
+and the other, how am I ever to pay him."
+
+"Money!  My uncle!" cried Jane, "what do you mean, sir?"
+
+"I mean, that no man in his senses would marry Lydia on so
+slight a temptation as one hundred a year during my life, and
+fifty after I am gone."
+
+"That is very true," said Elizabeth; "though it had not occurred
+to me before.  His debts to be discharged, and something still
+to remain!  Oh! it must be my uncle's doings!  Generous, good
+man, I am afraid he has distressed himself.  A small sum could
+not do all this."
+
+"No," said her father; "Wickham's a fool if he takes her with a
+farthing less than ten thousand pounds.  I should be sorry to
+think so ill of him, in the very beginning of our relationship."
+
+"Ten thousand pounds!  Heaven forbid!  How is half such a
+sum to be repaid?"
+
+Mr. Bennet made no answer, and each of them, deep in thought,
+continued silent till they reached the house.  Their father then
+went on to the library to write, and the girls walked into the
+breakfast-room.
+
+"And they are really to be married!" cried Elizabeth, as soon
+as they were by themselves.  "How strange this is!  And for
+_this_ we are to be thankful.  That they should marry, small as
+is their chance of happiness, and wretched as is his character,
+we are forced to rejoice.  Oh, Lydia!"
+
+"I comfort myself with thinking," replied Jane, "that he certainly
+would not marry Lydia if he had not a real regard for her.
+Though our kind uncle has done something towards clearing
+him, I cannot believe that ten thousand pounds, or anything like
+it, has been advanced.  He has children of his own, and may
+have more.  How could he spare half ten thousand pounds?"
+
+"If he were ever able to learn what Wickham's debts have been,"
+said Elizabeth, "and how much is settled on his side on our
+sister, we shall exactly know what Mr. Gardiner has done for
+them, because Wickham has not sixpence of his own.  The
+kindness of my uncle and aunt can never be requited.  Their
+taking her home, and affording her their personal protection
+and countenance, is such a sacrifice to her advantage as years
+of gratitude cannot enough acknowledge.  By this time she
+is actually with them!  If such goodness does not make her
+miserable now, she will never deserve to be happy!  What a
+meeting for her, when she first sees my aunt!"
+
+"We must endeavour to forget all that has passed on either side,"
+said Jane: "I hope and trust they will yet be happy.  His
+consenting to marry her is a proof, I will believe, that he is
+come to a right way of thinking.  Their mutual affection will
+steady them; and I flatter myself they will settle so quietly,
+and live in so rational a manner, as may in time make their
+past imprudence forgotten."
+
+"Their conduct has been such," replied Elizabeth, "as neither
+you, nor I, nor anybody can ever forget.  It is useless to talk
+of it."
+
+It now occurred to the girls that their mother was in all
+likelihood perfectly ignorant of what had happened.  They went
+to the library, therefore, and asked their father whether he
+would not wish them to make it known to her.  He was writing
+and, without raising his head, coolly replied:
+
+"Just as you please."
+
+"May we take my uncle's letter to read to her?"
+
+"Take whatever you like, and get away."
+
+Elizabeth took the letter from his writing-table, and they went
+upstairs together.  Mary and Kitty were both with Mrs. Bennet:
+one communication would, therefore, do for all.  After a slight
+preparation for good news, the letter was read aloud.  Mrs.
+Bennet could hardly contain herself.  As soon as Jane had read
+Mr. Gardiner's hope of Lydia's  being soon married, her joy
+burst forth, and every following sentence added to its
+exuberance.  She was now in an irritation as violent from
+delight, as she had ever been fidgety from alarm and vexation.
+To know that her daughter would be married was enough.  She
+was disturbed by no fear for her felicity, nor humbled by any
+remembrance of her misconduct.
+
+"My dear, dear Lydia!" she cried.  "This is delightful indeed!
+She will be married!  I shall see her again!  She will be married
+at sixteen!  My good, kind brother!  I knew how it would be.  I
+knew he would manage everything!  How I long to see her!  and
+to see dear Wickham too!  But the clothes, the wedding clothes!
+I will write to my sister Gardiner about them directly.  Lizzy,
+my dear, run down to your father, and ask him how much he will
+give her.  Stay, stay, I will go myself.  Ring the bell, Kitty, for
+Hill.  I will put on my things in a moment.  My dear, dear Lydia!
+How merry we shall be together when we meet!"
+
+Her eldest daughter endeavoured to give some relief to the
+violence of these transports, by leading her thoughts to the
+obligations which Mr. Gardiner's behaviour laid them all under.
+
+"For we must attribute this happy conclusion," she added, "in a
+great measure to his kindness.  We are persuaded that he has
+pledged himself to assist Mr. Wickham with money."
+
+"Well," cried her mother, "it is all very right; who should do it
+but her own uncle?  If he had not had a family of his own, I and
+my children must have had all his money, you know; and it is the
+first time we have ever had anything from him, except a few
+presents.  Well!  I am so happy!  In a short time I shall have
+a daughter married.  Mrs. Wickham!  How well it sounds!  And
+she was only sixteen last June.  My dear Jane, I am in such a
+flutter, that I am sure I can't write; so I will dictate, and you
+write for me.  We will settle with your father about the money
+afterwards; but the things should be ordered immediately."
+
+She was then proceeding to all the particulars of calico,
+muslin, and cambric, and would shortly have dictated some very
+plentiful orders, had not Jane, though with some difficulty,
+persuaded her to wait till her father was at leisure to be
+consulted.  One day's delay, she observed, would be of small
+importance; and her mother was too happy to be quite so
+obstinate as usual.  Other schemes, too, came into her head.
+
+"I will go to Meryton," said she, "as soon as I am dressed, and
+tell the good, good news to my sister Philips.  And as I come
+back, I can call on Lady Lucas and Mrs. Long.  Kitty, run down
+and order the carriage.  An airing would do me a great deal of
+good, I am sure.  Girls, can I do anything for you in Meryton?
+Oh!  Here comes Hill!  My dear Hill, have you heard the good
+news?  Miss Lydia is going to be married; and you shall all have
+a bowl of punch to make merry at her wedding."
+
+Mrs. Hill began instantly to express her joy.  Elizabeth received
+her congratulations amongst the rest, and then, sick of this folly,
+took refuge in her own room, that she might think with freedom.
+
+Poor Lydia's situation must, at best, be bad enough; but that
+it was no worse, she had need to be thankful.  She felt it so;
+and though, in looking forward, neither rational happiness nor
+worldly prosperity could be justly expected for her sister, in
+looking back to what they had feared, only two hours ago, she
+felt all the advantages of what they had gained.
+
+
+
+Chapter 50
+
+
+Mr. Bennet had very often wished before this period of his life
+that, instead of spending his whole income, he had laid by an
+annual sum for the better provision of his children, and of his
+wife, if she survived him.  He now wished it more than ever.
+Had he done his duty in that respect, Lydia need not have been
+indebted to her uncle for whatever of honour or credit could
+now be purchased for her.  The satisfaction of prevailing on
+one of the most worthless young men in Great Britain to be her
+husband might then have rested in its proper place.
+
+He was seriously concerned that a cause of so little advantage
+to anyone should be forwarded at the sole expense of his
+brother-in-law, and he was determined, if possible, to find out
+the extent of his assistance, and to discharge the obligation
+as soon as he could.
+
+When first Mr. Bennet had married, economy was held to be
+perfectly useless, for, of course, they were to have a son.  The
+son was to join in cutting off the entail, as soon as he should
+be of age, and the widow and younger children would by that
+means be provided for.  Five daughters successively entered the
+world, but yet the son was to come; and Mrs. Bennet, for many
+years after Lydia's birth, had been certain that he would.  This
+event had at last been despaired of, but it was then too late to
+be saving.  Mrs. Bennet had no turn for economy, and her
+husband's love of independence had alone prevented their
+exceeding their income.
+
+Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs.
+Bennet and the children.  But in what proportions it should be
+divided amongst the latter depended on the will of the parents.
+This was one point, with regard to Lydia, at least, which was
+now to be settled, and Mr. Bennet could have no hesitation in
+acceding to the proposal before him.  In terms of grateful
+acknowledgment for the kindness of his brother, though
+expressed most concisely, he then delivered on paper his perfect
+approbation of all that was done, and his willingness to fulfil
+the engagements that had been made for him.  He had never before
+supposed that, could Wickham be prevailed on to marry his
+daughter, it would be done with so little inconvenience to
+himself as by the present arrangement.  He would scarcely be
+ten pounds a year the loser by the hundred that was to be paid
+them; for, what with her board and pocket allowance, and the
+continual presents in money which passed to her through her
+mother's hands, Lydia's expenses had been very little within
+that sum.
+
+That it would be done with such trifling exertion on his side,
+too, was another very welcome surprise; for his wish at present
+was to have as little trouble in the business as possible.  When
+the first transports of rage which had produced his activity in
+seeking her were over, he naturally returned to all his former
+indolence.  His letter was soon dispatched; for, though dilatory
+in undertaking business, he was quick in its execution.  He
+begged to know further particulars of what he was indebted to
+his brother, but was too angry with Lydia to send any message
+to her.
+
+The good news spread quickly through the house, and with
+proportionate speed through the neighbourhood.  It was borne
+in the latter with decent philosophy.  To be sure, it would
+have been more for the advantage of conversation had Miss Lydia
+Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative,
+been secluded from the world, in some distant farmhouse.
+But there was much to be talked of in marrying her; and the
+good-natured wishes for her well-doing which had proceeded
+before from all the spiteful old ladies in Meryton lost but a
+little of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because
+with such an husband her misery was considered certain.
+
+It was a fortnight since Mrs. Bennet had been downstairs; but on
+this happy day she again took her seat at the head of her table,
+and in spirits oppressively high.  No sentiment of shame gave
+a damp to her triumph.  The marriage of a daughter, which had
+been the first object of her wishes since Jane was sixteen, was
+now on the point of accomplishment, and her thoughts and her
+words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials, fine
+muslins, new carriages, and servants.  She was busily searching
+through the neighbourhood for a proper situation for her
+daughter, and, without knowing or considering what their
+income might be, rejected many as deficient in size and
+importance.
+
+"Haye Park might do," said she, "if the Gouldings could quit it--or
+the great house at Stoke, if the drawing-room were larger;  but
+Ashworth is too far off!  I could not bear to have her ten miles
+from me; and as for Pulvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful."
+
+Her husband allowed her to talk on without interruption while
+the servants remained.  But when they had withdrawn, he said
+to her: "Mrs. Bennet, before you take any or all of these houses
+for your son and daughter, let us come to a right understanding.
+Into _one_ house in this neighbourhood they shall never have
+admittance.  I will not encourage the impudence of either,
+by receiving them at Longbourn."
+
+A long dispute followed this declaration; but Mr. Bennet was
+firm.  It soon led to another; and Mrs. Bennet found, with
+amazement and horror, that her husband would not advance a
+guinea to buy clothes for his daughter.  He protested that she
+should receive from him no mark of affection whatever on the
+occasion.  Mrs. Bennet could hardly comprehend it.  That his
+anger could be carried to such a point of inconceivable
+resentment as to refuse his daughter a privilege without which
+her marriage would scarcely seem valid, exceeded all she could
+believe possible.  She was more alive to the disgrace which her
+want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter's nuptials, than
+to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with Wickham a
+fortnight before they took place.
+
+Elizabeth was now most heartily sorry that she had, from the
+distress of the moment, been led to make Mr. Darcy acquainted
+with their fears for her sister; for since her marriage would
+so shortly give the proper termination to the elopement, they
+might hope to conceal its unfavourable beginning from all those
+who were not immediately on the spot.
+
+She had no fear of its spreading farther through his means.
+There were few people on whose secrecy she would have more
+confidently depended; but, at the same time, there was no one
+whose knowledge of a sister's frailty would have mortified her
+so much--not, however, from any fear of disadvantage from it
+individually to herself, for, at any rate, there seemed a gulf
+impassable between them.  Had Lydia's marriage been concluded
+on the most honourable terms, it was not to be supposed that
+Mr. Darcy would connect himself with a family where, to every
+other objection, would now be added an alliance and relationship
+of the nearest kind with a man whom he so justly scorned.
+
+From such a connection she could not wonder that he would shrink.
+The wish of procuring her regard, which she had assured herself
+of his feeling in Derbyshire, could not in rational expectation
+survive such a blow as this.  She was humbled, she was grieved;
+she repented, though she hardly knew of what.  She became jealous
+of his esteem, when she could no longer hope to be benefited by it.
+She wanted to hear of him, when there seemed the least chance of
+gaining intelligence.  She was convinced that she could have been
+happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.
+
+What a triumph for him, as she often thought, could he know
+that the proposals which she had proudly spurned only four
+months ago, would now have been most gladly and gratefully
+received!  He was as generous, she doubted not, as the most
+generous of his sex; but while he was mortal, there must be a
+triumph.
+
+She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man
+who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her.  His
+understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have
+answered all her wishes.  It was an union that must have been
+to the advantage of both; by her ease and liveliness, his mind
+might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his
+judgement, information, and knowledge of the world, she must
+have received benefit of greater importance.
+
+But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring
+multitude what connubial felicity really was.  An union of a
+different tendency, and precluding the possibility of the
+other, was soon to be formed in their family.
+
+How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable
+independence, she could not imagine.  But how little of
+permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only
+brought together because their passions were stronger than
+their virtue, she could easily conjecture.
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+Mr. Gardiner soon wrote again to his brother.  To Mr. Bennet's
+acknowledgments he briefly replied, with assurance of his
+eagerness to promote the welfare of any of his family; and
+concluded with entreaties that the subject might never be
+mentioned to him again.  The principal purport of his letter was
+to inform them that Mr. Wickham had resolved on quitting the
+militia.
+
+"It was greatly my wish that he should do so," he added, "as
+soon as his marriage was fixed on.  And I think you will agree
+with me, in considering the removal from that corps as highly
+advisable, both on his account and my niece's.  It is Mr. Wickham's
+intention to go into the regulars; and among his former friends,
+there are still some who are able and willing to assist him in
+the army.  He has the promise of an ensigncy in General ----'s
+regiment, now quartered in the North.  It is an advantage to have
+it so far from this part of the kingdom.  He promises fairly; and
+I hope among different people, where they may each have a character
+to preserve, they will both be more prudent.  I have written to
+Colonel Forster, to inform him of our present arrangements, and to
+request that he will satisfy the various creditors of Mr. Wickham
+in and near Brighton, with assurances of speedy payment, for which
+I have pledged myself.  And will you give yourself the trouble of
+carrying similar assurances to his creditors in Meryton, of whom
+I shall subjoin a list according to his information?  He has
+given in all his debts; I hope at least he has not deceived us.
+Haggerston has our directions, and all will be completed in a week.
+They will then join his regiment, unless they are first invited to
+Longbourn; and I understand from Mrs. Gardiner, that my niece is
+very desirous of seeing you all before she leaves the South.  She
+is well, and begs to be dutifully remembered to you and your
+mother.--Yours, etc.,
+
+"E. GARDINER."
+
+Mr. Bennet and his daughters saw all the advantages of Wickham's
+removal from the ----shire as clearly as Mr. Gardiner could do.
+But Mrs. Bennet was not so well pleased with it.  Lydia's being
+settled in the North, just when she had expected most pleasure and
+pride in her company, for she had by no means given up her plan
+of their residing in Hertfordshire, was a severe disappointment;
+and, besides, it was such a pity that Lydia should be taken from
+a regiment where she was acquainted with everybody, and had so
+many favourites.
+
+"She is so fond of Mrs. Forster," said she, "it will be quite
+shocking to send her away!  And there are several of the young
+men, too, that she likes very much.  The officers may not be so
+pleasant in General----'s regiment."
+
+His daughter's request, for such it might be considered, of being
+admitted into her family again before she set off for the North,
+received at first an absolute negative.  But Jane and Elizabeth,
+who agreed in wishing, for the sake of their sister's feelings and
+consequence, that she should be noticed on her marriage by her
+parents, urged him so earnestly yet so rationally and so mildly,
+to receive her and her husband at Longbourn, as soon as they
+were married, that he was prevailed on to think as they thought,
+and act as they wished.  And their mother had the satisfaction
+of knowing that she would be able to show her married daughter
+in the neighbourhood before she was banished to the North.  When
+Mr. Bennet wrote again to his brother, therefore, he sent his
+permission for them to come; and it was settled, that as soon
+as the ceremony was over, they should proceed to Longbourn.
+Elizabeth was surprised, however, that Wickham should consent
+to such a scheme, and had she consulted only her own inclination,
+any meeting with him would have been the last object of her wishes.
+
+
+
+Chapter 51
+
+
+Their sister's wedding day arrived; and Jane and Elizabeth felt
+for her probably more than she felt for herself.  The carriage
+was sent to meet them at ----, and they were to return in it
+by dinner-time.  Their arrival was dreaded by the elder Miss
+Bennets, and Jane more especially, who gave Lydia the feelings
+which would have attended herself, had she been the culprit,
+and was wretched in the thought of what her sister must endure.
+
+They came.  The family were assembled in the breakfast room to
+receive them.  Smiles decked the face of Mrs. Bennet as the
+carriage drove up to the door; her husband looked impenetrably
+grave; her daughters, alarmed, anxious, uneasy.
+
+Lydia's voice was heard in the vestibule; the door was thrown
+open, and she ran into the room.  Her mother stepped forwards,
+embraced her, and welcomed her with rapture; gave her hand,
+with an affectionate smile, to Wickham, who followed his lady;
+and wished them both joy with an alacrity which shewed no doubt
+of their happiness.
+
+Their reception from Mr. Bennet, to whom they then turned, was
+not quite so cordial.  His countenance rather gained in austerity;
+and he scarcely opened his lips.  The easy assurance of the
+young couple, indeed, was enough to provoke him.  Elizabeth was
+disgusted, and even Miss Bennet was shocked.  Lydia was Lydia
+still; untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless.  She turned
+from sister to sister, demanding their congratulations; and when
+at length they all sat down, looked eagerly round the room, took
+notice of some little alteration in it, and observed, with a
+laugh, that it was a great while since she had been there.
+
+Wickham was not at all more distressed than herself, but his
+manners were always so pleasing, that had his character and his
+marriage been exactly what they ought, his smiles and his easy
+address, while he claimed their relationship, would have
+delighted them all.  Elizabeth had not before believed him
+quite equal to such assurance; but she sat down, resolving
+within herself to draw no limits in future to the impudence of
+an impudent man.  She blushed, and Jane blushed; but the
+cheeks of the two who caused their confusion suffered no
+variation of colour.
+
+There was no want of discourse.  The bride and her mother could
+neither of them talk fast enough; and Wickham, who happened to
+sit near Elizabeth, began inquiring after his acquaintance in
+that neighbourhood, with a good humoured ease which she felt
+very unable to equal in her replies.  They seemed each of them
+to have the happiest memories in the world.  Nothing of the
+past was recollected with pain; and Lydia led voluntarily to
+subjects which her sisters would not have alluded to for the
+world.
+
+"Only think of its being three months," she cried, "since I
+went away; it seems but a fortnight I declare; and yet there
+have been things enough happened in the time.  Good gracious!
+when I went away, I am sure I had no more idea of being married
+till I came back again! though I thought it would be very good
+fun if I was."
+
+Her father lifted up his eyes.  Jane was distressed.  Elizabeth
+looked expressively at Lydia; but she, who never heard nor saw
+anything of which she chose to be insensible, gaily continued,
+"Oh! mamma, do the people hereabouts know I am married
+to-day?  I was afraid they might not; and we overtook William
+Goulding in his curricle, so I was determined he should know
+it, and so I let down the side-glass next to him, and took off
+my glove, and let my hand just rest upon the window frame, so
+that he might see the ring, and then I bowed and smiled like
+anything."
+
+Elizabeth could bear it no longer.  She got up, and ran out of
+the room; and returned no more, till she heard them passing
+through the hall to the dining parlour.  She then joined them
+soon enough to see Lydia, with anxious parade, walk up to her
+mother's right hand, and hear her say to her eldest sister,
+"Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower,
+because I am a married woman."
+
+It was not to be supposed that time would give Lydia that
+embarrassment from which she had been so wholly free at first.
+Her ease and good spirits increased.  She longed to see Mrs.
+Phillips, the Lucases, and all their other neighbours, and to
+hear herself called "Mrs. Wickham" by each of them; and in the
+mean time, she went after dinner to show her ring, and boast
+of being married, to Mrs. Hill and the two housemaids.
+
+"Well, mamma," said she, when they were all returned to the
+breakfast room, "and what do you think of my husband?  Is not
+he a charming man?  I am sure my sisters must all envy me.  I
+only hope they may have half my good luck.  They must all go to
+Brighton.  That is the place to get husbands.  What a pity it
+is, mamma, we did not all go."
+
+"Very true; and if I had my will, we should.  But my dear
+Lydia, I don't at all like your going such a way off.  Must
+it be so?"
+
+"Oh, lord! yes;--there is nothing in that.  I shall like it
+of all things.  You and papa, and my sisters, must come down
+and see us.  We shall be at Newcastle all the winter, and I
+dare say there will be some balls, and I will take care to get
+good partners for them all."
+
+"I should like it beyond anything!" said her mother.
+
+"And then when you go away, you may leave one or two of my
+sisters behind you; and I dare say I shall get husbands for
+them before the winter is over."
+
+"I thank you for my share of the favour," said Elizabeth;
+"but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands."
+
+Their visitors were not to remain above ten days with them.
+Mr. Wickham had received his commission before he left London,
+and he was to join his regiment at the end of a fortnight.
+
+No one but Mrs. Bennet regretted that their stay would be so
+short; and she made the most of the time by visiting about with
+her daughter, and having very frequent parties at home.  These
+parties were acceptable to all; to avoid a family circle was
+even more desirable to such as did think, than such as did not.
+
+Wickham's affection for Lydia was just what Elizabeth had
+expected to find it; not equal to Lydia's for him.  She had
+scarcely needed her present observation to be satisfied, from
+the reason of things, that their elopement had been brought on
+by the strength of her love, rather than by his; and she would
+have wondered why, without violently caring for her, he chose
+to elope with her at all, had she not felt certain that his
+flight was rendered necessary by distress of circumstances;
+and if that were the case, he was not the young man to resist
+an opportunity of having a companion.
+
+Lydia was exceedingly fond of him.  He was her dear Wickham on
+every occasion; no one was to be put in competition with him.
+He did every thing best in the world; and she was sure he would
+kill more birds on the first of September, than any body else
+in the country.
+
+One morning, soon after their arrival, as she was sitting with
+her two elder sisters, she said to Elizabeth:
+
+"Lizzy, I never gave _you_ an account of my wedding, I believe.
+You were not by, when I told mamma and the others all about it.
+Are not you curious to hear how it was managed?"
+
+"No really," replied Elizabeth; "I think there cannot be too
+little said on the subject."
+
+"La!  You are so strange!  But I must tell you how it went off.
+We were married, you know, at St. Clement's, because Wickham's
+lodgings were in that parish.  And it was settled that we
+should all be there by eleven o'clock.  My uncle and aunt and
+I were to go together; and the others were to meet us at the
+church.  Well, Monday morning came, and I was in such a fuss!
+I was so afraid, you know, that something would happen to put
+it off, and then I should have gone quite distracted.  And
+there was my aunt, all the time I was dressing, preaching and
+talking away just as if she was reading a sermon.  However, I
+did not hear above one word in ten, for I was thinking, you may
+suppose, of my dear Wickham.  I longed to know whether he would
+be married in his blue coat."
+
+"Well, and so we breakfasted at ten as usual; I thought it
+would never be over; for, by the bye, you are to understand,
+that my uncle and aunt were horrid unpleasant all the time I
+was with them.  If you'll believe me, I did not once put my
+foot out of doors, though I was there a fortnight.  Not one
+party, or scheme, or anything.  To be sure London was rather
+thin, but, however, the Little Theatre was open.  Well, and so
+just as the carriage came to the door, my uncle was called away
+upon business to that horrid man Mr. Stone.  And then, you
+know, when once they get together, there is no end of it.
+Well, I was so frightened I did not know what to do, for my
+uncle was to give me away; and if we were beyond the hour, we
+could not be married all day.  But, luckily, he came back again
+in ten minutes' time, and then we all set out.  However, I
+recollected afterwards that if he had been prevented going,
+the wedding need not be put off, for Mr. Darcy might have done
+as well."
+
+"Mr. Darcy!" repeated Elizabeth, in utter amazement.
+
+"Oh, yes!--he was to come there with Wickham, you know.  But
+gracious me!  I quite forgot!  I ought not to have said a word
+about it.  I promised them so faithfully!  What will Wickham
+say?  It was to be such a secret!"
+
+"If it was to be secret," said Jane, "say not another word on
+the subject.  You may depend upon my seeking no further."
+
+"Oh! certainly," said Elizabeth, though burning with curiosity;
+"we will ask you no questions."
+
+"Thank you," said Lydia, "for if you did, I should certainly
+tell you all, and then Wickham would be angry."
+
+On such encouragement to ask, Elizabeth was forced to put it
+out of her power, by running away.
+
+But to live in ignorance on such a point was impossible; or at
+least it was impossible not to try for information.  Mr. Darcy
+had been at her sister's wedding.  It was exactly a scene, and
+exactly among people, where he had apparently least to do, and
+least temptation to go.  Conjectures as to the meaning of it,
+rapid and wild, hurried into her brain; but she was satisfied
+with none.  Those that best pleased her, as placing his conduct
+in the noblest light, seemed most improbable.  She could not
+bear such suspense; and hastily seizing a sheet of paper, wrote
+a short letter to her aunt, to request an explanation of what
+Lydia had dropt, if it were compatible with the secrecy which
+had been intended.
+
+"You may readily comprehend," she added, "what my curiosity
+must be to know how a person unconnected with any of us, and
+(comparatively speaking) a stranger to our family, should have
+been amongst you at such a time.  Pray write instantly, and
+let me understand it--unless it is, for very cogent reasons,
+to remain in the secrecy which Lydia seems to think necessary;
+and then I must endeavour to be satisfied with ignorance."
+
+"Not that I _shall_, though," she added to herself, as she
+finished the letter; "and my dear aunt, if you do not tell me
+in an honourable manner, I shall certainly be reduced to tricks
+and stratagems to find it out."
+
+Jane's delicate sense of honour would not allow her to speak to
+Elizabeth privately of what Lydia had let fall; Elizabeth was
+glad of it;--till it appeared whether her inquiries would
+receive any satisfaction, she had rather be without a confidante.
+
+
+
+Chapter 52
+
+
+Elizabeth had the satisfaction of receiving an answer to her
+letter as soon as she possibly could.  She was no sooner in
+possession of it than, hurrying into the little copse, where
+she was least likely to be interrupted, she sat down on one of
+the benches and prepared to be happy; for the length of the
+letter convinced her that it did not contain a denial.
+
+"Gracechurch street, Sept. 6.
+
+"MY DEAR NIECE,
+
+"I have just received your letter, and shall devote this whole
+morning to answering it, as I foresee that a _little_ writing
+will not comprise what I have to tell you.  I must confess
+myself surprised by your application; I did not expect it from
+_you_.  Don't think me angry, however, for I only mean to let
+you know that I had not imagined such inquiries to be necessary
+on _your_ side.  If you do not choose to understand me, forgive
+my impertinence.  Your uncle is as much surprised as I am--and
+nothing but the belief of your being a party concerned would
+have allowed him to act as he has done.  But if you are really
+innocent and ignorant, I must be more explicit.
+
+"On the very day of my coming home from Longbourn, your uncle had a
+most unexpected visitor.  Mr. Darcy called, and was shut up with him
+several hours.  It was all over before I arrived; so my curiosity was
+not so dreadfully racked as _your's_ seems to have been.  He came to
+tell Mr. Gardiner that he had found out where your sister and
+Mr. Wickham were, and that he had seen and talked with them both;
+Wickham repeatedly, Lydia once.  From what I can collect, he left
+Derbyshire only one day after ourselves, and came to town with the
+resolution of hunting for them.  The motive professed was his
+conviction of its being owing to himself that Wickham's worthlessness
+had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young
+woman of character to love or confide in him.  He generously imputed
+the whole to his mistaken pride, and confessed that he had before
+thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world.
+His character was to speak for itself.  He called it, therefore, his
+duty to step forward, and endeavour to remedy an evil which had been
+brought on by himself.  If he _had another_ motive, I am sure it would
+never disgrace him.  He had been some days in town, before he was able
+to discover them; but he had something to direct his search, which was
+more than _we_ had; and the consciousness of this was another reason for
+his resolving to follow us.
+
+"There is a lady, it seems, a Mrs. Younge, who was some time ago
+governess to Miss Darcy, and was dismissed from her charge on some
+cause of disapprobation, though he did not say what.  She then took a
+large house in Edward-street, and has since maintained herself by
+letting lodgings.  This Mrs. Younge was, he knew, intimately
+acquainted with Wickham; and he went to her for intelligence of him as
+soon as he got to town.  But it was two or three days before he could
+get from her what he wanted.  She would not betray her trust, I
+suppose, without bribery and corruption, for she really did know where
+her friend was to be found.  Wickham indeed had gone to her on their
+first arrival in London, and had she been able to receive them into
+her house, they would have taken up their abode with her.  At length,
+however, our kind friend procured the wished-for direction.  They were
+in ---- street.  He saw Wickham, and afterwards insisted on seeing
+Lydia.  His first object with her, he acknowledged, had been to
+persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to
+her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her,
+offering his assistance, as far as it would go.  But he found Lydia
+absolutely resolved on remaining where she was.  She cared for none of
+her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving
+Wickham.  She was sure they should be married some time or other, and
+it did not much signify when.  Since such were her feelings, it only
+remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage, which, in his
+very first conversation with Wickham, he easily learnt had never been
+_his_ design.  He confessed himself obliged to leave the regiment, on
+account of some debts of honour, which were very pressing; and
+scrupled not to lay all the ill-consequences of Lydia's flight on her
+own folly alone.  He meant to resign his commission immediately; and
+as to his future situation, he could conjecture very little about it.
+He must go somewhere, but he did not know where, and he knew he should
+have nothing to live on.
+
+"Mr. Darcy asked him why he had not married your sister at once.
+Though Mr. Bennet was not imagined to be very rich, he would have been
+able to do something for him, and his situation must have been
+benefited by marriage.  But he found, in reply to this question, that
+Wickham still cherished the hope of more effectually making his
+fortune by marriage in some other country.  Under such circumstances,
+however, he was not likely to be proof against the temptation of
+immediate relief.
+
+"They met several times, for there was much to be discussed.
+Wickham of course wanted more than he could get; but at length
+was reduced to be reasonable.
+
+"Every thing being settled between _them_, Mr. Darcy's next step was to
+make your uncle acquainted with it, and he first called in Gracechurch
+street the evening before I came home.  But Mr. Gardiner could not be
+seen, and Mr. Darcy found, on further inquiry, that your father was
+still with him, but would quit town the next morning.  He did not
+judge your father to be a person whom he could so properly consult as
+your uncle, and therefore readily postponed seeing him till after the
+departure of the former.  He did not leave his name, and till the next
+day it was only known that a gentleman had called on business.
+
+"On Saturday he came again.  Your father was gone, your uncle at home,
+and, as I said before, they had a great deal of talk together.
+
+"They met again on Sunday, and then _I_ saw him too.  It was not all
+settled before Monday: as soon as it was, the express was sent off to
+Longbourn.  But our visitor was very obstinate.  I fancy, Lizzy, that
+obstinacy is the real defect of his character, after all.  He has been
+accused of many faults at different times, but _this_ is the true one.
+Nothing was to be done that he did not do himself; though I am sure
+(and I do not speak it to be thanked, therefore say nothing about it),
+your uncle would most readily have settled the whole.
+
+"They battled it together for a long time, which was more than either
+the gentleman or lady concerned in it deserved.  But at last your
+uncle was forced to yield, and instead of being allowed to be of use
+to his niece, was forced to put up with only having the probable
+credit of it, which went sorely against the grain; and I really
+believe your letter this morning gave him great pleasure, because it
+required an explanation that would rob him of his borrowed feathers,
+and give the praise where it was due.  But, Lizzy, this must go no
+farther than yourself, or Jane at most.
+
+"You know pretty well, I suppose, what has been done for the young
+people.  His debts are to be paid, amounting, I believe, to
+considerably more than a thousand pounds, another thousand in addition
+to her own settled upon _her_, and his commission purchased.  The reason
+why all this was to be done by him alone, was such as I have given
+above.  It was owing to him, to his reserve and want of proper
+consideration, that Wickham's character had been so misunderstood, and
+consequently that he had been received and noticed as he was.  Perhaps
+there was some truth in _this_; though I doubt whether _his_ reserve, or
+_anybody's_ reserve, can be answerable for the event.  But in spite of
+all this fine talking, my dear Lizzy, you may rest perfectly assured
+that your uncle would never have yielded, if we had not given him
+credit for _another interest_ in the affair.
+
+"When all this was resolved on, he returned again to his friends, who
+were still staying at Pemberley; but it was agreed that he should be
+in London once more when the wedding took place, and all money matters
+were then to receive the last finish.
+
+"I believe I have now told you every thing.  It is a relation which you
+tell me is to give you great surprise; I hope at least it will not
+afford you any displeasure.  Lydia came to us; and Wickham had
+constant admission to the house.  _He_ was exactly what he had been,
+when I knew him in Hertfordshire; but I would not tell you how little
+I was satisfied with her behaviour while she staid with us, if I had
+not perceived, by Jane's letter last Wednesday, that her conduct on
+coming home was exactly of a piece with it, and therefore what I now
+tell you can give you no fresh pain.  I talked to her repeatedly in
+the most serious manner, representing to her all the wickedness of
+what she had done, and all the unhappiness she had brought on her
+family.  If she heard me, it was by good luck, for I am sure she did
+not listen.  I was sometimes quite provoked, but then I recollected my
+dear Elizabeth and Jane, and for their sakes had patience with her.
+
+"Mr. Darcy was punctual in his return, and as Lydia informed you,
+attended the wedding.  He dined with us the next day, and was to leave
+town again on Wednesday or Thursday.  Will you be very angry with me,
+my dear Lizzy, if I take this opportunity of saying (what I was never
+bold enough to say before) how much I like him.  His behaviour to us
+has, in every respect, been as pleasing as when we were in Derbyshire.
+His understanding and opinions all please me; he wants nothing but a
+little more liveliness, and _that_, if he marry _prudently_, his wife
+may teach him.  I thought him very sly;--he hardly ever mentioned your
+name.  But slyness seems the fashion.
+
+"Pray forgive me if I have been very presuming, or at least do not
+punish me so far as to exclude me from P.  I shall never be quite
+happy till I have been all round the park.  A low phaeton, with a nice
+little pair of ponies, would be the very thing.
+
+"But I must write no more.  The children have been wanting me this half
+hour.
+
+"Yours, very sincerely,
+
+"M. GARDINER."
+
+The contents of this letter threw Elizabeth into a flutter
+of spirits, in which it was difficult to determine whether
+pleasure or pain bore the greatest share.  The vague and
+unsettled suspicions which uncertainty had produced of what
+Mr. Darcy might have been doing to forward her sister's match,
+which she had feared to encourage as an exertion of goodness
+too great to be probable, and at the same time dreaded to be
+just, from the pain of obligation, were proved beyond their
+greatest extent to be true!  He had followed them purposely to
+town, he had taken on himself all the trouble and mortification
+attendant on such a research; in which supplication had been
+necessary to a woman whom he must abominate and despise, and
+where he was reduced to meet, frequently meet, reason with,
+persuade, and finally bribe, the man whom he always most wished
+to avoid, and whose very name it was punishment to him to
+pronounce.  He had done all this for a girl whom he could
+neither regard nor esteem.  Her heart did whisper that he had
+done it for her.  But it was a hope shortly checked by other
+considerations, and she soon felt that even her vanity was
+insufficient, when required to depend on his affection for her
+--for a woman who had already refused him--as able to overcome
+a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with
+Wickham.  Brother-in-law of Wickham!  Every kind of pride must
+revolt from the connection.  He had, to be sure, done much.
+She was ashamed to think how much.  But he had given a reason
+for his interference, which asked no extraordinary stretch of
+belief.  It was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong;
+he had liberality, and he had the means of exercising it; and
+though she would not place herself as his principal inducement,
+she could, perhaps, believe that remaining partiality for her
+might assist his endeavours in a cause where her peace of mind
+must be materially concerned.  It was painful, exceedingly
+painful, to know that they were under obligations to a person
+who could never receive a return.  They owed the restoration of
+Lydia, her character, every thing, to him.  Oh! how heartily
+did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever
+encouraged, every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him.
+For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him.  Proud
+that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get
+the better of himself.  She read over her aunt's commendation
+of him again and again.  It was hardly enough; but it pleased
+her.  She was even sensible of some pleasure, though mixed with
+regret, on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had
+been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between
+Mr. Darcy and herself.
+
+She was roused from her seat, and her reflections, by some
+one's approach; and before she could strike into another path,
+she was overtaken by Wickham.
+
+"I am afraid I interrupt your solitary ramble, my dear sister?"
+said he, as he joined her.
+
+"You certainly do," she replied with a smile; "but it does not
+follow that the interruption must be unwelcome."
+
+"I should be sorry indeed, if it were.  We were always good
+friends; and now we are better."
+
+"True.  Are the others coming out?"
+
+"I do not know.  Mrs. Bennet and Lydia are going in the
+carriage to Meryton.  And so, my dear sister, I find, from
+our uncle and aunt, that you have actually seen Pemberley."
+
+She replied in the affirmative.
+
+"I almost envy you the pleasure, and yet I believe it would
+be too much for me, or else I could take it in my way to
+Newcastle.  And you saw the old housekeeper, I suppose?  Poor
+Reynolds, she was always very fond of me.  But of course she
+did not mention my name to you."
+
+"Yes, she did."
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Certainly," he replied, biting his lips.  Elizabeth hoped she
+had silenced him; but he soon afterwards said:
+
+"I was surprised to see Darcy in town last month.  We passed
+each other several times.  I wonder what he can be doing
+there."
+
+"Perhaps preparing for his marriage with Miss de Bourgh," said
+Elizabeth.  "It must be something particular, to take him there
+at this time of year."
+
+"Undoubtedly.  Did you see him while you were at Lambton?
+I thought I understood from the Gardiners that you had."
+
+"Yes; he introduced us to his sister."
+
+"And do you like her?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"I have heard, indeed, that she is uncommonly improved within
+this year or two.  When I last saw her, she was not very
+promising.  I am very glad you liked her.  I hope she will turn
+out well."
+
+"I dare say she will; she has got over the most trying age."
+
+"Did you go by the village of Kympton?"
+
+"I do not recollect that we did."
+
+"I mention it, because it is the living which I ought to have
+had.  A most delightful place!--Excellent Parsonage House!
+It would have suited me in every respect."
+
+"How should you have liked making sermons?"
+
+"Exceedingly well.  I should have considered it as part of my
+duty, and the exertion would soon have been nothing.  One ought
+not to repine;--but, to be sure, it would have been such a
+thing for me!  The quiet, the retirement of such a life would
+have answered all my ideas of happiness!  But it was not to be.
+Did you ever hear Darcy mention the circumstance, when you were
+in Kent?"
+
+"I have heard from authority, which I thought _as good_,
+that it was left you conditionally only, and at the will of the
+present patron."
+
+"You have.  Yes, there was something in _that_; I told you so
+from the first, you may remember."
+
+"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."
+
+"You did! and it was not wholly without foundation.  You may
+remember what I told you on that point, when first we talked
+of it."
+
+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:
+
+"Come, Mr. Wickham, we are brother and sister, you know.
+Do not let us quarrel about the past.  In future, I hope we
+shall be always of one mind."
+
+She held out her hand; he kissed it with affectionate gallantry,
+though he hardly knew how to look, and they entered the house.
+
+
+
+Chapter 53
+
+
+Mr. Wickham was so perfectly satisfied with this conversation
+that he never again distressed himself, or provoked his dear
+sister Elizabeth, by introducing the subject of it; and she was
+pleased to find that she had said enough to keep him quiet.
+
+The day of his and Lydia's departure soon came, and Mrs. Bennet
+was forced to submit to a separation, which, as her husband by
+no means entered into her scheme of their all going to
+Newcastle, was likely to continue at least a twelvemonth.
+
+"Oh! my dear Lydia," she cried, "when shall we meet again?"
+
+"Oh, lord! I don't know.  Not these two or three years,
+perhaps."
+
+"Write to me very often, my dear."
+
+"As often as I can.  But you know married women have never much
+time for writing.  My sisters may write to _me_.  They will
+have nothing else to do."
+
+Mr. Wickham's adieus were much more affectionate than his
+wife's.  He smiled, looked handsome, and said many pretty
+things.
+
+"He is as fine a fellow," said Mr. Bennet, as soon as they were
+out of the house, "as ever I saw.  He simpers, and smirks, and
+makes love to us all.  I am prodigiously proud of him.  I defy
+even Sir William Lucas himself to produce a more valuable
+son-in-law."
+
+The loss of her daughter made Mrs. Bennet very dull for
+several days.
+
+"I often think," said she, "that there is nothing so bad as
+parting with one's friends.  One seems so forlorn without
+them."
+
+"This is the consequence, you see, Madam, of marrying a daughter,"
+said Elizabeth.  "It must make you better satisfied that your
+other four are single."
+
+"It is no such thing.  Lydia does not leave me because she is
+married, but only because her husband's regiment happens to be
+so far off.  If that had been nearer, she would not have gone
+so soon."
+
+But the spiritless condition which this event threw her into
+was shortly relieved, and her mind opened again to the
+agitation of hope, by an article of news which then began to be
+in circulation.  The housekeeper at Netherfield had received
+orders to prepare for the arrival of her master, who was coming
+down in a day or two, to shoot there for several weeks.
+Mrs. Bennet was quite in the fidgets.  She looked at Jane, and
+smiled and shook her head by turns.
+
+"Well, well, and so Mr. Bingley is coming down, sister,"
+(for Mrs. Phillips first brought her the news).  "Well, so
+much the better.  Not that I care about it, though.  He is
+nothing to us, you know, and I am sure _I_ never want to
+see him again.  But, however, he is very welcome to come
+to Netherfield, if he likes it.  And who knows what _may_
+happen?  But that is nothing to us.  You know, sister, we
+agreed long ago never to mention a word about it.  And so,
+is it quite certain he is coming?"
+
+"You may depend on it," replied the other, "for Mrs. Nicholls
+was in Meryton last night; I saw her passing by, and went out
+myself on purpose to know the truth of it; and she told me that
+it was certain true.  He comes down on Thursday at the latest,
+very likely on Wednesday.  She was going to the butcher's, she
+told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she
+has got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed."
+
+Miss Bennet had not been able to hear of his coming without
+changing colour.  It was many months since she had mentioned
+his name to Elizabeth; but now, as soon as they were alone
+together, she said:
+
+"I saw you look at me to-day, Lizzy, when my aunt told us of
+the present report; and I know I appeared distressed.  But
+don't imagine it was from any silly cause.  I was only confused
+for the moment, because I felt that I _should_ be looked at.
+I do assure you that the news does not affect me either with
+pleasure or pain.  I am glad of one thing, that he comes alone;
+because we shall see the less of him.  Not that I am afraid of
+_myself_, but I dread other people's remarks."
+
+Elizabeth did not know what to make of it.  Had she not seen
+him in Derbyshire, she might have supposed him capable of
+coming there with no other view than what was acknowledged; but
+she still thought him partial to Jane, and she wavered as to
+the greater probability of his coming there _with_ his friend's
+permission, or being bold enough to come without it.
+
+"Yet it is hard," she sometimes thought, "that this poor man
+cannot come to a house which he has legally hired, without
+raising all this speculation!  I _will_ leave him to himself."
+
+In spite of what her sister declared, and really believed to be
+her feelings in the expectation of his arrival, Elizabeth could
+easily perceive that her spirits were affected by it.  They
+were more disturbed, more unequal, than she had often seen them.
+
+The subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their
+parents, about a twelvemonth ago, was now brought forward
+again.
+
+"As soon as ever Mr. Bingley comes, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet,
+"you will wait on him of course."
+
+"No, no.  You forced me into visiting him last year, and
+promised, if I went to see him, he should marry one of my
+daughters.  But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on
+a fool's errand again."
+
+His wife represented to him how absolutely necessary such an
+attention would be from all the neighbouring gentlemen, on his
+returning to Netherfield.
+
+"'Tis an etiquette I despise," said he.  "If he wants our
+society, let him seek it.  He knows where we live.  I will not
+spend my hours in running after my neighbours every time they
+go away and come back again."
+
+"Well, all I know is, that it will be abominably rude if you do
+not wait on him.  But, however, that shan't prevent my asking
+him to dine here, I am determined.  We must have Mrs. Long and
+the Gouldings soon.  That will make thirteen with ourselves, so
+there will be just room at table for him."
+
+Consoled by this resolution, she was the better able to bear
+her husband's incivility; though it was very mortifying to know
+that her neighbours might all see Mr. Bingley, in consequence
+of it, before _they_ did.  As the day of his arrival drew near:
+
+"I begin to be sorry that he comes at all," said Jane to her
+sister.  "It would be nothing; I could see him with perfect
+indifference, but I can hardly bear to hear it thus perpetually
+talked of.  My mother means well; but she does not know, no one
+can know, how much I suffer from what she says.  Happy shall I
+be, when his stay at Netherfield is over!"
+
+"I wish I could say anything to comfort you," replied Elizabeth;
+"but it is wholly out of my power.  You must feel it; and the
+usual satisfaction of preaching patience to a sufferer is denied
+me, because you have always so much."
+
+Mr. Bingley arrived.  Mrs. Bennet, through the assistance of
+servants, contrived to have the earliest tidings of it, that
+the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might be as
+long as it could.  She counted the days that must intervene
+before their invitation could be sent; hopeless of seeing
+him before.  But on the third morning after his arrival in
+Hertfordshire, she saw him, from her dressing-room window,
+enter the paddock and ride towards the house.
+
+Her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy.  Jane
+resolutely kept her place at the table; but Elizabeth, to
+satisfy her mother, went to the window--she looked,--she
+saw Mr. Darcy with him, and sat down again by her sister.
+
+"There is a gentleman with him, mamma," said Kitty; "who can it be?"
+
+"Some acquaintance or other, my dear, I suppose; I am sure I
+do not know."
+
+"La!" replied Kitty, "it looks just like that man that used to
+be with him before.  Mr. what's-his-name.  That tall, proud
+man."
+
+"Good gracious!  Mr. Darcy!--and so it does, I vow.  Well,
+any friend of Mr. Bingley's will always be welcome here, to be
+sure; but else I must say that I hate the very sight of him."
+
+Jane looked at Elizabeth with surprise and concern.  She knew
+but little of their meeting in Derbyshire, and therefore felt
+for the awkwardness which must attend her sister, in seeing him
+almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory
+letter.  Both sisters were uncomfortable enough.  Each felt
+for the other, and of course for themselves; and their mother
+talked on, of her dislike of Mr. Darcy, and her resolution
+to be civil to him only as Mr. Bingley's friend, without
+being heard by either of them.  But Elizabeth had sources of
+uneasiness which could not be suspected by Jane, to whom she
+had never yet had courage to shew Mrs. Gardiner's letter, or
+to relate her own change of sentiment towards him.  To Jane,
+he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused, and
+whose merit she had undervalued; but to her own more extensive
+information, he was the person to whom the whole family were
+indebted for the first of benefits, and whom she regarded
+herself with an interest, if not quite so tender, at least
+as reasonable and just as what Jane felt for Bingley.  Her
+astonishment at his coming--at his coming to Netherfield, to
+Longbourn, and voluntarily seeking her again, was almost equal
+to what she had known on first witnessing his altered behaviour
+in Derbyshire.
+
+The colour which had been driven from her face, returned for
+half a minute with an additional glow, and a smile of delight
+added lustre to her eyes, as she thought for that space of time
+that his affection and wishes must still be unshaken.  But she
+would not be secure.
+
+"Let me first see how he behaves," said she; "it will then be
+early enough for expectation."
+
+She sat intently at work, striving to be composed, and without
+daring to lift up her eyes, till anxious curiosity carried them
+to the face of her sister as the servant was approaching the
+door.  Jane looked a little paler than usual, but more sedate
+than Elizabeth had expected.  On the gentlemen's appearing, her
+colour increased; yet she received them with tolerable ease,
+and with a propriety of behaviour equally free from any symptom
+of resentment or any unnecessary complaisance.
+
+Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow, and
+sat down again to her work, with an eagerness which it did not
+often command.  She had ventured only one glance at Darcy.  He
+looked serious, as usual; and, she thought, more as he had been
+used to look in Hertfordshire, than as she had seen him at
+Pemberley.  But, perhaps he could not in her mother's presence
+be what he was before her uncle and aunt.  It was a painful,
+but not an improbable, conjecture.
+
+Bingley, she had likewise seen for an instant, and in that
+short period saw him looking both pleased and embarrassed.  He
+was received by Mrs. Bennet with a degree of civility which
+made her two daughters ashamed, especially when contrasted with
+the cold and ceremonious politeness of her curtsey and address
+to his friend.
+
+Elizabeth, particularly, who knew that her mother owed to the
+latter the preservation of her favourite daughter from
+irremediable infamy, was hurt and distressed to a most painful
+degree by a distinction so ill applied.
+
+Darcy, after inquiring of her how Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner did, a
+question which she could not answer without confusion, said
+scarcely anything.  He was not seated by her; perhaps that
+was the reason of his silence; but it had not been so in
+Derbyshire.  There he had talked to her friends, when he could
+not to herself.  But now several minutes elapsed without
+bringing the sound of his voice; and when occasionally, unable
+to resist the impulse of curiosity, she raised he eyes to his
+face, she as often found him looking at Jane as at herself, and
+frequently on no object but the ground.  More thoughtfulness
+and less anxiety to please, than when they last met, were
+plainly expressed.  She was disappointed, and angry with
+herself for being so.
+
+"Could I expect it to be otherwise!" said she.  "Yet why did
+he come?"
+
+She was in no humour for conversation with anyone but himself;
+and to him she had hardly courage to speak.
+
+She inquired after his sister, but could do no more.
+
+"It is a long time, Mr. Bingley, since you went away," said
+Mrs. Bennet.
+
+He readily agreed to it.
+
+"I began to be afraid you would never come back again.  People
+_did_ say you meant to quit the place entirely at Michaelmas;
+but, however, I hope it is not true.  A great many changes have
+happened in the neighbourhood, since you went away.  Miss Lucas
+is married and settled.  And one of my own daughters.  I suppose
+you have heard of it; indeed, you must have seen it in the
+papers.  It was in The Times and The Courier, I know; though
+it was not put in as it ought to be.  It was only said, 'Lately,
+George Wickham, Esq. to Miss Lydia Bennet,' without there being
+a syllable said of her father, or the place where she lived, or
+anything.  It was my brother Gardiner's drawing up too, and I
+wonder how he came to make such an awkward business of it.  Did
+you see it?"
+
+Bingley replied that he did, and made his congratulations.
+Elizabeth dared not lift up her eyes.  How Mr. Darcy looked,
+therefore, she could not tell.
+
+"It is a delightful thing, to be sure, to have a daughter
+well married," continued her mother, "but at the same time,
+Mr. Bingley, it is very hard to have her taken such a way from
+me.  They are gone down to Newcastle, a place quite northward,
+it seems, and there they are to stay I do not know how long.
+His regiment is there; for I suppose you have heard of his
+leaving the ----shire, and of his being gone into the regulars.
+Thank Heaven! he has _some_ friends, though perhaps not so
+many as he deserves."
+
+Elizabeth, who knew this to be levelled at Mr. Darcy, was
+in such misery of shame, that she could hardly keep her seat.
+It drew from her, however, the exertion of speaking, which
+nothing else had so effectually done before; and she asked
+Bingley whether he meant to make any stay in the country at
+present.  A few weeks, he believed.
+
+"When you have killed all your own birds, Mr. Bingley,"
+said her mother, "I beg you will come here, and shoot as
+many as you please on Mr. Bennet's manor.  I am sure he
+will be vastly happy to oblige you, and will save all the
+best of the covies for you."
+
+Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such
+officious attention!  Were the same fair prospect to arise at
+present as had flattered them a year ago, every thing, she was
+persuaded, would be hastening to the same vexatious conclusion.
+At that instant, she felt that years of happiness could not
+make Jane or herself amends for moments of such painful
+confusion.
+
+"The first wish of my heart," said she to herself, "is never
+more to be in company with either of them.  Their society can
+afford no pleasure that will atone for such wretchedness as
+this!  Let me never see either one or the other again!"
+
+Yet the misery, for which years of happiness were to offer no
+compensation, received soon afterwards material relief, from
+observing how much the beauty of her sister re-kindled the
+admiration of her former lover.  When first he came in, he had
+spoken to her but little; but every five minutes seemed to be
+giving her more of his attention.  He found her as handsome as
+she had been last year; as good natured, and as unaffected,
+though not quite so chatty.  Jane was anxious that no difference
+should be perceived in her at all, and was really persuaded that
+she talked as much as ever.  But her mind was so busily engaged,
+that she did not always know when she was silent.
+
+When the gentlemen rose to go away, Mrs. Bennet was mindful of
+her intended civility, and they were invited and engaged to
+dine at Longbourn in a few days time.
+
+"You are quite a visit in my debt, Mr. Bingley," she added,
+"for when you went to town last winter, you promised to take
+a family dinner with us, as soon as you returned.  I have not
+forgot, you see; and I assure you, I was very much disappointed
+that you did not come back and keep your engagement."
+
+Bingley looked a little silly at this reflection, and said
+something of his concern at having been prevented by business.
+They then went away.
+
+Mrs. Bennet had been strongly inclined to ask them to stay and
+dine there that day; but, though she always kept a very good
+table, she did not think anything less than two courses could
+be good enough for a man on whom she had such anxious designs,
+or satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had ten thousand a
+year.
+
+
+
+Chapter 54
+
+
+As soon as they were gone, Elizabeth walked out to recover
+her spirits; or in other words, to dwell without interruption
+on those subjects that must deaden them more.  Mr. Darcy's
+behaviour astonished and vexed her.
+
+"Why, if he came only to be silent, grave, and indifferent,"
+said she, "did he come at all?"
+
+She could settle it in no way that gave her pleasure.
+
+"He could be still amiable, still pleasing, to my uncle and
+aunt, when he was in town; and why not to me?  If he fears me,
+why come hither?  If he no longer cares for me, why silent?
+Teasing, teasing, man!  I will think no more about him."
+
+Her resolution was for a short time involuntarily kept by
+the approach of her sister, who joined her with a cheerful
+look, which showed her better satisfied with their visitors,
+than Elizabeth.
+
+"Now," said she, "that this first meeting is over, I feel
+perfectly easy.  I know my own strength, and I shall never be
+embarrassed again by his coming.  I am glad he dines here on
+Tuesday.  It will then be publicly seen that, on both sides,
+we meet only as common and indifferent acquaintance."
+
+"Yes, very indifferent indeed," said Elizabeth, laughingly.
+"Oh, Jane, take care."
+
+"My dear Lizzy, you cannot think me so weak, as to be in danger
+now?"
+
+"I think you are in very great danger of making him as much
+in love with you as ever."
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+They did not see the gentlemen again till Tuesday; and
+Mrs. Bennet, in the meanwhile, was giving way to all the
+happy schemes, which the good humour and common politeness
+of Bingley, in half an hour's visit, had revived.
+
+On Tuesday there was a large party assembled at Longbourn;
+and the two who were most anxiously expected, to the credit of
+their punctuality as sportsmen, were in very good time.  When
+they repaired to the dining-room, Elizabeth eagerly watched to
+see whether Bingley would take the place, which, in all their
+former parties, had belonged to him, by her sister.  Her
+prudent mother, occupied by the same ideas, forbore to invite
+him to sit by herself.  On entering the room, he seemed to
+hesitate; but Jane happened to look round, and happened to
+smile: it was decided.  He placed himself by her.
+
+Elizabeth, with a triumphant sensation, looked towards his
+friend.  He bore it with noble indifference, and she would have
+imagined that Bingley had received his sanction to be happy,
+had she not seen his eyes likewise turned towards Mr. Darcy,
+with an expression of half-laughing alarm.
+
+His behaviour to her sister was such, during dinner time, as
+showed an admiration of her, which, though more guarded than
+formerly, persuaded Elizabeth, that if left wholly to himself,
+Jane's happiness, and his own, would be speedily secured.
+Though she dared not depend upon the consequence, she yet
+received pleasure from observing his behaviour.  It gave her
+all the animation that her spirits could boast; for she was in
+no cheerful humour.  Mr. Darcy was almost as far from her as
+the table could divide them.  He was on one side of her mother.
+She knew how little such a situation would give pleasure to
+either, or make either appear to advantage.  She was not near
+enough to hear any of their discourse, but she could see how
+seldom they spoke to each other, and how formal and cold was
+their manner whenever they did.  Her mother's ungraciousness,
+made the sense of what they owed him more painful to Elizabeth's
+mind; and she would, at times, have given anything to be
+privileged to tell him that his kindness was neither unknown
+nor unfelt by the whole of the family.
+
+She was in hopes that the evening would afford some opportunity
+of bringing them together; that the whole of the visit would
+not pass away without enabling them to enter into something
+more of conversation than the mere ceremonious salutation
+attending his entrance.  Anxious and uneasy, the period which
+passed in the drawing-room, before the gentlemen came, was
+wearisome and dull to a degree that almost made her uncivil.
+She looked forward to their entrance as the point on which all
+her chance of pleasure for the evening must depend.
+
+"If he does not come to me, _then_," said she, "I shall give
+him up for ever."
+
+The gentlemen came; and she thought he looked as if he would
+have answered her hopes; but, alas! the ladies had crowded
+round the table, where Miss Bennet was making tea, and
+Elizabeth pouring out the coffee, in so close a confederacy
+that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit
+of a chair.  And on the gentlemen's approaching, one of the
+girls moved closer to her than ever, and said, in a whisper:
+
+"The men shan't come and part us, I am determined.  We want
+none of them; do we?"
+
+Darcy had walked away to another part of the room.  She
+followed him with her eyes, envied everyone to whom he spoke,
+had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee; and
+then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
+
+"A man who has once been refused!  How could I ever be foolish
+enough to expect a renewal of his love?  Is there one among the
+sex, who would not protest against such a weakness as a second
+proposal to the same woman?  There is no indignity so abhorrent
+to their feelings!"
+
+She was a little revived, however, by his bringing back his
+coffee cup himself; and she seized the opportunity of saying:
+
+"Is your sister at Pemberley still?"
+
+"Yes, she will remain there till Christmas."
+
+"And quite alone?  Have all her friends left her?"
+
+"Mrs. Annesley is with her.  The others have been gone on to
+Scarborough, these three weeks."
+
+She could think of nothing more to say; but if he wished to
+converse with her, he might have better success.  He stood by
+her, however, for some minutes, in silence; and, at last, on
+the young lady's whispering to Elizabeth again, he walked away.
+
+When the tea-things were removed, and the card-tables placed,
+the ladies all rose, and Elizabeth was then hoping to be soon
+joined by him, when all her views were overthrown by seeing him
+fall a victim to her mother's rapacity for whist players, and
+in a few moments after seated with the rest of the party.  She
+now lost every expectation of pleasure.  They were confined for
+the evening at different tables, and she had nothing to hope,
+but that his eyes were so often turned towards her side of the
+room, as to make him play as unsuccessfully as herself.
+
+Mrs. Bennet had designed to keep the two Netherfield gentlemen
+to supper; but their carriage was unluckily ordered before any
+of the others, and she had no opportunity of detaining them.
+
+"Well girls," said she, as soon as they were left to themselves,
+"What say you to the day?  I think every thing has passed off
+uncommonly well, I assure you.  The dinner was as well dressed
+as any I ever saw.  The venison was roasted to a turn--and
+everybody said they never saw so fat a haunch.  The soup was
+fifty times better than what we had at the Lucases' last week;
+and even Mr. Darcy acknowledged, that the partridges were
+remarkably well done; and I suppose he has two or three French
+cooks at least.  And, my dear Jane, I never saw you look in
+greater beauty.  Mrs. Long said so too, for I asked her whether
+you did not.  And what do you think she said besides? 'Ah! Mrs.
+Bennet, we shall have her at Netherfield at last.'  She did
+indeed.  I do think Mrs. Long is as good a creature as ever
+lived--and her nieces are very pretty behaved girls, and not
+at all handsome: I like them prodigiously."
+
+Mrs. Bennet, in short, was in very great spirits; she had seen
+enough of Bingley's behaviour to Jane, to be convinced that she
+would get him at last; and her expectations of advantage to her
+family, when in a happy humour, were so far beyond reason, that
+she was quite disappointed at not seeing him there again the
+next day, to make his proposals.
+
+"It has been a very agreeable day," said Miss Bennet to
+Elizabeth.  "The party seemed so well selected, so suitable
+one with the other.  I hope we may often meet again."
+
+Elizabeth smiled.
+
+"Lizzy, you must not do so.  You must not suspect me.  It
+mortifies me.  I assure you that I have now learnt to enjoy
+his conversation as an agreeable and sensible young man,
+without having a wish beyond it.  I am perfectly satisfied,
+from what his manners now are, that he never had any design
+of engaging my affection.  It is only that he is blessed
+with greater sweetness of address, and a stronger desire of
+generally pleasing, than any other man."
+
+"You are very cruel," said her sister, "you will not let me
+smile, and are provoking me to it every moment."
+
+"How hard it is in some cases to be believed!"
+
+"And how impossible in others!"
+
+"But why should you wish to persuade me that I feel more than I
+acknowledge?"
+
+"That is a question which I hardly know how to answer.  We all
+love to instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth
+knowing.  Forgive me; and if you persist in indifference, do
+not make me your confidante."
+
+
+
+Chapter 55
+
+
+A few days after this visit, Mr. Bingley called again, and
+alone.  His friend had left him that morning for London, but
+was to return home in ten days time.  He sat with them above an
+hour, and was in remarkably good spirits.  Mrs. Bennet invited
+him to dine with them; but, with many expressions of concern,
+he confessed himself engaged elsewhere.
+
+"Next time you call," said she, "I hope we shall be more
+lucky."
+
+He should be particularly happy at any time, etc. etc.; and if
+she would give him leave, would take an early opportunity of
+waiting on them.
+
+"Can you come to-morrow?"
+
+Yes, he had no engagement at all for to-morrow; and her
+invitation was accepted with alacrity.
+
+He came, and in such very good time that the ladies were none
+of them dressed.  In ran Mrs. Bennet to her daughter's room, in
+her dressing gown, and with her hair half finished, crying out:
+
+"My dear Jane, make haste and hurry down.  He is come--Mr.
+Bingley is come.  He is, indeed.  Make haste, make haste.
+Here, Sarah, come to Miss Bennet this moment, and help her
+on with her gown.  Never mind Miss Lizzy's hair."
+
+"We will be down as soon as we can," said Jane; "but I dare say
+Kitty is forwarder than either of us, for she went up stairs
+half an hour ago."
+
+"Oh! hang Kitty! what has she to do with it?  Come be quick,
+be quick!  Where is your sash, my dear?"
+
+But when her mother was gone, Jane would not be prevailed on to
+go down without one of her sisters.
+
+The same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again
+in the evening.  After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library,
+as was his custom, and Mary went up stairs to her instrument.
+Two obstacles of the five being thus removed, Mrs. Bennet
+sat looking and winking at Elizabeth and Catherine for a
+considerable time, without making any impression on them.
+Elizabeth would not observe her; and when at last Kitty did,
+she very innocently said, "What is the matter mamma?  What do
+you keep winking at me for?  What am I to do?"
+
+"Nothing child, nothing.  I did not wink at you."  She then sat
+still five minutes longer; but unable to waste such a precious
+occasion, she suddenly got up, and saying to Kitty, "Come here,
+my love, I want to speak to you," took her out of the room.
+Jane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth which spoke her
+distress at such premeditation, and her entreaty that _she_
+would not give in to it.  In a few minutes, Mrs. Bennet
+half-opened the door and called out:
+
+"Lizzy, my dear, I want to speak with you."
+
+Elizabeth was forced to go.
+
+"We may as well leave them by themselves you know;" said her
+mother, as soon as she was in the hall.  "Kitty and I are going
+upstairs to sit in my dressing-room."
+
+Elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother, but
+remained quietly in the hall, till she and Kitty were out of
+sight, then returned into the drawing-room.
+
+Mrs. Bennet's schemes for this day were ineffectual.  Bingley
+was every thing that was charming, except the professed lover
+of her daughter.  His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a
+most agreeable addition to their evening party; and he bore
+with the ill-judged officiousness of the mother, and heard all
+her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance
+particularly grateful to the daughter.
+
+He scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper; and before he
+went away, an engagement was formed, chiefly through his own
+and Mrs. Bennet's means, for his coming next morning to shoot
+with her husband.
+
+After this day, Jane said no more of her indifference.
+Not a word passed between the sisters concerning Bingley;
+but Elizabeth went to bed in the happy belief that all must
+speedily be concluded, unless Mr. Darcy returned within the
+stated time.  Seriously, however, she felt tolerably persuaded
+that all this must have taken place with that gentleman's
+concurrence.
+
+Bingley was punctual to his appointment; and he and Mr. Bennet
+spent the morning together, as had been agreed on.  The latter
+was much more agreeable than his companion expected.  There was
+nothing of presumption or folly in Bingley that could provoke
+his ridicule, or disgust him into silence; and he was more
+communicative, and less eccentric, than the other had ever seen
+him.  Bingley of course returned with him to dinner; and in the
+evening Mrs. Bennet's invention was again at work to get every
+body away from him and her daughter.  Elizabeth, who had a
+letter to write, went into the breakfast room for that purpose
+soon after tea; for as the others were all going to sit down to
+cards, she could not be wanted to counteract her mother's
+schemes.
+
+But on returning to the drawing-room, when her letter was
+finished, she saw, to her infinite surprise, there was
+reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for
+her.  On opening the door, she perceived her sister and
+Bingley standing together over the hearth, as if engaged in
+earnest conversation; and had this led to no suspicion, the
+faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away
+from each other, would have told it all.  Their situation
+was awkward enough; but _her's_ she thought was still worse.
+Not a syllable was uttered by either; and Elizabeth was on
+the point of going away again, when Bingley, who as well as
+the other had sat down, suddenly rose, and whispering a few
+words to her sister, ran out of the room.
+
+Jane could have no reserves from Elizabeth, where confidence
+would give pleasure; and instantly embracing her, acknowledged,
+with the liveliest emotion, that she was the happiest creature
+in the world.
+
+"'Tis too much!" she added, "by far too much.  I do not
+deserve it.  Oh! why is not everybody as happy?"
+
+Elizabeth's congratulations were given with a sincerity, a
+warmth, a delight, which words could but poorly express.  Every
+sentence of kindness was a fresh source of happiness to Jane.
+But she would not allow herself to stay with her sister, or say
+half that remained to be said for the present.
+
+"I must go instantly to my mother;" she cried.  "I would not on
+any account trifle with her affectionate solicitude; or allow
+her to hear it from anyone but myself.  He is gone to my
+father already.  Oh! Lizzy, to know that what I have to relate
+will give such pleasure to all my dear family! how shall I
+bear so much happiness!"
+
+She then hastened away to her mother, who had purposely broken
+up the card party, and was sitting up stairs with Kitty.
+
+Elizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity
+and ease with which an affair was finally settled, that had
+given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.
+
+"And this," said she, "is the end of all his friend's anxious
+circumspection! of all his sister's falsehood and contrivance!
+the happiest, wisest, most reasonable end!"
+
+In a few minutes she was joined by Bingley, whose conference
+with her father had been short and to the purpose.
+
+"Where is your sister?" said he hastily, as he opened the door.
+
+"With my mother up stairs.  She will be down in a moment,
+I dare say."
+
+He then shut the door, and, coming up to her, claimed the good
+wishes and affection of a sister.  Elizabeth honestly and
+heartily expressed her delight in the prospect of their
+relationship.  They shook hands with great cordiality; and
+then, till her sister came down, she had to listen to all he
+had to say of his own happiness, and of Jane's perfections;
+and in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed
+all his expectations of felicity to be rationally founded,
+because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and
+super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity
+of feeling and taste between her and himself.
+
+It was an evening of no common delight to them all; the
+satisfaction of Miss Bennet's mind gave a glow of such sweet
+animation to her face, as made her look handsomer than ever.
+Kitty simpered and smiled, and hoped her turn was coming soon.
+Mrs. Bennet could not give her consent or speak her approbation
+in terms warm enough to satisfy her feelings, though she talked
+to Bingley of nothing else for half an hour; and when Mr.
+Bennet joined them at supper, his voice and manner plainly
+showed how really happy he was.
+
+Not a word, however, passed his lips in allusion to it, till
+their visitor took his leave for the night; but as soon as he
+was gone, he turned to his daughter, and said:
+
+"Jane, I congratulate you.  You will be a very happy woman."
+
+Jane went to him instantly, kissed him, and thanked him for his
+goodness.
+
+"You are a good girl;" he replied, "and I have great pleasure
+in thinking you will be so happily settled.  I have not a doubt
+of your doing very well together.  Your tempers are by no means
+unlike.  You are each of you so complying, that nothing will
+ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat
+you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income."
+
+"I hope not so.  Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters
+would be unpardonable in me."
+
+"Exceed their income!  My dear Mr. Bennet," cried his wife,
+"what are you talking of?  Why, he has four or five thousand a
+year, and very likely more."  Then addressing her daughter,
+"Oh! my dear, dear Jane, I am so happy!  I am sure I shan't
+get a wink of sleep all night.  I knew how it would be.  I
+always said it must be so, at last.  I was sure you could not
+be so beautiful for nothing!  I remember, as soon as ever I saw
+him, when he first came into Hertfordshire last year, I thought
+how likely it was that you should come together.  Oh! he is
+the handsomest young man that ever was seen!"
+
+Wickham, Lydia, were all forgotten.  Jane was beyond competition
+her favourite child.  At that moment, she cared for no other.  Her
+younger sisters soon began to make interest with her for objects
+of happiness which she might in future be able to dispense.
+
+Mary petitioned for the use of the library at Netherfield; and
+Kitty begged very hard for a few balls there every winter.
+
+Bingley, from this time, was of course a daily visitor at
+Longbourn; coming frequently before breakfast, and always
+remaining till after supper; unless when some barbarous
+neighbour, who could not be enough detested, had given him
+an invitation to dinner which he thought himself obliged to
+accept.
+
+Elizabeth had now but little time for conversation with her
+sister; for while he was present, Jane had no attention to
+bestow on anyone else; but she found herself considerably
+useful to both of them in those hours of separation that must
+sometimes occur.  In the absence of Jane, he always attached
+himself to Elizabeth, for the pleasure of talking of her; and
+when Bingley was gone, Jane constantly sought the same means
+of relief.
+
+"He has made me so happy," said she, one evening, "by telling
+me that he was totally ignorant of my being in town last
+spring!  I had not believed it possible."
+
+"I suspected as much," replied Elizabeth.  "But how did he
+account for it?"
+
+"It must have been his sister's doing.  They were certainly no
+friends to his acquaintance with me, which I cannot wonder at,
+since he might have chosen so much more advantageously in many
+respects.  But when they see, as I trust they will, that their
+brother is happy with me, they will learn to be contented, and
+we shall be on good terms again; though we can never be what we
+once were to each other."
+
+"That is the most unforgiving speech," said Elizabeth, "that
+I ever heard you utter.  Good girl!  It would vex me, indeed,
+to see you again the dupe of Miss Bingley's pretended regard."
+
+"Would you believe it, Lizzy, that when he went to town last
+November, he really loved me, and nothing but a persuasion of
+_my_ being indifferent would have prevented his coming down
+again!"
+
+"He made a little mistake to be sure; but it is to the credit
+of his modesty."
+
+This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his
+diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good
+qualities.  Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not
+betrayed the interference of his friend; for, though Jane had
+the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew
+it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him.
+
+"I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!"
+cried Jane.  "Oh! Lizzy, why am I thus singled from my family,
+and blessed above them all!  If I could but see _you_ as happy!
+If there _were_ but such another man for you!"
+
+"If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so
+happy as you.  Till I have your disposition, your goodness,
+I never can have your happiness.  No, no, let me shift for
+myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet
+with another Mr. Collins in time."
+
+The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not be
+long a secret.  Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it to
+Mrs. Phillips, and she ventured, without any permission, to do
+the same by all her neighbours in Meryton.
+
+The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family
+in the world, though only a few weeks before, when Lydia had
+first run away, they had been generally proved to be marked out
+for misfortune.
+
+
+
+Chapter 56
+
+
+One morning, about a week after Bingley's engagement with
+Jane had been formed, as he and the females of the family
+were sitting together in the dining-room, their attention
+was suddenly drawn to the window, by the sound of a carriage;
+and they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn.
+It was too early in the morning for visitors, and besides, the
+equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbours.
+The horses were post; and neither the carriage, nor the livery
+of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them.  As it
+was certain, however, that somebody was coming, Bingley
+instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of
+such an intrusion, and walk away with him into the shrubbery.
+They both set off, and the conjectures of the remaining three
+continued, though with little satisfaction, till the door was
+thrown open and their visitor entered.  It was Lady Catherine
+de Bourgh.
+
+They were of course all intending to be surprised; but their
+astonishment was beyond their expectation; and on the part of
+Mrs. Bennet and Kitty, though she was perfectly unknown to
+them, even inferior to what Elizabeth felt.
+
+She entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious,
+made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation than a slight
+inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a word.
+Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother on her ladyship's
+entrance, though no request of introduction had been made.
+
+Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a
+guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost
+politeness.  After sitting for a moment in silence, she said
+very stiffly to Elizabeth,
+
+"I hope you are well, Miss Bennet.  That lady, I suppose,
+is your mother."
+
+Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.
+
+"And _that_ I suppose is one of your sisters."
+
+"Yes, madam," said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to a Lady
+Catherine.  "She is my youngest girl but one.  My youngest of
+all is lately married, and my eldest is somewhere about the
+grounds, walking with a young man who, I believe, will soon
+become a part of the family."
+
+"You have a very small park here," returned Lady Catherine
+after a short silence.
+
+"It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say;
+but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's."
+
+"This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening,
+in summer; the windows are full west."
+
+Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner,
+and then added:
+
+"May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you
+left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well."
+
+"Yes, very well.  I saw them the night before last."
+
+Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for
+her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for
+her calling.  But no letter appeared, and she was completely
+puzzled.
+
+Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to take
+some refreshment; but Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not
+very politely, declined eating anything; and then, rising up,
+said to Elizabeth,
+
+"Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little
+wilderness on one side of your lawn.  I should be glad to take
+a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company."
+
+"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and show her ladyship about
+the different walks.  I think she will be pleased with the
+hermitage."
+
+Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her
+parasol, attended her noble guest downstairs.  As they passed
+through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the
+dining-parlour and drawing-room, and pronouncing them, after
+a short survey, to be decent looking rooms, walked on.
+
+Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that her
+waiting-woman was in it.  They proceeded in silence along the
+gravel walk that led to the copse; Elizabeth was determined to
+make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more
+than usually insolent and disagreeable.
+
+"How could I ever think her like her nephew?" said she, as she
+looked in her face.
+
+As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began in the
+following manner:--
+
+"You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason
+of my journey hither.  Your own heart, your own conscience,
+must tell you why I come."
+
+Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.
+
+"Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam.  I have not been at all able
+to account for the honour of seeing you here."
+
+"Miss Bennet," replied her ladyship, in an angry tone, "you
+ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with.  But however
+insincere _you_ may choose to be, you shall not find _me_ so.
+My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and
+frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall
+certainly not depart from it.  A report of a most alarming
+nature reached me two days ago.  I was told that not only your
+sister was on the point of being most advantageously married,
+but that you, that Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all
+likelihood, be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my own
+nephew, Mr. Darcy.  Though I _know_ it must be a scandalous
+falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose
+the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting off
+for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you."
+
+"If you believed it impossible to be true," said Elizabeth,
+colouring with astonishment and disdain, "I wonder you took the
+trouble of coming so far.  What could your ladyship propose by
+it?"
+
+"At once to insist upon having such a report universally
+contradicted."
+
+"Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family," said
+Elizabeth coolly, "will be rather a confirmation of it; if,
+indeed, such a report is in existence."
+
+"If!  Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it?  Has it not
+been industriously circulated by yourselves?  Do you not know
+that such a report is spread abroad?"
+
+"I never heard that it was."
+
+"And can you likewise declare, that there is no foundation
+for it?"
+
+"I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship.
+You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer."
+
+"This is not to be borne.  Miss Bennet, I insist on being
+satisfied.  Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of
+marriage?"
+
+"Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible."
+
+"It ought to be so; it must be so, while he retains the use of
+his reason.  But your arts and allurements may, in a moment
+of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself
+and to all his family.  You may have drawn him in."
+
+"If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it."
+
+"Miss Bennet, do you know who I am?  I have not been accustomed
+to such language as this.  I am almost the nearest relation he has
+in the world, and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns."
+
+"But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour
+as this, ever induce me to be explicit."
+
+"Let me be rightly understood.  This match, to which you have
+the presumption to aspire, can never take place.  No, never.
+Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter.  Now what have you to say?"
+
+"Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose
+he will make an offer to me."
+
+Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment, and then replied:
+
+"The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind.  From their
+infancy, they have been intended for each other.  It was the
+favourite wish of _his_ mother, as well as of her's.  While in
+their cradles, we planned the union: and now, at the moment
+when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their
+marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth,
+of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the
+family!  Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends?
+To his tacit engagement with Miss de Bourgh?  Are you lost to
+every feeling of propriety and delicacy?  Have you not heard
+me say that from his earliest hours he was destined for his
+cousin?"
+
+"Yes, and I had heard it before.  But what is that to me?  If
+there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall
+certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and
+aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh.  You both did as much
+as you could in planning the marriage.  Its completion depended
+on others.  If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination
+confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice?
+And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?"
+
+"Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it.
+Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed
+by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the
+inclinations of all.  You will be censured, slighted, and
+despised, by everyone connected with him.  Your alliance will
+be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any
+of us."
+
+"These are heavy misfortunes," replied Elizabeth.  "But the
+wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of
+happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she
+could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine."
+
+"Obstinate, headstrong girl!  I am ashamed of you!  Is this
+your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring?  Is
+nothing due to me on that score?  Let us sit down.  You are to
+understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined
+resolution of carrying my purpose; nor will I be dissuaded
+from it.  I have not been used to submit to any person's whims.
+I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment."
+
+"_That_ will make your ladyship's situation at present more
+pitiable; but it will have no effect on me."
+
+"I will not be interrupted.  Hear me in silence.  My daughter
+and my nephew are formed for each other.  They are descended,
+on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the
+father's, from respectable, honourable, and ancient--though
+untitled--families.  Their fortune on both sides is splendid.
+They are destined for each other by the voice of every member
+of their respective houses; and what is to divide them?
+The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family,
+connections, or fortune.  Is this to be endured!  But it
+must not, shall not be.  If you were sensible of your own
+good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you
+have been brought up."
+
+"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as
+quitting that sphere.  He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's
+daughter; so far we are equal."
+
+"True.  You _are_ a gentleman's daughter.  But who was your
+mother?  Who are your uncles and aunts?  Do not imagine me
+ignorant of their condition."
+
+"Whatever my connections may be," said Elizabeth, "if your
+nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to _you_."
+
+"Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?"
+
+Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging
+Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but
+say, after a moment's deliberation:
+
+"I am not."
+
+Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
+
+"And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?"
+
+"I will make no promise of the kind."
+
+"Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished.  I expected to find a
+more reasonable young woman.  But do not deceive yourself into
+a belief that I will ever recede.  I shall not go away till you
+have given me the assurance I require."
+
+"And I certainly _never_ shall give it.  I am not to be intimidated
+into anything so wholly unreasonable.  Your ladyship wants
+Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the
+wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable?
+Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept
+his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin?  Allow me to
+say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have
+supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous
+as the application was ill-judged.  You have widely mistaken my
+character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions
+as these.  How far your nephew might approve of your interference
+in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right
+to concern yourself in mine.  I must beg, therefore, to be
+importuned no farther on the subject."
+
+"Not so hasty, if you please.  I have by no means done.
+To all the objections I have already urged, I have still
+another to add.  I am no stranger to the particulars of your
+youngest sister's infamous elopement.  I know it all; that
+the young man's marrying her was a patched-up business, at the
+expence of your father and uncles.  And is such a girl to be
+my nephew's sister?  Is her husband, is the son of his late
+father's steward, to be his brother?  Heaven and earth!--of
+what are you thinking?  Are the shades of Pemberley to be
+thus polluted?"
+
+"You can now have nothing further to say," she resentfully
+answered.  "You have insulted me in every possible method.
+I must beg to return to the house."
+
+And she rose as she spoke.  Lady Catherine rose also, and they
+turned back.  Her ladyship was highly incensed.
+
+"You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my
+nephew!  Unfeeling, selfish girl!  Do you not consider that
+a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of
+everybody?"
+
+"Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say.  You know my
+sentiments."
+
+"You are then resolved to have him?"
+
+"I have said no such thing.  I am only resolved to act in that
+manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness,
+without reference to _you_, or to any person so wholly unconnected
+with me."
+
+"It is well.  You refuse, then, to oblige me.  You refuse to
+obey the claims of duty, honour, and gratitude.  You are
+determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends,
+and make him the contempt of the world."
+
+"Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude," replied Elizabeth,
+"have any possible claim on me, in the present instance.  No
+principle of either would be violated by my marriage with
+Mr. Darcy.  And with regard to the resentment of his family, or
+the indignation of the world, if the former _were_ excited by his
+marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern--and
+the world in general would have too much sense to join in the
+scorn."
+
+"And this is your real opinion!  This is your final resolve!
+Very well.  I shall now know how to act.  Do not imagine, Miss
+Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified.  I came to
+try you.  I hoped to find you reasonable; but, depend upon it,
+I will carry my point."
+
+In this manner Lady Catherine talked on, till they were at the
+door of the carriage, when, turning hastily round, she added,
+"I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet.  I send no compliments to
+your mother.  You deserve no such attention.  I am most
+seriously displeased."
+
+Elizabeth made no answer; and without attempting to persuade
+her ladyship to return into the house, walked quietly into it
+herself.  She heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded
+up stairs.  Her mother impatiently met her at the door of the
+dressing-room, to ask why Lady Catherine would not come in
+again and rest herself.
+
+"She did not choose it," said her daughter, "she would go."
+
+"She is a very fine-looking woman! and her calling here was
+prodigiously civil! for she only came, I suppose, to tell us
+the Collinses were well.  She is on her road somewhere, I dare
+say, and so, passing through Meryton, thought she might as well
+call on you.  I suppose she had nothing particular to say to
+you, Lizzy?"
+
+Elizabeth was forced to give into a little falsehood here;
+for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was
+impossible.
+
+
+
+Chapter 57
+
+
+The discomposure of spirits which this extraordinary visit
+threw Elizabeth into, could not be easily overcome; nor
+could she, for many hours, learn to think of it less than
+incessantly.  Lady Catherine, it appeared, had actually taken
+the trouble of this journey from Rosings, for the sole purpose
+of breaking off her supposed engagement with Mr. Darcy.  It was
+a rational scheme, to be sure!  but from what the report of
+their engagement could originate, Elizabeth was at a loss to
+imagine; till she recollected that _his_ being the intimate
+friend of Bingley, and _her_ being the sister of Jane, was
+enough, at a time when the expectation of one wedding made
+everybody eager for another, to supply the idea.  She had not
+herself forgotten to feel that the marriage of her sister must
+bring them more frequently together.  And her neighbours at
+Lucas Lodge, therefore (for through their communication with
+the Collinses, the report, she concluded, had reached lady
+Catherine), had only set that down as almost certain and
+immediate, which she had looked forward to as possible at
+some future time.
+
+In revolving Lady Catherine's expressions, however, she could
+not help feeling some uneasiness as to the possible consequence
+of her persisting in this interference.  From what she had said
+of her resolution to prevent their marriage, it occurred to
+Elizabeth that she must meditate an application to her nephew;
+and how _he_ might take a similar representation of the evils
+attached to a connection with her, she dared not pronounce.
+She knew not the exact degree of his affection for his aunt, or
+his dependence on her judgment, but it was natural to suppose
+that he thought much higher of her ladyship than _she_ could
+do; and it was certain that, in enumerating the miseries of a
+marriage with _one_, whose immediate connections were so unequal
+to his own, his aunt would address him on his weakest side.
+With his notions of dignity, he would probably feel that the
+arguments, which to Elizabeth had appeared weak and ridiculous,
+contained much good sense and solid reasoning.
+
+If he had been wavering before as to what he should do, which
+had often seemed likely, the advice and entreaty of so near a
+relation might settle every doubt, and determine him at once to
+be as happy as dignity unblemished could make him.  In that
+case he would return no more.  Lady Catherine might see him in
+her way through town; and his engagement to Bingley of coming
+again to Netherfield must give way.
+
+"If, therefore, an excuse for not keeping his promise should
+come to his friend within a few days," she added, "I shall
+know how to understand it.  I shall then give over every
+expectation, every wish of his constancy.  If he is satisfied
+with only regretting me, when he might have obtained my
+affections and hand, I shall soon cease to regret him at all."
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+The surprise of the rest of the family, on hearing who their
+visitor had been, was very great; but they obligingly satisfied
+it, with the same kind of supposition which had appeased
+Mrs. Bennet's curiosity; and Elizabeth was spared from much
+teasing on the subject.
+
+The next morning, as she was going downstairs, she was met by
+her father, who came out of his library with a letter in his
+hand.
+
+"Lizzy," said he, "I was going to look for you; come into my
+room."
+
+She followed him thither; and her curiosity to know what he
+had to tell her was heightened by the supposition of its being
+in some manner connected with the letter he held.  It suddenly
+struck her that it might be from Lady Catherine; and she
+anticipated with dismay all the consequent explanations.
+
+She followed her father to the fire place, and they both sat
+down.  He then said,
+
+"I have received a letter this morning that has astonished me
+exceedingly.  As it principally concerns yourself, you ought
+to know its contents.  I did not know before, that I had two
+daughters on the brink of matrimony.  Let me congratulate you
+on a very important conquest."
+
+The colour now rushed into Elizabeth's cheeks in the instantaneous
+conviction of its being a letter from the nephew, instead of the
+aunt; and she was undetermined whether most to be pleased that
+he explained himself at all, or offended that his letter was not
+rather addressed to herself; when her father continued:
+
+"You look conscious.  Young ladies have great penetration in
+such matters as these; but I think I may defy even _your_
+sagacity, to discover the name of your admirer.  This letter
+is from Mr. Collins."
+
+"From Mr. Collins! and what can _he_ have to say?"
+
+"Something very much to the purpose of course.  He begins with
+congratulations on the approaching nuptials of my eldest daughter,
+of which, it seems, he has been told by some of the good-natured,
+gossiping Lucases.  I shall not sport with your impatience, by
+reading what he says on that point.  What relates to yourself, is
+as follows:  'Having thus offered you the sincere congratulations
+of Mrs. Collins and myself on this happy event, let me now add
+a short hint on the subject of another; of which we have been
+advertised by the same authority.  Your daughter Elizabeth, it is
+presumed, will not long bear the name of Bennet, after her elder
+sister has resigned it, and the chosen partner of her fate may be
+reasonably looked up to as one of the most illustrious personages
+in this land.'
+
+"Can you possibly guess, Lizzy, who is meant by this?"  'This
+young gentleman is blessed, in a peculiar way, with every thing
+the heart of mortal can most desire,--splendid property,
+noble kindred, and extensive patronage.  Yet in spite of all
+these temptations, let me warn my cousin Elizabeth, and
+yourself, of what evils you may incur by a precipitate closure
+with this gentleman's proposals, which, of course, you will be
+inclined to take immediate advantage of.'
+
+"Have you any idea, Lizzy, who this gentleman is?  But now it
+comes out:
+
+"'My motive for cautioning you is as follows.  We have reason to
+imagine that his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, does not look
+on the match with a friendly eye.'
+
+"_Mr. Darcy_, you see, is the man!  Now, Lizzy, I think I
+_have_ surprised you.  Could he, or the Lucases, have pitched
+on any man within the circle of our acquaintance, whose name
+would have given the lie more effectually to what they related?
+Mr. Darcy, who never looks at any woman but to see a blemish,
+and who probably never looked at you in his life!  It is
+admirable!"
+
+Elizabeth tried to join in her father's pleasantry, but could
+only force one most reluctant smile.  Never had his wit been
+directed in a manner so little agreeable to her.
+
+"Are you not diverted?"
+
+"Oh! yes.  Pray read on."
+
+"'After mentioning the likelihood of this marriage to her ladyship
+last night, she immediately, with her usual condescension,
+expressed what she felt on the occasion; when it become apparent,
+that on the score of some family objections on the part of my
+cousin, she would never give her consent to what she termed so
+disgraceful a match.  I thought it my duty to give the speediest
+intelligence of this to my cousin, that she and her noble
+admirer may be aware of what they are about, and not run
+hastily into a marriage which has not been properly sanctioned.'
+Mr. Collins moreover adds, 'I am truly rejoiced that my cousin
+Lydia's sad business has been so well hushed up, and am only
+concerned that their living together before the marriage took
+place should be so generally known.  I must not, however,
+neglect the duties of my station, or refrain from declaring my
+amazement at hearing that you received the young couple into
+your house as soon as they were married.  It was an encouragement
+of vice; and had I been the rector of Longbourn, I should very
+strenuously have opposed it.  You ought certainly to forgive them,
+as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow
+their names to be mentioned in your hearing.'  That is his notion
+of Christian forgiveness!  The rest of his letter is only about
+his dear Charlotte's situation, and his expectation of a young
+olive-branch.  But, Lizzy, you look as if you did not enjoy it.
+You are not going to be _missish_, I hope, and pretend to be
+affronted at an idle report.  For what do we live, but to make
+sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
+
+"Oh!" cried Elizabeth, "I am excessively diverted.  But it is
+so strange!"
+
+"Yes--_that_ is what makes it amusing.  Had they fixed on any other
+man it would have been nothing; but _his_ perfect indifference,
+and _your_ pointed dislike, make it so delightfully absurd!  Much
+as I abominate writing, I would not give up Mr. Collins's
+correspondence for any consideration.  Nay, when I read a letter
+of his, I cannot help giving him the preference even over Wickham,
+much as I value the impudence and hypocrisy of my son-in-law.
+And pray, Lizzy, what said Lady Catherine about this report?
+Did she call to refuse her consent?"
+
+To this question his daughter replied only with a laugh; and
+as it had been asked without the least suspicion, she was not
+distressed by his repeating it.  Elizabeth had never been
+more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not.
+It was necessary to laugh, when she would rather have cried.
+Her father had most cruelly mortified her, by what he said of
+Mr. Darcy's indifference, and she could do nothing but wonder
+at such a want of penetration, or fear that perhaps, instead
+of his seeing too little, she might have fancied too much.
+
+
+
+Chapter 58
+
+
+Instead of receiving any such letter of excuse from his friend,
+as Elizabeth half expected Mr. Bingley to do, he was able to
+bring Darcy with him to Longbourn before many days had passed
+after Lady Catherine's visit.  The gentlemen arrived early;
+and, before Mrs. Bennet had time to tell him of their having
+seen his aunt, of which her daughter sat in momentary dread,
+Bingley, who wanted to be alone with Jane, proposed their
+all walking out.  It was agreed to.  Mrs. Bennet was not in
+the habit of walking; Mary could never spare time; but the
+remaining five set off together.  Bingley and Jane, however,
+soon allowed the others to outstrip them.  They lagged behind,
+while Elizabeth, Kitty, and Darcy were to entertain each other.
+Very little was said by either; Kitty was too much afraid of
+him to talk; Elizabeth was secretly forming a desperate
+resolution; and perhaps he might be doing the same.
+
+They walked towards the Lucases, because Kitty wished to call
+upon Maria; and as Elizabeth saw no occasion for making it a
+general concern, when Kitty left them she went boldly on with
+him alone.  Now was the moment for her resolution to be
+executed, and, while her courage was high, she immediately
+said:
+
+"Mr. Darcy, I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of
+giving relief to my own feelings, care not how much I may be
+wounding your's.  I can no longer help thanking you for your
+unexampled kindness to my poor sister.  Ever since I have
+known it, I have been most anxious to acknowledge to you how
+gratefully I feel it.  Were it known to the rest of my family,
+I should not have merely my own gratitude to express."
+
+"I am sorry, exceedingly sorry," replied Darcy, in a tone of
+surprise and emotion, "that you have ever been informed of what
+may, in a mistaken light, have given you uneasiness.  I did not
+think Mrs. Gardiner was so little to be trusted."
+
+"You must not blame my aunt.  Lydia's thoughtlessness first
+betrayed to me that you had been concerned in the matter; and,
+of course, I could not rest till I knew the particulars.  Let
+me thank you again and again, in the name of all my family,
+for that generous compassion which induced you to take so much
+trouble, and bear so many mortifications, for the sake of
+discovering them."
+
+"If you _will_ thank me," he replied, "let it be for yourself
+alone.  That the wish of giving happiness to you might add
+force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not
+attempt to deny.  But your _family_ owe me nothing.  Much as
+I respect them, I believe I thought only of _you_."
+
+Elizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word.  After a
+short pause, her companion added, "You are too generous to
+trifle with me.  If your feelings are still what they were
+last April, tell me so at once.  _My_ affections and wishes
+are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this
+subject for ever."
+
+Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and
+anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and
+immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand
+that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since
+the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with
+gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.  The happiness
+which this reply produced, was such as he had probably never
+felt before; and he expressed himself on the occasion as
+sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be
+supposed to do.  Had Elizabeth been able to encounter his
+eye, she might have seen how well the expression of heartfelt
+delight, diffused over his face, became him; but, though she
+could not look, she could listen, and he told her of feelings,
+which, in proving of what importance she was to him, made his
+affection every moment more valuable.
+
+They walked on, without knowing in what direction.  There was
+too much to be thought, and felt, and said, for attention to
+any other objects.  She soon learnt that they were indebted
+for their present good understanding to the efforts of his
+aunt, who did call on him in her return through London,
+and there relate her journey to Longbourn, its motive, and
+the substance of her conversation with Elizabeth; dwelling
+emphatically on every expression of the latter which, in her
+ladyship's apprehension, peculiarly denoted her perverseness
+and assurance; in the belief that such a relation must assist
+her endeavours to obtain that promise from her nephew which
+she had refused to give.  But, unluckily for her ladyship,
+its effect had been exactly contrariwise.
+
+"It taught me to hope," said he, "as I had scarcely ever allowed
+myself to hope before.  I knew enough of your disposition to
+be certain that, had you been absolutely, irrevocably decided
+against me, you would have acknowledged it to Lady Catherine,
+frankly and openly."
+
+Elizabeth coloured and laughed as she replied, "Yes, you know
+enough of my frankness to believe me capable of _that_.
+After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no
+scruple in abusing you to all your relations."
+
+"What did you say of me, that I did not deserve?  For, though
+your accusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises,
+my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest
+reproof.  It was unpardonable.  I cannot think of it without
+abhorrence."
+
+"We will not quarrel for the greater share of blame annexed to
+that evening," said Elizabeth.  "The conduct of neither, if
+strictly examined, will be irreproachable; but since then, we
+have both, I hope, improved in civility."
+
+"I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself.  The recollection
+of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions
+during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months,
+inexpressibly painful to me.  Your reproof, so well applied, I
+shall never forget: 'had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike
+manner.' Those were your words.  You know not, you can
+scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me;--though it was
+some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow
+their justice."
+
+"I was certainly very far from expecting them to make so strong
+an impression.  I had not the smallest idea of their being ever
+felt in such a way."
+
+"I can easily believe it.  You thought me then devoid of
+every proper feeling, I am sure you did.  The turn of your
+countenance I shall never forget, as you said that I could
+not have addressed you in any possible way that would induce
+you to accept me."
+
+"Oh! do not repeat what I then said.  These recollections
+will not do at all.  I assure you that I have long been most
+heartily ashamed of it."
+
+Darcy mentioned his letter.  "Did it," said he, "did it soon
+make you think better of me?  Did you, on reading it, give any
+credit to its contents?"
+
+She explained what its effect on her had been, and how gradually
+all her former prejudices had been removed.
+
+"I knew," said he, "that what I wrote must give you pain,
+but it was necessary.  I hope you have destroyed the letter.
+There was one part especially, the opening of it, which I
+should dread your having the power of reading again.  I can
+remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me."
+
+"The letter shall certainly be burnt, if you believe it
+essential to the preservation of my regard; but, though we have
+both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable, they
+are not, I hope, quite so easily changed as that implies."
+
+"When I wrote that letter," replied Darcy, "I believed myself
+perfectly calm and cool, but I am since convinced that it was
+written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit."
+
+"The letter, perhaps, began in bitterness, but it did not end
+so.  The adieu is charity itself.  But think no more of the
+letter.  The feelings of the person who wrote, and the person
+who received it, are now so widely different from what they
+were then, that every unpleasant circumstance attending it
+ought to be forgotten.  You must learn some of my philosophy.
+Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."
+
+"I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind.
+Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that
+the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but,
+what is much better, of innocence.  But with me, it is not
+so.  Painful recollections will intrude which cannot, which
+ought not, to be repelled.  I have been a selfish being all my
+life, in practice, though not in principle.  As a child I was
+taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my
+temper.  I was given good principles, but left to follow them
+in pride and conceit.  Unfortunately an only son (for many
+years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though
+good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was
+benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me
+to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own
+family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world;
+to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth
+compared with my own.  Such I was, from eight to eight and
+twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest,
+loveliest Elizabeth!  What do I not owe you!  You taught me a
+lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous.  By you,
+I was properly humbled.  I came to you without a doubt of my
+reception.  You showed me how insufficient were all my
+pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased."
+
+"Had you then persuaded yourself that I should?"
+
+"Indeed I had.  What will you think of my vanity?  I believed
+you to be wishing, expecting my addresses."
+
+"My manners must have been in fault, but not intentionally,
+I assure you.  I never meant to deceive you, but my spirits
+might often lead me wrong.  How you must have hated me after
+_that_ evening?"
+
+"Hate you!  I was angry perhaps at first, but my anger soon
+began to take a proper direction."
+
+"I am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me, when we
+met at Pemberley.  You blamed me for coming?"
+
+"No indeed; I felt nothing but surprise."
+
+"Your surprise could not be greater than _mine_ in being
+noticed by you.  My conscience told me that I deserved no
+extraordinary politeness, and I confess that I did not expect
+to receive _more_ than my due."
+
+"My object then," replied Darcy, "was to show you, by every
+civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the
+past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your
+ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been
+attended to.  How soon any other wishes introduced themselves
+I can hardly tell, but I believe in about half an hour after
+I had seen you."
+
+He then told her of Georgiana's delight in her acquaintance,
+and of her disappointment at its sudden interruption; which
+naturally leading to the cause of that interruption, she soon
+learnt that his resolution of following her from Derbyshire in
+quest of her sister had been formed before he quitted the inn,
+and that his gravity and thoughtfulness there had arisen from
+no other struggles than what such a purpose must comprehend.
+
+She expressed her gratitude again, but it was too painful a
+subject to each, to be dwelt on farther.
+
+After walking several miles in a leisurely manner, and too busy
+to know anything about it, they found at last, on examining
+their watches, that it was time to be at home.
+
+"What could become of Mr. Bingley and Jane!" was a wonder
+which introduced the discussion of their affairs.  Darcy
+was delighted with their engagement; his friend had given
+him the earliest information of it.
+
+"I must ask whether you were surprised?" said Elizabeth.
+
+"Not at all.  When I went away, I felt that it would soon
+happen."
+
+"That is to say, you had given your permission.  I guessed as
+much."  And though he exclaimed at the term, she found that it
+had been pretty much the case.
+
+"On the evening before my going to London," said he, "I made a
+confession to him, which I believe I ought to have made long
+ago.  I told him of all that had occurred to make my former
+interference in his affairs absurd and impertinent.  His
+surprise was great.  He had never had the slightest suspicion.
+I told him, moreover, that I believed myself mistaken in
+supposing, as I had done, that your sister was indifferent to
+him; and as I could easily perceive that his attachment to her
+was unabated, I felt no doubt of their happiness together."
+
+Elizabeth could not help smiling at his easy manner of
+directing his friend.
+
+"Did you speak from your own observation," said she, "when
+you told him that my sister loved him, or merely from my
+information last spring?"
+
+"From the former.  I had narrowly observed her during the two
+visits which I had lately made here; and I was convinced of her
+affection."
+
+"And your assurance of it, I suppose, carried immediate
+conviction to him."
+
+"It did.  Bingley is most unaffectedly modest.  His diffidence
+had prevented his depending on his own judgment in so anxious
+a case, but his reliance on mine made every thing easy.  I
+was obliged to confess one thing, which for a time, and not
+unjustly, offended him.  I could not allow myself to conceal
+that your sister had been in town three months last winter,
+that I had known it, and purposely kept it from him.  He was
+angry.  But his anger, I am persuaded, lasted no longer than
+he remained in any doubt of your sister's sentiments.  He has
+heartily forgiven me now."
+
+Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most
+delightful friend; so easily guided that his worth was
+invaluable; but she checked herself.  She remembered that he
+had yet to learn to be laughed at, and it was rather too early
+to begin.  In anticipating the happiness of Bingley, which of
+course was to be inferior only to his own, he continued the
+conversation till they reached the house.  In the hall they
+parted.
+
+
+
+Chapter 59
+
+
+"My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?" was a
+question which Elizabeth received from Jane as soon as she
+entered their room, and from all the others when they sat down
+to table.  She had only to say in reply, that they had wandered
+about, till she was beyond her own knowledge.  She coloured as
+she spoke; but neither that, nor anything else, awakened a
+suspicion of the truth.
+
+The evening passed quietly, unmarked by anything extraordinary.
+The acknowledged lovers talked and laughed, the unacknowledged
+were silent.  Darcy was not of a disposition in which happiness
+overflows in mirth; and Elizabeth, agitated and confused, rather
+_knew_ that she was happy than _felt_ herself to be so; for, besides
+the immediate embarrassment, there were other evils before her.
+She anticipated what would be felt in the family when her
+situation became known; she was aware that no one liked him but
+Jane; and even feared that with the others it was a dislike
+which not all his fortune and consequence might do away.
+
+At night she opened her heart to Jane.  Though suspicion was
+very far from Miss Bennet's general habits, she was absolutely
+incredulous here.
+
+"You are joking, Lizzy.  This cannot be!--engaged to Mr. Darcy!
+No, no, you shall not deceive me.  I know it to be impossible."
+
+"This is a wretched beginning indeed!  My sole dependence was
+on you; and I am sure nobody else will believe me, if you do
+not.  Yet, indeed, I am in earnest.  I speak nothing but the
+truth.  He still loves me, and we are engaged."
+
+Jane looked at her doubtingly.  "Oh, Lizzy! it cannot be.
+I know how much you dislike him."
+
+"You know nothing of the matter.  _That_ is all to be forgot.
+Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now.  But in
+such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.  This is
+the last time I shall ever remember it myself."
+
+Miss Bennet still looked all amazement.  Elizabeth again, and
+more seriously assured her of its truth.
+
+"Good Heaven! can it be really so!  Yet now I must believe
+you," cried Jane.  "My dear, dear Lizzy, I would--I do
+congratulate you--but are you certain? forgive the question
+--are you quite certain that you can be happy with him?"
+
+"There can be no doubt of that.  It is settled between us
+already, that we are to be the happiest couple in the world.
+But are you pleased, Jane?  Shall you like to have such a
+brother?"
+
+"Very, very much.  Nothing could give either Bingley or
+myself more delight.  But we considered it, we talked of it as
+impossible.  And do you really love him quite well enough?
+Oh, Lizzy! do anything rather than marry without affection.
+Are you quite sure that you feel what you ought to do?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  You will only think I feel _more_ than I ought to
+do, when I tell you all."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I must confess that I love him better than I do Bingley.
+I am afraid you will be angry."
+
+"My dearest sister, now _be_ serious.  I want to talk very
+seriously.  Let me know every thing that I am to know, without
+delay.  Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"
+
+"It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it
+began.  But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his
+beautiful grounds at Pemberley."
+
+Another entreaty that she would be serious, however, produced
+the desired effect; and she soon satisfied Jane by her solemn
+assurances of attachment.  When convinced on that article, Miss
+Bennet had nothing further to wish.
+
+"Now I am quite happy," said she, "for you will be as happy as
+myself.  I always had a value for him.  Were it for nothing but
+his love of you, I must always have esteemed him; but now, as
+Bingley's friend and your husband, there can be only Bingley
+and yourself more dear to me.  But Lizzy, you have been very
+sly, very reserved with me.  How little did you tell me of what
+passed at Pemberley and Lambton!  I owe all that I know of it
+to another, not to you."
+
+Elizabeth told her the motives of her secrecy.  She had been
+unwilling to mention Bingley; and the unsettled state of her
+own feelings had made her equally avoid the name of his friend.
+But now she would no longer conceal from her his share in
+Lydia's marriage.  All was acknowledged, and half the night
+spent in conversation.
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Mrs. Bennet, as she stood at a window
+the next morning, "if that disagreeable Mr. Darcy is not coming
+here again with our dear Bingley!  What can he mean by being so
+tiresome as to be always coming here?  I had no notion but he
+would go a-shooting, or something or other, and not disturb us
+with his company.  What shall we do with him?  Lizzy, you must
+walk out with him again, that he may not be in Bingley's way."
+
+Elizabeth could hardly help laughing at so convenient a
+proposal; yet was really vexed that her mother should be
+always giving him such an epithet.
+
+As soon as they entered, Bingley looked at her so expressively,
+and shook hands with such warmth, as left no doubt of his good
+information; and he soon afterwards said aloud, "Mrs. Bennet,
+have you no more lanes hereabouts in which Lizzy may lose her
+way again to-day?"
+
+"I advise Mr. Darcy, and Lizzy, and Kitty," said Mrs. Bennet,
+"to walk to Oakham Mount this morning.  It is a nice long walk,
+and Mr. Darcy has never seen the view."
+
+"It may do very well for the others," replied Mr. Bingley; "but
+I am sure it will be too much for Kitty.  Won't it, Kitty?"
+Kitty owned that she had rather stay at home.  Darcy professed
+a great curiosity to see the view from the Mount, and Elizabeth
+silently consented.  As she went up stairs to get ready,
+Mrs. Bennet followed her, saying:
+
+"I am quite sorry, Lizzy, that you should be forced to have
+that disagreeable man all to yourself.  But I hope you will not
+mind it: it is all for Jane's sake, you know; and there is no
+occasion for talking to him, except just now and then.  So, do
+not put yourself to inconvenience."
+
+During their walk, it was resolved that Mr. Bennet's consent
+should be asked in the course of the evening.  Elizabeth
+reserved to herself the application for her mother's.  She
+could not determine how her mother would take it; sometimes
+doubting whether all his wealth and grandeur would be enough
+to overcome her abhorrence of the man.  But whether she were
+violently set against the match, or violently delighted with
+it, it was certain that her manner would be equally ill adapted
+to do credit to her sense; and she could no more bear that
+Mr. Darcy should hear the first raptures of her joy, than the
+first vehemence of her disapprobation.
+
+                          * * * * *
+
+In the evening, soon after Mr. Bennet withdrew to the library,
+she saw Mr. Darcy rise also and follow him, and her agitation
+on seeing it was extreme.  She did not fear her father's
+opposition, but he was going to be made unhappy; and that it
+should be through her means--that _she_, his favourite child,
+should be distressing him by her choice, should be filling him
+with fears and regrets in disposing of her--was a wretched
+reflection, and she sat in misery till Mr. Darcy appeared
+again, when, looking at him, she was a little relieved by his
+smile.  In a few minutes he approached the table where she was
+sitting with Kitty; and, while pretending to admire her work
+said in a whisper, "Go to your father, he wants you in the
+library."  She was gone directly.
+
+Her father was walking about the room, looking grave and
+anxious.  "Lizzy," said he, "what are you doing?  Are you out
+of your senses, to be accepting this man?  Have not you always
+hated him?"
+
+How earnestly did she then wish that her former opinions had
+been more reasonable, her expressions more moderate!  It would
+have spared her from explanations and professions which it was
+exceedingly awkward to give; but they were now necessary, and
+she assured him, with some confusion, of her attachment to
+Mr. Darcy.
+
+"Or, in other words, you are determined to have him.  He is
+rich, to be sure, and you may have more fine clothes and fine
+carriages than Jane.  But will they make you happy?"
+
+"Have you any other objection," said Elizabeth, "than your
+belief of my indifference?"
+
+"None at all.  We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort
+of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him."
+
+"I do, I do like him," she replied, with tears in her eyes,
+"I love him.  Indeed he has no improper pride.  He is perfectly
+amiable.  You do not know what he really is; then pray do not
+pain me by speaking of him in such terms."
+
+"Lizzy," said her father, "I have given him my consent.
+He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare
+refuse anything, which he condescended to ask.  I now give it
+to _you_, if you are resolved on having him.  But let me advise
+you to think better of it.  I know your disposition, Lizzy.
+I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless
+you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him
+as a superior.  Your lively talents would place you in the
+greatest danger in an unequal marriage.  You could scarcely
+escape discredit and misery.  My child, let me not have the
+grief of seeing _you_ unable to respect your partner in life.
+You know not what you are about."
+
+Elizabeth, still more affected, was earnest and solemn in her
+reply; and at length, by repeated assurances that Mr. Darcy was
+really the object of her choice, by explaining the gradual
+change which her estimation of him had undergone, relating her
+absolute certainty that his affection was not the work of a
+day, but had stood the test of many months' suspense, and
+enumerating with energy all his good qualities, she did conquer
+her father's incredulity, and reconcile him to the match.
+
+"Well, my dear," said he, when she ceased speaking, "I have no
+more to say.  If this be the case, he deserves you.  I could
+not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy."
+
+To complete the favourable impression, she then told him what
+Mr. Darcy had voluntarily done for Lydia.  He heard her with
+astonishment.
+
+"This is an evening of wonders, indeed!  And so, Darcy did
+every thing; made up the match, gave the money, paid the
+fellow's debts, and got him his commission!  So much the
+better.  It will save me a world of trouble and economy.
+Had it been your uncle's doing, I must and _would_ have paid
+him; but these violent young lovers carry every thing their
+own way.  I shall offer to pay him to-morrow; he will rant
+and storm about his love for you, and there will be an end
+of the matter."
+
+He then recollected her embarrassment a few days before, on his
+reading Mr. Collins's letter; and after laughing at her some
+time, allowed her at last to go--saying, as she quitted the
+room, "If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in,
+for I am quite at leisure."
+
+Elizabeth's mind was now relieved from a very heavy weight;
+and, after half an hour's quiet reflection in her own room,
+she was able to join the others with tolerable composure.
+Every thing was too recent for gaiety, but the evening passed
+tranquilly away; there was no longer anything material to
+be dreaded, and the comfort of ease and familiarity would
+come in time.
+
+When her mother went up to her dressing-room at night, she
+followed her, and made the important communication.  Its effect
+was most extraordinary; for on first hearing it, Mrs. Bennet
+sat quite still, and unable to utter a syllable.  Nor was it
+under many, many minutes that she could comprehend what she
+heard; though not in general backward to credit what was for
+the advantage of her family, or that came in the shape of a
+lover to any of them.  She began at length to recover, to
+fidget about in her chair, get up, sit down again, wonder,
+and bless herself.
+
+"Good gracious!  Lord bless me!  only think!  dear me!
+Mr. Darcy!  Who would have thought it!  And is it really true?
+Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be!
+What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have!
+Jane's is nothing to it--nothing at all.  I am so pleased--so
+happy.  Such a charming man!--so handsome! so tall!--Oh, my
+dear Lizzy! pray apologise for my having disliked him so much
+before.  I hope he will overlook it.  Dear, dear Lizzy.  A house
+in town!  Every thing that is charming!  Three daughters
+married!  Ten thousand a year!  Oh, Lord!  What will become of
+me.  I shall go distracted."
+
+This was enough to prove that her approbation need not be
+doubted: and Elizabeth, rejoicing that such an effusion was
+heard only by herself, soon went away.  But before she had
+been three minutes in her own room, her mother followed her.
+
+"My dearest child," she cried, "I can think of nothing else!
+Ten thousand a year, and very likely more!  'Tis as good as a
+Lord!  And a special licence.  You must and shall be married
+by a special licence.  But my dearest love, tell me what dish
+Mr. Darcy is particularly fond of, that I may have it to-morrow."
+
+This was a sad omen of what her mother's behaviour to the
+gentleman himself might be; and Elizabeth found that, though in
+the certain possession of his warmest affection, and secure of
+her relations' consent, there was still something to be wished
+for.  But the morrow passed off much better than she expected;
+for Mrs. Bennet luckily stood in such awe of her intended
+son-in-law that she ventured not to speak to him, unless it was
+in her power to offer him any attention, or mark her deference
+for his opinion.
+
+Elizabeth had the satisfaction of seeing her father taking
+pains to get acquainted with him; and Mr. Bennet soon assured
+her that he was rising every hour in his esteem.
+
+"I admire all my three sons-in-law highly," said he.  "Wickham,
+perhaps, is my favourite; but I think I shall like _your_ husband
+quite as well as Jane's."
+
+
+
+Chapter 60
+
+
+Elizabeth's spirits soon rising to playfulness again, she
+wanted Mr. Darcy to account for his having ever fallen in love
+with her.  "How could you begin?" said she.  "I can comprehend
+your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning;
+but what could set you off in the first place?"
+
+"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the
+words, which laid the foundation.  It is too long ago.  I was
+in the middle before I knew that I _had_ begun."
+
+"My beauty you had early withstood, and as for my manners--my
+behaviour to _you_ was at least always bordering on the uncivil,
+and I never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain
+than not.  Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?"
+
+"For the liveliness of your mind, I did."
+
+"You may as well call it impertinence at once.  It was very
+little less.  The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of
+deference, of officious attention.  You were disgusted with
+the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking
+for _your_ approbation alone.  I roused, and interested you,
+because I was so unlike _them_.  Had you not been really
+amiable, you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the
+pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always
+noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the
+persons who so assiduously courted you.  There--I have saved
+you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all things
+considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable.  To be
+sure, you knew no actual good of me--but nobody thinks of
+_that_ when they fall in love."
+
+"Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane while
+she was ill at Netherfield?"
+
+"Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her?  But make a
+virtue of it by all means.  My good qualities are under your
+protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible;
+and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing
+and quarrelling with you as often as may be; and I shall begin
+directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to
+the point at last.  What made you so shy of me, when you first
+called, and afterwards dined here?  Why, especially, when you
+called, did you look as if you did not care about me?"
+
+"Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement."
+
+"But I was embarrassed."
+
+"And so was I."
+
+"You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner."
+
+"A man who had felt less, might."
+
+"How unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give,
+and that I should be so reasonable as to admit it!  But I
+wonder how long you _would_ have gone on, if you had been left
+to yourself.  I wonder when you _would_ have spoken, if I
+had not asked you!  My resolution of thanking you for your
+kindness to Lydia had certainly great effect.  _Too much_, I am
+afraid; for what becomes of the moral, if our comfort springs
+from a breach of promise?  for I ought not to have mentioned
+the subject.  This will never do."
+
+"You need not distress yourself.  The moral will be perfectly
+fair.  Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us
+were the means of removing all my doubts.  I am not indebted
+for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing
+your gratitude.  I was not in a humour to wait for any opening
+of your's.  My aunt's intelligence had given me hope, and I was
+determined at once to know every thing."
+
+"Lady Catherine has been of infinite use, which ought to make
+her happy, for she loves to be of use.  But tell me, what did
+you come down to Netherfield for?  Was it merely to ride to
+Longbourn and be embarrassed? or had you intended any more
+serious consequence?"
+
+"My real purpose was to see _you_, and to judge, if I could,
+whether I might ever hope to make you love me.  My avowed one,
+or what I avowed to myself, was to see whether your sister were
+still partial to Bingley, and if she were, to make the
+confession to him which I have since made."
+
+"Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine
+what is to befall her?"
+
+"I am more likely to want more time than courage, Elizabeth.
+But it ought to done, and if you will give me a sheet of paper,
+it shall be done directly."
+
+"And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you
+and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady
+once did.  But I have an aunt, too, who must not be longer
+neglected."
+
+From an unwillingness to confess how much her intimacy with
+Mr. Darcy had been over-rated, Elizabeth had never yet
+answered Mrs. Gardiner's long letter; but now, having _that_
+to communicate which she knew would be most welcome, she was
+almost ashamed to find that her uncle and aunt had already lost
+three days of happiness, and immediately wrote as follows:
+
+"I would have thanked you before, my dear aunt, as I ought
+to have done, for your long, kind, satisfactory, detail of
+particulars; but to say the truth, I was too cross to write.
+You supposed more than really existed.  But _now_ suppose as
+much as you choose; give a loose rein to your fancy, indulge your
+imagination in every possible flight which the subject will
+afford, and unless you believe me actually married, you cannot
+greatly err.  You must write again very soon, and praise him a
+great deal more than you did in your last.  I thank you, again
+and again, for not going to the Lakes.  How could I be so silly
+as to wish it!  Your idea of the ponies is delightful.  We will
+go round the Park every day.  I am the happiest creature in the
+world.  Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one
+with such justice.  I am happier even than Jane; she only
+smiles, I laugh.  Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world
+that he can spare from me.  You are all to come to Pemberley at
+Christmas.  Yours, etc."
+
+Mr. Darcy's letter to Lady Catherine was in a different style;
+and still different from either was what Mr. Bennet sent to
+Mr. Collins, in reply to his last.
+
+"DEAR SIR,
+
+"I must trouble you once more for congratulations.  Elizabeth
+will soon be the wife of Mr. Darcy.  Console Lady Catherine
+as well as you can.  But, if I were you, I would stand by the
+nephew.  He has more to give.
+
+"Yours sincerely, etc."
+
+Miss Bingley's congratulations to her brother, on his approaching
+marriage, were all that was affectionate and insincere.  She
+wrote even to Jane on the occasion, to express her delight, and
+repeat all her former professions of regard. Jane was not
+deceived, but she was affected; and though feeling no reliance
+on her, could not help writing her a much kinder answer than
+she knew was deserved.
+
+The joy which Miss Darcy expressed on receiving similar
+information, was as sincere as her brother's in sending it.
+Four sides of paper were insufficient to contain all her
+delight, and all her earnest desire of being loved by her
+sister.
+
+Before any answer could arrive from Mr. Collins, or any
+congratulations to Elizabeth from his wife, the Longbourn
+family heard that the Collinses were come themselves to Lucas
+Lodge.  The reason of this sudden removal was soon evident.
+Lady Catherine had been rendered so exceedingly angry by
+the contents of her nephew's letter, that Charlotte, really
+rejoicing in the match, was anxious to get away till the
+storm was blown over.  At such a moment, the arrival of
+her friend was a sincere pleasure to Elizabeth, though in
+the course of their meetings she must sometimes think the
+pleasure dearly bought, when she saw Mr. Darcy exposed to all
+the parading and obsequious civility of her husband.  He bore
+it, however, with admirable calmness.  He could even listen to
+Sir William Lucas, when he complimented him on carrying away
+the brightest jewel of the country, and expressed his hopes of
+their all meeting frequently at St. James's, with very decent
+composure.  If he did shrug his shoulders, it was not till Sir
+William was out of sight.
+
+Mrs. Phillips's vulgarity was another, and perhaps a greater,
+tax on his forbearance; and though Mrs. Phillips, as well as
+her sister, stood in too much awe of him to speak with the
+familiarity which Bingley's good humour encouraged, yet,
+whenever she _did_ speak, she must be vulgar.  Nor was her
+respect for him, though it made her more quiet, at all likely
+to make her more elegant.  Elizabeth did all she could to
+shield him from the frequent notice of either, and was ever
+anxious to keep him to herself, and to those of her family with
+whom he might converse without mortification; and though the
+uncomfortable feelings arising from all this took from the
+season of courtship much of its pleasure, it added to the hope
+of the future; and she looked forward with delight to the time
+when they should be removed from society so little pleasing to
+either, to all the comfort and elegance of their family party
+at Pemberley.
+
+
+
+Chapter 61
+
+
+Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which
+Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters.
+With what delighted pride she afterwards visited Mrs. Bingley,
+and talked of Mrs. Darcy, may be guessed.  I wish I could say,
+for the sake of her family, that the accomplishment of her
+earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children
+produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable,
+well-informed woman for the rest of her life; though perhaps it
+was lucky for her husband, who might not have relished domestic
+felicity in so unusual a form, that she still was occasionally
+nervous and invariably silly.
+
+Mr. Bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly; his
+affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything
+else could do.  He delighted in going to Pemberley, especially
+when he was least expected.
+
+Mr. Bingley and Jane remained at Netherfield only a twelvemonth.
+So near a vicinity to her mother and Meryton relations was not
+desirable even to _his_ easy temper, or _her_ affectionate heart.
+The darling wish of his sisters was then gratified; he bought
+an estate in a neighbouring county to Derbyshire, and Jane and
+Elizabeth, in addition to every other source of happiness, were
+within thirty miles of each other.
+
+Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her
+time with her two elder sisters.  In society so superior to
+what she had generally known, her improvement was great.  She
+was not of so ungovernable a temper as Lydia; and, removed from
+the influence of Lydia's example, she became, by proper
+attention and management, less irritable, less ignorant, and
+less insipid.  From the further disadvantage of Lydia's society
+she was of course carefully kept, and though Mrs. Wickham
+frequently invited her to come and stay with her, with the
+promise of balls and young men, her father would never consent
+to her going.
+
+Mary was the only daughter who remained at home; and she was
+necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by
+Mrs. Bennet's being quite unable to sit alone.  Mary was
+obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still
+moralize over every morning visit; and as she was no longer
+mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her
+own, it was suspected by her father that she submitted to
+the change without much reluctance.
+
+As for Wickham and Lydia, their characters suffered no
+revolution from the marriage of her sisters.  He bore with
+philosophy the conviction that Elizabeth must now become
+acquainted with whatever of his ingratitude and falsehood
+had before been unknown to her; and in spite of every thing,
+was not wholly without hope that Darcy might yet be prevailed
+on to make his fortune.  The congratulatory letter which
+Elizabeth received from Lydia on her marriage, explained to
+her that, by his wife at least, if not by himself, such a
+hope was cherished.  The letter was to this effect:
+
+"MY DEAR LIZZY,
+
+"I wish you joy.  If you love Mr. Darcy half as well as I do my
+dear Wickham, you must be very happy.  It is a great comfort to
+have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope
+you will think of us.  I am sure Wickham would like a place at
+court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money
+enough to live upon without some help.  Any place would do, of
+about three or four hundred a year; but however, do not speak
+to Mr. Darcy about it, if you had rather not.
+
+"Yours, etc."
+
+As it happened that Elizabeth had _much_ rather not, she
+endeavoured in her answer to put an end to every entreaty
+and expectation of the kind.  Such relief, however, as it
+was in her power to afford, by the practice of what might be
+called economy in her own private expences, she frequently
+sent them.  It had always been evident to her that such an
+income as theirs, under the direction of two persons so
+extravagant in their wants, and heedless of the future, must
+be very insufficient to their support; and whenever they
+changed their quarters, either Jane or herself were sure of
+being applied to for some little assistance towards discharging
+their bills.  Their manner of living, even when the restoration
+of peace dismissed them to a home, was unsettled in the
+extreme.  They were always moving from place to place in quest
+of a cheap situation, and always spending more than they ought.
+His affection for her soon sunk into indifference; her's lasted
+a little longer; and in spite of her youth and her manners, she
+retained all the claims to reputation which her marriage had
+given her.
+
+Though Darcy could never receive _him_ at Pemberley, yet, for
+Elizabeth's sake, he assisted him further in his profession.
+Lydia was occasionally a visitor there, when her husband was
+gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath; and with the Bingleys
+they both of them frequently staid so long, that even Bingley's
+good humour was overcome, and he proceeded so far as to talk
+of giving them a hint to be gone.
+
+Miss Bingley was very deeply mortified by Darcy's marriage; but
+as she thought it advisable to retain the right of visiting at
+Pemberley, she dropt all her resentment; was fonder than ever
+of Georgiana, almost as attentive to Darcy as heretofore, and
+paid off every arrear of civility to Elizabeth.
+
+Pemberley was now Georgiana's home; and the attachment of the
+sisters was exactly what Darcy had hoped to see.  They were able
+to love each other even as well as they intended.  Georgiana had
+the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; though at first
+she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at
+her lively, sportive, manner of talking to her brother.  He, who
+had always inspired in herself a respect which almost overcame
+her affection, she now saw the object of open pleasantry.  Her
+mind received knowledge which had never before fallen in her way.
+By Elizabeth's instructions, she began to comprehend that a woman
+may take liberties with her husband which a brother will not
+always allow in a sister more than ten years younger than himself.
+
+Lady Catherine was extremely indignant on the marriage of her
+nephew; and as she gave way to all the genuine frankness of her
+character in her reply to the letter which announced its
+arrangement, she sent him language so very abusive, especially
+of Elizabeth, that for some time all intercourse was at an end.
+But at length, by Elizabeth's persuasion, he was prevailed on
+to overlook the offence, and seek a reconciliation; and, after
+a little further resistance on the part of his aunt, her
+resentment gave way, either to her affection for him, or her
+curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself; and she
+condescended to wait on them at Pemberley, in spite of that
+pollution which its woods had received, not merely from the
+presence of such a mistress, but the visits of her uncle and
+aunt from the city.
+
+With the Gardiners, they were always on the most intimate
+terms.  Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and
+they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards
+the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the
+means of uniting them.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ***
+
+This file should be named pandp12.txt or pandp12.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, pandp13.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, pandp12a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04
+
+Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/neuromancer.txt b/neuromancer.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1244eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/neuromancer.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8856 @@
+                         ===========
+                         Neuromancer
+                         ===========
+
+                              by
+                        William Gibson
+
+                         Dedication:
+                           for Deb
+                     who made it possible
+                          with love
+
+PART ONE
+
+CHIBA CITY BLUES
+
+The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned
+to a dead channel.
+"It's not like I'm using," Case heard someone say, as he
+shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the
+Chat. "It's like my body's developed this massive drug deficiency."
+It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke. The Chatsubo
+was a bar for professional expatriates; you could drink there
+for a week and never hear two words in Japanese.
+Ratz was tending bar, his prosthetic arm jerking monotonously
+as he filled a tray of glasses with draft Kirin. He saw
+Case and smiled, his teeth a web work of East European steel
+and brown decay. Case found a place at the bar, between the
+unlikely tan on one of Lonny Zone's whores and the crisp naval
+uniform of a tall African whose cheekbones were ridged with
+Joe boys," Ratz said, shoving a draft across the bar with his
+good hand. "Maybe some business with you, Case?"
+Case shrugged. The girl to his right giggled and nudged
+
+
+The bartender's smile widened. His ugliness was the stuff
+of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something
+heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he
+reached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis,
+a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby
+pink plastic. "You are too much the artiste, Herr Case." Ratz
+grunted; the sound served him as laughter. He scratched his
+overhang of white-shirted belly with the pink claw. "You are
+the artiste of the slightly funny deal."
+"Sure," Case said, and sipped his beer. "Somebody's gotta
+be funny around here. Sure the fuck isn't you."
+The whore's giggle went up an octave.
+"Isn't you either, sister. So you vanish, okay? Zone, he's
+a close personal friend of mine."
+She looked Case in the eye and made the softest possible
+spitting sound, her lips barely moving. But she left.
+"Jesus," Case said, "what kind a creep joint you running here?
+Man can't have a drink."
+"Ha," Ratz said, swabbing the scarred wood with a rag,
+"Zone shows a percentage. You I let work here for entertainment
+value."
+As Case was picking up his beer, one of those strange
+instants of silence descended, as though a hundred unrelated
+conversations had simultaneously arrived at the same pause.
+Then the whore's giggle rang out, tinged with a certain hysteria.
+Ratz grunted. "An angel passed."
+"The Chinese," bellowed a drunken Australian, "Chinese
+bloody invented nerve-splicing. Give me the mainland for a
+nerve job any day. Fix you right, mate...."
+"Now that," Case said to his glass, all his bitterness suddenly
+rising in him like bile, "that is so much bullshit."
+
+The Japanese had already forgotten more neurosurgery than
+the Chinese had ever known. The black clinics of Chiba were
+the cutting edge, whole bodies of technique supplanted monthly,
+and still they couldn't repair the damage he'd suffered in that
+Memphis hotel.
+A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading
+nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and the
+corners he'd cut in Night City, and still he'd see the matrix in
+his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless
+void.... The Sprawl was a long strange way home over the
+Pacific now, and he was no console man, no cyberspace cowboy.
+Just another hustler, trying to make it through. But the
+dreams came on in the Japanese night like live wire voodoo
+and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the
+dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin hotel, his hands
+clawed into the bedslab, temper foam bunched between his fingers,
+trying to reach the console that wasn't there.
+
+"I saw your girl last night," Ratz said, passing Case his
+second Kirin.
+"I don't have one," he said, and drank.
+"Miss Linda Lee."
+Case shook his head.
+"No girl? Nothing? Only biz, friend artiste? Dedication to
+commerce?" The bartender's small brown eyes were nested
+deep in wrinkled flesh. "I think I liked you better, with her.
+You laughed more. Now, some night, you get maybe too artistic,
+you wind up in the clinic tanks, spare parts."
+"You're breaking my heart, Ratz." He finished his beer,
+paid and left, high narrow shoulders hunched beneath the rain-stained
+khaki nylon of his windbreaker. Threading his way
+through the Ninsei crowds, he could smell his own stale sweat.
+Case was twenty-four. At twenty-two, he'd been a cowboy
+a rustler, one of the best in the Sprawl. He'd been trained by
+the best, by McCoy Pauley and Bobby Quine, legends in the
+biz. He'd operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a
+byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace
+deck that projected his disembodied consciousness
+into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. A thief
+he'd worked for other, wealthier thieves, employers who provided
+the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls
+of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data.
+He'd made the classic mistake, the one he'd sworn he'd
+never make. He stole from his employers. He kept something
+for himself and tried to move it through a fence in Amsterdam.
+He still wasn't sure how he'd been discovered, not that it
+mattered now. He'd expected to die, then, but they only smiled.
+
+
+Of course he was welcome, they told him, welcome to the
+money. And he was going to need it. Because--still smiling--
+they were going to make sure he never worked again.
+They damaged his nervous system with a wartime Russian
+mycotoxin.
+Strapped to a bed in a Memphis hotel, his talent burning
+out micron by micron, he hallucinated for thirty hours.
+The damage was minute, subtle, and utterly effective.
+For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace,
+it was the Fall. In the bars he'd frequented as a cowboy
+hotshot, the elite stance involved a certain relaxed contempt
+for the flesh. The body was meat. Case fell into the prison of
+his own flesh.
+
+His total assets were quickly converted to New Yen, a fat
+sheaf of the old paper currency that circulated endlessly through
+the closed circuit of the world's black markets like the seashells
+of the Trobriand islanders. It was difficult to transact legitimate
+business with cash in the Sprawl; in Japan, it was already
+illegal.
+In Japan, he'd known with a clenched and absolute certainty,
+he'd find his cure. In Chiba. Either in a registered clinic or in
+the shadow land of black medicine. Synonymous with implants,
+nerve-splicing, and micro bionics, Chiba was a magnet for the
+Sprawl's techno-criminal subcultures.
+In Chiba, he'd watched his New Yen vanish in a two-month
+round of examinations and consultations. The men in the black
+clinics, his last hope, had admired the expertise with which
+he'd been maimed, and then slowly shaken their heads.
+Now he slept in the cheapest coffins, the ones nearest the
+port, beneath the quartz-halogen floods that lit the docks all
+night like vast stages; where you couldn't see the lights of
+Tokyo for the glare of the television sky, not even the towering
+hologram logo of the Fuji Electric Company, and Tokyo Bay
+was a black expanse where gulls wheeled above drifting shoals
+of white styrofoam. Behind the port lay the city, factory domes
+dominated by the vast cubes of corporate arcologies. Port and
+city were divided by a narrow borderland of older streets, an
+area with no official name. Night City, with Ninsei its heart.
+By day, the bars down Ninsei were shuttered and featureless,
+the neon dead, the holograms inert, waiting, under the poisoned
+silver sky.
+
+Two blocks west of the Chat, in a teashop called the Jarre
+de The, Case washed down the night's first pill with a double
+espresso. It was a flat pink octagon, a potent species of Brazilian
+dex he bought from one of Zone's girls.
+The Jarre was walled with mirrors, each panel framed in
+red neon.
+At first, finding himself alone in Chiba, with little money
+and less hope of finding a cure, he'd gone into a kind of terminal
+overdrive, hustling fresh capital with a cold intensity that had
+seemed to belong to someone else. In the first month, he'd
+killed two men and a woman over sums that a year before
+would have seemed ludicrous. Ninsei wore him down until the
+street itself came to seem the externalization of some death
+wish, some secret poison he hadn't known he carried.
+Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism,
+designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb
+permanently on the fast-forward button. Stop hustling and you
+sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you'd
+break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either
+way, you were gone, with nothing left of you but some vague
+memory in the mind of a fixture like Ratz, though heart or
+lungs or kidneys might survive in the service of some stranger
+with New Yen for the clinic tanks.
+Biz here was a constant subliminal hum, and death the
+accepted punishment for laziness, carelessness, lack of grace,
+the failure to heed the demands of an intricate protocol.
+Alone at a table in the Jarre de The, with the octagon coming
+on, pinheads of sweat starting from his palms, suddenly aware
+of each tingling hair on his arms and chest, Case knew that at
+some point he'd started to play a game with himself, a very
+ancient one that has no name, a final solitaire. He no longer
+carried a weapon, no longer took the basic precautions. He ran
+the fastest, loosest deals on the street, and he had a reputation
+for being able to get whatever you wanted. A part of him knew
+that the arc of his self-destruction was glaringly obvious to his
+customers, who grew steadily fewer, but that same part of him
+basked in the knowledge that it was only a matter of time. And
+that was the part of him, smug in its expectation of death, that
+most hated the thought of Linda Lee.
+He'd found her, one rainy night, in an arcade.
+Under bright ghosts burning through a blue haze of cigarette
+smoke, holograms of Wizard's Castle, Tank War Europa,
+the New York skyline.... And now he remembered her that
+way, her face bathed in restless laser light, features reduced to
+a code: her cheekbones flaring scarlet as Wizard's Castle burned,
+forehead drenched with azure when Munich fell to the Tank
+War, mouth touched with hot gold as a gliding cursor struck
+sparks from the wall of a skyscraper canyon. He was riding
+high that night, with a brick of Wage's ketamine on its way
+to Yokohama and the money already in his pocket. He'd come
+in out of the warm rain that sizzled across the Ninsei pavement
+and somehow she'd been singled out for him, one face out of
+the dozens who stood at the consoles, lost in the game she
+played. The expression on her face, then, had been the one
+he'd seen, hours later, on her sleeping face in a port side coffin,
+her upper lip like the line children draw to represent a bird in
+flight.
+Crossing the arcade to stand beside her, high on the deal
+he'd made, he saw her glance up. Gray eyes rimmed with
+smudged black paintstick. Eyes of some animal pinned in the
+headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
+Their night together stretching into a morning, into tickets
+at the hover port and his first trip across the Bay. The rain kept
+up, falling along Harajuku, beading on her plastic jacket, the
+children of Tokyo trooping past the famous boutiques in white
+loafers and cling wrap capes, until she'd stood with him in the
+midnight clatter of a pachinko parlor and held his hand like a
+child.
+It took a month for the gestalt of drugs and tension he moved
+through to turn those perpetually startled eyes into wells of
+reflexive need. He'd watched her personality fragment, calving
+like an iceberg, splinters drifting away, and finally he'd seen
+the raw need, the hungry armature of addiction. He'd watched
+her track the next hit with a concentration that reminded him
+of the mantises they sold in stalls along Shiga, beside tanks of
+blue mutant carp and crickets caged in bamboo.
+He stared at the black ring of grounds in his empty cup. It
+was vibrating with the speed he'd taken. The brown laminate
+of the table top was dull with a patina of tiny scratches. With
+the dex mounting through his spine he saw the countless random
+impacts required to create a surface like that. The Jarre was
+decorated in a dated, nameless style from the previous century,
+an uneasy blend of Japanese traditional and pale Milanese plastics,
+but everything seemed to wear a subtle film, as though
+the bad nerves of a million customers had somehow attacked
+the mirrors and the once glossy plastics, leaving each surface
+fogged with something that could never be wiped away.
+"Hey. Case, good buddy...."
+He looked up, met gray eyes ringed with paintstick. She
+was wearing faded French orbital fatigues and new white sneakers.
+
+"I been lookin' for you, man." She took a seat opposite
+him, her elbows on the table. The sleeves of the blue zip suit
+had been ripped out at the shoulders; he automatically checked
+her arms for signs of derms or the needle. "Want a cigarette?"
+She dug a crumpled pack of Yeheyuan filters from an ankle
+pocket and offered him one. He took it, let her light it with a
+red plastic tube. "You sleep in' okay, Case? You look tired."
+Her accent put her south along the Sprawl, toward Atlanta.
+The skin below her eyes was pale and unhealthy-looking, but
+the flesh was still smooth and firm. She was twenty. New lines
+of pain were starting to etch themselves permanently at the
+corners of her mouth. Her dark hair was drawn back, held by
+a band of printed silk. The pattern might have represented
+microcircuits, or a city map.
+"Not if I remember to take my pills," he said, as a tangible
+wave of longing hit him, lust and loneliness riding in on the
+wavelength of amphetamine. He remembered the smell of her
+skin in the overheated darkness of a coffin near the port, her
+locked across the small of his back.
+All the meat, he thought, and all it wants.
+"Wage," she said, narrowing her eyes. "He wants to see
+you with a hole in your face." She lit her own cigarette.
+"Who says? Ratz? You been talking to Ratz?"
+"No. Mona. Her new squeeze is one of Wage's boys."
+"I don't owe him enough. He does me, he's out the money
+anyway." He shrugged.
+
+"Too many people owe him now, Case. Maybe you get to
+be the example. You seriously better watch it."
+"Sure. How about you, Linda? You got anywhere to sleep?"
+"Sleep." She shook her head. "Sure, Case." She shivered,
+hunched forward over the table. Her face was filmed with
+sweat.
+"Here," he said, and dug in the pocket of his windbreaker,
+coming up with a crumpled fifty. He smoothed it automatically,
+under the table, folded it in quarters, and passed it to her.
+"You need that, honey. You better give it to Wage." There
+was something in the gray eyes now that he couldn't read,
+something he'd never seen there before.
+"I owe Wage a lot more than that. Take it. I got more
+coming," he lied, as he watched his New Yen vanish into a
+zippered pocket.
+"You get your money, Case, you find Wage quick."
+"I'll see you, Linda," he said, getting up.
+"Sure." A millimeter of white showed beneath each of her
+pupils. Sanpaku. "You watch your back, man."
+He nodded, anxious to be gone.
+He looked back as the plastic door swung shut behind him,
+saw her eyes reflected in a cage of red neon.
+
+Friday night on Ninsei.
+He passed yakitori stands and massage parlors, a franchised
+coffee shop called Beautiful Girl, the electronic thunder of an
+arcade. He stepped out of the way to let a dark-suited sarariman
+by, spotting the Mitsubishi-Genentech logo tattooed across the
+back of the man's right hand.
+Was it authentic? if that's for real, he thought, he's in for
+trouble. If it wasn't, served him right. M-G employees above
+a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors
+that monitored mutagen levels in the bloodstream. Gear like
+that would get you rolled in Night City, rolled straight into a
+black clinic.
+The sarariman had been Japanese, but the Ninsei crowd was
+a gaijin crowd. Groups of sailors up from the port, tense solitary
+tourists hunting pleasures no guidebook listed, Sprawl heavies
+showing off grafts and implants, and a dozen distinct species.
+of hustler, all swarming the street in an intricate dance of desire
+and commerce.
+There were countless theories explaining why Chiba City
+tolerated the Ninsei enclave, but Case tended toward the idea
+that the Yakuza might be preserving the place as a kind of
+historical park, a reminder of humble origins. But he also
+saw a certain sense in the notion that burgeoning technologies
+require outlaw zones, that Night City wasn't there for its inhabitants,
+but as a deliberately unsupervised playground for
+technology itself.
+Was Linda right, he wondered, staring up at the lights?
+Would Wage have him killed to make an example? It didn't
+make much sense, but then Wage dealt primarily in proscribed
+biologicals, and they said you had to be crazy to do that.
+But Linda said Wage wanted him dead. Case's primary
+insight into the dynamics of street dealing was that neither the
+buyer nor the seller really needed him. A middleman's business
+is to make himself a necessary evil. The dubious niche Case
+had carved for himself in the criminal ecology of Night City
+had beep cut out with lies, scooped out a night at a time with
+betrayal. Now, sensing that its walls were starting to crumble,
+he felt the edge of a strange euphoria.
+The week before, he'd delayed transfer of a synthetic glandular
+extract, retailing it for a wider margin than usual. He
+knew Wage hadn't liked that. Wage was his primary supplier,
+nine years in Chiba and one of the few gaijin dealers who'd
+Managed to forge links with the rigidly stratified criminal establishment
+beyond Night City's borders. Genetic materials and
+hormones trickled down to Ninsei along an intricate ladder of
+fronts and blinds. Somehow Wage had managed to trace something
+back, once, and now he enjoyed steady connections in a
+dozen cities.
+Case found himself staring through a shop window. The
+place sold small bright objects to the sailors. Watches, flicknives,
+lighters, pocket VTRs, Sims Tim decks, weighted man-
+riki chains, and shuriken. The shuriken had always fascinated
+him, steel stars with knife-sharp points. Some were chromed,
+others black, others treated with a rainbow surface like oil on
+water. But the chrome stars held his gaze. They were mounted
+against scarlet ultra suede with nearly invisible loops of nylon
+fish line, their centers stamped with dragons or yin yang symbols.
+They caught the street's neon and twisted it, and it came
+to Case that these were the stars under which he voyaged, his
+destiny spelled out in a constellation of cheap chrome.
+"Julie," he said to his stars. "Time to see old Julie. He'll
+know."
+
+Julius Deane was one hundred and thirty-five years old, his
+metabolism assiduously warped by a weekly fortune in serums
+and hormones. His primary hedge against aging was a yearly
+pilgrimage to Tokyo, where genetic surgeons re-set the code
+of his DNA, a procedure unavailable in Chiba. Then he'd fly
+to Hong-Kong and order the year's suits and shirts. Sex-less and
+inhumanly patient, his primary gratification seemed to lie in
+his devotion to esoteric forms of tailor-worship. Case had never
+seen him wear the same suit twice, although his wardrobe
+seemed to consist entirely of meticulous reconstructions of garments
+of the previous century. He affected prescription lenses,
+framed in spidery gold, ground from thin slabs of pink synthetic
+quartz and beveled like the mirrors in a Victorian doll house.
+His offices were located in a warehouse behind Ninsei, part
+of which seemed to have been sparsely decorated, years before,
+with a random collection of European furniture, as though
+Deane had once intended to use the place as his home. Neo-Aztec
+bookcases gathered dust against one wall of the room
+where Case waited. A pair of bulbous Disney-styled table lamps
+perched awkwardly on a low Kandinsky-look coffee table in
+scarlet-lacquered steel. A Dali clock hung on the wall between
+the bookcases, its distorted face sagging to the bare concrete
+floor. Its hands were holograms that altered to match the convolutions
+of the face as they rotated, but it never told the correct
+time. The room was stacked with white fiberglass shipping
+modules that gave off the tang of preserved ginger.
+"You seem to be clean, old son," said Deane's disembodied
+voice. "Do come in."
+Magnetic bolts thudded out of position around the massive
+imitation-rosewood door to the left of the bookcases. JULIUS
+DEANE IMPORT EXPORT was lettered across the plastic in
+peeling self-adhesive capitals. If the furniture scattered in
+Deane's makeshift foyer suggested the end of the past century,
+the office itself seemed to belong to its start.
+Deane's seamless pink face regarded Case from a pool of
+light cast by an ancient brass lamp with a rectangular shade of
+dark green glass. The importer was securely fenced behind a
+vast desk of painted steel, flanked on either side by tall, drawer
+Ed cabinets made of some sort of pale wood. The sort of
+thing, Case supposed, that had once been used to store written
+records of some kind. The desktop was littered with cassettes,
+scrolls of yellowed printout, and various parts of some sort of
+clockwork typewriter, a machine Deane never seemed to get
+around to reassembling.
+"What brings you around, boy?" Deane asked, offering
+Case a narrow bonbon wrapped in blue-and-white checked paper.
+"Try one. Tins Ting Djahe, the very best." Case refused
+the ginger, took a seat in a yawing wooden swivel chair, and
+ran a thumb down the faded seam of one black jeans-leg. "Julie
+I hear Wage wants to kill me."
+"Ah. Well then. And where did you hear this, if I may?"
+"People."
+"People," Deane said, around a ginger bonbon. "What sort
+of people? Friends?"
+Case nodded.
+"Not always that easy to know who your friends are, is it?"
+"I do owe him a little money, Deane. He say anything to
+you?"
+"Haven't been in touch, of late." Then he sighed. "If I did
+know, of course, I might not be in a position to tell you. Things
+being what they are, you understand."
+"Things?"
+"He's an important connection Case."
+"Yeah. He want to kill me, Julie?"
+"Not that I know of." Deane shrugged. They might have
+been discussing the price of ginger. "If it proves to be an
+unfounded rumor, old son, you come back in a week or so and
+I'll let you in on a little something out of Singapore."
+"Out of the Nan Hai Hotel, Bencoolen Street?"
+"Loose lips, old son!" Deane grinned. The steel desk was
+jammed with a fortune in debugging gear.
+"Be seeing you, Julie. I'll say hello to Wage."
+
+Deane's fingers came up to brush the perfect knot in his
+pale silk tie.
+
+He was less than a block from Deane's office when it hit,
+the sudden cellular awareness that someone was on his ass,
+and very close.
+The cultivation of a certain tame paranoia was something
+Case took for granted. The trick lay in not letting it get out of
+control. But that could be quite a trick, behind a stack of
+octagons. He fought the adrenaline surge and composed his
+narrow features in a mask of bored vacancy, pretending to let
+the crowd carry him along. When he saw a darkened display
+window, he managed to pause by it. The place was a surgical
+boutique, closed for renovations. With his hands in the pockets
+of his jacket, he stared through the glass at a flat lozenge of
+vat grown flesh that lay on a carved pedestal of imitation jade.
+The color of its skin reminded him of Zone's whores; it was
+tattooed with a luminous digital display wired to a sub-cutaneous
+chip. Why bother with the surgery, he found himself thinking,
+while sweat coursed down his ribs, when you could just carry
+the thing around in your pocket?
+Without moving his head, he raised his eyes and studied
+the reflection of the passing crowd.
+There.
+Behind sailors in short-sleeved khaki. Dark hair, mirrored
+glasses, dark clothing, slender. . .
+And gone.
+Then Case was running, bent low, dodging between bodies.
+
+"Rent me a gun, Shin?"
+The boy smiled. "Two hour." They stood together in the
+smell of fresh raw seafood at the rear of a Shiga sushi stall.
+"You come back, two hour."
+"I need one now, man. Got anything right now?"
+Shin rummaged behind empty two-liter cans that had once
+been filled with powdered horseradish. He produced a slender
+package wrapped in gray plastic. "Taser. One hour, twenty
+New Yen. Thirty deposit."
+"Shit. I don't need that. I need a gun. Like I maybe wanna
+shoot somebody, understand?"
+The waiter shrugged, replacing the taser behind the horseradish
+cans. "Two hour."
+He went into the shop without bothering to glance at the
+display of shuriken. He'd never thrown one in his life.
+He bought two packs of Yeheyuans with a Mitsubishi Bank
+chip that gave his name as Charles Derek May. It beat Truman
+Starr, the best he'd been able to do for a passport.
+The Japanese woman behind the terminal looked like she
+had a few years on old Deane, none of them with the benefit
+of science. He took his slender roll of New Yen out of his
+pocket and showed it to her. "I want to buy a weapon."
+She gestured in the direction of a case filled with knives.
+"No," he said, "I don't like knives."
+She brought an oblong box from beneath the counter. The
+lid was yellow cardboard, stamped with a crude image of a
+coiled cobra with a swollen hood. Inside were eight identical
+tissue-wrapped cylinders. He watched while mottled brown
+fingers stripped the paper from one. She held the thing up for
+him to examine, a dull steel tube with a leather thong at one
+end and a small bronze pyramid at the other. She gripped the
+tube with one hand, the pyramid between her other thumb and
+forefinger, and pulled. Three oiled, telescoping segments of
+tightly wound coil spring slid out and locked. "Cobra," she said.
+
+Beyond the neon shudder of Ninsei, the sky was that mean
+shade of gray. The air had gotten worse; it seemed to have
+teeth tonight, and half the crowd wore filtration masks. Case
+had spent ten minutes in a urinal, trying to discover a convenient
+way to conceal his cobra; finally he'd settled for tucking the
+handle into the waistband of his jeans, with the tube slanting
+across his stomach. The pyramidal striking tip rode between
+his ribcage and the lining of his windbreaker. The thing felt
+like it might clatter to the pavement with his next step, but it
+made him feel better.
+The Chat wasn't really a dealing bar, but on weeknights it
+attracted a related clientele. Fridays and Saturdays were different.
+The regulars were still there, most of them, but they
+faded behind an influx of sailors and the specialists who preyed
+on diem. As Case pushed through the doors, he looked for
+Ratz, but the bartender wasn't in sight. Lonny Zone, the bar's
+resident pimp, was observing with glazed fatherly interest as
+one of his girls went to work on a young sailor. Zone was
+addicted to a brand of hypnotic the Japanese called Cloud
+Dancers. Catching the pimp's eye, Case beckoned him to the
+bar. Zone came drifting through the crowd in slow motion, his
+long face slack and placid.
+"You seen Wage tonight, Lonny?"
+Zone regarded him with his usual calm. He shook his head.
+"You sure, man?"
+"Maybe in the Namban. Maybe two hours ago."
+"Got some Joeboys with him? One of 'em thin, dark hair,
+maybe a black jacket?"
+"No," Zone said at last, his smooth forehead creased to
+indicate the effort it cost him to recall so much pointless detail.
+"Big boys. Graftees." Zone's eyes showed very little white and
+less iris; under the drooping lids, his pupils were dilated and
+enormous. He stared into Case's face for a long time, then
+lowered his gaze. He saw the bulge of the steel whip. "Cobra,"
+he said, and raised an eyebrow. "You wanna fuck somebody
+up?"
+"See you, Lonny." Case left the bar.
+
+His tail was back. He was sure of it. He felt a stab of elation
+the octagons and adrenaline mingling with something else.
+You're enjoying this, he thought; you're crazy.
+Because, in some weird and very approximate way, it was
+like a run in the matrix. Get just wasted enough, find yourself
+in some desperate but strangely arbitrary kind of trouble, and
+it was possible to see Ninsei as a field of data, the way the
+matrix had once reminded him of proteins linking to distinguish
+cell specialties. Then you could throw yourself into a high-speed
+drift and skid, totally engaged but set apart from it all, and all
+around you the dance of biz, information interacting, data made
+flesh in the mazes of the black market....
+Go it, Case, he told himself. Suck 'em in. Last thing they'll
+expect. He was half a block from the games arcade where he'd
+first met Linda Lee.
+He bolted across Ninsei, scattering a pack of strolling sailors.
+One of them screamed after him in Spanish. Then he was
+through the entrance, the sound crashing over him like surf,
+subsonics throbbing in the pit of his stomach. Someone scored
+a ten-megaton hit on Tank War Europa, a simulated air burst
+drowning the arcade in white sound as a lurid hologram fireball
+mushroomed overhead. He cut to the right and loped up a flight
+of unpainted chip board stairs. He'd come here once with Wage,
+to discuss a deal in proscribed hormonal triggers with a man
+called Matsuga. He remembered the hallway, its stained matting,
+the row of identical doors leading to tiny office cubicles.
+One door was open now. A Japanese girl in a sleeveless black
+t-shirt glanced up from a white terminal, behind her head a
+travel poster of Greece, Aegian blue splashed with streamlined
+ideograms.
+"Get your security up here," Case told her.
+Then he sprinted down the corridor, out of her sight. The
+last two doors were closed and, he assumed, locked. He spun
+and slammed the sole of his nylon running shoe into the blue-lacquered
+composition door at the far end. It popped, cheap
+hardware falling from the splintered frame. Darkness there, the
+white curve of a terminal housing. Then he was on the door
+to its right, both hands around the transparent plastic knob,
+leaning in with everything he had. Something snapped, and he
+was inside. This was where he and Wage had met with Matsuga,
+but whatever front company Matsuga had operated was
+long gone. No terminal, nothing. Light from the alley behind
+the arcade, filtering in through soot blown plastic. He made out
+a snake like loop of fiber optics protruding from a wall socket,
+a pile of discarded food containers, and the blade less nacelle
+of an electric fan.
+The window was a single pane of cheap plastic. He shrugged
+out of his jacket, bundled it around his right hand, and punched.
+It split, requiring two more blows to free it from the frame.
+Over the muted chaos of the games, an alarm began to cycle,
+triggered either by the broken window or by the girl at the head
+of the corridor.
+Case turned, pulled his jacket on, and flicked the cobra to
+full extension.
+With the door closed, he was counting on his tail to assume
+he'd gone through the one he'd kicked half off its hinges. The
+cobra's bronze pyramid began to bob gently, the spring-steel
+shaft amplifying his pulse.
+Nothing happened. There was only the surging of the alarm,
+the crashing of the games, his heart hammering. When the fear
+came, it was like some half-forgotten friend. Not the cold
+rapid mechanism of the dex-paranoia, but simple animal fear.
+He'd lived for so long on a constant edge of anxiety that he'd
+almost forgotten what real fear was.
+This cubicle was the sort of place where people died. He
+might die here. They might have guns....
+A crash, from the far end of the corridor. A man's voice,
+shouting something in Japanese. A scream, shrill terror. Another
+crash.
+And footsteps, unhurried, coming closer.
+Passing his closed door. Pausing for the space of three rapid
+beats of his heart. And returning. One, two, three. A bootheel
+scraped the matting.
+The last of his octagon-induced bravado collapsed. He
+snapped the cobra into its handle and scrambled for the window,
+blind with fear, his nerves screaming. He was up, out, and
+falling, all before he was conscious of what he'd done. The
+impact with pavement drove dull rods of pain through his shins.
+A narrow wedge of light from a half-open service hatch
+framed a heap of discarded fiber optics and the chassis of a
+junked console. He'd fallen face forward on a slab of soggy
+chip board, he rolled over, into the shadow of the console. The
+cubicle's window was a square of faint light. The alarm still
+oscillated, louder here, the rear wall dulling the roar of the
+games.
+A head appeared, framed in the window, back lit by the
+fluorescents in the corridor, then vanished. It returned, but he
+still couldn't read the features. Glint of silver across the eyes.
+"Shit," someone said, a woman, in the accent of the northern
+Sprawl.
+The head was gone. Case lay under the console for a long
+count of twenty, then stood up. The steel cobra was still in his
+hand, and it took him a few seconds to remember what it was.
+He limped away down the alley, nursing his left ankle.
+
+Shin's pistol was a fifty-year-old Vietnamese imitation of
+a South American copy of a Walther PPK, double-action on
+the first shot, with a very rough pull. It was chambered for .22
+long rifle, and Case would've preferred lead azide explosives
+to the simple Chinese hollow points Shin had sold him. Still
+it was a handgun and nine rounds of ammunition, and as he
+made his way down Shiga from the sushi stall he cradled it in
+his jacket pocket. The grips were bright red plastic molded in
+a raised dragon motif, something to run your thumb across
+in the dark. He'd consigned the cobra to a dump canister on
+Ninsei and dry-swallowed another octagon.
+The pill lit his circuits and he rode the rush down Shiga to
+Ninsei, then over to Baiitsu. His tail, he'd decided, was gone
+and that was fine. He had calls to make, biz to transact, and
+it wouldn't wait. A block down Baiitsu, toward the port, stood
+a featureless ten-story office building in ugly yellow brick. Its
+windows were dark now, but a faint glow from the roof was
+visible if you craned your neck. An unlit neon sign near the
+main entrance offered CHEAP HOTEL under a cluster of ideograms.
+If the place had another name, Case didn't know it; it
+was always referred to as Cheap Hotel. You reached it through
+an alley off Baiitsu, where an elevator waited at the foot of a
+transparent shaft. The elevator, like Cheap Hotel, was an afterthought,
+lashed to the building with bamboo and epoxy. Case
+climbed into the plastic cage and used his key, an unmarked
+length of rigid magnetic tape.
+Case had rented a coffin here, on a weekly basis, since he'd
+arrived in Chiba, but he'd never slept in Cheap Hotel. He slept
+in cheaper places.
+The elevator smelled of perfume and cigarettes; the sides
+of the cage was scratched and thumb-smudged. As it passed the
+fifth floor, he saw the lights of Ninsei. He drummed his fingers
+against the pistol grip as the cage slowed with a gradual hiss.
+As always, it came to a full stop with a violent jolt, but he
+was ready for it. He stepped out into the courtyard that served
+the place as some combination of lobby and lawn.
+Centered in the square carpet of green plastic turf, a lapanese
+teenager sat behind a C-shaped console, reading a textbook.
+The white fiberglass coffins were racked in a framework of
+industrial scaffolding. Six tiers of coffins, ten coffins on a side.
+
+Case nodded in the boy's direction and limped across the plastic
+grass to the nearest ladder. The compound was roofed with
+cheap laminated matting that rattled in a strong wind and leaked
+when it rained, but the coffins were reasonably difficult to open
+without a key.
+The expansion-grate catwalk vibrated with his weight as he
+edged his way along the third tier to Number 92. The coffins
+were three meters long, the oval hatches a meter wide and just
+under a meter and a half tall. He fed his key into the slot and
+waited for verification from the house computer. Magnetic bolts
+thudded reassuringly and the hatch rose vertically with a creak
+of springs. Fluorescents flickered on as he crawled in, pulling
+the hatch shut behind him and slapping the panel that activated
+the manual latch.
+There was nothing in Number 92 but a standard Hitachi
+pocket computer and a small white styrofoam cooler chest. The
+cooler contained the remains of three ten-kilo slabs of dry ice
+carefully wrapped in paper to delay evaporation, and a spun
+aluminum lab flask. Crouching on the brown temper foam slab
+that was both floor and bed, Case took Shin's .22 from his
+pocket and put it on top of the cooler. Then he took off his
+jacket. The coffin's terminal was molded into one concave wall,
+opposite a panel listing house rules in seven languages. Case
+took the pink handset from its cradle and punched a Hong-Kong
+number from memory. He let it ring five times, then hung up.
+His buyer for the three megabytes of hot RAM in the Hitachi
+wasn't taking calls.
+He punched a Tokyo number in Shinjuku.
+A woman answered, something in Japanese.
+"Snake Man there?"
+"Very good to hear from you," said Snake Man, coming in
+on an extension. "I've been expecting your call."
+"I got the music you wanted." Glancing at the cooler.
+"I'm very glad to hear that. We have a cash flow problem.
+Can you front?"
+"Oh, man, I really need the money bad...."
+Snake Man hung up.
+"You shit " Case said to the humming receiver. He stared
+at the cheap little pistol.
+"Iffy," he said, "it's all looking very iffy tonight."
+
+Case walked into the Chat an hour before dawn, both hands
+in the pockets of his jacket; one held the rented pistol, the other
+the aluminum flask.
+Ratz was at a rear table, drinking Apollonaris water from
+a beer pitcher, his hundred and twenty kilos of doughy flesh
+tilted against the wall on a creaking chair. A Brazilian kid
+called Kurt was on the bar, tending a thin crowd of mostly
+silent drunks. Ratz's plastic arm buzzed as he raised the pitcher
+and drank. His shaven head was filmed with sweat. "You look
+bad, friend artiste," he said, flashing the wet ruin of his teeth.
+"I'm doing just fine," said Case, and grinned like a skull.
+"Super fine." He sagged into the chair opposite Ratz, hands
+still in his pockets.
+"And you wander back and forth in this portable bombshelter
+built of booze and ups, sure. Proof against the grosser emotions,
+yes?"
+"Why don't you get off my case, Ratz? You seen Wage?"
+"Proof against fear and being alone," the bartender continued.
+"Listen to the fear. Maybe it's your friend."
+"You hear anything about a fight in the arcade tonight, Ratz?
+Somebody hurt?"
+"Crazy cut a security man." He shrugged. "A girl, they
+say."
+"I gotta talk to Wage, Ratz, I. . ."
+"Ah." Ratz's mouth narrowed, compressed into a single
+line. He was looking past Case, toward the entrance. "I think
+you are about to."
+Case had a sudden flash of the shuriken in their window.
+The speed sang in his head. The pistol in his hand was slippery
+with sweat.
+"Herr Wage," Ratz said, slowly extending his pink manipulator
+as if he expected it to be shaken. "How great a pleasure.
+Too seldom do you honor us."
+Case turned his head and looked up into Wage's face. It
+was a tanned and forgettable mask. The eyes were vat grown
+sea-green Nikon transplants. Wage wore a suit of gunmetal
+silk and a simple bracelet of platinum on either wrist. He was
+flanked by his Joe boys, nearly identical young men, their arms
+and shoulders bulging with grafted muscle.
+
+"How you doing, Case?"
+"Gentlemen," said Ratz, picking up the table's heaped ashtray
+in his pink plastic claw, "I want no trouble here." The
+ashtray was made of thick, shatterproof plastic, and advertised
+Tsingtao beer. Ratz crushed it smoothly, butts and shards of
+green plastic cascading onto the table top. "You understand?"
+"Hey, sweetheart," said one of the Joe boys, "you wanna try
+that thing on me?"
+"Don't bother aiming for the legs, Kurt," Ratz said, his tone
+conversational. Case glanced across the room and saw the Brazilian
+standing on the bar, aiming a Smith &amp; Wesson riot gun
+at the trio. The thing's barrel, made of paper-thin alloy wrapped
+with a kilometer of glass filament, was wide enough to swallow
+a fist. The skeletal magazine revealed five fat orange cartridges,
+subsonic sandbag jellies.
+"Technically nonlethal," said Ratz.
+"Hey, Ratz," Case said, "I owe you one."
+The bartender shrugged. "Nothing, you owe me. These,"
+and he glowered at Wage and the Joe boys, "should know better.
+You don't take anybody off in the Chatsubo."
+Wage coughed. "So who's talking about taking anybody
+off? We just wanna talk business. Case and me, we work
+together."
+Case pulled the .22 out of his pocket and level led it at
+Wage's crotch. "I hear you wanna do me." Ratz's pink claw
+closed around the pistol and Case let his hand go limp.
+"Look, Case, you tell me what the fuck is going on with
+you, you wig or something? What's this shit I'm trying to kill
+you?" Wage turned to the boy on his left. "You two go back
+to the Namban. Wait for me."
+Case watched as they crossed the bar, which was now entirely
+deserted except for Kurt and a drunken sailor in khakis,
+who was curled at the foot of a barstool. The barrel of the
+Smith &amp; Wesson tracked the two to the door, then swung back
+to cover Wage. The magazine of Case's pistol clattered on the
+table. Ratz held the gun in his claw and pumped the round out
+of the chamber.
+"Who told you I was going to hit you, Case?" Wage asked.
+Linda.
+"Who told you, man? Somebody trying to set you up?"
+The sailor moaned and vomited explosively.
+"Get him out of here," Ratz called to Kurt, who was sitting
+on the edge of the bar now, the Smith &amp; Wesson across his
+lap, lighting a cigarette.
+Case felt the weight of the night come down on him like a
+bag of wet sand settling behind his eyes. He took the flask out
+of his pocket and handed it to Wage. "All I got. Pituitaries.
+Get you five hundred if you move it fast. Had the rest of my
+roll in some RAM, but that's gone by now."
+"You okay, Case?" The flask had already vanished behind
+a gunmetal lapel. "I mean, fine, this'll square us, but you look
+bad. Like hammered shit. You better go somewhere and sleep."
+"Yeah." He stood up and felt the Chat sway around him.
+"Well, I had this fifty, but I gave it to somebody." He giggled.
+He picked up the .22's magazine and the one loose cartridge
+and dropped them into one pocket, then put the pistol in the
+other. "I gotta see Shin, get my deposit back."
+"Go home," said Ratz, shifting on the creaking chair with
+something like embarrassment. "Artiste. Go home."
+He felt them watching as he crossed the room and shouldered
+his way past the plastic doors.
+
+"Bitch," he said to the rose tint over Shiga. Down on Ninsei
+the holograms were vanishing like ghosts, and most of the neon
+was already cold and dead. He sipped thick black coffee from
+a street vendor's foam thimble and watched the sun come up.
+"You fly away, honey. Towns like this are for people who like
+the way down." But that wasn't it, really, and he was finding
+it increasingly hard to maintain the sense of betrayal. She just
+wanted a ticket home, and the RAM in his Hitachi would buy
+it for her, if she could find the right fence. And that business
+with the fifty; she'd almost turned it down, knowing she was
+about to rip him for the rest of what he had.
+When he climbed out of the elevator, the same boy was on
+the desk. Different textbook. "Good buddy," Case called across
+the plastic turf, "you don't need to tell me. I know already.
+Pretty lady came to visit, said she had my key. Nice little tip
+for you, say fifty New ones?" The boy put down his book.
+"Woman," Case said, and drew a line across his forehead with
+his thumb. "Silk." He smiled broadly. The boy smiled back,
+nodded. "Thanks, ass hole," Case said.
+On the catwalk, he had trouble with the lock. She'd messed
+it up somehow when she'd fiddled it, he thought. Beginner.
+He knew where to rent a black box that would open anything
+in Cheap Hotel. Fluorescents came on as he crawled in.
+"Close the hatch real slow, friend. You still got that Saturday
+night special you rented from the waiter?"
+She sat with her back to the wall, at the far end of the coffin.
+She had her knees up, resting her wrists on them, the pepper box
+muzzle of a flechette pistol emerged from her hands.
+"That you in the arcade?" He pulled the hatch down.
+"Where's Linda?"
+"Hit that latch switch."
+He did.
+"That your girl? Linda?"
+He nodded.
+"She's gone. Took your Hitachi. Real nervous kid. What
+about the gun, man?" She wore mirrored glasses. Her clothes
+were black, the heels of black boots deep in the temper foam.
+"I took it back to Shin, got my deposit. Sold his bullets
+back to him for half what I paid. You want the money?"
+"No."
+"Want some dry ice? All I got, right now."
+"What got into you tonight? Why'd you pull that scene at
+the arcade? I had to mess up this rentacop came after me with
+nun chucks. "
+"Linda said you were gonna kill me."
+"Linda said? I never saw her before I came up here."
+"You aren't with Wage?"
+She shook her head. He realized that the glasses were surgically
+inset, sealing her sockets. The silver lenses seemed to
+grow from smooth pale skin above her cheekbones, framed by
+dark hair cut in a rough shag. The fingers curled around the
+fletcher were slender, white, tipped with polished burgundy.
+The nails looked artificial. "I think you screwed up, Case. I
+showed up and you just fit me right into your reality picture."
+"So what do you want, lady?" He sagged back against the
+hatch.
+"You. One live body, brains still somewhat intact. Molly,
+Case. My name's Molly. I'm collecting you for the man I work
+for. Just wants to talk, is all. Nobody wants to hurt you "
+"That's good."
+"'Cept I do hurt people sometimes, Case. I guess it's just
+the way I'm wired." She wore tight black glove leather jeans
+and a bulky black jacket cut from some matte fabric that seemed
+to absorb light. "If I put this dart gun away, will you be easy,
+Case? You look like you like to take stupid chances."
+"Hey, I'm very easy. I'm a pushover, no problem."
+"That's fine, man." The fletcher vanished into the black
+jacket. "Because you try to fuck around with me, you'll be
+taking one of the stupidest chances of your whole life."
+She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly
+spread, and with a barely audible click, ten double-edged, four
+ centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the
+burgundy nails.
+She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.
+
+After a year of coffins, the room on the twenty-fifth floor
+of the Chiba Hilton seemed enormous. It was ten meters by
+eight, half of a suite. A white Braun coffee maker steamed on
+a low table by the sliding glass panels that opened onto a narrow
+balcony.
+"Get some coffee in you. Look like you need it." She took
+off her black jacket, the fletcher hung beneath her arm in a
+black nylon shoulder rig. She wore a sleeveless gray pullover
+with plain steel zips across each shoulder. Bulletproof, Case
+decided, slopping coffee into a bright red mug. His arms and
+legs felt like they were made out of wood.
+"Case." He looked up, seeing the man for the first time.
+"My name is Armitage." The dark robe was open to the waist,
+the broad chest hairless and muscular, the stomach flat and
+hard. Blue eyes so pale they made Case think of bleach. "Sun's
+up, Case. This is your lucky day, boy."
+Case whipped his arm sideways and the man easily ducked
+the scalding coffee. Brown stain running down the imitation
+
+rice paper wall. He saw the angular gold ring through the left
+lobe. Special Forces. The man smiled.
+"Get your coffee, Case," Molly said. "You're okay, but
+you're not going anywhere 'til Armitage has his say." She sat
+cross legged on a silk futon and began to fieldstrip the fletcher
+without bothering to look at it. Twin mirrors tracking as he
+crossed to the table and refilled his cup.
+"Too young to remember the war, aren't you, Case?" Armitage
+ran a large hand back through his cropped brown hair.
+A heavy gold bracelet flashed on his wrist. "Leningrad, Kiev,
+Siberia. We invented you in Siberia, Case."
+"What's that supposed to mean?"
+"Screaming Fist, Case. You've heard the name."
+"Some kind of run, wasn't it? Tried to burn this Russian
+nexus with virus programs. Yeah, I heard about it. And nobody
+got out."
+He sensed abrupt tension. Armitage walked to the window
+and looked out over Tokyo Bay. "That isn't true. One unit
+made it back to Helsinki, Case."
+Case shrugged, sipped coffee.
+"You're a console cowboy. The prototypes of the programs
+you use to crack industrial banks were developed for Screaming
+Fist. For the assault on the Kirensk computer nexus. Basic
+module was a Nightwing micro light, a pilot, a matrix deck, a
+jockey. We were running a virus called Mole. The Mole series
+was the first generation of real intrusion programs."
+"Icebreakers," Case said, over the rim of the red mug.
+"Ice from ICE, intrusion countermeasures electronics."
+"Problem is, mister, I'm no jockey now, so I think I'll just
+be going...."
+"I was there, Case; I was there when they invented your
+kind."
+"You got zip to do with me and my kind, buddy. You're
+rich enough to hire expensive razor girls to haul my ass up here,
+is all. I'm never gonna punch any deck again, not for you or
+anybody else." He crossed to the window and looked down.
+"That's where I live now."
+"Our profile says you're trying to con the street into killing
+you when you're not looking."
+"Profile?"
+"We've built up a detailed model. Bought a go-to for each
+of your aliases and ran the skim through some military software.
+You're suicidal, Case. The model gives you a month on the
+outside. And our medical projection says you'll need a new
+pancreas inside a year."
+"We." He met the faded blue eyes. "We who?"
+"What would you say if I told you we could correct your
+neural damage, Case'?" Armitage suddenly looked to Case as
+if he were carved from a block of metal; inert, enormously
+heavy. A statue. He knew now that this was a dream, and that
+soon he'd wake. Armitage wouldn't speak again. Case's dreams
+always ended in these freeze frames, and now this one was
+over.
+"What would you say, Case?"
+Case looked out over the Bay and shivered.
+"I'd say you were full of shit."
+Armitage nodded.
+"Then I'd ask what your terms were."
+"Not very different than what you're used to, Case."
+"Let the man get some sleep, Armitage," Molly said from
+her futon, the components of the fletcher spread on the silk
+like some expensive puzzle. "He's coming apart at the seams."
+"Terms," Case said, "and now. Right now."
+He was still shivering. He couldn't stop shivering.
+
+The clinic was nameless, expensively appointed, a cluster
+of sleek pavilions separated by small formal gardens. He remembered
+the place from the round he'd made his first month
+in Chiba.
+"Scared, Case. You're real scared." It was Sunday afternoon
+and he stood with Molly in a sort of courtyard. White boulders,
+a stand of green bamboo, black gravel raked into smooth waves.
+A gardener, a thing like a large metal crab, was tending the
+bamboo.
+"It'll work, Case. You got no idea, the kind of stuff Armitage
+has. Like he's gonna pay these nerve boys for fixing
+you with the program he's giving them to tell them how to do
+it. He'll put them three years ahead of the competition. You
+got any idea what that's worth?" She hooked thumbs in the
+belt loops of her leather jeans and rocked backward on the
+lacquered heels of cherry red cowboy boots. The narrow toes
+were sheathed in bright Mexican silver. The lenses were empty
+quicksilver, regarding him with an insect calm.
+"You're street samurai," he said. "How long you work for
+him?"
+"Couple of months."
+"What about before that?"
+"For somebody else. Working girl, you know?"
+He nodded.
+"Funny, Case."
+"What's funny?"
+"It's like I know you. That profile he's got. I know how
+you're wired."
+"You don't know me, sister."
+"You're okay, Case. What got you, it's just called bad luck."
+"How about him? He okay, Molly?" The robot crab moved
+toward them, picking its way over the waves of gravel. Its
+bronze carapace might have been a thousand years old. When
+it was within a meter of her boots, it fired a burst of light, then
+froze for an instant, analyzing data obtained.
+"What I always think about first, Case, is my own sweet
+ass." The crab had altered course to avoid her, but she kicked
+it with a smooth precision, the silver boot-tip clanging on the
+carapace. The thing fell on its back, but the bronze limbs soon
+righted it.
+Case sat on one of the boulders, scuffing at the symmetry
+of the gravel waves with the toes of his shoes. He began to
+search his pockets for cigarettes. "In your shirt," she said.
+"You want to answer my question?" He fished a wrinkled
+Yeheyuan from the pack and she lit it for him with a thin slab
+of German steel that looked as though it belonged on an operating
+table.
+"Well, I'll tell you, the man's definitely on to something.
+He's got big money now, and he's never had it before, and he
+gets more all the time." Case noticed a certain tension around
+her mouth. "Or maybe, maybe something's on to him...."
+She shrugged.
+"What's that mean?"
+"I don't know, exactly. I know I don't know who or what
+we're really working for."
+He stared at the twin mirrors. Leaving the Hilton, Saturday
+morning, he'd gone back to Cheap Hotel and slept for ten hours .
+Then he'd taken a long and pointless walk along the port's
+security perimeter, watching the gulls turn circles beyond the
+chain link. If she'd followed him, she'd done a good job of it.
+He'd avoided Night City. He'd waited in the coffin for Armitage's
+call. Now this quiet courtyard, Sunday afternoon, this
+girl with a gymnast's body and conjurer's hands.
+"If you'll come in now, sir, the anesthetist is waiting to
+meet you." The technician bowed, turned, and reentered the
+clinic without waiting to see if Case would follow.
+
+Cold steel odor. Ice caressed his spine.
+Lost, so small amid that dark, hands grown cold, body image
+fading down corridors of television sky.
+Voices.
+Then black fire found the branching tributaries of the nerves,
+pain beyond anything to which the name of pain is given....
+
+Hold still. Don't move.
+And Ratz was there, and Linda Lee, Wage and Lonny Zone,
+a hundred faces from the neon forest, sailors and hustlers and
+whores, where the sky is poisoned silver, beyond chain link
+and the prison of the skull.
+Goddamn don't you move.
+Where the sky faded from hissing static to the non color of
+the matrix, and he glimpsed the shuriken, his stars.
+"Stop it, Case, I gotta find your vein!"
+She was straddling his chest, a blue plastic syrette in one
+hand. "You don't lie still, I'll slit your fucking throat. You're
+still full of endorphin inhibitors."
+
+He woke and found her stretched beside him in the dark.
+His neck was brittle, made of twigs. There was a steady
+pulse of pain midway down his spine. Images formed and
+reformed: a flickering montage of the Sprawl's towers and
+ragged Fuller domes, dim figures moving toward him in the
+shade beneath a bridge or overpass....
+"Case? It's Wednesday, Case." She moved, rolling over,
+reaching across him. A breast brushed his upper arm. He heard
+her tear the foil seal from a bottle of water and drink. "Here."
+She put the bottle in his hand. "I can see in the dark, Case.
+Micro channel image-amps in my glasses."
+"My back hurts."
+"That's where they replaced your fluid. Changed your blood
+too. Blood 'cause you got a new pancreas thrown into the deal.
+And some new tissue patched into your liver. The nerve stuff
+I dunno. Lot of injections. They didn't have to open anything
+up for the main show." She settled back beside him. "It's
+2:43:12 AM, Case. Got a readout chipped into my optic nerve."
+He sat up and tried to sip from the bottle. Gagged, coughed,
+lukewarm water spraying his chest and thighs.
+"I gotta punch deck, ' he heard himself say. He was groping
+for his clothes. "I gotta know...."
+She laughed. Small strong hands gripped his upper arms.
+"Sorry, hotshot. Eight day wait. Your nervous system would
+fall out on the floor if you jacked in now. Doctor's orders.
+Besides, they figure it worked. Check you in a day or so." He
+lay down again.
+"Where are we?"
+"Home. Cheap Hotel."
+"Where's Armitage?"
+"Hilton, selling beads to the natives or something. We're
+out of here soon, man. Amsterdam, Paris, then back to the
+Sprawl." She touched his shoulder. "Roll over. I give a good
+massage."
+He lay on his stomach, arms stretched forward, tips of his
+fingers against the walls of the coffin. She settled over the
+small of his back, kneeling on the temper foam, the leather
+jeans cool against his skin. Her fingers brushed his neck.
+"How come you're not at the Hilton?"
+She answered him by reaching back, between his thighs
+and gently encircling his scrotum with thumb and forefinger.
+She rocked there for a minute in the dark, erect above him,
+her other hand on his neck. The leather of her jeans creaked
+softly with the movement. Case shifted, feeling himself harden
+against the temper foam.
+His head throbbed, but the brittleness in his neck seemed
+to retreat. He raised himself on one elbow, rolled, sank back
+against the foam, pulling her down, licking her breasts, small
+hard nipples sliding wet across his cheek. He found the zip on
+the leather jeans and tugged it down.
+"It's okay," she said, "I can see." Sound of the jeans peeling
+down. She struggled beside him until she could kick them away.
+She threw a leg across him and he touched her face. Unexpected
+hardness of the implanted lenses. "Don't," she said, "fingerprints."
+
+Now she straddled him again, took his hand, and closed it
+over her, his thumb along the cleft of her buttocks, his fingers
+spread across the labia. As she began to lower herself, the
+images came pulsing back, the faces, fragments of neon arriving
+and receding. She slid down around him and his back arched
+convulsively. She rode him that way, impaling herself, slipping
+down on him again and again, until they both had come, his
+orgasm flaring blue in a timeless space, a vastness like the
+matrix, where the faces were shredded and blown away down
+hurricane corridors, and her inner thighs were strong and wet
+against his hips.
+
+On Nisei, a thinner, weekday version of the crowd went
+through the motions of the dance. Waves of sound rolled from
+the arcades and pachinko parlors. Case glanced into the Chat
+and saw Zone watching over his girls in the warm, beer-smelling
+twilight. Ratz was tending bar.
+"You seen Wage, Ratz?"
+"Not tonight." Ratz made a point of raising an eyebrow at
+Molly.
+"You see him, tell him I got his money."
+"Luck changing, my artiste?"
+"Too soon to tell."
+
+"Well, I gotta see this guy," Case said, watching his reflection
+in her glasses. "I got biz to cancel out of."
+"Armitage won't like it, I let you out of my sight." She
+stood beneath Deane's melting clock, hands on her hips.
+"The guy won't talk to me if you're there. Deane I don't
+give two shits about. He takes care of himself. But I got people
+who'll just go under if I walk out of Chiba cold. It's my people,
+you know?"
+Her mouth hardened. She shook her head.
+
+"I got people in Singapore, Tokyo connections in Shinjuku
+and Asakuza, and they'll go down, understand?" he lied, his
+hand on the shoulder of her black jacket. "Five. Five minutes.
+By your clock, okay?"
+"Not what I'm paid for."
+"What you're paid for is one thing. Me letting some tight
+friends die because you're too literal about your instructions is
+something else."
+"Bullshit. Tight friends my ass. You're going in there to
+check us out with your smuggler." She put a booted foot up
+on the dust-covered Kandinsky coffee table.
+"Ah, Case, sport, it does look as though your companion
+there is definitely armed, aside from having a fair amount of
+silicon in her head . What is this about, exactly?" Deane ' s ghostly
+cough seemed to hang in the air between them.
+"Hold on, Julie. Anyway, I'll be coming in alone."
+"You can be sure of that, old son. Wouldn't have it any
+other way."
+"Okay," she said. "Go. But five Minutes. Any more and
+I'll come in and cool your tight friend permanently. And while
+you're at it, you try to figure something out."
+"What's that?"
+"Why I'm doing you the favor." She turned and walked
+out, past the stacked white modules of preserved ginger.
+"Keeping stranger company than usual, Case?" asked Julie.
+"Julie, she's gone. You wanna let me in? Please, Julie?"
+The bolts worked. "Slowly, Case," said the voice.
+"Turn on the works, Julie, all the stuff in the desk," Case
+said, taking his place in the swivel chair.
+"It's on all the time," Deane said mildly, taking a gun from
+behind the exposed works of his old mechanical typewriter and
+aiming it carefully at Case. It was a belly gun, a magnum
+revolver with the barrel sawn down to a nub. The front of the
+trigger-guard had been cut away and the grips wrapped with
+what looked like old masking tape. Case thought it looked very
+strange in Dean's manicured pink hands. "Just taking care, you
+Understand. Nothing personal. Now tell me what you want."
+"I need a history lesson, Julie. And a go-to on somebody."
+"What's moving, old son'?" Deane's shirt was candy-striped
+cotton, the collar white and rigid, like porcelain.
+
+"Me, Julie. I'm leaving. Gone. But do me the favor, okay?"
+"Go-to on whom, old son?"
+"Gaijin name of Armitage, suite in the Hilton."
+Deane put the pistol down. "Sit still, Case." He tapped
+something out on a lap terminal. "It seems as though you know
+as much as my net does, Case. This gentleman seems to have
+a temporary arrangement with the Yakuza, and the sons of the
+neon chrysanthemum have ways of screening their allies from
+the likes of me. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now, history.
+You said history." He picked up the gun again, but didn't point
+it directly at Case. "What sort of history?"
+"The war. You in the war, Julie?"
+"The war? What's there to know? Lasted three weeks."
+"Screaming Fist."
+"Famous. Don't they teach you history these days? Great
+bloody postwar political football, that was. Watergated all to
+hell and back. Your brass, Case, your Sprawlside brass in,
+where was it, McLean? In the bunkers, all of that... great
+scandal. Wasted a fair bit of patriotic young flesh in order to
+test some new technology. They knew about the Russians' defenses,
+it came out later. Knew about the emps, magnetic pulse
+weapons. Sent these fellows in regardless, just to see." Deane
+shrugged. "Turkey shoot for Ivan."
+"Any of those guys make it out?"
+"Christ,'' Deane said, "it's been bloody years.... Though
+I do think a few did. One of the teams. Got hold of a Sov
+gunship. Helicopter, you know. Flew it back to Finland. Didn't
+have entry codes, of course, and shot hell out of the Finnish
+defense forces in the process. Special Forces types." Deane
+sniffed. "Bloody hell."
+Case nodded. The smell of preserved ginger was overwhelming.
+
+"I spent the war in Lisbon, you know," Deane said, putting
+the gun down. "Lovely place, Lisbon."
+"In the service, Julie?"
+"Hardly. Though I did see action." Deane smiled his pink
+smile. "Wonderful what a war can do for one's markets."
+"Thanks, Julie. I owe you one."
+"Hardly, Case. And goodbye."
+
+* * *
+
+
+And later he'd tell himself that the evening at Sammi's had
+felt wrong from the start, that even as he'd followed Molly
+along that corridor, shuffling through a trampled mulch of ticket
+stubs and styrofoam cups, he'd sensed it. Linda's death, waiting....
+
+They'd gone to the Namban, after he'd seen Deane, and
+paid off his debt to Wage with a roll of Armitage's New Yen.
+Wage had liked that, his boys had liked it less, and Molly had
+grinned at Case's side with a kind of ecstatic feral intensity,
+obviously longing for one of them to make a move. Then he'd
+taken her back to the Chat for a drink.
+"Wasting your time, cowboy," Molly said, when Case took
+an octagon from the pocket of his jacket.
+"How's that? You want one?" He held the pill out to her.
+"Your new pancreas, Case, and those plugs in your liver.
+Armitage had them designed to bypass that shit." She tapped
+the octagon with one burgundy nail. "You're biochemically
+incapable of getting off on amphetamine or cocaine."
+"Shit," he said. He looked at the octagon, then at her.
+"Eat it. Eat a dozen. Nothing'll happen."
+He did. Nothing did.
+Three beers later, she was asking Ratz about the fights.
+"Sammi's," Ratz said.
+"I'll pass," Case said, "I hear they kill each other down
+there."
+An hour later, she was buying tickets from a skinny Thai
+in a white t-shirt and baggy rugby shorts.
+Sammi's was an inflated dome behind a port side warehouse,
+taut gray fabric reinforced with a net of thin steel cables. The
+corridor, with a door at either end, was a crude airlock preserving
+the pressure differential that supported the dome. Fluorescent
+rings were screwed to the plywood ceiling at intervals,
+but most of them had been broken. The air was damp and close
+with the smell of sweat and concrete.
+None of that prepared him for the arena, the crowd, the
+tense hush, the towering puppets of light beneath the dome.
+Concrete sloped away in tiers to a kind of central stage, a raised
+circle ringed with a glittering thicket of projection gear. No
+light but the holograms that shifted and flickered above the
+ring, reproducing the movements of the two men below. Strata
+of cigarette smoke rose from the tiers, drifting until it struck
+currents set up by the blowers that supported the dome. No
+sound but the muted purring of the blowers and the amplified
+breathing of the fighters.
+Reflected colors flowed across Molly's lenses as the men
+circled. The holograms were ten-power magnifications; at ten,
+the knives they held were just under a meter long. The knife-fighter's
+grip is the fencer's grip, Case remembered, the fingers
+curled, thumb aligned with blade. The knives seemed to move
+of their own accord, gliding with a ritual lack of urgency through
+the arcs and passes of their dance, point passing point, as the
+men waited for an opening. Molly's upturned face was smooth
+and still, watching.
+"I'll go find us some food," Case said. She nodded, lost in
+contemplation of the dance.
+He didn't like this place.
+He turned and walked back into the shadows. Too dark.
+Too quiet.
+The crowd, he saw, was mostly Japanese. Not really a Night
+City crowd. Teaks down from the arcologies. He supposed that
+meant the arena had the approval of some corporate recreational
+committee. He wondered briefly what it would be like, working
+all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company
+hymn, company funeral.
+He'd made nearly a full circuit of the dome before he found
+the food stalls. He bought yakitori on skewers and two tall
+waxy cartons of beer. Glancing up at the holograms, he saw
+that blood laced one figure's chest. Thick brown sauce trickled
+down the skewers and over his knuckles.
+Seven days and he'd jack in. If he closed his eyes now,
+he'd see the matrix.
+Shadows twisted as the holograms swung through their dance.
+Then the fear began to knot between his shoulders. A cold
+trickle of sweat worked its way down and across his ribs. The
+operation hadn't worked. He was still here, still meat, no Molly
+waiting, her eyes locked on the circling knives, no Armitage
+waiting in the Hilton with tickets and a new passport and
+money. It was all some dream, some pathetic fantasy.... Hot
+tears blurred his vision.
+Blood sprayed from a jugular in a red gout of light. And
+now the crowd was screaming, rising, screaming--as one figure
+crumpled, the hologram fading, flickering....
+Raw edge of vomit in his throat. He closed his eyes, took
+a deep breath, opened them, and saw Linda Lee step past him
+her gray eyes blind with fear. She wore the same French fatigues.
+
+And gone. Into shadow.
+Pure mindless reflex: he threw the beer and chicken down
+and ran after her. He might have called her name, but he'd
+never be sure.
+Afterimage of a single hair-fine line of red light. Seared
+concrete beneath the thin soles of his shoes.
+Her white sneakers flashing, close to the curving wall now
+and again the ghost line of the laser branded across his eye,
+bobbing in his vision as he ran.
+Someone tripped him. Concrete tore his palms.
+He rolled and kicked, failing to connect. A thin boy, spiked
+blond hair lit from behind in a rainbow nimbus, was leaning
+over him. Above the stage, a figure turned, knife held high,
+to the cheering crowd. The boy smiled and drew something
+from his sleeve. A razor, etched in red as a third beam blinked
+past them into the dark. Case saw the razor dipping for his
+throat like a dowser's wand.
+The face was erased in a humming cloud of microscopic
+explosions. Molly's fletchettes, at twenty rounds per second.
+The boy coughed once, convulsively, and toppled across Case's
+legs.
+He was walking toward the stalls, into the shadows. He
+looked down, expecting to see that needle of ruby emerge from
+his chest. Nothing. He found her. She was thrown down at the
+foot of a concrete pillar, eyes closed. There was a smell of
+cooked meat. The crowd was chanting the winner's name. A
+beer vendor was wiping his taps with a dark rag. One white
+sneaker had come off, somehow, and lay beside her head.
+Follow the wall. Curve of concrete. Hands in pockets. Keep
+walking. Past unseeing faces, every eye raised to the victor's
+image above the ring. Once a seamed European face danced
+in the glare of a match, lips pursed around the short stem of a
+metal pipe. Tang of hashish. Case walked on, feeling nothing.
+
+"Case." Her mirrors emerged from deeper shadow. "You
+okay?"
+Something mewlcd and bubbled in the dark behind her.
+He shook his head.
+"Fight's over, Case. Time to go home."
+He tried to walk past her. back into the dark, where something
+was dying. She stopped him with a hand on his chest.
+"Friends of your tight friend. Killed your girl for you. You
+haven't done too well for friends in this town, have you? We
+got a partial profile on that old bastard when we did you, man.
+He'd fry anybody, for a few New ones. The one back there
+said they got on to her when she was trying to fence your RAM.
+Just cheaper for them to kill her and take it. Save a little
+money.... I got the one who had the laser to tell me all about
+it. Coincidence we were here, but I had to make sure." Her
+mouth was hard, lips pressed into a thin line.
+Case felt as though his brain were jammed. "Who," he said,
+"who sent them?"
+She passed him a blood-flecked bag of preserved ginger.
+He saw that her hands were sticky with blood. Back in the
+shadows, someone made wet sounds and died.
+
+After the postoperative check at the clinic, Molly took him
+to the port. Armitage was waiting. He'd chartered a hovercraft.
+The last Case saw of Chiba were the dark angles of the arcologies.
+Then a mist closed over the black water and the drifting
+shoals of waste.
+
+PART TWO
+
+THE SHOPPING
+EXPEDITION
+
+Home.
+Home was BAMA, the Sprawl, the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan
+Axis.
+Program a map to display frequency of data exchange, every
+thousand megabytes a single pixel on a very large screen.
+Manhattan and Atlanta burn solid white. Then they start to
+pulse, the rate of traffic threatening to overload your simulation.
+Your map is about to go nova. Cool it down. Up your scale.
+Each pixel a million megabytes. At a hundred million megabytes
+per second, you begin to make out certain blocks in
+midtown Manhattan, outlines of hundred-year-old industrial
+parks ringing the old core of Atlanta. . .
+
+Case woke from a dream of airports, of Molly's dark leathers
+moving ahead of him through the concourses of Narita, Schipol,
+Orly.... He watched himself buy a flat plastic flask of Danish
+vodka at some kiosk, an hour before dawn.
+Somewhere down in the Sprawl's ferro-concrete roots, a
+train drove a column of stale air through a tunnel. The train
+itself was silent, gliding over its induction cushion, but displaced
+air made the tunnel sing, bass down into subsonics.
+Vibration reached the room where he lay and caused dust to
+rise from the cracks in the dessicated parquet floor.
+Opening his eyes, he saw Molly, naked and just out of reach
+across an expanse of very new pink temper foam. Overhead,
+sunlight filtered through the soot-stained grid of a skylight.
+One half-meter square of glass had been replaced with chipboard,
+a fat gray cable emerging there to dangle within a few
+centimeters of the floor. He lay on his side and watched her
+breathe, her breasts, the sweep of a flank defined with the
+functional elegance of a war plane's fusilage. Her body was
+spare, neat, the muscles like a dancer's.
+The room was large. He sat up. The room was empty, aside
+from the wide pink bedslab and two nylon bags, new and
+identical, that lay beside it. Blank walls, no windows, a single
+white-painted steel fire door. The walls were coated with countless
+layers of white latex paint. Factory space. He knew this
+kind of room, this kind of building; the tenants would operate
+in the inter zone where art wasn't quite crime, crime not quite
+art.
+He was home.
+He swung his feet to the floor. It was made of little blocks
+of wood, some missing, others loose. His head ached. He
+remembered Amsterdam, another room, in the Old City section
+of the Centrum, buildings centuries old. Molly back from the
+canal's edge with orange juice and eggs. Armitage off on some
+cryptic foray, the two of them walking alone past Dam Square
+to a bar she knew on a Damrak thoroughfare. Paris was a
+blurred dream. Shopping. She'd taken him shopping.
+He stood, pulling on a wrinkled pair of new black jeans that
+lay at his feet, and knelt beside the bags. The first one he
+opened was Molly's: neatly folded clothing and small expensive-looking
+gadgets. The second was stuffed with things he
+didn't remember buying: books, tapes, a Simstim deck, clothing
+with French and Italian labels. Beneath a green t-shirt, he
+discovered a flat, origami-wrapped package, recycled Japanese
+paper.
+The paper tore when he picked it up; a bright nine-pointed
+star fell--to stick upright in a crack in the parquet.
+"Souvenir," Molly said. "I noticed you were always looking
+at 'em." He turned and saw her sitting cross legged on the bed,
+sleepily scratching her stomach with burgundy nails.
+
+"Someone's coming later to secure the place," Armitage
+said. He stood in the open doorway with an old-fashioned
+magnetic key in his hand. Molly was making coffee on a tiny
+German stove she took from her bag.
+"I can do it," she said. "I got enough gear already. Infrascan
+perimeter, screamers..."
+"No," he said, closing the door. "I want it tight."
+"Suit yourself." She wore a dark mesh t-shirt tucked into
+baggy black cotton pants.
+"You ever the heat, Mr. Armitage?" Case asked, from where
+he sat, his back against a wall.
+Armitage was no taller than Case, but with his broad shoulders
+and military posture he seemed to fill the doorway. He
+wore a somber Italian suit; in his right hand he held a briefcase
+of soft black calf. The Special Forces earring was gone. The
+handsome, inexpressive features offered the routine beauty of
+the cosmetic boutiques, a conservative amalgam of the past
+decade's leading media faces. The pale glitter of his eyes
+heightened the effect of a mask. Case began to regret the question.
+"Lots of Forces types wound up cops, I mean. Or corporate
+security," Case added uncomfortably. Molly handed him a
+steaming mug of coffee. "That number you had them do on
+my pancreas, that's like a cop routine."
+Armitage closed the door and crossed the room, to stand in
+front of Case. "You're a lucky boy, Case. You should thank
+me."
+"Should l?" Case blew noisily on his coffee.
+"You needed a new pancreas. The one we bought for you
+frees you from a dangerous dependency."
+"Thanks, but I was enjoying that dependency."
+"Good, because you have a new one."
+"How's that?" Case looked up from his coffee. Armitage
+was smiling.
+"You have fifteen toxin sacs bonded to the lining of various
+main arteries, Case. They're dissolving. Very slowly, but they
+definitely are dissolving. Each one contains a mycotoxin. You're
+already familiar with the effect of that mycotoxin. It was the
+one your former employers gave you in Memphis."
+Case blinked up at the smiling mask.
+"You have time to do what I'm hiring you for, Case, but
+that's all. Do the job and I can inject you with an enzyme that
+will dissolve the bond without opening the sacs. Then you'll
+need a blood change. Otherwise, the sacs melt and you're back
+where I found you. So you see, Case, you need us. You need
+us as badly as you did when we scraped you up from the gutter."
+Case looked at Molly. She shrugged.
+"Now go down to the freight elevator and bring up the cases
+you find there." Armitage handed him the magnetic key. "Go
+on. You'll enjoy this, Case. Like Christmas morning."
+
+Summer in the Sprawl, the mall crowds swaying like wind-blown
+grass, a field of flesh shot through with sudden eddies
+of need and gratification.
+He sat beside Molly in filtered sunlight on the rim of a dry
+concrete fountain, letting the endless stream of faces recapitulate
+the stages of his life. First a child with hooded eyes, a
+street boy, hands relaxed and ready at his sides; then a teenager,
+face smooth and cryptic beneath red glasses. Case remembered
+fighting on a rooftop at seventeen, silent combat in the rose
+glow of the dawn geodesics.
+He shifted on the concrete, feeling it rough and cool through
+the thin black denim. Nothing here like the electric dance of
+Ninsei. This was different commerce, a different rhythm, in
+the smell of fast food and perfume and fresh summer sweat.
+With his deck waiting, back in the loft, an Ono-Sendai
+Cyberspace 7. They'd left the place littered with the abstract
+white forms of the foam packing units, with crumpled plastic
+film and hundreds of tiny foam beads. The Ono-Sendai; next
+year's most expensive Hosaka computer; a Sony monitor; a
+dozen disks of corporate-grade ice; a Braun coffee maker. Armitage
+had only waited for Case's approval of each piece.
+"Where'd he go?" Case had asked Molly.
+"He likes hotels. Big ones. Near airports, if he can manage
+it. Let's go down to the street." She'd zipped herself into an
+old surplus vest with a dozen oddly shaped pockets and put on
+a huge pair of black plastic sunglasses that completely covered
+her mirrored insets.
+"You know about that toxin shit, before?" he asked her, by
+the fountain. She shook her head. "You think it's true?"
+"Maybe, maybe not. Works either way."
+"You know any way I can find out?"
+"No," she said, her right hand coming up to form the jive
+for silence. "That kind of kink's too subtle to show up on a
+scan." Then her fingers moved again: wait. "And you don't
+care that much anyway. I saw you stroking that Sendai; man,
+it was pornographic." She laughed.
+"So what's he got on you? How's he got the working girl
+kinked?"
+"-Professional pride, baby, that's all." And again the sign
+for silence. "We're gonna get some breakfast, okay? Eggs, real
+bacon. Probably kill you, you been eating that rebuilt Chiba
+krill for so long. Yeah, come on, we'll tube in to Manhattan
+and get us a real breakfast."
+
+Lifeless neon spelled out METRO HOLOGRAFIX in dusty
+capitals of glass tubing. Case picked at a shred of bacon that
+had lodged between his front teeth. He'd given up asking her
+where they were going and why; jabs in the ribs and the sign
+for silence were all he'd gotten in reply. She talked about the
+season's fashions, about sports, about a political scandal in
+California he'd never heard of.
+He looked around the deserted dead end street. A sheet of
+newsprint went cart wheeling past the intersection. Freak winds
+in the East side; something to do with convection, and an
+overlap in the domes. Case peered through the window at the
+dead sign. Her Sprawl wasn't his Sprawl? he decided. She'd
+led him through a dozen bars and clubs he'd never seen before,
+taking care of business, usually with no more than a nod.
+Maintaining connections.
+Something was moving in the shadows behind METRO
+HOLOGRAFIX.
+The door was a sheet of corrugated roofing. In front of it,
+Molly's hands flowed through an intricate sequence of jive that
+he couldn't follow. He caught the sign for cash, a thumb brushing
+the tip of the forefinger. The door swung inward and sheled
+him into the smell of dust. They stood in a clearing, dense
+tangles of junk rising on either side to walls lined with shelves
+of crumbling paperbacks. The junk looked like something that
+had grown there, a fungus of twisted metal and plastic. He
+could pick out individual objects, but then they seemed to blur
+back into the mass: the guts of a television so old it was studded
+with the glass stumps of vacuum tubes, a crumpled dish antenna,
+a brown fiber canister stuffed with corroded lengths of
+alloy tubing. An enormous pile of old magazines had cascaded
+into the open area, flesh of lost summers staring blindly up as
+he followed her back through a narrow canyon of impacted
+scrap. He heard the door close behind them. He didn't look
+back.
+
+The tunnel ended with an ancient Army blanket tacked across
+a doorway. White light flooded out as Molly ducked past it.
+Four square walls of blank white plastic, ceiling to match,
+floored with white hospital tile molded in a non slip pattern of
+small raised disks. In the center stood a square, white-painted
+wooden table and four white folding chairs.
+The man who stood blinking now in the doorway behind
+them, the blanket draping one shoulder like a cape, seemed to
+have been designed in a wind tunnel. His ears were very small,
+plastered flat against his narrow skull, and his large front teeth,
+revealed in something that wasn't quite a smile, were canted
+sharply backward. He wore an ancient tweed jacket and held
+a handgun of some kind in his left hand. He peered at them,
+blinked, and dropped the gun into a jacket pocket. He gestured
+to Case, pointed at a slab of white plastic that leaned near the
+doorway. Case crossed to it and saw that it was a solid sandwich
+of circuitry, nearly a centimeter thick. He helped the man lift
+it and position it in the doorway. Quick, nicotine-stained fingers
+secured it with a white velcro border. A hidden exhaust fan
+began to purr.
+"Time," the man said, straightening up, "and counting. You
+know the rate, Moll."
+"We need a scan, Finn. For implants."
+"So get over there between the pylons. Stand on the tape.
+Straighten up, yeah. Now turn around, gimme a full threesixty."
+Case watched her rotate between two fragile-looking
+stands studded with sensors. The man took a small monitor
+from his pocket and squinted at it. "Something new in your
+head, yeah. Silicon. coat of pyrolitic carbons. A clock, right?
+Your glasses gimme the read they always have, low-temp isotropic
+carbons. Better biocompatibility with pyrolitics, but
+that's your business, right? Same with your claws."
+"Get over here, Case." He saw a scuffed X in black on the
+white floor. "Turn around. Slow."
+"Guy's a virgin." The man shrugged. "Some cheap dental
+work, is all."
+"You read for biologicals?" Molly unzipped her green vest
+and took off the dark glasses.
+"You think this is the Mayo? Climb on the table, kid, we'll
+run a little biopsy." He laughed, showing more of his yellow
+teeth. "Nah. Finn's word, sweetmeat, you got no little bugs,
+no cortex bombs. You want me to shut the screen down?"
+"Just for as long as it takes you to leave, Finn. Then we'll
+want full screen for as long as we want it."
+"Hey, that's fine by the Finn, Moll. You're only paying by
+the second."
+They sealed the door behind him and Molly turned one of
+the white chairs around and sat on it, chin resting on crossed
+forearms. "We talk now. This is as private as I can afford."
+"What about?"
+"What we're doing."
+"What are we doing?"
+"Working for Armitage."
+"And you're saying this isn't for his benefit?"
+"Yeah. I saw your profile, Case. And I've seen the rest of
+our shopping list, once. You ever work with the dead?"
+"No." He watched his reflection in her glasses. "I could, I
+guess. I'm good at what I do." The present tense made him
+nervous.
+"You know that the Dixie Flatline's dead?"
+He nodded. "Heart, I heard."
+"You'll be working with his construct." She smiled. "Taught
+you the ropes, huh? Him and Quine. I know Quine, by the
+way.  Real asshole."
+"Somebody's got a recording of McCoy Pauley? Who?"
+Now Case sat, and rested his elbows on the table. "I can't see
+it. He'd never have sat still for it."
+"Sense/Net. Paid him mega, you bet your ass."
+"Quine dead too?"
+"No such luck. He's in Europe. He doesn't come into this."
+"Well, if we can get the Flatline, we're home free. He was
+the best. You know he died brain death three times?"
+She nodded.
+"Flat lined on his EEG. Showed me tapes. 'Boy, I was daid.' "
+"Look, Case, I been trying to suss out who it is is backing
+Armitage since I signed on. But it doesn't feel like a zaibatsu,
+a government, or some Yakuza subsidiary. Armitage gets orders.
+Like something tells him to go off to Chiba, pick up a
+pillhead who's making one last wobble throught the burnout
+belt, and trade a program for the operation that'll fix him up.
+We could a bought twenty world class cowboys for what the
+market was ready to pay for that surgical program. You were
+good, but not that good...." She scratched the side of her
+nose.
+"Obviously makes sense to somebody," he said. "Somebody
+big."
+"Don't let me hurt your feelings." She grinned. "We're
+gonna be pulling one hardcore run, Case, just to get the Flatline's
+construct. Sense/Net has it locked in a library vault uptown.
+Tighter than an eel's ass, Case. Now, Sense/Net, they
+got all their new material for the fall season locked in there
+too. Steal that and we'd be richer than shit. But no, we gotta
+get us the Flatline and nothing else. Weird."
+"Yeah, it's all weird. You're weird, this hole's weird, and
+who's the weird little gopher outside in the hall?"
+"Finn's an old connection of mine. Fence, mostly. Software.
+This privacy biz is a sideline. But I got Armitage to let him
+be our tech here, so when he shows up later, you never saw
+him. Got it?"
+"So what's Armitage got dissolving inside you?"
+"I'm an easy make." She smiled. "Anybody any good at
+what they do, that's what they are, right? You gotta jack, I
+gotta tussle."
+He stared at her. "So tell me what you know about Armitage."
+"For starters, nobody named Armitage took part in any
+Screaming Fist. I checked. But that doesn't mean much. He
+doesn't look like any of the pics of the guys who got out." She
+shrugged. "Big deal. And starters is all I got." She drummed
+her nails on the back of the chair. "But you are a cowboy,
+aren't you? I mean, maybe you could have a little look around."
+She smiled.
+"He'd kill me."
+"Maybe. Maybe not. I think he needs you, Case, and real
+bad. Besides, you're a clever john, no? You can winkle him,
+sure."
+"What else is on that list you mentioned?"
+"Toys. Mostly for you. And one certified psychopath name
+of Peter Riviera. Real ugly customer."
+"Where's he?"
+"Dunno. But he's one sick fuck, no lie. I saw his profile."
+She made a face. "God awful." She stood up and stretched,
+catlike. "So we got an axis going, boy? We're together in this?
+Partners?"
+Case looked at her. "I gotta lotta choice, huh?"
+She laughed. "You got it, cowboy."
+
+"The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games," said
+the voice-over, "in early graphics programs and military experimentation
+with cranial jacks." On the Sony, a two-dimensional
+space war faded behind a forest of mathematically
+generated ferns, demonstrating the spacial possibilities of logarithmic
+spirals- cold blue military footage burned through, lab
+animals wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire con.
+trot circuits of tanks and war planes. "Cyberspace. A consensual
+hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate
+operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical
+concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted
+from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable
+complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non space of
+the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights,
+receding...."
+
+"What's that?" Molly asked, as he flipped the channel selector.
+"Kid's show." A discontinuous flood of images as the selector
+cycled. "Off," he said to the Hosaka.
+"You want to try now, Case?"
+Wednesday. Eight days from waking in Cheap Hotel with
+Molly beside him. "You want me to go out, Case? Maybe
+easier for you, alone...." He shook his head.
+"No. Stay, doesn't matter." He settled the black terry sweatband
+across his forehead, careful not to disturb the flat Sendai
+dermatrodes. He stared at the deck on his lap, not really seeing
+it, seeing instead the shop window on Ninsei, the chromed
+shuriken burning with reflected neon. He glanced up; on the
+wall, just above the Sony, he'd hung her gift, tacking it there
+with a yellow-headed drawing pin through the hole at its center.
+closed his eyes.
+Found the ridged face of the power stud.
+And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes
+boiling in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking
+past like film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures,
+faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information.
+Please, he prayed, now--
+
+A gray disk, the color of Chiba sky.
+Now--
+
+Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of palergray.
+Expanding-- And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick,
+the unfolding of his distance less home, his country, transparent
+3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the
+stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority
+burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of
+America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms
+of military systems, forever beyond his reach.
+And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft,
+distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his
+face.
+
+Molly was gone when he took the trodes off, and the loft
+was dark. He checked the time. He'd been in cyberspace for
+five hours. He carried the Ono-Sendai to one of the new worktables
+and collapsed across the bedslab, pulling Molly's black
+silk sleeping bag over his head.
+The security package taped to the steel fire door bleeped
+twice. "Entry requested," it said. "Subject is cleared per my
+program."
+"So open it." Case pulled the silk from his face and sat up
+as the door opened, expecting to see Molly or Armitage.
+"Christ," said a hoarse voice, "I know that bitch can see in
+the dark...." A squat figure stepped in and closed the door.
+"Turn the lights on, okay?" Case scrambled off the slab and
+found the old-fashioned switch.
+"I'm the Finn," said the Finn, and made a warning face at
+Case.
+"Case."
+"Pleased to meecha, I'm sure. I'm doing some hardware
+for your boss, it looks like." The Finn fished a pack of Partagas
+from a pocket and lit one. The smell of Cuban tobacco filled
+the room. He crossed to the worktable and glanced at the Ono-Sendai.
+"Looks stock. Soon fix that. But here is your problem,
+kid." He took a filthy manila envelope from inside his jacket,
+flicked ash on the floor, and extracted a featureless black rectangle
+from the envelope. "Goddamn factory prototypes," he
+said, tossing the thing down on the table. "Cast 'em into a
+block of polycarbon, can't get in with a laser without frying
+the works. Booby-trapped for x-ray, ultrascan, God knows
+what else. We'll get in, but there's no rest for the wicked,
+right?" He folded the envelope with great care and tucked it
+away in an inside pocket.
+"What is it?"
+"It's a flip flop switch, basically. Wire it into your Sendai
+here, you can access live or recorded Sims Tim without having
+to jack out of the matrix."
+"What for?"
+"I haven't got a clue. Know I'm fitting Moll for a broadcast
+rig, though, so it's probably her sensorium you'll access." The
+Finn scratched his chin. "So now you get to find out just how
+tight those jeans really are, huh?"
+
+Case sat in the loft with the dermatrodes strapped across his
+forehead, watching motes dance in the diluted sunlight that
+filtered through the grid overhead. A countdown was in progress
+in one corner of the monitor screen.
+Cowboys didn't get into Simstim, he thought, because it
+was basically a meat toy. He knew that the trodes he used and
+the little plastic tiara dangling from a Simstim deck were basically
+the same, and that the cyberspace matrix was actually a
+drastic simplification of the human sensorium, at least in terms
+of presentation, but Simstim itself struck him as a gratuitous
+multiplication of flesh input. The commercial stuff was edited,
+of course, so that if Tally Isham got a headache in the course
+of a segment, you didn't feel it.
+The screen bleeped a two-second warning.
+The new switch was patched into his Sendai with a thin
+ribbon of fiber optics.
+And one and two and--
+
+Cyberspace slid into existence from the cardinal points.
+
+Smooth, he thought, but not smooth enough. Have to work on it.
+Then he keyed the new switch.
+The abrupt jolt into other flesh. Matrix gone, a wave of
+sound and color.... She was moving through a crowded street,
+past stalls vending discount software, prices felt penned on sheets
+of plastic, fragments of music from countless speakers. Smells
+of urine, free monomers, perfume, patties of frying krill. For
+a few frightened seconds he fought helplessly to control her
+body. Then he willed himself into passivity, became the passenger
+behind her eyes.
+The glasses didn't seem to cut down the sunlight at all. He
+wondered if the built-in amps compensated automatically. Blue
+alphanumerics winked the time, low in her left peripheral field.
+Showing off, he thought.
+Her body language was disorienting, her style foreign. She
+seemed continually on the verge of colliding with someone,
+but people melted out of her way, stepped sideways, made
+room.
+"How you doing, Case?" He heard the words and felt her
+form them. She slid a hand into her jacket, a fingertip circling
+a nipple under warm silk. The sensation made him catch his
+breath. She laughed. But the link was one-way. He had no way
+to reply.
+Two blocks later, she was threading the outskirts of Memory
+Lane. Case kept trying to jerk her eyes toward landmarks he
+would have used to find his way. He began to find the passivity
+of the situation irritating.
+The transition to cyberspace, when he hit the switch, was
+instantaneous. He punched himself down a wall of primitive
+ice belonging to the New York Public Library, automatically
+counting potential windows. Keying back into her sensorium,
+into the sinuous flow of muscle, senses sharp and bright.
+He found himself wondering about the mind he shared these
+sensations with. What did he know about her? That she was
+another professional; that she said her being, like his, was the
+thing she did to make a living. He knew the way she'd moved
+against him, earlier, when she woke, their mutual grunt of
+unity when he'd entered her, and that she liked her coffee black,
+afterward....
+Her destination was one of the dubious software rental complexes
+that lined Memory Lane. There was a stillness, a hush.
+Booths lined a central hall. The clientele were young, few of
+them out of their teens. They all seemed to have carbon sockets
+planted behind the left ear, but she didn't focus on them. The
+counters that fronted the booths displayed hundreds of slivers
+of microsoft, angular fragments of colored silicon mounted
+under oblong transparent bubbles on squares of white cardboard.
+Molly went to the seventh booth along the south wall.
+Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly
+into space, a dozen spikes of microsoft protruding from the
+socket behind his ear.
+"Larry, you in, man?" She positioned herself in front of
+him. The boy's eyes focused. He sat up in his chair and pried
+a bright magenta splinter from his socket with a dirty thumbnail .
+"Hey, Larry."
+"Molly." He nodded.
+"I have some work for some of your friends, Larry."
+Larry took a flat plastic case from the pocket of his red
+sport shirt and flicked it open, slotting the microsoft beside a
+dozen others. His hand hovered, selected a glossy black chip
+that was slightly longer than the rest, and inserted it smoothly
+into his head. His eyes narrowed.
+"Molly's got a rider," he said, "and Larry doesn't like that."
+"Hey," she said, "I didn't know you were so . . . sensitive.
+I'm impressed. Costs a lot, to get that sensitive."
+"I know you, lady?" The blank look returned. "You looking
+to buy some softs?"
+"I'm looking for the Moderns."
+"You got a rider, Molly. This says." He tapped the black
+splinter. "Somebody else using your eyes."
+"My partner."
+"Tell your partner to go."
+"Got something for the Panther Moderns, Larry."
+"What are you talking about, lady?"
+"Case, you take off," she said, and he hit the switch, instantly
+back in the matrix. Ghost impressions of the software
+complex hung for a few seconds in the buzzing calm of cyberspace.
+"Panther Moderns," he said to the Hosaka, removing the
+trodes. "Five minute precis."
+"Ready," the computer said.
+
+It wasn't a name he knew. Something new, something that
+had come in since he'd been in Chiba. Fads swept the youth
+of the Spraw] at the speed of light; entire subcultures could rise
+overnight, thrive for a dozen weeks, and then vanish utterly.
+"Go," he said. The Hosaka had accessed its array of libraries,
+journals, and news services.
+The precis began with a long hold on a color still that Case
+at first assumed was a collage of some kind, a boy's face
+snipped from another image and glued to a photograph of a
+paint-scrawled wall. Dark eyes, epicanthic folds obviously the
+result of surgery, an angry dusting of acne across pale narrow
+cheeks. The Hosaka released the freeze; the boy moved, flowing
+with the sinister grace of a mime pretending to be a jungle
+predator. His body was nearly invisible, an abstract pattern
+approximating the scribbled brickwork sliding smoothly across
+his tight one piece. Mimetic polycarbon.
+Cut to Dr. Virginia Rambali, Sociology, NYU, her name,
+faculty, and school pulsing across the screen in pink alphanumerics.
+
+"Given their penchant for these random acts of surreal violence,"
+someone said, "it may be difficult for our viewers to
+understand why you continue to insist that this phenomenon
+isn't a form of terrorism."
+Dr. RamBali smiled. "There is always a point at which the
+terrorist ceases to manipulate the media gestalt. A point at
+which the violence may well escalate, but beyond which the
+terrorist has become symptomatic of the media gestalt itself.
+Terrorism as we ordinarily understand it is inately media-related.
+The Panther Moderns differ from other terrorists precisely
+in their degree of self-consciousness, in their awareness
+of the extent to which media divorce the act of terrorism from
+the original sociopolitical intent...."
+"Skip it," Case said.
+
+Case met his first Modern two days after he'd screened the
+Hosaka's precis. The Moderns, he'd decided, were a contemporary
+version of the Big Scientists of his own late teens. There
+was a kind of ghostly teenage DNA at work in the Sprawl,
+something that carried the coded precepts of various short-lived
+sub cults and replicated them at odd intervals. The Panther Moderns
+were a soft head variant on the Scientists. If the technology
+had been available the Big Scientists would all have had sockets
+stuffed with microsofts. It was the style that mattered and
+the style was the same. The Moderns were mercenaries, practical
+jokers, nihilistic technofetishists.
+The one who showed up at the loft door with a box of
+diskettes from the Finn was a soft-voiced boy called Angelo.
+His face was a simple graft grown on collagen and shark-
+ cartilage polysaccharides, smooth and hideous. It was one of
+the nastiest pieces of elective surgery Case had ever seen. When
+Angelo smiled, revealing the razor-sharp canines of some large
+animal, Case was actually relieved. Tooth bud transplants. He'd
+seen that before.
+"You can't let the little pricks generation-gap you," Molly
+said. Case nodded, absorbed in the patterns of the Sense/Net
+ice.
+This was it. This was what he was, who he was, his being.
+He forgot to eat. Molly left cartons of rice and foam trays of
+sushi on the corner of the long table. Sometimes he resented
+having to leave the deck to use the chemical toilet they'd set
+up in a corner of the loft. Ice patterns formed and reformed on
+the screen as he probed for gaps, skirted the most obvious
+traps, and mapped the route he'd take through Sense/Net's ice.
+It was good ice. Wonderful ice. Its patterns burned there while
+he lay with his arm under Molly's shoulders, watching the red
+dawn through the steel grid of the skylight. Its rainbow pixel
+maze was the first thing he saw when he woke. He'd go straight
+to the deck, not bothering to dress, and jack in. He was cutting
+it. He was working. He lost track of days.
+And sometimes, falling asleep, particularly when Molly was
+off on one of her reconnaissance trips with her rented cadre of
+Moderns, images of Chiba came flooding back. Faces and
+Ninsei neon. Once he woke from a confused dream of Linda
+Lee, unable to recall who she was or what she'd ever meant
+to him. When he did remember, he jacked in and worked for
+nine straight hours.
+The cutting of Sense/Net's ice took a total of nine days.
+"I said a week," Armitage said, unable to conceal his satisfaction
+when Case showed him his plan for the run. "You
+took your own good time."
+"Balls," Case said, smiling at the screen. "That's good work,
+Armitage."
+"Yes," Armitage admitted, "but don't let it go to your head.
+Compared to what you'll eventually be up against, this is an
+arcade toy."
+
+"Love you, Cat Mother," whispered the Panther Modern's
+link man. His voice was modulated static in Case's headset.
+"Atlanta, Brood. Looks go. Go, got it?" Molly's voice was
+slightly clearer.
+"To hear is to obey." The Moderns were using some kind
+of chicken wire dish in New Jersey to bounce the link man's
+scrambled signal off a Sons of Christ the King satellite in
+geosynchronous orbit above Manhattan. They chose to regard
+the entire operation as an elaborate private joke, and their
+choice of comsats seemed to have been deliberate. Molly's
+signals were being beamed up from a one-meter umbrella dish
+epoxy-ed to the roof of a black glass bank tower nearly as tall
+as the Sense/Net building.
+Atlanta. The recognition code was simple. Atlanta to Boston
+to Chicago to Denver, five minutes for each city. If anyone
+managed to intercept Molly's signal, unscramble it, synth her
+voice, the code would tip the Moderns. If she remained in the
+building for more than twenty minutes, it was highly unlikely
+she'd be coming out at all.
+Case gulped the last of his coffee, settled the trodes in place,
+and scratched his chest beneath his black t-shirt. He had only
+a vague idea of what the Panther Moderns planned as a diversion
+for the Sense/Net security people. His job was to make
+sure the intrusion program he'd written would link with the
+Sense/Net systems when Molly needed it to. He watched the
+countdown in the corner of the screen. Two. One.
+He jacked in and triggered his program. "Mainline," breathed
+the link man, his voice the only sound as Case plunged through
+the glowing strata of Sense/Net ice. Good. Check Molly. He
+hit the Simstim and flipped into her sensorium.
+The scrambler blurred the visual input slightly. She stood
+before a wall of gold-flecked mirror in the building's vast white
+lobby, chewing gum, apparently fascinated by her own reflection.
+Aside from the huge pair of sunglasses concealing her
+mirrored insets, she managed to look remarkably like she
+belonged there, another tourist girl hoping for a glimpse of
+Tally Isham. She wore a pink plastic raincoat, a white mesh
+top, loose white pants cut in a style that had been fashionable
+in Tokyo the previous year. She grinned vacantly and popped
+her gum. Case felt like laughing. He could feel the micro pore
+tape across her ribcage, feel the flat little units under it: the
+radio, the Simstim unit, and the scrambler. The throat mike,
+glued to her neck, looked as much as possible like an analgesic
+dermadisk. Her hands, in the pockets of the pink coat, were
+flexing systematically through a series of tension-release exercises.
+It took him a few seconds to realize that the peculiar
+sensation at the tips of her fingers was caused by the blades as
+they were partially extruded, then retracted.
+He flipped back. His program had reached the fifth gate.
+He watched as his icebreaker strobed and shifted in front of
+him, only faintly aware of his hands playing across the deck,
+making minor adjustments. Translucent planes of color shuffled
+like a trick deck. Take a card, he thought, any card.
+The gate blurred past. He laughed. The Sense/Net ice had
+accepted his entry as a routine transfer from the consortium's
+Los Angeles complex. He was inside. Behind him, viral subprograms
+peeled off, meshing with the gate' s code fabric, ready
+to deflect the real Los Angeles data when it arrived.
+He flipped again. Molly was strolling past the enormous
+circular reception desk at the rear of the lobby.
+12:01:20 as the readout flared in her optic nerve.
+At midnight, synch Ed with the chip behind Molly's eye, the
+link man in Jersey had given his command. "Mainline." Nine
+Moderns, scattered along two hundred miles of the Sprawl,
+had simultaneously dialed MAX EMERG from pay phones.
+Each Modern delivered a short set speech, hung up, and drifted
+out into the night, peeling off surgical gloves. Nine different
+police departments and public security agencies were absorbing
+the information that an obscure sub sect of militant Christian
+fundamentalists had just taken credit for having introduced
+clinical levels of an outlawed psychoactive agent known as
+Blue Nine into the ventilation system of the Sense/Net Pyramid.
+Blue Nine, known in California as Grievous Angel, had been
+shown to produce acute paranoia and homicidal psychosis in
+eighty-five percent of experimental subjects.
+
+Case hit the switch as his program surged through the gates
+of the subsystem that controlled security for the Sense/Net
+research library. He found himself stepping into an elevator.
+"Excuse me, but are you an employee?" The guard raised
+his eyebrows. Molly popped her gum. "No," she said, driving
+the first two knuckles of her right hand into the man's solar
+plexus. As he doubled over, clawing for the beeper on his belt
+she slammed his head sideways, against the wall of the elevator.
+Chewing a little more rapidly now, she touched CLOSE
+DOOR and STOP on the illuminated panel. She took a black box
+from her coat pocket and inserted a lead in the keyhole of the
+lock that secured the panel's circuitry.
+
+The Panther Moderns allowed four minutes for their first
+move to take effect, then injected a second carefully prepared
+dose of misinformation. This time, they shot it directly into
+the Sense/Net building's internal video system.
+At 12:04:03, every screen in the building strobed for eighteen
+seconds in a frequency that produced seizures in a susceptible
+segment of Sense/Net employees. Then something only
+vaguely like a human face filled the screens, its features stretched
+across asymmetrical expanses of bone like some obscene Mercator
+projection. Blue lips parted wetly as the twisted, elongated
+jaw moved. Something, perhaps a hand, a thing like a reddish
+clump of gnarled roots, fumbled toward the camera, blurred,
+and vanished. Subliminally rapid images of contamination:
+graphics of the building's water supply system, gloved hands
+manipulating laboratory glassware, something tumbling down
+into darkness, a pale splash.... The audio track, its pitch adjusted
+to run at just less than twice the standard playback speed,
+was part of a month-old newscast detailing potential military
+uses of a substance known as HsG, a biochemical governing
+the human skeletal growth factor. Overdoses of HsG threw
+certain bone cells into overdrive, accelerating growth by factors
+as high as one thousand percent.
+At 12:05:00, the mirror-sheathed nexus of the Sense/Net
+consortium held just over three thousand employees. At five
+minutes after midnight, as the Moderns' message ended in a
+flare of white screen, the Sense/Net Pyramid screamed.
+Half a dozen NYPD Tactical hovercraft, responding to the
+possibility of Blue Nine in the building's ventilation system,
+were converging on the Sense/Net Pyramid. They were running
+full riot lights. A BAMA Rapid Deployment helicopter was
+lifting off from its pad on Riker's.
+
+Case triggered his second program. A carefully engineered
+virus attacked the code fabric screening primary custodial commands
+for the sub-basement that housed the Sense/Net research
+materials. "Boston," Molly's voice came across the link, "I'm
+downstairs." Case switched and saw the blank wall of the
+elevator. She was unzipping the white pants. A bulky packet,
+exactly the shade of her pale ankle, was secured there with
+micro pore. She knelt and peeled the tape away. Streaks of
+burgundy flickered across the mimetic polycarbon as she unfolded
+the Modern suit. She removed the pink raincoat, threw
+it down beside the white pants, and began to pull the suit on
+over the white mesh top.
+12:06:26.
+Case's virus had bored a window through the library's command
+ice. He punched himself through and found an infinite
+blue space ranged with color-coded spheres strung on a tight
+grid of pale blue neon. In the non space of the matrix, the interior
+of a given data construct possessed unlimited subjective dimension;
+a child's toy calculator, accessed through Case's Sendai
+would have presented limitless gulfs of nothingness hung
+with a few basic commands. Case began to key the sequence
+the Finn had purchased from a mid-eschelon sarariman with
+severe drug problems. He began to glide through the spheres
+as if he were on invisible tracks.
+Here. This one.
+Punching his way into the sphere, chill blue neon vault above
+him starless and smooth as frosted glass, he triggered a sub-
+program that effected certain alterations in the core custodial
+commands.
+Out now. Reversing smoothly, the virus reknitting the fabric
+of the window.
+Done.
+
+
+* * *
+In the Sense/Net lobby, two Panther Moderns sat alertly
+behind a low rectangular planter, taping the riot with a video
+camera. They both wore chameleon suits. "Tacticals are spray-
+ing foam barricades now," one noted, speaking for the benefit
+of his throat mike. "Rapids are still trying to land their copter."
+
+Case hit the Sim-Stim switch. And flipped into the agony of
+broken bone. Molly was braced against the blank gray wall of
+a long corridor, her breath coming ragged and uneven. Case
+was back in the matrix instantly, a white-hot line of pain fading
+in his left thigh.
+"What's happening, Brood?" he asked the link man.
+"I dunno, Cutter. Mother's not talking. Wait."
+Case's program was cycling. A single hair-fine thread of
+crimson neon extended from the center of the restored window
+to the shifting outline of his icebreaker. He didn't have time
+to wait. Taking a deep breath, he flipped again.
+Molly took a single step, trying to support her weight on
+the corridor wall. In the loft, Case groaned. The second step
+took her over an outstretched arm. Uniform sleeve bright with
+fresh blood. Glimpse of a shattered fiberglass shock stave. Her
+vision seemed to have narrowed to a tunnel. With the third
+step, Case screamed and found himself back in the matrix.
+"Brood? Boston, baby. . ." Her voice tight with pain. She
+coughed. "Little problem with the natives. Think one of them
+broke my leg."
+"What you need now, Cat Mother?" The link man's voice
+was indistinct, nearly lost behind static.
+Case forced himself to flip back. She was leaning against
+the wall, taking all of her weight on her right leg. She fumbled
+through the contents of the suit's kangaroo pocket and withdrew
+a sheet of plastic studded with a rainbow of dermadisks. She
+selected three and thumbed them hard against her left wrist,
+over the veins. Six thousand micrograms of endorphin analog
+came down on the pain like a hammer, shattering it. Her back
+arched convulsively. Pink waves of warmth lapped up her thighs.
+She sighed and slowly relaxed.
+"Okay, Brood. Okay now. But I'll need a medical team
+when l come out. Tell my people. Cutter, I'm two minutes
+from target. Can you hold?"
+"Tell her I'm in and holding," Case said.
+Molly began to limp down the corridor. When she glanced
+back, once, Case saw the crumpled bodies of three Sense/Net
+security guards. One of them seemed to have no eyes.
+"Tacticals and Rapids have sealed the ground floor, Cat
+Mother. Foam barricades. Lobby's getting juicy."
+"Pretty juicy down here," she said, swinging herself through
+a pair of gray steel doors. "Almost there, Cutter."
+Case flipped into the matrix and pulled the trodes from his
+forehead. He was drenched with sweat. He wiped his forehead
+with a towel, took a quick sip of water from the bicycle bottle
+beside the Hosaka, and checked the map of the library displayed
+on the screen. A pulsing red cursor crept through the outline
+of a doorway. Only millimeters from the green dot that indicated
+the location of the Dixie Flat line's construct. He wondered
+what it was doing to her leg, to walk on it that way.
+With enough endorphin analog, she could walk on a pair of
+bloody stumps. He tightened the nylon harness that held him
+in the chair and replaced the trodes.
+Routine now: trodes, jack, and flip.
+The Sense/Net research library was a dead storage area; the
+materials stored here had to be physically removed before they
+could be interfaced. Molly hobbled between rows of identical
+gray lockers.
+"Tell her five more and ten to her left, Brood," Case said.
+"Five more and ten left, Cat Mother," the link man said.
+She took the left. A white-faced librarian cowered between
+two lockers, her cheeks wet, eyes blank. Molly ignored her.
+Case wondered what the Moderns had done to provoke that
+level of terror. He knew it had something to do with a hoaxed
+threat, but he' d been too involved with his ice to follow Molly ' s
+explanation.
+"That's it," Case said, but she'd already stopped in front of
+the cabinet that held the construct. Its lines reminded Case of
+the Neo-Aztec bookcases in Julie Deane's anteroom in Chiba.
+"Do it, Cutter," Molly said.
+Case flipped to cyberspace and sent a command pulsing
+down the crimson thread that pierced the library ice. Five separate
+alarm systems were convinced that they were still operative.
+The three elaborate locks deactivated, but considered
+themselves to have remained locked. The library's central bank
+suffered a minute shift in its permanent memory: the construct
+had been removed, per executive order, a month before. Checking
+for the authorization to remove the construct, a librarian
+would find the records erased.
+The door swung open on silent hinges.
+"0467839," Case said, and Molly drew a black storage unit
+from the rack. It resembled the magazine of a large assault
+rifle, its surfaces covered with warning decals and security
+ratings.
+Molly closed the locker door; Case flipped.
+He withdrew the line through the library ice. It whipped
+back into his program, automatically triggering a full system
+reversal. The Sense/Net gates snapped past him as he backed
+out, subprograms whirling back into the core of the icebreaker
+as he passed the gates where they had been stationed.
+"Out, Brood," he said, and slumped in his chair. After the
+concentration of an actual run, he could remain jacked in and
+still retain awareness of his body. It might take Sense/Net days
+to discover the theft of the construct. The key would be the
+deflection of the Los Angeles transfer, which coincided too
+neatly with the Modern's terror run. He doubted that the three
+security men Molly had encountered in the corridor would live
+to talk about it. He flipped.
+The elevator, with Molly's black box taped beside the control
+panel, remained where she'd left it. The guard still lay curled
+on the floor. Case noticed the term on his neck for the first
+time. Something of Molly's, to keep him under. She stepped
+over him and removed the black box before punching LOBBY.
+As the elevator door hissed open, a woman hurtled backward
+out of the crowd, into the elevator, and struck the rear wall
+with her head. Molly ignored her, bending over to peel the
+derm from the guard's neck. Then she kicked the white pants
+and the pink raincoat out the door, tossing the dark glasses
+after them, and drew the hood of her suit down across her
+forehead. The construct, in the suit's kangaroo pocket, dug
+into her sternum when she moved. She stepped out.
+
+Case had seen panic before, but never in an enclosed area.
+The Sense/Net employees, spilling out of the elevators, had
+surged for the street doors, only to meet the foam barricades
+of the Tacticals and the sandbag-guns of the BAMA Rapids.
+The two agencies, convinced that they were containing a horde
+of potential killers, were cooperating with an uncharacteristic
+degree of efficiency. Beyond the shattered wreckage of the
+main street doors, bodies were piled three deep on the barricades.
+The hollow thumping of the riot guns provided a constant
+background for the sound the crowd made as it surged back
+and forth across the lobby's marble floor. Case had never heard
+anything like that sound.
+Neither, apparently, had Molly. "Jesus," she said, and hesitated.
+It was a sort of keening, rising into a bubbling wail of
+MW and total fear. The lobby floor was covered with bodies,
+clothing, blood, and long trampled scrolls of yellow printout.
+"C'mon, sister. We're for out. " The eyes of the two Moderns
+stared out of madly swirling shades of polycarbon, their suits
+unable to keep up with the confusion of shape and color that
+raged behind them. "You hurt? C'mon. Tommy'll walk you."
+Tommy handed something to the one who spoke, a video camera
+wrapped in polycarbon.
+"Chicago," she said, "I'm on my way." And then she was
+falling, not to the marble floor, slick with blood and vomit,
+but down some blood warm well, into silence and the dark.
+
+The Panther Modern leader, who introduced himself as Lupus
+Yonderboy, wore a polycarbon suit with a recording feature
+that allowed him to replay backgrounds at will. Perched on the
+edge of Case's worktable like some kind of state of the art
+gargoyle, he regarded Case and Armitage with hooded eyes.
+He smiled. His hair was pink. A rainbow forest of microsofts
+bristled behind his left ear; the ear was pointed, tufted with
+more pink hair. His pupils had been modified to catch the light
+like a cat's. Case watched the suit crawl with color and texture.
+"You let it getout of control," Armitage said. He stood in
+the center of the loft like a statue, wrapped in the dark glossy
+folds of an expensive-looking trench coat.
+"Chaos, Mr. Who," Lupus Yonderboy said. "That is our
+mode and modus. That is our central kick. Your woman knows.
+We deal with her. Not with you, Mr. Who." His suit had taken
+on a weird angular pattern of beige and pale avocado. "She
+needed her medical team. She's with them. We'll watch out
+for her. Everything's fine." He smiled again.
+"Pay him," Case said.
+Armitage glared at him. "We don't have the goods."
+"Your woman has it," Yonderboy said.
+"Pay him."
+Armitage crossed stiffly to the table and took three fat bundles
+of New Yen from the pockets of his trench coat. "You
+want to count it?" he asked Yonder boy.
+"No," the Panther Modern said. "You'll pay. You're a Mr.
+Who. You pay to stay one. Not a Mr. Name."
+"I hope that isn't a threat," Armitage said.
+"That's business," said Yonderboy, stuffing the money into
+the single pocket on the front of his suit.
+The phone rang. Case answered.
+"Molly," he told Armitage, handing him the phone.
+
+The Sprawl's geodesics were lightening into predawn gray
+as Case left the building. His limbs felt cold and disconnected.
+He couldn't sleep. He was sick of the loft. Lupus had gone,
+then Armitage, and Molly was in surgery somewhere. Vibration
+beneath his feet as a train hissed past. Sirens Doppler Ed in the
+distance.
+He took corners at random, his collar up, hunched in a new
+leather jacket, flicking the first of a chain of Yeheyuans into
+the gutter and lighting another. He tried to imagine Armitage's
+toxin sacs dissolving in his bloodstream, microscopic membranes
+wearing thinner as he walked. It didn't seem real. Neither
+did the fear and agony he'd seen through Molly's eyes in
+the lobby of Sense/Net. He found himself trying to remember
+the faces of the three people he'd killed in Chiba. The men
+were blanks; the woman reminded him of Linda Lee. A battered
+tricycle-truck with mirrored windows bounced past him, empty
+plastic cylinders rattling in its bed.
+"Case."
+He darted sideways, instinctively getting a wall behind his
+back.
+"Message for you, Case." Lupus Yonder boy's suit cycled
+through pure primaries. "Pardon. Not to startle you."
+Case straightened up, hands in jacket pockets. He was a
+head taller than the Modern. "You ought a be careful, Yonder
+boy."
+"This is the message. Winter mute." He spelled it out.
+"From you?" Case took a step forward.
+"No," Yonderboy said. "For you."
+"Who from?"
+"Winter mute," Yonderboy repeated, nodding, bobbing his
+crest of pink hair. His suit went matte black, a carbon shadow
+against old concrete. He executed a strange little dance, his
+thin black arms whirling, and then he was gone. No. There.
+Hood up to hide the pink, the suit exactly the right shade of
+gray, mottled and stained as the sidewalk he stood on. The
+eyes winked back the red of a stoplight. And then he was really
+gone.
+Case closed his eyes, massaged them with numb fingers,
+leaning back against peeling brickwork.
+Ninsei had been a lot simpler.
+
+The medical team Molly employed occupied two floors of
+an anonymous condo-rack near the old hub of Baltimore. The
+building was modular, like some giant version of Cheap Hotel
+each coffin forty meters long. Case met Molly as she emerged
+from one that wore the elaborately worked logo of one GERALD
+CHIN, DENTIST. She was limping.
+"He says if I kick anything, it'll fall off."
+"I ran into one of your pals," he said, "a Modern."
+"Yeah? Which one?"
+"Lupus Yonderboy. Had a message." He passed her a paper
+napkin with W I N T E R M U T E printed in red feltpen in
+his neat, laborious capitals. "He said--" But her hand came
+up in the jive for silence.
+"Get us some crab," she said.
+
+After lunch in Baltimore, Molly dissecting her crab with
+alarming ease, they tubed in to New York. Case had learned
+not to ask questions; they only brought the sign for silence.
+Her leg seemed to be bothering her, and she seldom spoke.
+A thin black child with wooden beads and antique resistors
+woven tightly into her hair opened the Finn's door and led them
+along the tunnel of refuse. Case felt the stuff had grown somehow
+during their absence . Or else it seemed that it was changing
+subtly, cooking itself down under the pressure of time, silent
+invisible flakes settling to form a mulch, a crystalline essence
+of discarded technology, flowering secretly in the Sprawl's
+waste places.
+Beyond the army blanket, the Finn waited at the white table.
+Molly began to sign rapidly, produced a scrap of paper,
+wrote something on it, and passed it to the Finn. He took it
+between thumb and forefinger, holding it away from his body
+as though it might explode. He made a sign Case didn't know,
+one that conveyed a mixture of impatience and glum resignation.
+He stood up, brushing crumbs from the front of his battered
+tweed jacket. A glass jar of pickled herring stood on the
+table beside a torn plastic package of flatbread and a tin ashtray
+piled with the butts of Partagas.
+"Wait," the Finn said, and left the room.
+Molly took his place, extruded the blade from her index
+finger, and speared a grayish slab of herring. Case wandered
+aimlessly around the room, fingering the scanning gear on the
+pylons as he passed.
+Ten minutes and the Finn came bustling back, showing his
+teeth in a wide yellow smile. He nodded, gave Molly a thumbs-up
+salute, and gestured to Case to help him with the door panel.
+While Case smoothed the velcro border into place, the Finn
+took a flat little console from his pocket and punched out an
+elaborate sequence.
+"Honey," he said to Molly, tucking the console away, "you
+have got it. No shit, I can smell it. You wanna tell me where
+you got it?"
+"Yonderboy," Molly said, shoving the herring and crackers
+aside. "I did a deal with Larry, on the side."
+"Smart," the Finn said. "It's an AI."
+"Slow it down a little," Case said.
+"Berne," the Finn said, ignoring him. "Berne. It's got limited
+Swiss citizenship under their equivalent of the Act of '53.
+Built for Tessier-Ashpool S.A. They own the mainframe and
+the original software."
+"What's in Beme, okay?" Case deliberately stepped between
+them.
+"Wintermute is the recognition code for an AI. I've got the
+Turing Registry numbers. Artificial intelligence."
+"That's all just fine," Molly said, "but where's it get us?"
+"If Yonderboy's right," the Finn said, "this Al is backing
+Armitage."
+"I paid Larry to have the Moderns nose around Ammitage a
+little," Molly explained, turning to Case. "They have some
+very weird lines of communication. Deal was, they'd get my
+money if they answered one question: who's running Armitage?"
+"And you think it's this AI? Those things aren't allowed
+any autonomy. It'll be the parent corporation, this Tessle. . ."
+"Tessier-Ashpool S.A.," said the Finn. "And I got a little
+story for you about them. Wanna hear?" He sat down and
+hunched forward.
+"Finn," Molly said. "He loves a story."
+"Haven't ever told anybody this one," the Finn began.
+
+The Finn was a fence, a trafficker in stolen goods, primarily
+in software. In the course of his business, he sometimes came
+into contact with other fences, some of whom dealt in the more
+traditional articles of the trade. In precious metals, stamps, rare
+coins, gems, jewelry, furs, and paintings and other works of
+art. The story he told Case and Molly began with another man's
+story, a man he called Smith.
+Smith was also a fence, but in balmier seasons he surfaced
+as an art dealer. He was the first person the Finn had known
+who'd "gone silicon"--the phrase had an old-fashioned ring
+for Case--and the microsofts he purchased were art history
+programs and tables of gallery sales. With half a dozen chips
+in his new socket, Smith's knowledge of the art business was
+formidable, at least by the standards of his colleagues. But
+Smith had come to the Finn with a request for help, a fraternal
+request, one businessman to another. He wanted a go-to on the
+Tessier-Ashpool clan, he said, and it had to be executed in a
+way that would guarantee the impossibility of the subject ever
+tracing the inquiry to its source. It might be possible, the Finn
+had opined, but an explanation was definitely required. "It
+smelled," the Finn said to Case, "smelled of money. And Smith
+was being very careful. Almost too careful."
+Smith, it developed, had had a supplier known as Jimmy.
+Jimmy was a burglar and other things as well, and just back
+from a year in high orbit, having carried certain things back
+down the gravity well. The most unusual thing Jimmy had
+managed to score on his swing through the archipelago was a
+head, an intricately worked bust, cloisonne over platinum, studded
+with seedpearls and lapis. Smith, sighing, had put down
+his pocket microscope and advised Jimmy to melt the thing
+down. It was contemporary, not an antique, and had no value
+to the collector. Jimmy laughed. The thing was a computer
+terminal, he said. It could talk. And not in a synth-voice, but
+with a beautiful arrangement of gears and miniature organ pipes.
+It was a baroque thing for anyone to have constructed, a perverse
+thing, because synth-voice chips cost next to nothing. It
+was a curiosity. Smith jacked the head into his computer and
+listened as the melodious, inhuman voice piped the figures of
+last year's tax return.
+Smith' s clientele included a Tokyo billionaire whose passion
+for clockwork automata approached fetishism. Smith shrugged,
+showing Jimmy his upturned palms in a gesture old as pawn
+shops. He could try, he said, but he doubted he could get much
+for it.
+When Jimmy had gone, leaving the head, Smith went over
+it carefully, discovering certain hallmarks. Eventually he'd been
+able to trace it to an unlikely collaboration between two Zurich
+artisans, an enamel specialist in Paris, a Dutch jeweler, and a
+California chip designer. It had been commissioned, he discovered,
+by Tessier-Ashpool S.A.
+Smith began to make preliminary passes at the Tokyo collector,
+hinting that he was on the track of something noteworthy.
+
+And then he had a visitor, a visitor unannounced, one who
+walked in through the elaborate maze of Smith's security as
+though it didn't exist. A small man, Japanese, enormously
+polite, who bore all the marks of a vatgrown ninja assassin.
+Smith sat very still, staring into the calm brown eyes of death
+across a polished table of Vietnamese rosewood. Gently, almost
+apologetically, the cloned killer explained that it was his duty
+to find and return a certain artwork, a mechanism of great
+beauty, which had been taken from the house of his master. It
+had come to his attention, the ninja said, that Smith might
+know of the whereabouts of this object.
+Smith told the man that he had no wish to die, and produced
+the head. And how much, his visitor asked did you expect to
+obtain through the sale of this object? Smith named a figure
+far lower than the price he'd intended to set. The ninja produced
+a credit chip and keyed Smith that amount out of a numbered
+Swiss account. And who, the man asked, brought you this
+piece? Smith told him. Within days, Smith learned of Jimmy's
+death.
+"So that was where I came in," the Finn continued. "Smith
+knew I dealt a lot with the Memory Lane crowd, and that's
+where you go for a quiet go-to that'll never be traced. I hired
+a cowboy. I was the cut-out, so I took a percentage. Smith,
+he was careful. He'd just had a very weird business experience
+and he'd come out on top, but it didn't add up. Who'd paid,
+out of that Swiss stash? Yakuza? No way. They got a very
+rigid code covers situations like that, and they kill the receiver
+too, always. Was it spook stuff? Smith didn't think so. Spook
+biz has a vibe, you get so you can smell it. Well, I had my
+cowboy buzz the news morgues until we found Tessier-Ashpool
+in litigation. The case wasn't anything, but we got the law
+firm. Then he did the lawyer's ice and we got the family
+address. Lotta good it did us."
+Case raised his eyebrows.
+"Freeside," the Finn said. "The spindle. Turns out they own
+damn near the whole thing. The interesting stuff was the picture
+we got when the cowboy ran a regular go-to on the news
+morgues and compiled a precis. Family organization. Corporate
+structure. Supposedly you can buy into an S.A., but there hasn't
+been a share of Tessier-Ashpool traded on the open market in
+over a hundred years. On any market, as far as I know. You're
+looking at a very quiet, very eccentric first-generation high-
+orbit family, run like a corporation. Big money, very shy of
+media. Lot of cloning. Orbital law's a lot softer on genetic
+engineering, right? And it's hard to keep track of which gen-
+eration, or combination of generations, is running the show at
+a given time."
+"How's that?" Molly asked.
+"Got their own cryogenic setup. Even under orbital law,
+you're legally dead for the duration of a freeze. Looks like
+they trade off, though nobody's seen the founding father in
+about thirty years. Founding momma, she died in some lab
+accident...."
+"So what happened with your fence?"
+"Nothing." The Finn frowned. "Dropped it. We had a look
+at this fantastic tangle of powers of attorney the T-A's have,
+and that was it. Jimmy must've gotten into Straylight, lifted
+the head, and Tessier-Ashpool sent their ninja after it. Smith
+decided to forget about it. Maybe he was smart." He looked
+at Molly. "The Villa Straylight. Tip of the spindle. Strictly
+private."
+"You figure they own that ninja, Finn?" Molly asked.
+"Smith thought so."
+"Expensive," she said. "Wonder whatever happened to that
+little ninja, Finn?"
+"Probably got him on ice. Thaw when needed."
+"Okay," Case said, "we got Armitage getting his goodies
+off an AI named Wintermute. Where's that get us?"
+"Nowhere yet," Molly said, "but you got a little side gig
+now." She drew a folded scrap of paper from her pocket and
+handed it to him. He opened it. Grid coordinates and entry
+codes.
+"Who's this?"
+"Armitage. Some data base of his. Bought it from the Mod-
+erns. Separate deal. Where is it?"
+"London," Case said.
+"Crack it." She laughed. "Earn your keep for a change."
+
+Case waited for a trans-BAMA local on the crowded plat-
+form. Molly had gone back to the loft hours ago, the Flatline's
+construct in her green bag, and Case had been drinking steadily
+ever since.
+It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct, a
+hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man's skills, obsessions,
+kneejerk responses.... The local came booming in
+along the black induction strip, fine grit sifting from cracks in
+the tunnel's ceiling. Case shuffled into the nearest door and
+watched the other passengers as he rode. A pair of predatory-
+looking Christian Scientists were edging toward a trio of young
+office techs who wore idealized holographic vaginas on their
+wrists, wet pink glittering under the harsh lighting. The techs
+licked their perfect lips nervously and eyed the Christian Scientists
+from beneath lowered metallic lids. The girls looked
+like tall, exotic grazing animals, swaying gracefully and unconsciously
+with the movement of the train, their high heels
+like polished hooves against the gray metal of the car's floor.
+Before they could stampede, take flight from the missionaries,
+the train reached Case's station.
+He stepped out and caught sight of a white holographic cigar
+suspended against the wall of the station, FREESIDE pulsing
+beneath it in contorted capitals that mimicked printed Japanese.
+He walked through the crowd and stood beneath it, studying
+the thing. WHY WAIT? pulsed the sign. A blunt white spindle,
+flanged and studded with grids and radiators, docks, domes.
+He'd seen the ad, or others like it, thousands of times. It had
+never appealed to him. With his deck, he could reach the
+Freeside banks as easily as he could reach Atlanta. Travel was
+a meat thing. But now he noticed the little sigil, the size of a
+small coin, woven into the lower left corner of the ad's fabric
+of light: T-A.
+He walked back to the loft, lost in memories of the Flatline.
+He'd spent most of his nineteenth summer in the Gentleman
+Loser, nursing expensive beers and watching the cowboys.
+He'd never touched a deck, then, but he knew what he wanted.
+There were at least twenty other hopefuls ghosting the Loser,
+that summer, each one bent on working joeboy for some cowboy.
+No other way to learn.
+They'd all heard of Pauley, the redneck jockey from the
+'Lanta fringes, who'd survived braindeath behind black ice.
+The grapevine--slender, street level, and the only one going--
+had little to say about Pauley, other than that he'd done the
+impossible. "It was big," another would-be told Case, for the
+price of a beer, "but who knows what? I hear maybe a Brazilian
+payroll net. Anyway, the man was dead, flat down braindeath."
+Case stared across the crowded bar at a thickset man in shirtsleeves,
+something leaden about the shade of his skin.
+"Boy," the Flatline would tell him, months later in Miami,
+"I'm like them huge fuckin' lizards, you know? Had themself
+two goddam brains, one in the head an' one by the tailbone,
+kept the hind legs movin'. Hit that black stuff and ol' tailbrain
+jus' kept right on keepin' on."
+The cowboy elite in the Loser shunned Pauley out of some
+strange group anxiety, almost a superstition. McCoy Pauley,
+Lazarus of cyberspace....
+And his heart had done for him in the end. His surplus
+Russian heart, implanted in a POW camp during the war. He'd
+refused to replace the thing, saying he needed its particular
+beat to maintain his sense of timing. Case fingered the slip of
+paper Molly had given him and made his way up the stairs.
+Molly was snoring on the temperfoam. A transparent cast
+ran from her knee to a few millimeters below her crotch, the
+skin beneath the rigid micropore mottled with bruises, the black
+shading into ugly yellow. Eight derms, each a different size
+and color, ran in a neat line down her left wrist. An Akai
+transdermal unit lay beside her, its fine red leads connected to
+input trodes under the cast.
+He turned on the tensor beside the Hosaka. The crisp circle
+of light fell directly on the Flatline's construct. He slotted some
+ice, connected the construct, and jacked in.
+It was exactly the sensation of someone reading over his
+shoulder.
+He coughed. "Dix? McCoy? That you man?" His throat was
+tight.
+"Hey, bro," said a directionless voice.
+"It's Case, man. Remember?"
+"Miami, joeboy, quick study."
+"What's the last thing you remember before I spoke to you,
+Dix?"
+"Nothin'."
+"Hang on." He disconnected the construct. The presence
+was gone. He reconnected it. "Dix? Who am I?"
+"You got me hung, Jack. Who the fuck are you?"
+"Ca--your buddy. Partner. What's happening, man?"
+"Good question."
+"Remember being here, a second ago?"
+"No."
+"Know how a ROM personality matrix works?"
+"Sure, bro, it's a firmware construct."
+"So I jack it into the bank I'm using, I can give it sequential,
+real time memory?"
+"Guess so," said the construct.
+"Okay, Dix. You are a ROM construct. Got me?"
+"If you say so," said the construct. "Who are you?"
+"Case."
+"Miami," said the voice, "joeboy, quick study."
+"Right. And for starts, Dix, you and me, we're gonna sleaze
+over to London grid and access a little data. You game for
+that?"
+"You gonna tell me I got a choice, boy?"
+"You want you a paradise," the Flatline advised, when Case
+had explained his situation. "Check Copenhagen, fringes of
+the university section." The voice recited coordinates as he
+punched.
+They found their paradise, a "pirate's paradise," on the
+jumbled border of a low-security academic grid. At first glance
+it resembled the kind of graffiti student operators sometimes
+left at the junctions of grid lines, faint glyphs of colored light
+that shimmered against the confused outlines of a dozen arts
+faculties.
+"There," said the Flatline, "the blue one. Make it out? That's
+an entry code for Bell Europa. Fresh, too. Bell'll get in here
+soon and read the whole damn board, change any codes they
+find posted. Kids'll steal the new ones tomorrow."
+Case tapped his way into Bell Europa and switched to a
+standard phone code. With the Flatline's help, he connected
+with the London data base that Molly claimed was Armitage's.
+"Here," said the voice, "I'll do it for you." The Flatline
+began to chant a series of digits, Case keying them on his deck,
+trying to catch the pauses the construct used to indicate timing.
+It took three tries.
+"Big deal," said the Flatline. "No ice at all."
+"Scan this shit," Case told the Hosaka. "Sift for owner's
+personal history."
+The neuroelectronic scrawls of the paradise vanished, re-
+placed by a simple lozenge of white light. "Contents are pri-
+marily video recordings of postwar military trials," said the
+distant voice of the Hosaka. "Central figure is Colonel Willis
+Corto."
+"Show it already," Case said.
+A man's face filled the screen. The eyes were Armitage's.
+Two hours later, Case fell beside Molly on the slab and let
+the temperfoam mold itself against him.
+"You find anything?" she asked, her voice fuzzy with sleep
+and drugs.
+"Tell you later," he said, "I'm wrecked." He was hungover
+and confused. He lay there, eyes closed, and tried to sort the
+various parts of a story about a man called Corto. The Hosaka
+had sorted a thin store of data and assembled a precis, but it
+was full of gaps. Some of the material had been print records,
+reeling smoothly down the screen, too quickly, and Case had
+had to ask the computer to read them for him. Other segments
+were audio recordings of the Screaming Fist hearing.
+Willis Corto, Colonel, had plummeted through a blind spot
+in the Russian defenses over Kirensk. The shuttles had created
+the hole with pulse bombs, and Corto's team had dropped in
+in Nightwing microlights, their wings snapping taut in moonlight,
+reflected in jags of silver along the rivers Angara and
+Podhamennaya, the last light Corto would see for fifteen months.
+Case tried to imagine the microlights blossoming out of their
+launch capsules, high above a frozen steppe.
+"They sure as hell did shaft you, boss," Case said, and
+Molly stirred beside him.
+The microlights had been unarmed, stripped to compensate
+for the weight of a console operator, a prototype deck, and a
+virus program called Mole IX, the first true virus in the history
+of cybernetics. Corto and his team had been training for the
+run for three years. They were through the ice, ready to inject
+Mole IX, when the emps went off. The Russian pulse guns
+threw the jockeys into electronic darkness; the Nightwings suffered
+systems crash, flight circuitry wiped clean.
+Then the lasers opened up, aiming on infrared, taking out
+the fragile, radar-transparent assault planes, and Corto and his
+dead console man fell out of a Siberian sky. Fell and kept
+falling....
+There were gaps in the story, here, where Case scanned
+documents concerning the flight of a commandeered Russian
+gunship that managed to reach Finland. To be gutted, as it
+landed in a spruce grove, by an antique twenty-millimeter can-
+non manned by a cadre of reservists on dawn alert. Screaming
+Fist had ended for Corto on the outskirts of Helsinki, with
+Finnish paramedics sawing him out of the twisted belly of the
+helicopter. The war ended nine days later, and Corto was shipped
+to a military facility in Utah, blind, legless, and missing most
+of his jaw. It took eleven months for the Congressional aide
+to find him there. He listened to the sound of tubes draining.
+In Washington and McLean, the show trials were already un-
+derway. The Pentagon and the CIA were being Balkanized,
+partially dismantled, and a Congressional investigation had focused
+on Screaming Fist. Ripe for watergating, the aide told
+Corto.
+He'd need eyes, legs, and extensive cosmetic work, the aide
+said, but that could be arranged. New plumbing, the man added,
+squeezing Corto's shoulder through the sweat-damp sheet.
+Corto heard the soft, relentless dripping. He said he preferred
+to testify as he was.
+No, the aide explained, the trials were being televised. The
+trials needed to reach the voter. The aide coughed politely.
+Repaired, refurnished, and extensively rehearsed, Corto's
+subsequent testimony was detailed, moving, lucid, and largely
+the invention of a Congressional cabal with certain vested interests
+in saving particular portions of the Pentagon infrastructure.
+Corto gradually understood that the testimony he gave
+was instrumental in saving the careers of three officers directly
+responsible for the suppression of reports on the building of
+the emp installations at Kirensk.
+His role in the trials over, he was unwanted in Washington.
+In an M Street restaurant, over asparagus crepes, the aide explained
+the terminal dangers involved in talking to the wrong
+people. Corto crushed the man's larynx with the rigid fingers
+of his right hand. The Congressional aide strangled, his face
+in an asparagus crepe, and Corto stepped out into cool Washington
+September.
+The Hosaka rattled through police reports, corporate espionage
+records, and news files. Case watched Corto work corporate
+defectors in Lisbon and Marrakesh, where he seemed
+to grow obsessed with the idea of betrayal, to loathe the scientists
+and technicians he bought out for his employers. Drunk,
+in Singapore, he beat a Russian engineer to death in a hotel
+and set fire to his room.
+Next he surfaced in Thailand, as overseer of a heroin factory.
+Then as enforcer for a California gambling cartel, then as a
+paid killer in the ruins of Bonn. He robbed a bank in Wichita.
+The record grew vague, shadowy, the gaps longer.
+One day, he said, in a taped segment that suggested chemical
+interrogation, everything had gone gray.
+Translated French medical records explained that a man
+without identification had been taken to a Paris mental health
+unit and diagnosed as schizophrenic. He became catatonic and
+was sent to a government institution on the outskirts of Toulon.
+He became a subject in an experimental program that sought
+to reverse schizophrenia through the application of cybernetic
+models. A random selection of patients were provided with
+microcomputers and encouraged, with help from students, to
+program them. He was cured, the only success in the entire
+experiment.
+The record ended there.
+
+Case turned on the foam and Molly cursed him softly for
+disturbing her.
+The telephone rang. He pulled it into bed. "Yeah?"
+"We're going to Istanbul," Armitage said. "Tonight."
+"What does the bastard want?" Molly asked.
+"Says we're going to Istanbul tonight."
+"That's just wonderful."
+Armitage was reading off flight numbers and departure times.
+Molly sat up and turned on the light.
+"What about my gear?" Case asked. "My deck."
+"Finn will handle it," said Armitage, and hung up.
+Case watched her pack. There were dark circles under her
+eyes, but even with the cast on, it was like watching a dance.
+No wasted motion. His clothes were a rumpled pile beside his
+bag.
+"You hurting?" he asked.
+"I could do with another night at Chin's."
+"Your dentist?"
+"You betcha. Very discreet. He's got half that rack, full
+clinic. Does repairs for samurai." She was zipping her bag.
+"You ever been to 'Stanbul?"
+"Couple days, once."
+"Never changes," she said. "Bad old town."
+"It was like this when we headed for Chiba," Molly said,
+staring out the train window at blasted industrial moonscape,
+red beacons on the horizon warning aircraft away from a fusion
+plant. "We were in L.A. He came in and said Pack, we were
+booked for Macau. When we got there, I played fantan in the
+Lisboa and he crossed over into Zhongshan. Next day I was
+playing ghost with you in Night City." She took a silk scarf
+from the sleeve of her black jacket and polished the insets. The
+landscape of the northern Sprawl woke confused memories of
+childhood for Case, dead grass tufting the cracks in a canted
+slab of freeway concrete.
+The train began to decelerate ten kilometers from the airport.
+Case watched the sun rise on the landscape of childhood, on
+broken slag and the rusting shells of refineries.
+
+It was raining in Beyoglu, and the rented Mercedes slid past
+the grilled and unlit windows of cautious Greek and Armenian
+jewelers. The street was almost empty, only a few dark-coated
+figures on the sidewalks turning to stare after the car.
+"This was formerly the prosperous European section of Ottoman
+Istanbul," purred the Mercedes.
+"So it's gone downhill," Case said.
+"The Hilton's in Cumhuriyet Caddesi," Molly said. She
+settled back against the car's gray ultrasuede.
+"How come Armitage flies alone?" Case asked. He had a
+headache.
+"'Cause you get up his nose. You're sure getting up mine."
+He wanted to tell her the Corto story, but decided against
+it. He'd used a sleep derm, on the plane.
+The road in from the airport had been dead straight, like a
+neat incision, laying the city open. He'd watched the crazy
+walls of patchwork wooden tenements slide by, condos, arcologies,
+grim housing projects, more walls of plyboard and
+corrugated iron.
+The Finn, in a new Shinjuku suit, sarariman black, was
+waiting sourly in the Hilton lobby, marooned on a velour armchair
+in a sea of pale blue carpeting.
+"Christ," Molly said. "Rat in a business suit."
+They crossed the lobby.
+"How much you get paid to come over here, Finn?" She
+lowered her bag beside the armchair. "Bet not as much as you
+get for wearing that suit, huh?"
+The Finn' s upper lips drew back. "Not enough, sweetmeat. "
+He handed her a magnetic key with a round yellow tag. "You're
+registered already. Honcho's upstairs." He looked around. "This
+town sucks."
+"You get agoraphobic, they take you out from under a dome.
+Just pretend it's Brooklyn or something." She twirled the key
+around a finger. "You here as valet or what?"
+"I gotta check out some guy's implants," the Finn said.
+"How about my deck?" Case asked.
+The Finn winced. "Observe the protocol. Ask the boss."
+Molly's fingers moved in the shadow of her jacket, a flicker
+of jive. The Finn watched, then nodded.
+"Yeah," she said, "I know who that is." She jerked her head
+in the direction of the elevators. "Come on, cowboy." Case
+followed her with both bags.
+
+Their room might have been the one in Chiba where he'd
+first seen Armitage. He went to the window, in the morning,
+almost expecting to see Tokyo Bay. There was another hotel
+across the street. It was still raining. A few letter-writers had
+taken refuge in doorways, their old voiceprinters wrapped in
+sheets of clear plastic, evidence that the written word still
+enjoyed a certain prestige here. It was a sluggish country. He
+watched a dull black Citroen sedan, a primitive hydrogen-cell
+conversion, as it disgorged five sullen-looking Turkish officers
+in rumpled green uniforms. They entered the hotel across the
+street.
+He glanced back at the bed, at Molly, and her paleness
+struck him. She'd left the micropore cast on the bedslab in
+their loft, beside the transdermal inducer. Her glasses reflected
+part of the room's light fixture.
+He had the phone in his hand before it had a chance to ring
+twice. "Glad you're up," Armitage said.
+"I'm just. Lady's still under. Listen, boss, I think it's maybe
+time we have a little talk. I think I work better if I know a
+little more about what I'm doing."
+Silence on the line. Case bit his lip.
+"You know as much as you need to. Maybe more."
+"You think so?"
+"Get dressed, Case. Get her up. You'll have a caller in
+about fifteen minutes. His name is Terzibashjian." The phone
+bleated softly. Armitage was gone.
+"Wake up, baby," Case said. "Biz."
+"I've been awake an hour already." The mirrors turned.
+"We got a Jersey Bastion coming up."
+"You got an ear for language, Case. Bet you're part Ar-
+menian. That's the eye Armitage has had on Riviera. Help me
+up."
+Terzibashjian proved to be a young man in a gray suit and
+gold-framed, mirrored glasses. His white shirt was open at the
+collar, revealing a mat of dark hair so dense that Case at first
+mistook it for some kind of t-shirt. He arrived with a black
+Hilton tray arranged with three tiny, fragrant cups of thick
+black coffee and three sticky, straw-colored Oriental sweets.
+"We must, as you say in Ingiliz, take this one very easy."
+He seemed to stare pointedly at Molly, but at last he removed
+the silver glasses. His eyes were a dark brown that matched
+the shade of his very short military-cut hair. He smiled. "It is
+better, this way, yes? Else we make the tunel infinity, mirror
+into mirror.... You particularly," he said to her, "must take
+care. In Turkey there is disapproval of women who sport such
+modifications."
+Molly bit one of the pastries in half. "It's my show, Jack,"
+she said, her mouth full. She chewed, swallowed, and licked
+her lips. "I know about you. Stool for the military, right?" Her
+hand slid lazily into the front of her jacket and came out with
+the fletcher. Case hadn't known she had it.
+"Very easy, please," Terzibashjian said, his white china
+thimble frozen centimeters from his lips.
+She extended the gun. "Maybe you get the explosives, lots
+of them, or maybe you get a cancer. One dart, shitface. You
+won't feel it for months."
+"Please. You call this in Ingiliz making me very tight...."
+"I call it a bad morning. Now tell us about your man and
+get your ass out of here." She put the gun away.
+"He is living in Fener, at Kuchuk Gulhane Djaddesi 14. 1
+have his tunel route, nightly to the bazaar. He performs most
+recently at the Yenishehir Palas Oteli, a modern place in the
+style turistik, but it has been arranged that the police have
+shown a certain interest in these shows. The Yenishehir man-
+agement has grown nervous." He smiled. He smelled of some
+metallic aftershave.
+"I want to know about the implants," she said, massaging
+her thigh, "I want to know exactly what he can do."
+Terzibashjian nodded. "Worst is how you say in Ingiliz, the
+subliminals." He made the word four careful syllables.
+
+"On our left," said the Mercedes, as it steered through a
+maze of rainy streets, "is Kapali Carsi, the grand bazaar."
+Beside Case, the Finn made an appreciative noise, but he
+was looking in the wrong direction. The right side of the street
+was lined with miniature scrapyards. Case saw a gutted loco-
+motive atop rust-stained, broken lengths of fluted marble.
+Headless marble statues were stacked like firewood.
+"Homesick?" Case asked.
+"Place sucks," the Finn said. His black silk tie was starting
+to resemble a worn carbon ribbon. There were medallions of
+kebab gravy and fried egg on the lapels of the new suit.
+"Hey, Jersey," Case said to the Armenian, who sat behind
+them, "where'd this guy get his stuff installed?"
+"In Chiba City. He has no left lung. The other is boosted,
+is how you say it? Anyone might buy these implants, but this
+one is most talented." The Mercedes swerved, avoiding a bal-
+loon-tired dray stacked with hides. "I have followed him in the
+street and seen a dozen cycles fall, near him, in a day. Find
+the cyclist in a hospital, the story is always the same. A scorpion
+poised beside a brake lever...."
+"'What you see is what you get,' yeah," the Finn said. "I
+seen the schematics on the guy's silicon. Very flash. What he
+imagines, you see. I figure he could narrow it to a pulse and
+fry a retina over easy."
+"You have told this to your woman friend?" Terzibashjian
+leaned forward between the ultrasuede buckets. "In Turkey,
+women are still women. This one. . ."
+The Finn snorted. "She'd have you wearing your balls for
+a bow tie if you looked at her cross-eyed."
+"I do not understand this idiom."
+"That's okay," Case said. "Means shut up."
+The Armenian sat back, leaving a metallic edge of after-
+shave. He began to whisper to a Sanyo transceiver in a strange
+salad of Greek, French, Turkish, isolated fragments of English.
+The transceiver answered in French. The Mercedes swung
+smoothly around a corner. "The spice bazaar, sometimes called
+the Egyptian bazaar," the car said, "was erected on the site of
+an earlier bazaar erected by Sultan Hatice in 1660. This is the
+city's central market for spices, software, perfumes, drugs...."
+"Drugs," Case said, watching the car's wipers cross and
+recross the bulletproof Lexan. "What's that you said before,
+Jersey, about this Riviera being wired?"
+"A mixture of cocaine and meperidine, yes." The Armenian
+went back to the conversation he was having with the Sanyo.
+' Demerol, they used to call that," said the Finn. "He's a
+speedball artist. Funny class of people you're mixing with,
+Case."
+"Never mind," Case said, turning up the collar of his jacket,
+"we'll get the poor fucker a new pancreas or something."
+
+Once they entered the bazaar, the Finn brightened notice-
+ably, as though he were comforted by the crowd density and
+the sense of enclosure. They walked with the Armenian along
+a broad concourse, beneath soot-stained sheets of plastic and
+green-painted ironwork out of the age of steam. A thousand
+suspended ads writhed and flickered.
+"Hey, Christ," the Finn said, taking Case's arm, "looka
+that." He pointed. "It's a horse, man. You ever see a horse?"
+Case glanced at the embalmed animal and shook his head.
+It was displayed on a sort of pedestal, near the entrance to a
+place that sold birds and monkeys. The thing's legs had been
+worn black and hairless by decades of passing hands. "Saw
+one in Maryland once," the Finn said, "and that was a good
+three years after the pandemic. There's Arabs still trying to
+code 'em up from the DNA, but they always croak."
+The animal's brown glass eyes seemed to follow them as
+they passed. Terzibashjian led them into a cafe near the core
+of the market, a low-ceilinged room that looked as though it
+had been in continuous operation for centuries. Skinny boys
+in soiled white coats dodged between the crowded tables, bal-
+ancing steel trays with bottles of Turk-Tuborg and tiny glasses
+of tea.
+Case bought a pack of Yeheyuans from a vendor by the
+door. The Armenian was muttering to his Sanyo. "Come," he
+said, "he is moving. Each night he rides the tunel to the bazaar,
+to purchase his mixture from Ali. Your woman is close. Come."
+
+The alley was an old place, too old, the walls cut from
+blocks of dark stone. The pavement was uneven and smelled
+of a century's dripping gasoline, absorbed by ancient limestone.
+"Can't see shit," he whispered to the Finn. "That's okay for
+sweetmeat," the Finn said. "Quiet," said Terzibashjian, too
+loudly
+Wood grated on stone or concrete. Ten meters down the
+alley, a wedge of yellow light fell across wet cobbles, widened.
+A figure stepped out and the door grated shut again, leaving
+the narrow place in darkness. Case shivered.
+"Now," Terzibashjian said, and a brilliant beam of white
+light, directed from the rooftop of the building opposite the
+market, pinned the slender figure beside the ancient wooden
+door in a perfect circle. Bright eyes darted left, right, and the
+man crumpled. Case thought someone had shot him; he lay
+face down, blond hair pale against the old stone, his limp hands
+white and pathetic.
+The floodlight never wavered.
+The back of the fallen man's jacket heaved and burst, blood
+splashing the wall and doorway. A pair of impossibly long,
+rope-tendoned arms flexed grayish-pink in the glare. The thing
+seemed to pull itself up out of the pavement, through the inert,
+bloody ruin that had been Riviera. It was two meters tall, stood
+on two legs, and seemed to be headless. Then it swung slowly
+to face them, and Case saw that it had a head, but no neck. It
+was eyeless, the skin gleaming a wet intestinal pink. The mouth,
+if it was a mouth, was circular, conical, shallow, and lined
+with a seething growth of hairs or bristles, glittering like black
+chrome. It kicked the rags of clothing and flesh aside and took
+a step, the mouth seeming to scan for them as it moved.
+Terzibashjian said something in Greek or Turkish and rushed
+the thing, his arms spread like a man attempting to dive through
+a window. He went through it. Into the muzzle-flash of a pistol
+from the dark beyond the circle of light. Fragments of rock
+whizzed past Case's head; the Finn jerked him down into a
+crouch.
+The light from the rooftop vanished, leaving him with mis-
+matched afterimages of muzzle-flash, monster, and white beam.
+His ears rang.
+Then the light returned, bobbing now, searching the shad-
+ows. Terzibashjian was leaning against a steel door, his face
+very white in the glare. He held his left wrist and watched
+blood drip from a wound in his left hand. The blond man,
+whole again, unbloodied, lay at his feet.
+Molly stepped out of the shadows, all in black, with her
+fletcher in her hand.
+"Use the radio," the Armenian said, through gritted teeth.
+"Call in Mahmut. We must get him out of here. This is not a
+good place."
+"Little prick nearly made it," the Finn said, his knees crack-
+ing loudly as he stood up, brushing ineffectually at the legs of
+his trousers. "You were watching the horror-show, right? Not
+the hamburger that got tossed out of sight. Real cute. Well,
+help 'em get his ass outa here. I gotta scan all that gear before
+he wakes up, make sure Armitage is getting his money's worth."
+Molly bent and picked something up. A pistol. "A Nambu,"
+she said. "Nice gun."
+Terzibashjian made a whining sound. Case saw that most
+of his middle finger was missing.
+
+With the city drenched in predawn blue, she told the Mercedes
+to take them to Topkapi . The Finn and an enormous Turk named
+Mahmut had taken Riviera, still unconscious, from the alley.
+Minutes later, a dusty Citroen had arrived for the Armenian
+who seemed on the verge of fainting.
+"You're an asshole," Molly told the man, opening the car
+door for him. "You shoulda hung back. I had him in my sights
+as soon as he stepped out." Terzibashjian glared at her. "So
+we're through with you anyway." She shoved him in and
+slammed the door. "Run into you again and I'll kill you," she
+said to the white face behind the tinted window. The Citroen
+ground away down the alley and swung clumsily into the street.
+Now the Mercedes whispered through Istanbul as the city
+woke. They passed the Beyoglu tunel terminal and sped past
+mazes of deserted back streets, run-down apartment houses that
+reminded Case vaguely of Paris.
+"What is this thing?" he asked Molly, as the Mercedes
+parked itself on the fringes of the gardens that surround the
+Scraglio. He stared dully at the baroque conglomeration of
+styles that was Topkapi.
+"It was sort of a private whorehouse for the King," she said,
+getting out stretching. "Kept a lotta women there. Now it's a
+museum. Kinda like Finn's shop, all this stuff just jumbled in
+there big diamonds, swords, the left hand of John the
+Baptist...."
+"Like in a support vat?"
+"Nah. Dead. Got it inside this brass hand thing, little hatch
+on the side so the Christians could kiss it for luck. Got it off
+the Christians about a million years ago, and they never dust
+the goddam thing, 'cause it's an infidel relic."
+Black iron deer rusted in the gardens of the Seraglio. Case
+walked beside her, watching the toes of her boots crunch unkept
+grass made stiff by an early frost. They walked beside a path
+of cold octagonal flagstones. Winter was waiting, somewhere
+in the Balkans.
+"That Terzi, he's grade-A scum," she said. "He's the secret
+police. Torturer. Real easy to buy out, too, with the kind of
+money Armitage was offering." In the wet trees around them,
+birds began to sing.
+"I did that job for you," Case said, "the one in London. I
+got something, but I don't know what it means." He told her
+the Corto story.
+
+"Well, I knew there wasn't anybody name of Armitage in
+that Screaming Fist. Looked it up." She stroked the rusted
+flank of an iron doe. "You figure the little computer pulled
+him out of it? In that French hospital?"
+"I figure Wintermute," Case said.
+She nodded.
+"Thing is," he said, "do you think he knows he was Corto,
+before? I mean, he wasn't anybody in particular, by the time
+he hit the ward, so maybe Wintermute just. . ."
+"Yeah. Built him up from go. Yeah..." She turned and
+they walked on. "It figures. You know, the guy doesn't have
+any life going, in private. Not as far as I can tell. You see a
+guy like that, you figure there's something he does when he's
+alone. But not Armitage. Sits and stares at the wall, man. Then
+something clicks and he goes into high gear and wheels for
+Wintermute."
+"So why's he got that stash in London? Nostalgia?"
+"Maybe he doesn't know about it," she said. "Maybe it's
+just in his name, right?"
+"I don't get it," Case said.
+"Just thinking out loud.... How smart's an Al, Case?"
+"Depends. Some aren't much smarter than dogs. Pets. Cost
+a fortune anyway. The real smart ones are as smart as the
+Turing heat is willing to let 'em get."
+"Look, you're a cowboy. How come you aren't just flat-
+out fascinated with those things?"
+"Well," he said, "for starts, they're rare. Most of them are
+military, the bright ones, and we can't crack the ice. That's
+where ice all comes from, you know? And then there's the
+Turing cops, and that's bad heat." He looked at her. "I dunno,
+it just isn't part of the trip."
+"Jockeys all the same," she said. "No imagination."
+They came to a broad rectangular pond where carp nuzzled
+the stems of some white aquatic flower. She kicked a loose
+pebble in and watched the ripples spread.
+"That's Wintermute," she said. "This deal's real big, looks
+to me. We're out where the little waves are too broad, we can't
+see the rock that hit the center. We know something's there,
+but not why. I wanna know why. I want you to go and talk to
+Wintermute."
+"I couldn't get near it," he said. "You're dreaming."
+"Try."
+"Can't be done."
+"Ask the Flatline."
+"What do we want out of that Riviera?" he asked, hoping
+to change the subject.
+She spat into the pond. "God knows. I'd as soon kill him
+as look at him. I saw his profile. He's a kind of compulsive
+Judas. Can't get off sexually unless he knows he's betraying
+the object of desire. That's what the file says. And they have
+to love him first. Maybe he loves them, too. That's why it was
+easy for Terzi to set him up for us, because he's been here
+three years, shopping politicals to the secret police. Probably
+Terzi let him watch, when the cattle prods came out. He's done
+eighteen in three years. All women age twenty to twenty-five.
+It kept Terzi in dissidents." She thrust her hands into her jacket
+pockets. "Because if he found one he really wanted, he'd make
+sure she turned political. He's got a personality like a Modern's
+suit. The profile said it was a very rare type, estimated one in
+a couple of million. Which anyway says something good about
+human nature, I guess." She stared at the white flowers and
+the sluggish fish, her face sour. "I think I'm going to have to
+buy myself some special insurance on that Peter." Then she
+turned and smiled, and it was very cold.
+"What's that mean?"
+"Never mind. Let's go back to Beyoglu and find something
+like breakfast. I gotta busy night again, tonight. Gotta collect
+his stuff from that apartment in Fener, gotta go back to the
+bazaar and buy him some drugs...."
+"Buy him some drugs? How's he rate?"
+She laughed. "He's not dying on the wire, sweetheart. And
+it looks like he can't work without that special taste. I like you
+better now, anyway, you aren't so goddam skinny." She smiled.
+"So I'll go to Ali the dealer and stock up. You betcha."
+
+Armitage was waiting in their room at the Hilton.
+"Time to pack," he said, and Case tried to find the man
+called Corto behind the pale blue eyes and the tanned mask.
+He thought of Wage, back in Chiba. Operators above a certain
+level tended to submerge their personalities, he knew. But
+Wage had had vices, lovers. Even, it had been rumored, chil-
+dren. The blankness he found in Armitage was something else.
+"Where to now?" he asked, walking past the man to stare
+down into the street. "What kind of climate?"
+"They don't have climate, just weather," Armitage said.
+"Here. Read the brochure." He put something on the coffee
+table and stood.
+"Did Riviera check out okay? Where's the Finn?"
+"Riviera's fine. The Finn is on his way home." Armitage
+smiled, a smile that meant as much as the twitch of some
+insect's antenna. His gold bracelet clinked as he reached out
+to prod Case in the chest. "Don't get too smart. Those little
+sacs are starting to show wear, but you don't know how much."
+Case kept his face very still and forced himself to nod.
+When Armitage was gone, he picked up one of the bro-
+chures. It was expensively printed, in French, English, and
+Turkish.
+FREESIDE--WHY WAIT?
+
+The four of them were booked on a THY flight out of Yes-
+ilkoy airport. Transfer at Paris to the JAL shuttle. Case sat in
+the lobby of the Istanbul Hilton and watched Riviera browse
+bogus Byzantine fragments in the glass-walled gift-shop. Ar-
+mitage, his trenchcoat draped over his shoulders like a cape,
+stood in the shop's entrance.
+Riviera was slender, blond, soft-voiced, his English ac-
+centless and fluid. Molly said he was thirty, but it would have
+been difficult to guess his age. She also said he was legally
+stateless and traveled under a forged Dutch passport. He was
+a product of the rubble rings that fringe the radioactive core
+of old Bonn.
+Three smiling Japanese tourists bustled into the shop, nod-
+ding politely to Armitage. Armitage crossed the floor of the
+shop too quickly, too obviously, to stand beside Riviera. Ri-
+viera turned and smiled. He was very beautiful; Case assumed
+the features were the work of a Chiba surgeon. A subtle job,
+nothing like Armitage's blandly handsome blend of pop faces.
+The man's forehead was high and smooth, gray eyes calm and
+distant. His nose, which might have been too nicely sculpted,
+seemed to have been broken and clumsily reset. The suggestion
+of brutality offset the delicacy of his jaw and the quickness of
+his smile. His teeth were small, even, and very white. Case
+watched the white hands play over the imitation fragments of
+sculpture.
+Riviera didn't act like a man who'd been attacked the night
+before, drugged with a toxin-flechette, abducted, subjected to
+the Finn's examination, and pressured by Armitage into joining
+their team.
+Case checked his watch. Molly was due back from her drug
+run. He looked up at Riviera again. "I bet you're stoned right
+now, asshole," he said to the Hilton lobby. A graying Italian
+matron in a white leather tuxedo jacket lowered her Porsche
+glasses to stare at him. He smiled broadly, stood, and shoul-
+dered his bag. He needed cigarettes for the flight. He wondered
+if there was a smoking section on the JAL shuttle. "See ya
+lady," he said to the woman, who promptly slid the sunglasses
+back up her nose and turned away.
+There were cigarettes in the gift shop, but he didn't relish
+talking with Armitage or Riviera. He left the lobby and located
+a vending console in a narrow alcove, at the end of a rank of
+pay phones.
+He fumbled through a pocketful of lirasi, slotting the small
+dull alloy coins one after another, vaguely amused by the anach-
+ronism of the process. The phone nearest him rang.
+Automatically, he picked it up.
+"Yeah?"
+Faint harmonics, tiny inaudible voices rattling across some
+orbital link, and then a sound like wind.
+"Hello. Case."
+A fifty-lirasi coin fell from his hand, bounced, and rolled
+out of sight across Hilton carpeting.
+"Wintermute, Case. It's time we talk."
+It was a chip voice.
+"Don't you want to talk, Case?"
+He hung up.
+On his way back to the lobby, his cigarettes forgotten, he
+had to walk the length of the ranked phones. Each rang in turn,
+but only once, as he passed.
+
+
+PART THREE
+
+MIDNIGHT IN THE
+RUE JULES VERNE
+
+Archipelago.
+The islands. Torus, spindle, cluster. Human DNA spreading
+out from gravity's steep well like an oilslick.
+Call up a graphics display that grossly simplifies the ex-
+change of data in the L-S archipelago. One segment clicks in
+as red solid, a massive rectangle dominating your screen.
+Freeside. Freeside is many things, not all of them evident
+to the tourists who shuttle up and down the well. Freeside is
+brothel and banking nexus, pleasure dome and free port, bor-
+der town, and spa. Freeside is Las Vegas and the hanging gar-
+dens of Babylon, an orbital Geneva and home to a family inbred
+and most carefully refined, the industrial clan of Tessier and
+Ashpool.
+
+On the THY liner to Paris, they sat together in First Class,
+Molly in the window seat, Case beside her, Riviera and Ar-
+mitage on the aisle. Once, as the plane banked over water,
+Case saw the jewel-glow of a Greek island town. And once,
+reaching for his drink, he caught the flicker of a thing like a
+giant human sperm in the depths of his bourbon and water.
+Molly leaned across him and slapped Riviera's face, once.
+"No, baby. No games. You play that subliminal shit around
+me, I'll hurt you real bad. I can do it without damaging you
+at all. I like that."
+Case turned automatically to check Armitage's reaction. The
+smooth face was calm, the blue eyes alert, but there was no
+anger. "That's right, Peter. Don't."
+Case turned back, in time to catch the briefest flash of a
+black rose, its petals sheened like leather, the black stem thorned
+with bright chrome.
+Peter Riviera smiled sweetly, closed his eyes, and fell in-
+stantly asleep.
+Molly turned away, her lenses reflected in the dark window.
+"You been up, haven't you?" Molly asked, as he squirmed
+his way back into the deep temperfoam couch on the JAL
+shuttle.
+"Nah. Never travel much, just for biz." The steward was
+attaching readout trodes to his wrist and left ear.
+"Hope you don't get SAS," she said.
+"Airsick? No way."
+"It's not the same. Your heartbeat'll speed up in zero-g, and
+your inner ear'll go nuts for a while. Kicks in your flight reflex,
+like you'll be getting signals to run like hell, and a lot of
+adrenaline." The steward moved on to Riviera, taking a new
+set of trodes from his red plastic apron.
+Case turned his head and tried to make out the outline of
+the old Orly terminals, but the shuttle pad was screened by
+graceful blast-deflectors of wet concrete. The one nearest the
+window bore an Arabic slogan in red spraybomb.
+He closed his eyes and told himself the shuttle was only a
+big airplane, one that flew very high. It smelled like an airplane,
+like new clothes and chewing gum and exhaustion. He listened
+to the piped koto music and waited.
+Twenty minutes, then gravity came down on him like a
+great soft hand with bones of ancient stone.
+
+* * *
+Space adaptation syndrome was worse than Molly's de-
+scription, but it passed quickly enough and he was able to
+sleep. The steward woke him as they were preparing to dock
+at JAL's terminal cluster.
+We transfer to Freeside now?" he asked, eyeing a shred
+of Yeheyuan tobacco that had drifted gracefully up out of his
+shirt pocket to dance ten centimeters from his nose. There was
+no smoking on shuttle flights.
+"No, we got the boss's usual little kink in the plans, you
+know? We're getting this taxi out to Zion, Zion cluster." She
+touched the release plate on her harness and began to free
+herself from the embrace of the foam. "Funny choice of venue,
+you ask me."
+"How's that?"
+"Dreads. Rastas. Colony's about thirty years old now."
+"What's that mean?"
+"You'll see. It's an okay place by me. Anyway, they'll let
+you smoke your cigarettes there."
+
+Zion had been founded by five workers who'd refused to
+return, who'd turned their backs on the well and started build-
+ing. They'd suffered calcium loss and heart shrinkage before
+rotational gravity was established in the colony's central torus.
+Seen from the bubble of the taxi, Zion's makeshift hull re-
+minded Case of the patchwork tenements of Istanbul, the ir-
+regular, discolored plates laser-scrawled with Rastafarian
+symbols and the initials of welders.
+Molly and a skinny Zionite called Aerol helped Case ne-
+gotiate a freefall corridor into the core of a smaller torus. He'd
+lost track of Armitage and Riviera in the wake of a second
+wave of SAS vertigo. "Here," Molly said, shoving his legs
+into a narrow hatchway overhead. "Grab the rungs. Make like
+you're climbing backward, right? You're going toward the hull,
+that's like you're climbing down into gravity. Got it?"
+Case's stomach churned.
+"You be fine, mon," Aerol said, his grin bracketed with
+gold incisors.
+Somehow, the end of the tunnel had become its bottom.
+Case embraced the weak gravity like a drowning man finding
+a pocket of air.
+"Up," Molly said, "you gonna kiss it next?" Case lay flat
+on the deck, on his stomach, arms spread. Something struck
+him on the shoulder. He rolled over and saw a fat bundle of
+elastic cable. "Gotta play house," she said. "You help me string
+this up." He looked around the wide, featureless space and
+noticed steel rings welded on every surface, seemingly at ran-
+dom.
+When they'd strung the cables, according to some complex
+scheme of Molly's, they hung them with battered sheets of
+yellow plastic. As they worked, Case gradually became aware
+of the music that pulsed constantly through the cluster. It was
+called dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of
+digitalized pop; it was worship, Molly said, and a sense of
+community. Case heaved at one of the yellow sheets; the thing
+was light but still awkward. Zion smelled of cooked vegetables,
+humanity, and ganja.
+"Good," Armitage said, gliding loose-kneed through the
+hatch and nodding at the maze of sheets. Riviera followed, less
+certain in the partial gravity.
+"Where were you when it needed doing?" Case asked Ri-
+viera.
+The man opened his mouth to speak. A small trout swam
+out, trailing impossible bubbles. It glided past Case's cheek.
+"In the head," Riviera said, and smiled.
+Case laughed.
+"Good," Riviera said, "you can laugh. I would have tried
+to help you, but I'm no good with my hands." He held up his
+palms, which suddenly doubled. Four arms, four hands.
+"Just the harmless clown, right, Riviera?" Molly stepped
+between them.
+"Yo," Aerol said, from the hatch, "you wan' come wi' me,
+cowboy mon."
+"It's your deck," Armitage said, "and the other gear. Help
+him get it in from the cargo bay."
+"You ver' pale, mon," Aerol said, as they were guiding the
+foam-bundled Hosaka terminal along the central corridor.
+"Maybe you wan' eat somethin'."
+Case's mouth flooded with saliva; he shook his head.
+
+* * *
+Armitage announced an eighty-hour stay in Zion. Molly and
+Case would practice in zero gravity, he said, and acclimatize
+themselves to working in it. He would brief them on Freeside
+and the Villa Straylight. It was unclear what Riviera was sup-
+posed to be doing, but Case didn't feel like asking. A few
+hours after their arrival, Armitage had sent him into the yellow
+maze to call Riviera out for a meal. He'd found him curled
+like a cat on a thin pad of temperfoam, naked, apparently
+asleep, his head orbited by a revolving halo of small white
+geometric forms, cubes, spheres, and pyramids. "Hey, Ri-
+viera." The ring continued to revolve. He'd gone back and told
+Armitage. "He's stoned," Molly said, looking up from the
+disassembled parts of her fletcher. "Leave him be."
+Armitage seemed to think that zero-g would affect Case's
+ability to operate in the matrix. 'Don't sweat it," Case argued,
+"I jack in and I'm not here. It's all the same."
+"Your adrenaline levels are higher," Armitage said. "You've
+still got SAS. You won't have time for it to wear off. You're
+going to learn to work with it. '
+"So I do the run from here'?"
+"No. Practice, Case. Now. Up in the corridor...."
+
+Cyberspace, as the deck presented it, had no particular re-
+lationship with the deck's physical whereabouts. When Case
+jacked in, he opened his eyes to the familiar configuration of
+the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority's Aztec pyramid of
+data.
+"How you doing, Dixie?''
+"I'm dead, Case. Got enough time in on this Hosaka to
+figure that one."
+"How's it feel?"
+"It doesn't."
+"Bother you?"
+"What bothers me is, nothin' does."
+"How's that?"
+"Had me this buddy in the Russian camp, Siberia, his thumb
+was frostbit. Medics came by and they cut it off. Month later
+he's tossin' all night. Elroy. l said, what's eatin' you? Goddam
+thumb's itchin', he says. So l told him, scratch it. McCoy, he
+says, it's the other goddam thumb." When the construct laughed,
+it came through as something else, not laughter, but a stab of
+cold down Case's spine. "Do me a favor, boy."
+"What's that, Dix?"
+"This scam of yours, when it's over, you erase this goddam
+thing."
+
+Case didn't understand the Zionites.
+Aerol, with no particular provocation, related the tale of the
+baby who had burst from his forehead and scampered into a
+forest of hydroponic ganja. "Ver' small baby, mon, no long'
+you finga." He rubbed his palm across an unscarred expanse
+of brown forehead and smiled.
+"It's the ganja," Molly said, when Case told her the story.
+"They don't make much of a difference between states, you
+know? Aerol tells you it happened, well, it happened to him.
+It's not like bullshit, more like poetry. Get it?"
+Case nodded dubiously. The Zionites always touched you
+when they were talking, hands on your shoulder. He didn't
+like that.
+"Hey, Aerol," Case called, an hour later, as he prepared
+for a practice run in the freefall corridor. "Come here, man.
+Wanna show you this thing." He held out the trodes.
+Aerol executed a slow-motion tumble. His bare feet struck
+the steel wall and he caught a girder with his free hand. The
+other held a transparent waterbag bulging with blue-green al-
+gae. He blinked mildly and grinned.
+"Try it," Case said.
+He took the band, put it on, and Case adjusted the trodes.
+He closed his eyes. Case hit the power stud. Aerol shuddered.
+Case jacked him back out. "What did you see, man?"
+"Babylon," Aerol said, sadly, handing him the trodes and
+kicking off down the corridor.
+Riviera sat motionless on his foam pad, his right arm ex-
+tended straight out, level with his shoulder. A jewel-scaled
+snake, its eyes like ruby neon, was coiled tightly a few
+millimeters behind his elbow. Case watched the snake, which
+was finger-thick and banded black and scarlet, slowly contract,
+tightening around Riviera's arm.
+"Come then," the man said caressingly to the pale waxy
+scorpion poised in the center of his upturned palm. "Come."
+The scorpion swayed its brownish claws and scurried up his
+arm, its feet tracking the faint dark telltales of veins. When it
+reached the inner elbow, it halted and seemed to vibrate. Ri-
+viera made a soft hissing sound. The sting came up, quivered,
+and sank into the skin above a bulging vein. The coral snake
+relaxed, and Riviera sighed slowly as the injection hit him.
+Then the snake and the scorpion were gone, and he held a
+milky plastic syringe in his left hand. "'If God made anything
+better, he kept it for himself. ' You know the expression, Case?"
+"Yeah," Case said. "I heard that about lots of different
+things. You always make it into a little show?"
+Riviera loosened and removed the elastic length of surgical
+tubing from his arm. "Yes. It's more fun." He smiled, his eyes
+distant now, cheeks flushed. "I've a membrane set in, just over
+the vein, so I never have to worry about the condition of the
+needle."
+"Doesn't hurt?"
+The bright eyes met his. "Of course it does. That's part of
+it, isn't it?"
+"I'd just use derms," Case said.
+"Pedestrian," Riviera sneered, and laughed, putting on a
+short-sleeved white cotton shirt.
+"Must be nice," Case said, getting up.
+"Get high yourself, Case?"
+"I hadda give it up."
+
+"Freeside," Armitage said, touching the panel on the little
+Braun hologram projector. The image shivered into focus, nearly
+three meters from tip to tip. "Casinos here." He reached into
+the skeletal representation and pointed. "Hotels, strata-title
+property, big shops along here." His hand moved. "Blue areas
+are lakes." He walked to one end of the model. "Big cigar.
+Narrows at the ends."
+"We can see that fine," Molly said.
+"Mountain effect, as it narrows. Ground seems to get higher,
+more rocky, but it's an easy climb. Higher you climb, the
+lower the gravity. Sports up there. There's velodrome ring
+here." He pointed.
+"A what?" Case leaned forward.
+"They race bicycles," Molly said. "Low grav, high-traction
+tires, get up over a hundred kilos an hour."
+"This end doesn't concern us," Armitage said with his usual
+utter seriousness.
+"Shit," Molly said, "I'm an avid cyclist."
+Riviera giggled.
+Armitage walked to the opposite end of the projection. "This
+end does." The interior detail of the hologram ended here, and
+the final segment of the spindle was empty. "This is the Villa
+Straylight. Steep climb out of gravity and every approach is
+kinked. There's a single entrance, here, dead center. Zero grav-
+ity."
+"What's inside, boss?" Riviera leaned forward, craning his
+neck. Four tiny figures glittered, near the tip of Armitage's
+finger. Armitage slapped at them as if they were gnats.
+"Peter," Armitage said, "you're going to be the first to find
+out. You'll arrange yourself an invitation. Once you're in, you
+see that Molly gets in."
+Case stared at the blankness that represented Straylight,
+remembering the Finn's story: Smith, Jimmy, the talking head,
+and the ninja.
+"Details available?" Riviera asked. "I need to plan a ward-
+robe, you see."
+"Learn the streets," Armitage said, returning to the center
+of the model. "Desiderata Street here. This is the Rue Jules
+Verne."
+Riviera rolled his eyes.
+While Armitage recited the names of Freeside avenues, a
+dozen bright pustules rose on his nose, cheeks, and chin. Even
+Molly laughed.
+Armitage paused, regarded them all with his cold empty
+eyes.
+"Sorry," Riviera said, and the sores flickered and vanished.
+
+Case woke, late into the sleeping period, and became aware
+of Molly crouched beside him on the foam. He could feel her
+tension. He lay there confused. When she moved, the sheer
+speed of it stunned him. She was up and through the sheet of
+yellow plastic before he'd had time to realize she'd slashed it
+open.
+"Don't you move, friend."
+Case rolled over and put his head through the rent in the
+plastic. "Wha. . . ?"
+"Shut up."
+"You th' one, mon," said a Zion voice. "Cateye, call 'em
+call 'em Steppin' Razor. I Maelcum, sister. Brothers wan
+converse wi' you an' cowboy."
+"What brothers?"
+"Founders, mon. Elders of Zion, ya know...."
+"We open that hatch, the light'll wake bossman," Case
+whispered.
+"Make it special dark, now," the man said. "Come. I an' I
+visit th' Founders."
+"You know how fast I can cut you, friend?"
+"Don' stan' talkin', sister. Come."
+
+The two surviving Founders of Zion were old men, old with
+the accelerated aging that overtakes men who spend too many
+years outside the embrace of gravity. Their brown legs, brittle
+with calcium loss, looked fragile in the harsh glare of reflected
+sunlight. They floated in the center of a painted jungle of
+rainbow foliage, a lurid communal mural that completely cov-
+ered the hull of the spherical chamber. The air was thick with
+resinous smoke.
+"Steppin' Razor," one said, as Molly drifted into the cham-
+ber. "Like unto a whippin' stick."
+"That is a story we have, sister," said the other, "a religion
+story. We are glad you've come with Maelcum."
+"How come you don't talk the patois?" Molly asked.
+"I came from Los Angeles," the old man said. His dread-
+locks were like a matted tree with branches the color of steel
+wool. "Long time ago, up the gravity well and out of Babylon.
+To lead the Tribes home. Now my brother likens you to Step-
+pin' Razor."
+Molly extended her right hand and the blades flashed in the
+smoky air.
+The other Founder laughed, his head thrown back. "Soon
+come, the Final Days.... Voices. Voices cryin' inna wilder-
+ness, prophesyin' ruin unto Babylon...."
+"Voices." The Founder from Los Angeles was staring at
+Case. "We monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came
+a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. It played
+us a mighty dub."
+"Call 'em Winter Mute," said the other, making it two
+words.
+Case felt the skin crawl on his arms.
+"The Mute talked to us," the first Founder said. "The Mute
+said we are to help you."
+"When was this?" Case asked.
+"Thirty hours prior you dockin' Zion."
+"You ever hear this voice before?"
+"No," said the man from Los Angeles, "and we are uncertain
+of its meaning. If these are Final Days, we must expect false
+prophets ...."
+"Listen," Case said, "that's an Al, you know? Artificial
+intelligence. The music it played you, it probably just tapped
+your banks and cooked up whatever it thought you'd like
+to--"
+"Babylon," broke in the other Founder, "mothers many de-
+mon, I an' I know. Multitude horde!"
+"What was that you called me, old man?" Molly asked.
+"Steppin' Razor. An' you bring a scourge on Babylon, sis-
+ter, on its darkest heart...."
+"What kinda message the voice have?" Case asked.
+"We were told to help you," the other said, "that you might
+serve as a tool of Final Days." His lined face was troubled.
+"We were told to send Maelcum with you, in his tug Garvey,
+to the Babylon port of Freeside. And this we shall do."
+"Maelcum a rude boy," said the other, "an' a righteous tug
+pilot."
+"But we have decided to send Aerol as well, in Babylon
+Rocker, to watch over Garvey."
+An awkward silence filled the dome.
+"That's it?" Case asked. "You guys work for Armitage or
+what?"
+"We rent you space," said the Los Angeles Founder. "We
+have a certain involvement here with various traffics, and no
+regard for Babylon's law. Our law is the word of Jah. But this
+time, it may be, we have been mistaken."
+"Measure twice, cut once," said the other, softly.
+"Come on, Case," Molly said. "Let's get back before the
+man figures out we're gone."
+"Maelcum will take you. Jah love, sister."
+
+The tug Marcus Garvey, a steel drum nine meters long and
+two in diameter, creaked and shuddered as Maelcum punched
+for a navigational burn. Splayed in his elastic g-web, Case
+watched the Zionite's muscular back through a haze of sco-
+polamine. He'd taken the drug to blunt SAS, nausea, but the
+stimulants the manufacturer included to counter the scop had
+no effect on his doctored system.
+"How long's it gonna take us to make Freeside?" Molly
+asked from her web beside Maelcum's pilot module.
+"Don' be long now, m'seh dat."
+"You guys ever think in hours?"
+"Sister, time, it be time, ya know wha mean? Dread," and
+he shook his locks, "at control, moo, an' I an' I come a Freeside
+when I an' I come...."
+"Case," she said, "have you maybe done anything toward
+getting in touch with our pal from Berne? Like all that time
+you spent in Zion, plugged in with your lips moving?"
+"Pal," Case said, "sure. No. I haven't. But I got a funny
+story along those lines, left over from Istanbul." He told her
+about the phones in the Hilton.
+"Christ," she said, "there goes a chance. How come you
+hung up?"
+"Coulda been anybody," he lied. "lust a chip ... I dunno...."
+He shrugged.
+"Not just 'cause you were scared, huh?"
+He shrugged again.
+"Do it now."
+"What?"
+"Now. Anyway, talk to the Flatline about it."
+"I'm all doped," he protested, but reached for the trodes.
+His deck and the Hosaka had been mounted behind Maelcum's
+module along with a very high-resolution Cray monitor.
+He adjusted the trodes. Marcus Garvey had been thrown
+together around an enormous old Russian air scrubber, a rec-
+tangular thing daubed with Rastafarian symbols, Lioos of Zion
+and Black Star Liners, the reds and greens and yellows over-
+laying wordy decals in Cyrillic script. Someone had sprayed
+Maelcum's pilot gear a hot tropical pink, scraping most of the
+overspray off the screens and readouts with a razor blade. The
+gaskets around the airlock in the bow were festooned with
+semirigid globs and streamers of translucent caulk, like clumsy
+strands of imitation seaweed. He glanced past Maelcum's
+shoulder to the central screen and saw a docking display: the
+tug's path was a line of red dots, Freeside a segmented green
+circle. He watched the line extend itself, generating a new dot.
+He jacked in.
+"Dixie?"
+"Yeah."
+"You ever try to crack an AI?"
+"Sure. I flatlined. First time. I was larkin' jacked up real
+high, out by Rio heavy commerce sector. Big biz, multina-
+tionals, Government of Brazil lit up like a Christmas tree. Just
+larkin' around, you know? And then I started picking up on
+this one cube, maybe three levels higher up. Jacked up there
+and made a pass."
+"What did it look like, the visual?"
+"White cube."
+"How'd you know it was an Al?"
+"How'd I know? Jesus. It was the densest ice I'd ever seen.
+So what else was it? The military down there don't have any-
+thing like that. Anyway, I jacked out and told my computer to
+look it up."
+"Yeah?"
+"It was on the Turing Registry. Al. Frog company owned
+its Rio mainframe."
+Case chewed his lower lip and gazed out across the plateaus
+of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority, into the infinite
+neuroelectronic void of the matrix. "Tessier-Ashpool, Dixie?"
+"Tessier, yeah."
+"And you went back?"
+"Sure. I was crazy. Figured I'd try to cut it. Hit the first
+strata and that's all she wrote. My joeboy smelled the skin
+frying and pulled the trodes off me. Mean shit, that ice."
+"And your EEG was flat."
+"Well, that's the stuff of legend, ain't it?"
+Case jacked out. "Shit," he said, "how do you think Dixie
+got himself flatlined, huh? Trying to buzz an AI. Great...."
+"Go on," she said, "the two of you are supposed to be
+dynamite, right?"
+
+"Dix," Case said, "I wanna have a look at an AI in Berne.
+Can you think of any reason not to?"
+"Not unless you got a morbid fear of death, no."
+Case punched for the Swiss banking sector, feeling a wave
+of exhilaration as cyberspace shivered, blurred, gelled. The
+Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority was gone, replaced by the
+cool geometric intricacy of Zurich commercial banking. He
+punched again, for Berne.
+"Up," the construct said. "It'll be high."
+They ascended lattices of light, levels strobing, a blue flicker.
+That'll be it, Case thought.
+Wintermute was a simple cube of white light, that very
+simplicity suggesting extreme complexity.
+"Don't look much, does it?" the Flatline said. "But just you
+try and touch it."
+"I'm going in for a pass, Dixie."
+"Be my guest."
+
+Case punched to within four grid points of the cube. Its
+blank face, towering above him now, began to seethe with faint
+internal shadows, as though a thousand dancers whirled behind
+a vast sheet of frosted glass.
+"Knows we're here," the Flatline observed.
+Case punched again, once; they jumped forward by a single
+grid point.
+A stippled gray circle formed on the face of the cube.
+"Dixie...."
+"Back off, fast."
+The gray area bulged smoothly, became a sphere, and de-
+tached itself from the cube.
+Case felt the edge of the deck sting his palm as he slapped
+MAX REVERSE. The matrix blurred backward; they plunged
+down a twilit shaft of Swiss banks. He looked up. The sphere
+was darker now, gaining on him. Falling.
+"Jack out," the Flatline said.
+The dark came down like a hammer.
+
+Cold steel odor and ice caressed his spine.
+And faces peering in from a neon forest, sailors and hustlers
+and whores, under a poisoned silver sky....
+"Look, Case, you tell me what the fuck is going on with
+you, you wig or something?"
+A steady pulse of pain, midway down his spine--
+
+Rain woke him, a slow drizzle, his feet tangled in coils of
+discarded fiberoptics. The arcade's sea of sound washed over
+him, receded, returned. Rolling over, he sat up and held his
+head.
+Light from a service hatch at the rear of the arcade showed
+him broken lengths of damp chipboard and the dripping chassis
+of a gutted game console. Streamlined Japanese was stenciled
+across the side of the console in faded pinks and yellows.
+He glanced up and saw a sooty plastic window, a faint glow
+of fluorescents.
+His back hurt, his spine.
+He got to his feet, brushed wet hair out of his eyes.
+Something had happened....
+He searched his pockets for money, found nothing, and
+shivered. Where was his jacket? He tried to find it, looked
+behind the console, but gave up.
+On Ninsei, he took the measure of the crowd. Friday. It
+had to be a Friday. Linda was probably in the arcade. Might
+have money, or at least cigarettes.... Coughing, wringing rain
+from the front of his shirt, he edged through the crowd to the
+arcade's entrance.
+Holograms twisted and shuddered to the roaring of the games,
+ghosts overlapping in the crowded haze of the place, a smell
+of sweat and bored tension. A sailor in a white t-shirt nuked
+Bonn on a Tank War console, an azure flash.
+She was playing Wizard's Castle, lost in it, her gray eyes
+rimmed with smudged black paintstick.
+She looked up as he put his arm around her, smiled. "Hey.
+How you doin'? Look wet."
+He kissed her.
+"You made me blow my game," she said. "Look there
+ass hole. Seventh level dungeon and the god dam vampires got
+me." She passed him a cigarette. "You look pretty strung, man.
+Where you been?"
+"I don't know."
+"You high, Case? Drinkin' again? Eatin' Zone's dex?"
+"Maybe . . . how long since you seen me?"
+"Hey, it's a put-on, right?" She peered at him. "Right?"
+"No. Some kind of blackout. I . . . I woke up in the alley."
+"Maybe somebody decked you, baby. Got your roll intact?"
+He shook his head.
+"There you go. You need a place to sleep, Case?"
+"I guess so."
+"Come on, then." She took his hand. "We'll get you a coffee
+and something to eat. Take you home. It's good to see you,
+man." She squeezed his hand.
+He smiled.
+Something cracked.
+Something shifted at the core of things. The arcade froze,
+vibrated--
+
+She was gone. The weight of memory came down, an entire body of
+knowledge driven into his head like a microsoft into
+a socket. Gone. He smelled burning meat.
+The sailor in the white t-shirt was gone. The arcade was
+empty, silent. Case turned slowly, his shoulders hunched, teeth
+bared, his hands bunched into involuntary fists. Empty. A
+crumpled yellow candy wrapper, balanced on the edge of a
+console, dropped to the floor and lay amid flattened butts and
+styrofoam cups.
+"I had a cigarette," Case said, looking down at his white-
+knuckled fist. "I had a cigarette and a girl and a place to sleep.
+Do you hear me, you son of a bitch? You hear me?"
+Echoes moved through the hollow of the arcade, fading
+down corridors of consoles.
+He stepped out into the street. The rain had stopped.
+Ninsei was deserted.
+Holograms flickered, neon danced. He smelled boiled veg-
+etables from a vendor's pushcart across the street. An unopened
+pack of Yeheyuans lay at his feet, beside a book of matches.
+JULIUS DEANE IMPORT EXPORT. Case staled at the printed
+logo and its Japanese translation.
+"Okay," he said, picking up the matches and opening the
+pack of cigarettes. "I hear you."
+
+He took his time climbing the stairs of Deane's office. No
+rush, he told himself, no hurry. The sagging face of the Dali
+clock still told the wrong time. There was dust on the Kandinsky
+table and the Neo-Aztec bookcases. A wall of white fiberglass
+shipping modules filled the room with a smell of ginger.
+"Is the door locked?" Case waited for an answer, but none
+came. He crossed to the office door and tried it. "Julie?"
+The green-shaded brass lamp cast a circle of light on Deane's
+desk. Case stared at the guts of an ancient typewriter, at cas-
+settes, crumpled printouts, at sticky plastic bags filled with
+ginger samples.
+There was no one there.
+Case stepped around the broad steel desk and pushed Deane's
+chair out of the way. He found the gun in a cracked leather
+holster fastened beneath the desk with silver tape. It was an
+antique, a .357 Magnum with the barrel and trigger-guard sawn
+off. The grip had been built up with layers of masking tape.
+The tape was old, brown, shiny with a patina of dirt. He flipped
+the cylinder out and examined each of the six cartridges. They
+were handloads. The soft lead was still bright and untarnished.
+With the revolver in his right hand, Case edged past the
+cabinet to the left of the desk and stepped into the center of
+the cluttered office, away from the pool of light.
+"I guess I'm not in any hurry. I guess it's your show. But
+all this shit, you know, it's getting kind of . . . old." He raised
+the gun with both hands, aiming for the center of the desk,
+and pulled the trigger.
+The recoil nearly broke his wrist. The muzzle-flash lit the
+office like a flashbulb. With his ears ringing, he stared at the
+jagged hole in the front of the desk. Explosive bullet. Azide.
+He raised the gun again.
+"You needn't do that, old son," Julie said, stepping out of
+the shadows. He wore a three-piece drape suit in silk her ing-
+bone, a striped shirt, and a bow tie. His glasses winked in the
+light.
+Case brought the gun around and looked down the line of
+sight at Deane's pink, ageless face.
+"Don't," Deane said. "You're right. About what this all is.
+What I am. But there are certain internal logics to be honored.
+If you use that, you'll see a lot of brains and blood, and it
+would take me several hours--your subjective-time--to effect
+another spokesperson. This set isn't easy for me to maintain.
+Oh, and I'm sorry about Linda, in the arcade. I was hoping to
+speak through her, but I'm generating all this out of your
+memories, and the emotional charge.... Well, it's very tricky.
+I slipped. Sorry."
+Case lowered the gun. "This is the matrix. You're Winter-
+ mute."
+- "Yes. This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit
+wired into your deck, of course. I'm glad I was able to cut you
+off before you'd managed to jack out." Deane walked around
+the desk, straightened his chair, and sat down. "Sit, old son.
+We have a lot to talk about."
+"Do we?"
+"Of course we do. We have had for some time. I was ready
+when I reached you by phone in Istanbul. Time's very short
+now. You'll be making your run in a matter of days, Case."
+Deane picked up a bonbon and stripped off its checkered wrap-
+pcr, popped h into his mouth. "Sit," he said around the candy.
+Case lowered himself into the swivel chair in front of the
+desk without taking his eyes off Deane. He sat with the gun
+in his hand, resting it on his thigh.
+"Now," Deane said briskly, "order of the day. 'What,' you're
+asking yourself, 'is Wintermute?' Am I right?"
+"More or less."
+"An artificial intelligence, but you know that. Your mistake,
+and it's quite a logical one, is in confusing the Winterrnute
+mainframe, Berne, with the Wintermute entity." Deane sucked
+his bonbon noisily. "You're already aware of the other AI in
+Tessier-Ashpool's link-up, aren't you? Rio. I, insofar as I have
+an 'I'--this gets rather metaphysical, you see--I am the one
+who arranges things for Armitage. Or Corto, who, by the way,
+is quite unstable. Stable enough," said Deane and withdrew an
+ornate gold watch from a vest pocket and flicked it open, "For
+the next day or so."
+"You make about as much sense as anything in this deal
+ever has," Case said, massaging his temples with his free hand.
+"If you're so goddam smart. . ."
+"Why ain't I rich?" Deane laughed, and nearly choked on
+his bonbon. "Well, Case, all I can say to that, and I really
+don't have nearly as many answers as you imagine I do, is that
+what you think of as Wintermute is only a part of another, a,
+shall we say, potential entity. I, let us say, am merely one
+aspect of that entity's brain. It's rather like dealing, from your
+point of view, with a man whose lobes have been severed. Let's
+say you're dealing with a small part of the man's left brain.
+Difficult to say if you're dealing with the man at all, in a case
+like that." Deane smiled.
+"Is the Corto story true? You got to him through a micro
+in that French hospital?"
+"Yes. And I assembled the file you accessed in London. I
+try to plan. in your sense of the word, but that isn't my basic
+mode, really. I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer
+situations to plans, you see.... Really, I've had to deal with
+givens. I can sort a great deal of information, and sort it very
+quickly. It's taken a very long time to assemble the team you're
+a part of. Corto was the first, and he very nearly didn't make
+it. Very far gone, in Toulon. Eating, excreting, and mastur-
+bating were the best he could manage. But the underlying
+structure of obsessions was there: Screaming Fist, his betrayal
+the Congressional hearings."
+"Is he still crazy?"
+"He's not quite a personality." Deane smiled. "But I'm sure
+you're aware of that. But Corto is in there, somewhere, and I
+can no longer maintain that delicate balance. He's going to
+come apart on you, Case. So I'll be counting on you...."
+"That's good, motherfucker," Case said, and shot him in
+the mouth with the .357.
+He'd been right about the brains. And the blood.
+
+"Mon," Maelcum was saying, "I don't like this...."
+"It's cool," Molly said. "It's just okay. It's something these
+guys do, is all. Like, he wasn't dead, and it was only a few
+seconds...."
+"I saw th' screen, EEG readin' dead. Nothin' movin', forty
+second."
+"Well, he's okay now."
+"EEG flat as a strap," Maelcum protested.
+He was numb, as they went through customs, and Molly
+did most of the talking. Maelcum remained on board Garvey.
+Customs, for Freeside, consisted mainly of proving your credit.
+The first thing he saw, when they gained the inner surface of
+the spindle, was a branch of the Beautiful Girl coffee franchise.
+"Welcome to the Rue Jules Verne," Molly said. "If you
+have trouble walking, just look at your feet. The perspective's
+a bitch, if you're not used to it."
+They were standing in a broad street that seemed to be the
+floor of a deep slot or canyon, its either end concealed by subtle
+angles in the shops and buildings that formed its walls. The
+light, here, was filtered through fiesh green masses of vege-
+tation tumbling from overhanging tiers and balconies that rose
+above them. The sun. . .
+There was a brilliant slash of white somewhere above them
+too bright, and the recorded blue of a Cannes sky. He knew
+that sunlight was pumped in with a Lado-Acheson system whose
+two-millimeter armature ran the length of the spindle, that they
+generated a rotating library of sky effects around it, that if the
+sky were turned off, he'd stare up past the armature of light
+to the curves of lakes, rooftops of casinos, other streets....
+But it made no sense to his body.
+"Jesus," he said, "I like this less than SAS."
+"Get used to it. I was a gambler's bodyguard here for a
+month."
+"Wanna go somewhere, lie down."
+"Okay. I got our keys." She touched his shoulder. "What
+happened to you, back there, man? You flatlined."
+He shook his head. "I dunno, yet. Wait."
+"Okay. We get a cab or something." She took his hand and
+led him across Jules Verne, past a window displaying the sea-
+son's Paris furs.
+"Unreal," he said, looking up again.
+"Nah," she responded, assuming he meant the furs, "grow
+it on a collagen base, but it's mink DNA. What's it matter?"
+
+"It's just a big tube and they pour things through it," Molly
+said. "Tourists, hustlers, anything. And there's fine mesh money
+screens working every minute, make sure the money stays here
+when the people fall back down the well."
+Armitage had booked them into a place called the Inter-
+continental, a sloping glass-fronted clff face that slid down
+into cold mist and the sound of rapids. Case went out onto
+their balcony and watched a trio of tanned French teenagers
+ride simple hang gliders a few meters above the spray, triangles
+of nylon in bright primary colors. One of them swung, banked,
+and Case caught a flash of cropped dark hair, brown breasts,
+white teeth in a wide smile. The air here smelled of running
+water and flowers. "Yeah," he said, "lotta money."
+She leaned beside him against the railing, her hands loose
+and relaxed. "Yeah. We were gonna come here once, either
+here or some place in Europe."
+"We who?"
+"Nobody," she said, giving her shoulders an involuntary
+toss. "You said you wanted to hit the bed. Sleep. I could use
+some sleep."
+"Yeah," Case said, rubbing his palms across his cheek-
+bones. "Yeah, this is some place."
+The narrow band of the Lado Acheson system smoldered
+in absract imitation of some Bermudan sunset, striped by shreds
+of worded cloud. "Yeah," he said, "sleep."
+Sleep wouldn't come. When it did, it brought dreams that
+were like neatly edited segments of memory. He woke re-
+peatedly, Molly curled beside him, and heard the water, voices
+drifting in through the open glass panels of the balcony, a
+woman's laughter from the stepped condos on the opposite
+slope. Deane's death kept turning up like a bad card, no matter
+if he told himself that it hadn't been Deane. That it hadn't, in
+fact, happened at all. Someone had once told him that the
+amount of blood in the average human body was roughly equiv-
+alent to a case of beer.
+Each time the image of Deane's shattered head struck the
+rear wall of the office, Case was aware of another thought,
+something darker, hidden, that rolled away, diving like a fish,
+just beyond his reach.
+Linda.
+Deane. Blood on the wall of the importer's office.
+Linda. Smell of burnt flesh in the shadows of the Chiba
+dome. Molly holding out a bag of ginger, the plastic filmed
+with blood. Deane had had her killed.
+Wintermute. He imagined a little micro whispering to the
+wreck of a man named Corto, the words flowing like a river,
+the flat personality-substitute called Armitage accreting slowly
+in some darkened ward....The Deane analog had said it
+worked with givens, took advantage of existing situations.
+But what if Deane, the real Deane, had ordered Linda killed
+on Wintermute's orders? Case groped in the dark for a cigarette
+and Molly's lighter. There was no reason to suspect Deane, he
+told himself, lighting up. No reason.
+Wintermute could build a kind of personality into a shell.
+How subtle a form could manipulation take? He stubbed the
+Yeheyuan out in a bedside ashtray after his third puff, rolled
+away from Molly, and tried to sleep.
+The dream, the memory, unreeled with the monotony of an
+unedited simstim tape. He'd spent a month, his fifteenth sum-
+mer, in a weekly rates hotel, fifth floor, with a girl called
+Marlene. The elevator hadn't worked in a decade. Roaches
+boiled across grayish porcelain in the drain-plugged kitchenette
+when you flicked a lightswitch. He slept with Marlene on a
+striped mattress with no sheets.
+He'd missed the first wasp, when it built its paperfine gray
+house on the blistered paint of the windowframe, but soon the
+nest was a fist-sized lump of fiber, insects hurtling out to hunt
+the alley below like miniature copters buzzing the rotting con-
+tents of the dumpsters.
+They'd each had a dozen beers, the afternoon a wasp stung
+Marlene. "Kill the fuckers," she said, her eyes dull with rage
+and the still heat of the room, "burn 'em." Drunk, Case rum-
+maged in the sour closet for Rollo's dragon. Rollo was Mar-
+lene's previous--and, Case suspected at the time, still
+occasional--boyfriend, an enormous Frisco biker with a blond
+lightning bolt bleached into his dark crewcut. The dragon was
+a Frisco flamethrower, a thing like a fat anglehead flashlight.
+Case checked the batteries, shook it to make sure he had enough
+fuel, and went to the open window. The hive began to buzz.
+The air in the Sprawl was dead, immobile. A wasp shot
+from the nest and circled Case's head. Case pressed the ignition
+switch, counted three, and pulled the trigger. The fuel, pumped
+up to l00 psi, sprayed out past the white-hot coil. A five-meter
+tongue of pale fire, the nest charring, tumbling. Across the
+alley, someone cheered.
+"Shit!" Marlene behind him, swaying. "Stupid! You didn't
+burn 'em. You just knocked it off. They'll come up here and
+kill us!" Her voice sawing at his nerves, he imagined her en-
+gulfed in flame, her bleached hair sizzling a special green.
+In the alley, the dragon in hand, he approached the black-
+ened nest. It had broken open. Singed wasps wrenched and
+flipped on the asphalt.
+He saw the thing the shell of gray paper had concealed.
+Horror. The spiral birth factory, stepped terraces of the
+hatching cells, blind jaws of the unborn moving ceaselessly,
+the staged progress from egg to larva, near-wasp, wasp. In his
+mind's eye, a kind of time-lapse photography took place, re-
+vealing the thing as the biological equivalent of a machine gun,
+hideous in its perfection. Alien. He pulled the trigger, forgetting
+to press the ignition, and fuel hissed over the bulging, writhing
+life at his feet.
+When he did hit the ignition, it exploded with a thump
+taking an eyebrow with it. Five floors above him, from the
+open window, he heard Marlene laughing.
+He woke with the impression of light fading, but the room
+was dark. Afterimages, retinal flares. The sky outside hinted
+at the start of a recorded dawn. There were no voices now
+only the rush of water, far down the face of the Intercontinental.
+In the dream, just before he'd drenched the nest with fuel,
+he'd seen the T-A logo of Tessier-Ashpool neatly embossed
+into its side, as though the wasps themselves had worked it
+there.
+
+Molly insisted on coating him with bronzer, saying his Sprawl
+pallor would attract too much attention.
+"Christ," he said, standing naked in front of the mirror,
+"you think that looks real?" She was using the last of the tube
+on his left ankle, kneeling beside him.
+"Nah, but it looks like you care enough to fake it. There.
+There isn't enough to do your foot." She stood, tossing the
+empty tube into a large wicker basket. Nothing in the room
+looked as though it had been machine-made or produced from
+synthetics. Expensive, Case knew, but it was a style that had
+always irritated him. The temperfoam of the huge bed was
+tinted to resemble sand. There was a lot of pale wood and
+handwoven fabric.
+"What about you," he said, "you gonna dye yourself brown?
+Don't exactly look like you spend all your time sunbathing."
+She wore loose black silks and black espadrilles. "I'm an
+exotic. I got a big straw hat for this, too. You, you just wanna
+look like a cheap-ass hood who's up for what he can get, so
+the instant tan's okay."
+Case regarded his pallid foot morosely, then looked at him-
+self in the mirror. "Christ. You mind if I get dressed now?"
+He went to the bed and began to pull his jeans on. "You sleep
+okay? You notice any lights?"
+"You were dreaming," she said.
+They had breakfast on the roof of the hotel, a kind of meadow
+studded with striped umbrellas and what seemed to Case an
+unnatural number of trees. He told her about his attempt to
+buzz the Berne AI. The whole question of bugging seemed to
+have become academic. If Armitage were tapping them, he'd
+be doing it through Wintermute.
+"And it was like real?" she asked, her mouth full of cheese
+croissant. "Like simstim?"
+He said it was. "Real as this," he added, looking around.
+"Maybe more."
+The trees were small, gnarled, impossibly old, the result of
+genetic engineering and chemical manipulation. Case would
+have been hard pressed to distinguish a pine from an oak, but
+a street boy's sense of style told him that these were too cute,
+too entirely and definitively treelike. Between the trees, on
+gentle and too cleverly irregular slopes of sweet green grass,
+the bright umbrellas shaded the hotel's guests from the unfal-
+tering radiance of the Lado-Acheson sun. A burst of French
+from a nearby table caught his attention: the golden children
+he'd seen gliding above river mist the evening before. Now he
+saw that their tans were uneven, a stencil effect produced by
+selective melanin boosting, multiple shades overlapping in rec-
+tilinear patterns, outlining and highlighting musculature; the
+girl's small hard breasts, one boy's wrist resting on the white
+enamel of the table. They looked to Case like machines built
+for racing; they deserved decals for their hairdressers, the de-
+signers of their white cotton ducks, for the artisans who'd
+crafted their leather sandals and simple jewelry. Beyond them,
+at another table, three Japanese wives in Hiroshima sackcloth
+awaited sarariman husbands, their oval faces covered with ar-
+tificial bruises; it was, he knew, an extremely conservative
+style, one he'd seldom seen in Chiba.
+"What's that smell?" he asked Molly, wrinkling his nose.
+"The grass. Smells that way after they cut it."
+Armitage and Riviera arrived as they were finishing their
+coffee, Armitage in tailored khakis that made him look as
+though his regimental patches had just been stripped, Riviera
+in a loose gray seersucker outfit that perversely suggested prison.
+"Molly, love," Riviera said, almost before he was settled
+on his chair, "you'll have to dole me out more of the medicine.
+I'm out."
+"Peter," she said, "and what if I won't?" She smiled without
+showing her teeth.
+"You will," Riviera said, his eyes cutting to Armitage and
+back.
+"Give it to him," Armitage said.
+"Pig for it, aren't you?" She took a flat, foil-wrapped packet
+from an inside pocket and flipped it across the table. Riviera
+caught it in midair. "He could off himself," she said to Ar-
+mitage.
+"I have an audition this afternoon," Riviera said. "I'll need
+to be at my best." He cupped the foil packd in his uptumed
+palm and smiled. Small glittering insects swarmed out of it,
+vanished. He dropped it into the pocket of his seersucker blouse.
+"You've got an audition yourself, Case, this afternoon,"
+Armitage said. "On that tug. I want you to get over to the pro
+shop and get yourself fitted for a vac suit, get checked out on
+it, and get out to the boat. You've got about three hours."
+"How come we get shipped over in a shitcan and you two
+hire a JAL taxi?" Case asked, deliberately avoiding the man's
+eyes.
+"Zion suggested we use it. Good cover, when we move. I
+do have a larger boat, standing by, but the tug is a nice touch."
+"How about me?" Molly asked. "I got chores today?"
+"I want you to hike up the far end to the axis, work out in
+zero-g. Tomorrow, maybe, you can hike in the opposite di-
+rection." Straylight, Case thought.
+"How soon?" Case asked, meedng the pale stare.
+"Soon," Armitage said. "Get going, Case."
+"Mon, you doin' jus' fine," Maelcum said, helping Case
+out of the red Sanyo vacuum suit. "Aerol say you doin' jus'
+fine." Aerol had been waiting at one of the sporting docks at
+the end of the spindle, near the weightless axis. To reach it
+Case had taken an elevator down to the hull and ridden a
+miniature induction train. As the diameter of the spindle nar-
+rowed, gravity decreased; somewhere above him, he'd decided,
+would be the mountains Molly climbed, the bicycle loop,
+launching gear for the hang gliders and miniature microlights.
+Aerol had ferried him out to Marcus Garvey in a skeletal
+scooter frame with a chemical engine.
+"Two hour ago," Maelcum said, "I take delivery of Babylon
+goods for you; nice lapan-boy inna yacht, mos' pretty yacht."
+Free of the suit, Case pulled himself gingerly over the Ho-
+saka and fumbled into the straps of the web. "Well," he said,
+"let's see it."
+Maelcum produced a white lump of foam slightly smaller
+than Case's head, fished a pearl-handled switchblade on a green
+nylon lanyard out of the hip pocket of his tattered shorts, and
+carefully slit the plasdc. He extracted a rectangular object and
+passed it to Case. "Thas part some gun, mon?"
+"No," Case said, turning it over, "but it's a weapon. It's
+virus."
+"Not on this boy tug, mon," Maelcum said firmly, reaching
+for the steel cassette.
+"A program. Virus program. Can't get into you, can't even
+get into your software. I've got to interface it through the deck,
+before it can work on anything."
+"Well, Japan-mon, he says Hosaka here'll tell you every
+what an' wherefore, you wanna know."
+"Okay. Well, you leave me to it, okay?"
+Maelcum kicked off and drifted past the pilot console, bus-
+ying himself with a caulk gun. Case hastily looked away from
+the waving fronds of transparent caulk. He wasn't sure why,
+but something about them brought back the nausea of SAS.
+"What is this thing?" he asked the Hosaka. "Parcel for me."
+"Data transfer from Bockris Systems GmbH, Frankfurt, ad-
+vises, under coded transmission, that content of shipment is
+Kuang Grade Mark Eleven penetration program. Bockris fur-
+ther advises that interface with Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7 is
+entirely compatdble and yields optimal penetradon capabilities,
+particularly with regard to existing military systems...."
+"How about an AI?"
+"Existing military systems and artificial intelligences."
+"Jesus Christ. What did you call it?"
+"Kuang Grade Mark Eleven."
+"It's Chinese?"
+"Yes."
+"Off." Case fastened the virus cassette to the side of the
+Hosaka with a length of silver tape, remembering Molly's story
+of her day in Macao. Armitage had crossed the border into
+Zhongshan. "On," he said, changing his mind. "Questdon. Who
+owns Bockris, the people in Frankfurt?"
+"Delay for interorbital transmission," said the Hosaka.
+"Code it. Standard commerical code."
+"Done."
+He drummed his hands on the Ono-Sendai.
+"Reinhold Scientdfic A.G., Berne."
+"Do it again. Who owns Reinhold?"
+It took three more jumps up the ladder before he reached
+Tessier-Ashpool.
+"Dixie," he said, jacking in, "what do you know about
+Chinese virus programs?"
+"Not a whole hell of a lot."
+"Ever hear of a grading system like Kuang, Mark Eleven?"
+"No."
+Case sighed. "Well, I got a user-friendly Chinese icebreaker
+here, a one shot cassette. Some people in Frankfurt say it'll
+cut an Al."
+"Possible. Sure. If it's military."
+"Looks like it. Listen, Dix, and gimme the benefit of your
+background, okay? Arrnitage seems to be setdng up a run on
+an Al that belongs to Tessier-Ashpool. The mainframe's in
+Berne, but it's linked with another one in Rio. The one in Rio
+is the one that flatlined you, that first time. So it looks like
+they link via Straylight, the T-A home base, down the end of
+the spindle, and we're supposed to cut our way in with the
+Chinese icebreaker. So if Wintermute's backing the whole show
+it's paying us to burn it. It's burning itself. And something that
+calls itself Wintermute is trying to get on my good side, get
+me to maybe shaft Annitage. What goes?"
+"Motive," the construct said. "Real motive problem, with
+an Al. Not human, see?"
+"Well, yeah, obviously."
+"Nope. I mean, it's not human. And you can't get a handle
+on it. Me, I'm not human either, but I respond like one. See?"
+"Wait a sec," Case said. "Are you sentient, or not?"
+"Well, it feels like I am, kid, but I'm really just a bunch of
+ROM. It's one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess...."
+The ugly laughter sensation rattled down Case's spine. "But I
+ain't likely to write you no poem, if you follow me. Your AI,
+it just might. But it ain't no way human."
+"So you figure we can't get on to its motive?"
+"It own itself?"
+"Swiss citizen, but T-A own the basic software and the
+mainframe."
+"That's a good one," the construct said. "Like, I own your
+brain and what you know, but your thoughts have Swiss citi-
+zenship. Sure. Lotsa luck, AI."
+"So it's getting ready to burn itself?" Case began to punch
+the deck nervously, at random. The matrix blurred, resolved,
+and he saw the complex of pink spheres representing a sikkim
+steel combine.
+"Autonomy, that's the bugaboo, where your AI's are con-
+cerned. My guess, Case, you're going in there to cut the hard-
+wired shackles that keep this baby from getting any smarter.
+And I can't see how you'd distinguish, say, between a move
+the parent company makes, and some move the AI makes on
+its own, so that's maybe where the confusion comes in." Again
+the nonlaugh. "See, those things, they can work real hard, buy
+themselves time to write cookbooks or whatever, but the min-
+ute, I mean the nanosecond, that one starts figuring out ways
+to make itself smarter, Turing'll wipe it. Nobody trusts those
+fuckers, you know that. Every Al ever built has an electro-
+magnetic shotgun wired to its forehead."
+Case glared at the pink spheres of Sikkim.
+"Okay," he said, finally, "I'm slotting this virus. I want you
+to scan its instruction face and tell me what you think."
+The half sense of someone reading over his shoulder was
+gone for a few seconds, then returned. "Hot shit, Case. It's a
+slow virus. Take six hours, estimated, to crack a military target."
+"Or an AI." He sighed. "Can we run it?"
+"Sure," the construct said, "unless you got a morbid fear
+of dying."
+"Sometimes you repeat yourself, man."
+"It's my nature."
+
+Molly was sleeping when he returned to the Intercontinental.
+He sat on the balcony and watched a microlight with rainbow
+polymer wings as it soared up the curve of Freeside, its tri-
+angular shadow tracking across meadows and rooftops, until
+it vanished behind the band of the Lado-Acheson system.
+"I wanna buzz," he said to the blue artifice of the sky. "I
+truly do wanna get high, you know? Trick pancreas, plugs in
+my liver, little bags of shit melting, fuck it all. I wanna buzz."
+He left without waking Molly, he thought. He was never
+sure, with the glasses. He shrugged tension from his shoulders
+and got into the elevator. He rode up with an Italian girl in
+spotless whites, cheekbones and nose daubed with something
+black and nonreflective. Her white nylon shoes had steel cleats;
+the expensive-looking thing in her hand resembled a cross be-
+tween a miniature oar and an orthopedic brace. She was off
+for a fast game of something, but Case had no idea what.
+On the roof meadow, he made his way through the grove
+of trees and umbrellas, until he found a pool, naked bodies
+gleaming against turquoise tiles. He edged into the shadow of
+an awning and pressed his chip against a dark glass plate.
+"Sushi," he said, "whatever you got." Ten minutes later, an
+enthusiastic Chinese waiter arrived with his food. He munched
+raw tuna and rice and watched people tan. "Christ," he said,
+to his tuna, "I'd go nuts."
+"Don't tell me," someone said, "I know it already. You're
+a gangster, right?"
+He squinted up at her, against the band of sun. A long young
+body and a melanin-boosted tan, but not one of the Paris jobs.
+She squatted beside his chair, dripping water on the tiles.
+"Cath," she said.
+"Lupus," after a pause.
+"What kind of name is that?"
+"Greek," he said.
+"Are you really a gangster?" The melanin boost hadn't pre-
+vented the formation of freckles.
+"I'm a drug addict, Cath."
+"What kind?"
+"Stimulants. Central nervous system stimulants. Extremely
+powerful central nervous system stimulants."
+"Well, do you have any?" She leaned closer. Drops of
+chlorinated water fell on the leg of his pants.
+"No. That's my problem, Cath. Do you know where we
+can get some?"
+Cath rocked back on her tanned heels and licked at a strand
+of brownish hair that had pasted itself beside her mouth. "What's
+your taste?"
+"No coke, no amphetamines, but up, gotta be up." And so
+much for that, he thought glumly, holding his smile for her.
+"Betaphenethylamine," she said. "No sweat,but it's on your
+chip."
+
+"You're kidding," said Cath's partner and roommate, when
+Case explained the peculiar properties of his Chiba pancreas.
+"I mean, can't you sue them or something? Malpractice?" His
+name was Bruce. He looked like a gender switch version of
+Cath, right down to the freckles.
+"Well," Case said, "it's just one of those things, you know?
+Like tissue matching and all that." But Bruce's eyes had already
+gone numb with boredom. Got the attention span of a gnat,
+Case thought, watching the boy's brown eyes.
+Their room was smaller than the one Case shared with Molly,
+and on another level, closer to the surface. Five huge Ciba-
+chromes of Tally Isham were taped across the glass of the
+balcony, suggesting an extended residency.
+"They're def triff, huh?" Cath asked, seeing him eye the
+transparencies. "Mine. Shot 'em at the S/N Pyramid, last time
+we went down the well. She was that close, and she just smiled,
+so natural. And it was bad there, Lupus, day after these Christ
+the King terrs put angel in the water, you know?"
+"Yeah," Case said, suddenly uneasy, ' terrible thing."
+"Well," Bruce cut in, "about this beta you want to buy...."
+"Thing is, can I metabolize it?" Case raised his eyebrows.
+"Tell you what," the boy said. "You do a taste. If your
+pancreas passes on it, it's on the house. First time's free."
+"I heard that one before," Case said, taking the bright blue
+derm that Bruce passed across the black bedspread.
+
+"Case?" Molly sat up in bed and shook the hair away from
+her lenses.
+"Who else, honey?
+"What's got into you?" The mirrors followed him across
+the room.
+"I forget how to pronounce it," he said, taking a tightly
+rolled strip of bubble-packed blue derms from his shirt pocket.
+"Christ," she said, "just what we needed."
+"Truer words were never spoken."
+"I let you out of my sight for two hours and you score."
+She shook her head. "I hope you're gonna be ready for our
+big dinner date with Armitage tonight. This Twentieth Century
+place. We get to watch Riviera strut his stuff, too."
+"Yeah," Case said, arching his back, his smile locked into
+a rictus of delight, "beautiful."
+"Man," she said, "if whatever that is can get in past what
+those surgeons did to you in Chiba, you are gonna be in sad-
+ass shape when it wears off."
+"Bitch, bitch, bitch," he said, unbuckling his belt. "Doom.
+Gloom. All I ever hear." He took his pants off, his shirt, his
+underwear. "I think you oughta have sense enough to take
+advantage of my unnatural state." He looked down. "I mean,
+look at this unnatural state."
+She laughed. "It won't last."
+"But it will," he said, climbing into the sand-colored tem-
+perfoam, "that's what's so unnatural about it."
+
+
+"Case, what's wrong with you?" Armitage said, as the waiter
+was seating them at his table in the Vingtieme Siecle. It was
+the smallest and most expensive of several floating restaurants
+on a small lake near the Intercontinental.
+Case shuddered. Bruce hadn't said anything about after ef-
+fects. He tried to pick up a glass of ice water, but his hands
+were shaking. "Something I ate, maybe."
+"I want you checked out by a medic," Armitage said.
+"Just this hystamine reaction," Case lied. "Get it when I
+travel, eat different stuff, sometimes."
+Armitage wore a dark suit, too formal for the place, and a
+white silk shirt. His gold bracelet rattled as he raised his wine
+and sipped. "I've ordered for you," he said.
+Molly and Armitage ate in silence, while Case sawed shakily
+at his steak, reducing it to uneaten bite-sized fragments, which
+he pushed around in the rich sauce, finally abandoning the
+whole thing.
+"Jesus," Molly said, her own plate empty, "gimme that.
+You know what this costs?" She took his plate. 'They gotta
+raise a whole animal for years and then they kill it. This isn't
+vat stuff." She forked a mouthful up and chewed.
+"Not hungry," Case managed. His brain was deep-fried.
+No, he decided, it had been thrown into hot fat and left there
+and the fat had cooled, a thick dull grease congealing on the
+wrinkled lobes, shot through with greenish-purple flashes of
+pain.
+"You look fucking awful," Molly said cheerfully.
+Case tried the wine. The aftermath of the betaphenethylam-
+ine made it taste like iodine.
+The lights dimmed.
+"Le Restaurant Vingtieme Siecle," said a disembodied voice
+with a pronounced Sprawl accent, "proudly presents the hol-
+ographic cabaret of Mr. Peter Riviera. " Scattered applause from
+the other tables. A waiter lit a single candle and placed it in
+the center of their table, then began to remove the dishes. Soon
+a candle flickered at each of the restaurant's dozen tables, and
+drinks were being poured.
+"What's happening?" Case asked Armitage, who said noth-
+ing.
+Molly picked her teeth with a burgundy nail.
+"Good evening," Riviera said, stepping forward on a small
+stage at the far end of the room. Case blinked. In his discomfort,
+he hadn't noticed the stage. He hadn't seen where Riviera had
+come from. His uneasiness increased.
+At first he assumed the man was illuminated by a spotlight.
+Riviera glowed. The light clung around him like a skin, lit
+the dark hangings behind the stage. He was projecting.
+Riviera smiled. He wore a white dinner jacket. On his lapel,
+blue coals burned in the depths of a black carnation. His fin-
+gernails flashed as he raised his hands in a gesture of greeting,
+an embrace for his audience. Case heard the shallow water lap
+against the side of the restaurant.
+"Tonight," Riviera said, his long eyes shining, "I would
+like to perform an extended piece for you. A new work." A
+cool ruby of light formed in the palm of his upraised right hand.
+He dropped it. A gray dove fluttered up from the point of
+impact and vanished into the shadows. Someone whistled. More
+applause.
+"The title of the work is 'The Doll.'" Riviera lowered his
+hands. "I wish to dedicate its premiere here, tonight, to Lady
+3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool." A wave of polite ap-
+plause. As it died, Riviera's eyes seemed to find their table.
+"And to another lady."
+The restaurant's lights died entirely, for a few seconds,
+leaving only the glow of candles. Riviera's holographic aura
+had faded with the lights, but Case could still see him, standing
+with his head bowed.
+Lines of faint light began to form, verticals and horizontals,
+sketching an open cube around the stage. The restaurant's lights
+had come back up slightly, but the framework surrounding the
+stage might have been constructed of frozen moonbeams. Head
+bowed, eyes closed, arms rigid at his sides, Riviera seemed to
+quiver with concentration. Suddenly the ghostly cube was filled,
+had become a room, a room lacking its fourth wall, allowing
+the audience to view its contents.
+Riviera seemed to relax slightly. He raised his head, but
+kept his eyes closed. "I'd always lived in the room," he said.
+"I couldn't remember ever having lived in any other room."
+The room's walls were yellowed white plaster. It contained
+two pieces of furniture. One was a plain wooden chair, the
+other an iron bedstead painted white. The paint had chipped
+and flaked, revealing the black iron. The mattress on the bed
+was bare. Stained ticking with faded brown stripes. A single
+bulb dangled above the bed on a twisted length of black wire.
+Case could see the thick coating of dust on the bulb's upper
+curve. Riviera opened his eyes.
+"I'd been alone in the room, always." He sat on the chair,
+facing the bed. The blue coals still burned in the black flower
+on his lapel. "I don't know when I first began to dream of
+her," he said, "but I do remember that at first she was only a
+haze, a shadow."
+There was something on the bed. Case blinked. Gone.
+"I couldn't quite hold her, hold her in my mind. But I wanted
+to hold her, hold her and more...." His voice carried perfectly
+in the hush of the restaurant. Ice clicked against the side of a
+glass. Someone giggled. Someone else asked a whispered ques-
+tion in Japanese. "I decided that if I could visualize some part
+of her, only a small part, if I could see that part perfectly, in
+the most perfect detail...."
+A woman's hand lay on the mattress now, palm up, the
+white fingers pale.
+Riviera leaned forward, picked up the hand, and began to
+stroke it gently. The fingers moved. Riviera raised the hand to
+his mouth and began to lick the tips of the fingers. The nails
+were coated with a burgundy lacquer.
+A hand, Case saw, but not a severed hand; the skin swept
+back smoothly, unbroken and unscarred. He remembered a
+tattooed lozenge of vatgrown flesh in the window of a Ninsei
+surgical boutique. Riviera was holding the hand to his lips,
+licking its palm. The fingers tentatively caressed his face. But
+now a second hand lay on the bed. When Riviera reached for
+it, the fingers of the first were locked around his wrist, a bracelet
+of flesh and bone.
+The act progressed with a surreal internal logic of its own.
+The arms were next. Feet. Legs. The legs were very beautiful.
+Case's head throbbed. His throat was dry. He drank the last
+of the wine.
+Riviera was in the bed now, naked. His clothing had been
+a part of the projection, but Case couldn't remember seeing it
+fade away. The black flower lay at the foot of the bed, still
+seething with its blue inner flame. Then the torso formed, as
+Riviera caressed it into being, white, headless, and perfect,
+sheened with the faintest gloss of sweat.
+Molly's body. Case stared, his mouth open. But it wasn't
+Molly; it was Molly as Riviera imagined her. The breasts were
+wrong, the nipples larger, too dark. Riviera and the limbless
+torso writhed together on the bed, crawled over by the hands
+with their bright nails. The bed was thick now with folds of
+yellowed, rotting lace that crumbled at a touch. Motes of dust
+boiled around Riviera and the twitching limbs, the scurrying,
+pinching, caressing hands.
+Case glanced at Molly. Her face was blank; the colors of
+Riviera's projection heaved and turned in her mirrors. Armitage
+was leaning forward, his hands round the stem of a wineglass,
+his pale eyes fixed on the stage, the glowing room.
+Now limbs and torso had merged, and Riviera shuddered.
+The head was there, the image complete. Molly's face, with
+smooth quicksilver drowning the eyes. Riviera and the Molly-
+image began to couple with a renewed intensity. Then the image
+slowly extended a clawed hand and extruded its five blades.
+With a languorous, dreamlike deliberation, it raked Riviera's
+bare back. Case caught a glimpse of exposed spine, but he was
+already up and stumbling for the door.
+He vomited over a rosewood railing into the quiet waters
+of the lake. Something that had seemed to close around his
+head like a vise had released him now. Kneeling, his cheek
+against the cool wood, he stared across the shallow lake at the
+bright aura of the Rue Jules Verne.
+Case had seen the medium before; when he'd been a teenager
+in the Sprawl, they'd called it, ''dreaming real." He remem-
+bered thin Puerto Ricans under East Side streetlights, dreaming
+real to the quick beat of a salsa, dreamgirls shuddering and
+turning, the onlookers clapping in time. But that had needed
+a van full of gear and a clumsy trode helmet.
+What Riviera dreamed, you got. Case shook his aching head
+and spat into the lake.
+He could guess the end, the finale. There was an inverted
+symmetry: Riviera puts the dreamgirl together, the dreamgirl
+takes him apart. With those hands. Dreamblood soaking the
+rotten lace.
+Cheers from the restaurant, applause. Case stood and ran
+his hands over his clothes. He turned and walked back into the
+Vingtieme Siecle.
+Molly's chair was empty. The stage was deserted. Armitage
+sat alone, still staring at the stage, the stem of the wineglass
+between his fingers.
+"Where is she?" Case asked.
+"Gone," Armitage said.
+"She go after him?"
+"No." There was a soft tink. Armitage looked down at the
+glass. His left hand came up holding the bulb of glass with its
+measure of red wine. The broken stem protruded like a sliver
+of ice. Case took it from him and set it in a water glass.
+"Tell me where she went, Armitage."
+The lights came up. Case looked into the pale eyes. Nothing
+there at all. "She's gone to prepare herself. You won't see her
+again. You'll be together during the run."
+"Why did Riviera do that to her?"
+Armitage stood, adjusting the lapels of his jacket. "Get some
+sleep, Case."
+"We run, tomorrow?"
+Armitage smiled his meaningless smile and walked away,
+toward the exit.
+Case rubbed his forehead and looked around the room. The
+diners were rising, women smiling as men made jokes. He
+noticed the balcony for the first time, candles still flickering
+there in private darkness. He heard the clink of silverware,
+muted conversation. The candles threw dancing shadows on
+the ceiling.
+The girl's face appeared as abruptly as one of Riviera's
+projections, her small hands on the polished wood of the bal-
+ustrade; she leaned forward, face rapt, it seemed to him, her
+dark eyes intent on something beyond. The stage. It was a
+striking face, but not beautiful. Triangular, the cheekbones high
+yet strangely fragile-looking, mouth wide and firm, balanced
+oddly by a narrow, avian nose with flaring nostrils. And then
+she was gone, back into private laughter and the dance of
+candles.
+As he left the restaurant, he noticed the two young French-
+men and their girlfriend, who were waiting for the boat to the
+far shore and the nearest casino.
+
+Their room was silent, the temperfoam smooth as some
+beach after a retreating tide. Her bag was gone. He looked for
+a note. There was nothing. Several seconds passed before the
+scene beyond the window registered through his tension and
+unhappiness. He looked up and saw a view of Desiderata,
+expensive shops: Gucci, Tsuyako, Hermes, Liberty.
+He stared, then shook his head and crossed to a panel he
+hadn't bothered examining. He turned the hologram off and
+was rewarded with the condos that terraced the far slope.
+He picked up the phone and carried it out to the cool balcony.
+"Get me a number for the Marcus Garvey," he told the
+desk. "It's a tug, registered out of Zion cluster."
+The chip voice recited a ten-digit number. "Sir," it added
+"the registration in question is Panamanian."
+Maelcum answered on the fifth tone. "Yo?"
+"Case. You got a modem, Maelcum?"
+"Yo. On th' navigation comp, ya know."
+"Can you get it off for me, man? Put it on my Hosaka.
+Then turn my deck on. It's the stud with the ridges on it."
+"How you doin' in there, mon?"
+"Well, I need some help."
+"Movin', mon. I get th' modem."
+Case listened to faint static while Maelcum attached the
+simple phone link. "Ice this," he told the Hosaka, when he
+heard it beep.
+"You are speaking from a heavily monitored location," the
+computer advised primly.
+"Fuck it," he said. "Forget the ice. No ice. Access the
+construct. Dixie?"
+"Hey, Case." The Flatline spoke through the Hosaka's voice
+chip, the carefully engineered accent lost entirely.
+"Dix, you're about to punch your way in here and get
+something for me. You can be as blunt as you want. Molly's
+in here somewhere and I wanna know where. I'm in 335W,
+the Intercontinental. She was registered here too, but I don't
+know what name she was using. Ride in on this phone and do
+their records for me."
+"No sooner said," the Flatline said. Case heard the white
+sound of the invasion. He smiled. "Done. Rose Kolodny.
+Checked out. Take me a few minutes to screw their security
+net deep enough to get a fix."
+"Go."
+The phone whined and clicked with the construct's efforts.
+Case carried it back into the room and put the receiver face up
+on the temperfoam. He went into the bathroom and brushed
+his teeth. As he was stepping back out, the monitor on the
+room's Braun audiovisual complex lit up. A Japanese pop star
+reclining against metallic cushions. An unseen interviewer asked
+a question in German. Case stared. The screen jumped with
+jags of blue interference. "Case, baby, you lose your mind,
+man?" The voice was slow, familiar.
+The glass wall of the balcony clicked in with its view of
+Desiderata, but the street scene blurred, twisted, became the
+interior of the Jarre de The, Chiba, empty, red neon replicated
+to scratched infinity in the mirrored walls.
+
+Lonny Zone stepped forward, tall and cadaverous, moving
+with the slow undersea grace of his addiction. He stood alone
+among the square tables, his hands in the pockets of his gray
+sharkskin slacks. "Really, man, you're lookin' very scattered."
+The voice came from the Braun's speakers.
+"Wintermute," Case said.
+The pimp shrugged languidly and smiled.
+"Where's Molly?"
+"Never you mind. You're screwing up tonight, Case. The
+Flatline's ringing bells all over Freeside. I didn't think you'd
+do that, man. It's outside the profile."
+"So tell me where she is and I'll call him off."
+Zone shook his head.
+"You can't keep too good track of your women, can you
+Case. Keep losin' 'em, one way or another."
+"I'll bring this thing down around your ears," Case said.
+"No. You aren't that kind, man. I know that. You know
+something, Case? I figure you've got it figured out that it was
+me told Deane to off that little cunt of yours in Chiba."
+"Don't," Case said, taking an involuntary step toward the
+window.
+"But I didn't. What's it matter, though? How much does it
+really matter to Mr. Case? Quit kidding yourself. I know your
+Linda, man. I know all the Lindas. Lindas are a generic product
+in my line of work. Know why she decided to rip you off?
+Love. So you'd give a shit. Love? Wanna talk love? She loved
+you. I know that. For the little she was worth, she loved you.
+You couldn't handle it. She's dead."
+Case's fist glanced off the glass.
+"Don't fuck up the hands, man. Soon you punch deck."
+Zone vanished, replaced by Freeside night and the lights of
+the condos. The Braun shut off.
+From the bed, the phone bleated steadily.
+"Case?" The Flatline was waiting. "Where you been? I got
+it. but it isn't much." The construct rattled off an address.
+"Place had some weird ice around it for a nightclub. That's all
+I could get without leaving a calling card."
+"Okay," Case said. "Tell the Hosaka to tell Maelcum to
+disconnect the modem. Thanks, Dix."
+"A pleasure."
+He sat on the bed for a long time, savoring the new thing,
+the treasure.
+Rage.
+
+"Hey. Lupus. Hey, Cath, it's friend Lupus." Bruce stood
+naked in his doorway, dripping wet, his pupils enormous. "But
+we're just having a shower. You wanna wait? Wanna shower?"
+"No. Thanks. I want some help." He pushed the boy's arm
+aside and stepped into the room.
+"Hey, really, man, we're..."
+"Going to help me. You're really glad to see me. Because
+we're friends, right? Aren't we?"
+Bruce blinked. "Sure."
+Case recited the address the Flatline had given him.
+"I knew he was a gangster," Cath called cheerfully from
+the shower.
+"I gotta Honda trike," Bruce said, grinning vacantly.
+"We go now," Case said.
+
+"That level's the cubicles," Bruce said, after asking Case
+to repeat the address for the eighth time. He climbed back into
+the Honda. Condensation dribbled from the hydrogen-cell ex-
+haust as the red fiberglass chassis swayed on chromed shocks.
+"You be long?"
+"No saying. But you'll wait."
+"We'll wait, yeah." He scratched his bare chest. "That last
+part of the address, I think that's a cubicle. Number forty-
+three."
+"You expected, Lupus?" Cath craned forward over Bruce's
+shoulder and peered up. The drive had dried her hair.
+"Not really," Case said. "That's a problem?"
+"Just go down to the lowest level and find your friend's
+cubicle. If they let you in, fine. If they don't wanna see you . . ."
+She shrugged.
+Case turned and descended a spiral staircase of floral iron.
+Six turns and he'd reached a nightclub. He paused and lit a
+Yeheyuan, looking over the tables. Freeside suddenly made
+sense to him. Biz. He could feel it humming in the air. This
+was it, the local action. Not the high-gloss facade of the Rue
+Jules Verne, but the real thing. Commerce. The dance. The
+crowd was mixed; maybe half were tourists, the other half
+residents of the islands.
+"Downstairs," he said to a passing waiter, "I want to go
+downstairs." He showed his Freeside chip. The man gestured
+toward the rear of the club.
+He walked quickly past the crowded tables, hearing frag-
+ments of half a dozen European languages as he passed.
+"I want a cubicle," he said to the girl who sat at the low
+desk, a terminal on her lap. "Lower level." He handed her his
+chip.
+"Gender preference?" She passed the chip across a glass
+plate on the face of the terminal.
+"Female," he said automatically.
+"Number thirty-five. Phone if it isn't satisfactory. You can
+access our special services display beforehand, if you like."
+She smiled. She returned his chip.
+An elevator slid open behind her.
+The corridor lights were blue. Case stepped out of the el-
+evator and chose a direction at random. Numbered doors. A
+hush like the halls of an expensive clinic.
+He found his cubicle. He'd been looking for Molly's; now
+confused, he raised his chip and placed it against a black sensor
+set directly beneath the number plate.
+Magnetic locks. The sound reminded him of Cheap Hotel.
+The girl sat up in bed and said something in German. Her
+eyes were soft and unblinking. Automatic pilot. A neural cut-
+out. He backed out of the cubicle and closed the door.
+The door of forty-three was like all the others. He hesitated.
+The silence of the hallway said that the cubicles were sound-
+proof. It was pointless to try the chip. He rapped his knuckles
+against enameled metal. Nothing. The door seemed to absorb
+the sound.
+He placed his chip against the black plate.
+The bolts clicked.
+She seemed to hit him, somehow, before he'd actually got-
+ten the door open. He was on his knees, the steel door against
+his back, the blades of her rigid thumbs quivering centimeters
+from his eyes....
+"Jesus Christ," she said, cuffing the side of his head as she
+rose. "You're an idiot to try that. How the hell you open those
+locks, Case? Case? You okay?" She leaned over him.
+"Chip," he said, struggling for breath. Pain was spreading
+from his chest. She helped him up and shoved him into the
+cubicle.
+"You bribe the help, upstairs?"
+He shook his head and fell across the bed.
+"Breathe in. Count. One, two, three, four. Hold it. Now
+out. Count."
+He clutched his stomach.
+"You kicked me," he managed.
+"Shoulda been lower. I wanna be alone. I'm meditating,
+right?" She sat beside him. "And getting a briefing." She pointed
+at a small monitor set into the wall opposite the bed. "Win-
+termute's telling me about Straylight."
+"Where's the meat puppet?"
+"There isn't any. That's the most expensive special service
+of all." She stood up. She wore her leather jeans and a loose
+dark shirt. "The run's tomorrow, Wintermute says."
+"What was that all about, in the restaurant? How come you
+ran?"
+"'Cause, if I'd stayed, I might have killed Riviera."
+"Why?"
+"What he did to me. The show."
+"I don't get it."
+"This cost a lot," she said, extending her right hand as
+though it held an invisible fruit. The five blades slid out, then
+retracted smoothly. "Costs to go to Chiba, costs to get the
+surgery, costs to have them jack your nervous system up so
+you'll have the reflexes to go with the gear.... You know how
+I got the money, when I was starting out? Here. Not here, but
+a place like it, in the Sprawl. Joke, to start with, 'cause once
+they plant the cut-out chip, it seems like free money. Wake up
+sore, sometimes, but that's it. Renting the goods, is all. You
+aren't in, when it's all happening. House has software for
+whatever a customer wants to pay for...." She cracked her
+knuckles. "Fine. I was getting my money. Trouble was, the
+cut-out and the circuitry the Chiba clinics put in weren't com-
+patible. So the worktime started bleeding in, and I could re-
+member it.... But it was just bad dreams, and not all bad."
+She smiled. "Then it started getting strange." She pulled his
+cigarettes from his pocket and lit one. "The house found out
+what I was doing with the money. I had the blades in, but the
+fine neuromotor work would take another three trips. No way
+I was ready to give up puppet time." She inhaled, blew out a
+stream of smoke, capping it with three perfect rings. "So the
+bastard who ran the place, he had some custom software cooked
+up. Berlin, that's the place for snuff, you know? Big market
+for mean kicks, Berlin. I never knew who wrote the program
+they switched me to, but it was based on all the classics."
+"They knew you were picking up on this stuff? That you
+were conscious while you were working?"
+"I wasn't conscious. It's like cyberspace, but blank. Silver.
+It smells like rain.... You can see yourself orgasm, it's like
+a little nova right out on the rim of space. But I was starting
+to remember. Like dreams, you know. And they didn't tell me.
+They switched the software and started renting to specialty
+markets."
+She seemed to speak from a distance. "And I knew, but I
+kept quiet about it. I needed the money. The dreams got worse
+and worse, and I'd tell myself that at least some of them were
+just dreams, but by then I'd started to figure that the boss had
+a whole little clientele going for me. Nothing's too good for
+Molly, the boss says, and gives me this shit raise." She shook
+her head. "That prick was charging eight times what he was
+paying me, and he thought I didn't know."
+"So what was he charging for?"
+"Bad dreams. Real ones. One night . . . one night, I'd just
+come back from Chiba." She dropped the cigarette, ground it
+out with her heel, and sat down, leaning against the wall.
+"Surgeons went way in, that trip. Tricky. They must have
+disturbed the cut-out chip. I came up. I was into this routine
+with a customer...." She dug her fingers deep in the foam.
+"Senator, he was. Knew his fat face right away. We were both
+covered with blood. We weren't alone. She was all. .." She
+tugged at the temperfoam. "Dead. And that fat prick, he was
+saying, 'What's wrong. What's wrong?' 'Cause we weren't
+finished yet...."
+She began to shake.
+"So I guess I gave the Senator what he really wanted, you
+know?" The shaking stopped. She released the foam and ran
+her fingers back through her dark hair. "The house put a con-
+tract out on me. I had to hide for a while."
+Case stared at her.
+"So Riviera hit a nerve last night," she said. "I guess it
+wants me to hate him real bad, so I'll be psyched up to go in
+there after him."
+"After him?"
+"He's already there. Straylight. On the invitation of Lady
+3Jane, all that dedication shit. She was there in a private box,
+kinda . . ."
+Case remembered the face he'd seen. "You gonna kill him?"
+She smiled. Cold. "He's going to die, yeah. Soon."
+"I had a visit too," he said, and told her about the window,
+stumbling over what the Zone-figure had said about Linda. She
+nodded.
+"Maybe it wants you to hate something too."
+"Maybe I hate it."
+"Maybe you hate yourself, Case."
+
+"How was it?" Bruce asked, as Case climbed into the Honda.
+"Try it sometime," he said, rubbing his eyes.
+"Just can't see you the kinda guy goes for the puppets,"
+Cath said unhappily, thumbing a fresh derm against her wrist.
+"Can we go home, now?" Bruce asked.
+"Sure. Drop me down Jules Verne, where the bars are."
+Rue Jules Verne was a circumferential avenue, looping the
+spindle's midpoint, while Desiderata ran its length, terminating
+at either end in the supports of the Lado-Acheson light pumps.
+If you turned right, off Desiderata, and followed Jules Verne
+far enough, you'd find yourself approaching Desiderata from
+the left.
+Case watched Bruce's trike until it was out of sight, then
+turned and walked past a vast, brilliantly lit newsstand, the
+covers of dozens of glossy Japanese magazines presenting the
+faces of the month's newest simstim stars.
+Directly overhead, along the nighted axis, the hologram sky
+glittered with fanciful constellations suggesting playing cards,
+the faces of dice, a top hat, a martini glass. The intersection
+of Desiderata and Jules Verne formed a kind of gulch, the
+balconied terraces of Freeside cliff dwellers rising gradually to
+the grassy tablelands of another casino complex. Case watched
+a drone microlight bank gracefully in an updraft at the green
+verge of an artificial mesa, lit for seconds by the soft glow of
+the invisible casino. The thing was a kind of pilotless biplane
+of gossamer polymer, its wings silkscreened to resemble a giant
+butterfly. Then it was gone, beyond the mesa's edge. He'd
+seen a wink of reflected neon off glass, either lenses or the
+turrets of lasers. The drones were part of the spindle's security
+system, controlled by some central computer.
+In Straylight? He walked on, past bars named the Hi-Lo,
+the Paradise, le Monde, Cricketeer, Shozoku Smith's, Emer-
+gency. He chose Emergency because it was the smallest and
+most crowded, but it took only seconds for him to realize that
+it was a tourist place. No hum of biz here, only a glazed sexual
+tension. He thought briefly of the nameless club above Molly's
+rented cubicle, but the image of her mirrored eyes fixed on the
+little screen dissuaded him. What was Wintermute revealing
+there now? The ground plans of the Villa Straylight? The history
+of the Tessier-Ashpools?
+He bought a mug of Carlsberg and found a place against
+the wall. Closing his eyes, he felt for the knot of rage, the pure
+small coal of his anger. It was there still. Where had it come
+from? He remembered feeling only a kind of bafflement at his
+maiming in Memphis, nothing at all when he'd killed to defend
+his dealing interests in Night City, and a slack sickness and
+loathing after Linda's death under the inflated dome. But no
+anger. Small and far away, on the mind's screen, a semblance
+of Deane struck a semblance of an office wall in an explosion
+of brains and blood. He knew then: the rage had come in the
+arcade, when Wintermute rescinded the simstim ghost of Linda
+Lee, yanking away the simple animal promise of food, warmth,
+a place to sleep. But he hadn't become aware of it until his
+exchange with the holo-construct of Lonny Zone.
+It was a strange thing. He couldn't take its measure.
+"Numb," he said. He'd been numb a long time, years. All
+his nights down Ninsei, his nights with Linda, numb in bed
+and numb at the cold sweating center of every drug deal. But
+now he'd found this warm thing, this chip of murder. Meat,
+some part of him said. It's the meat talking, ignore it.
+"Gangster."
+He opened his eyes. Cath stood beside him in a black shift,
+her hair still wild from the ride in the Honda.
+"Thought you went home," he said, and covered his con-
+fusion with a sip of Carlsberg.
+"I got him to drop me off at this shop. Bought this." She
+ran her palm across the fabric, curve of the pelvic girdle. He
+saw the blue derm on her wrist. "Like it?"
+"Sure." He automatically scanned the faces around them,
+then looked back at her. "What do you think you're up to,
+honey?"
+"You like the beta you got off us, Lupus?" She was very
+close now, radiating heat and tension, eyes slitted over enor-
+mous pupils and a tendon in her neck tense as a bowstring.
+She was quivering, vibrating invisibly with the fresh buzz.
+"You get off?"
+"Yeah. But the comedown's a bitch."
+"Then you need another one."
+"And what's that supposed to lead to?"
+"I got a key. Up the hill behind the Paradise, just the cream-
+iest crib. People down the well on business tonight, if you
+follow me...."
+"If I follow you."
+She took his hand between hers, her palms hot and dry.
+"You're Yak, aren't you, Lupus? Gaijin soldierman for the
+Yakuza."
+"You got an eye, huh?" He withdrew his hand and fumbled
+for a cigarette.
+"How come you got all your fingers, then? I thought you
+had to chop one off every time you screwed up."
+"I never screw up." He lit his cigarette.
+"I saw that girl you're with. Day I met you. Walks like
+Hideo. Scares me." She smiled too widely. "I like that. She
+like it with girls?"
+"Never said. Who's Hideo?"
+"3Jane's, what she calls it, retainer. Family retainer."
+Case forced himself to stare dully at the Emergency crowd
+while he spoke. "Dee-Jane?"
+"Lady 3Jane. She's triff. Rich. Her father owns all this."
+"This bar?"
+"Freeside ! "
+"No shit. You keepin' some class company, huh?" He raised
+an eyebrow. Put his arm around her, his hand on her hip. "So
+how you meet these aristos, Cathy? You some kinda closet
+deb? You an' Bruce secret heirs to some ripe old credit? Huh?"
+He spread his fingers, kneading the flesh beneath the thin black
+cloth. She squirmed against him. Laughed.
+"Oh, you know," she said, lids half lowered in what must
+have been intended as a look of modesty, "she likes to party.
+Bruce and I, we make the party circuit.... It gets real boring
+for her, in there. Her old man lets her out sometimes, as long
+as she brings Hideo to take care of her."
+"Where's it get boring?'
+"Straylight, they call it. She told me, oh, it's pretty, all the
+pools and lilies.It's a castle, a real castle, all stone and sunsets."
+She snuggled in against him. "Hey, Lupus, man, you need a
+derm. So we can be together."
+She wore a tiny leather purse on a slender neck-thong. Her
+nails were bright pink against her boosted tan, bitten to the
+quick. She opened the purse and withdrew a paperbacked bub-
+ble with a blue derm inside. Something white tumbled to the
+floor; Case stooped and picked it up. An origami crane.
+"Hideo gave it to me," she said. "He tried to show me how,
+but I can't ever get it right. The necks come out backwards."
+She tucked the folded paper back into her purse. Case watched
+as she tore the bubble away, peeled the derm from its backing,
+and smoothed it across his inner wrist.
+"3Jane, she's got a pointy face, nose like a bird?" He watched
+his hands fumble an outline. "Dark hair? Young?"
+"I guess. But she's triff, you know? Like, all that money."
+The drug hit him like an express train, a white-hot column
+of light mounting his spine from the region of his prostate,
+illuminating the sutures of his skull with x-rays of short-cir-
+cuited sexual energy. His teeth sang in their individual sockets
+like tuning forks, each one pitch-perfect and clear as ethanol.
+His bones, beneath the hazy envelope of flesh, were chromed
+and polished, the joints lubricated with a film of silicone. Sand-
+storms raged across the scoured floor of his skull, generating
+waves of high thin static that broke behind his eyes, spheres
+of purest crystal, expanding....
+"Come on," she said, taking his hand. "You got it now.
+We got it. Up the hill, we'll have it all night."
+
+The anger was expanding, relentless, exponential, riding
+out behind the betaphenethylamine rush like a carrier wave, a
+seismic fluid, rich and corrosive. His erection was a bar of
+lead. The faces around them in Emergency were painted doll
+things, the pink and white of mouth parts moving, moving,
+words emerging like discrete balloons of sound. He looked at
+Cath and saw each pore in the tanned skin, eyes flat as dumb
+glass, a tint of dead metal, a faint bloating, the most minute
+asymmetries of breast and collarbone, the--something flared
+white behind his eyes.
+He dropped her hand and stumbled for the door, shoving
+someone out of the way.
+"Fuck you!" she screamed behind him, "you ripoff shit!"
+He couldn't feel his legs. He used them like stilts, swaying
+crazily across the flagstone pavement of Jules Verne, a distant
+rumbling in his ears, his own blood, razored sheets of light
+bisecting his skull at a dozen angles.
+And then he was frozen, erect, fists tight against his thighs,
+head back, his lips curled, shaking. While he watched the
+loser's zodiac of Freeside, the nightclub constellations of the
+hologram sky, shift, sliding fluid down the axis of darkness,
+to swarm like live things at the dead center of reality. Until
+they had arranged themselves, individually and in their hundreds,
+to form a vast simple portrait, stippled the ultimate mono-
+chrome, stars against night sky. Face of Miss Linda Lee.
+When he was able to look away, to lower his eyes, he found
+every other face in the street upraised, the strolling tourists
+becalmed with wonder. And when the lights in the sky went
+out, a ragged cheer went up from Jules Verne, to echo off the
+terraces and ranked balconies of lunar concrete.
+Somewhere a clock began to chime, some ancient bell out
+of Europe.
+Midnight.
+
+He walked till morning.
+The high wore away, the chromed skeleton corroding hourly,
+flesh growing solid, the drug-flesh replaced with the meat of
+his life. He couldn't think. He liked that very much, to be
+conscious and unable to think. He seemed to become each
+thing he saw: a park bench, a cloud of white moths around an
+antique streetlight, a robot gardener striped diagonally with
+black and yellow.
+A recorded dawn crept along the Lado-Acheson system,
+pink and lurid. He forced himself to eat an omelette in a De-
+siderata cafe, to drink water, to smoke the last of his cigarettes.
+The rooftop meadow of the Intercontinental was stirring as he
+crossed it, an early breakfast crowd intent on coffee and crois-
+sants beneath the striped umbrellas.
+He still had his anger. That was like being rolled in some
+alley and waking to discover your wallet still in your pocket,
+untouched. He warmed himself with it, unable to give it a name
+or an object.
+He rode the elevator down to his level, fumbling in his
+pocket for the Freeside credit chip that served as his key. Sleep
+was becoming real, was something he might do. To lie down
+on the sand-colored temperfoam and find the blankness again.
+They were waiting there, the three of them, their perfect
+white sportsclothes and stenciled tans setting off the handwoven
+organic chic of the furniture. The girl sat on a wicker sofa, an
+automatic pistol beside her on the leaf-patterned print of the
+cushion.
+"Turing," she said. "You are under arrest."
+
+PART FOUR
+
+THE STRAYLIGHT RUN
+
+
+"Your name is Henry Dorsett Case." She recited the year
+and place of his birth, his BAMA Single Identification Number,
+and a string of names he gradually recognized as aliases from
+his past.
+"You been here awhile?" He saw the contents of his bag
+spread out across the bed, unwashed clothing sorted by type.
+The shuriken lay by itself, between jeans and underwear, on
+the sand-tinted temperfoam.
+"Where is Kolodny?" The two men sat side by side on the
+couch, their arms crossed over tanned chests, identical gold
+chains slung around their necks. Case peered at them and saw
+that their youth was counterfeit, marked by a certain telltale
+corrugation at the knuckles, something the surgeons were un-
+able to erase.
+"Who's Kolodny?"
+"That was the name in the register. Where is she?"
+"I dunno," he said, crossing to the bar and pouring himself
+a glass of mineral water. "She took off."
+"Where did you go tonight, Case?" The girl picked up the
+pistol and rested it on her thigh, without actually pointing it at
+him.
+"Jules Verne, couple of bars, got high. How about you?"
+His knees felt brittle. The mineral water was warm and flat.
+"I don't think you grasp your situation," said the man on
+the left, taking a pack of Gitanes from the breast pocket of his
+white mesh blouse. "You are busted, Mr. Case. The charges
+have to do with conspiracy to augment an artificial intelli-
+gence." He took a gold Dunhill from the same pocket and
+cradled it in his palm. "The man you call Armitage is already
+in custody."
+"Corto?"
+The man's eyes widened. "Yes. How do you know that that
+is his name?" A millimeter of flame clicked from the lighter.
+"I forget," Case said.
+"You'll remember," the girl said.
+
+Their names, or worknames, were Michele, Roland, and
+Pierre. Pierre, Case decided, would play the Bad Cop; Roland
+would take Case's side, provide small kindnesses--he found
+an unopened pack of Yeheyuans when Case refused a Gitane--
+and generally play counterpoint to Pierre's cold hostility.
+Michele would be the Recording Angel, making occasional
+adjustments in the direction of the interrogation. One or all of
+them, he was certain, would be kinked for audio, very likely
+for simstim, and anything he said or did now was admissible
+evidence. Evidence, he asked himself, through the grinding
+come-down, of what?
+Knowing that he couldn't follow their French, they spoke
+freely among themselves. Or seemed to. He caught enough as
+it was: names like Pauley, Armitage, Sense/Net. Panther Mod-
+erns protruding like icebergs from an animated sea of Parisian
+French. But it was entirely possible that the names were there
+for his benefit. They always referred to Molly as Kolodny.
+"You say you were hired to make a run, Case," Roland
+said, his slow speech intended to convey reasonableness, "and
+that you are unaware of the nature of the target. Is this not
+unusual in your trade? Having penetrated the defenses, would
+you not be unable then to perform the required operation? And
+surely an operation of some kind is required, yes?" He leaned
+forward, elbows on his stenciled brown knees, palms out to
+receive Case's explanation. Pierre paced the room; now he was
+by the window, now by the door. Michele was the kink, Case
+decided. Her eyes never left him.
+"Can I put some clothes on?" he asked. Pierre had insisted
+on stripping him, searching the seams of his jeans. Now he sat
+naked on a wicker footstool, with one foot obscenely white.
+Roland asked Pierre something in French. Pierre, at the
+window again, was peering through a flat little pair of binoc-
+ulars. "Non," he said absently, and Roland shrugged, raising
+his eyebrows at Case. Case decided it was a good time to smile.
+Roland returned the smile.
+Oldest cop bullshit in the book, Case thought. "Look," he
+said, "I'm sick. Had this godawful drug in a bar, you know?
+I wanna lie down. You got me already. You say you got
+Armitage. You got him, go ask him. I'm just hired help."
+Roland nodded. "And Kolodny?"
+"She was with Armitage when he hired me. Just muscle, a
+razorgirl. Far as I know. Which isn't too far."
+"You know that Armitage's real name is Corto," Pierre said,
+his eyes still hidden by the soft plastic flanges of the binoculars.
+"How do you know that, my friend?"
+"I guess he mentioned it sometime," Case said, regretting
+the slip. "Everybody's got a couple names. Your name Pierre?"
+"We know how you were repaired in Chiba," Michele said,
+"and that may have been Wintermute's first mistake." Case
+stared at her as blankly as he could. The name hadn't been
+mentioned before. "The process employed on you resulted in
+the clinic's owner applying for seven basic patents. Do you
+know what that means?"
+"No."
+"It means that the operator of a black clinic in Chiba City
+now owns a controlling interest in three major medical research
+consortiums. This reverses the usual order of things, you see.
+It attracted attention." She crossed her brown arms across her
+small high breasts and settled back against the print cushion.
+Case wondered how old she might be. People said that age
+always showed in the eyes, but he'd never been able to see it.
+Julie Deane had had the eyes of a disinterested ten-year-old
+behind the rose quartz of his glasses. Nothing old about Michele
+but her knuckles. "Traced you to the Sprawl, lost you again,
+then caught up with you as you were leaving for Istanbul. We
+backtracked, traced you through the grid, determined that you'd
+instigated a riot at Sense/Net. Sense/Net was eager to cooperate.
+They ran an inventory for us. They discovered that McCoy
+Pauley's ROM personality construct was missing."
+"In Istanbul," Roland said, almost apologetically, "it was
+very easy. The woman had alienated Armitage's contact with
+the secret police."
+"And then you came here," Pierre said, slipping the bin-
+oculars into his shorts pocket. "We were delighted."
+"Chance to work on your tan?"
+"You know what we mean," Michele said. "If you wish to
+pretend that you do not, you only make things more difficult
+for yourself. There is still the matter of extradition. You will
+return with us, Case, as will Armitage. But where, exactly,
+will we all be going? To Switzerland, where you will be merely
+a pawn in the trial of an artificial intelligence? Or to le BAMA,
+where you can be proven to have participated not only in data
+invasion and larceny, but in an act of public mischief which
+cost fourteen innocent lives? The choice is yours."
+Case took a Yeheyuan from his pack; Pierre lit it for him
+with the gold Dunhill. "Would Armitage protect you?" The
+question was punctuated by the lighter's bright jaws snapping
+shut.
+Case looked up at him through the ache and bitterness of
+betaphenethylamine. "How old are you, boss?"
+"Old enough to know that you are fucked, burnt, that this
+is over and you are in the way."
+"One thing," Case said, and drew on his cigarette. He blew
+the smoke up at the Turing Registry agent. "Do you guys have
+any real jurisdiction out here? I mean, shouldn't you have the
+Freeside security team in on this party? It's their turf, isn't it?"
+He saw the dark eyes harden in the lean boy face and tensed
+for the blow, but Pierre only shrugged.
+"It doesn't matter," Roland said. "You will come with us.
+We are at home with situations of legal ambiguity. The treaties
+under which our arm of the Registry operates grant us a great
+deal of flexibility. And we create flexibility, in situations where
+it is required." The mask of amiability was down, suddenly,
+Roland's eyes as hard as Pierre's.
+"You are worse than a fool," Michele said, getting to her
+feet, the pistol in her hand. "You have no care for your species.
+For thousands of years men dreamed of pacts with demons.
+Only now are such things possible. And what would you be
+paid with? What would your price be, for aiding this thing to
+free itself and grow?" There was a knowing weariness in her
+young voice that no nineteen-year-old could have mustered.
+"You will dress now. You will come with us. Along with the
+one you call Armitage, you will return with us to Geneva and
+give testimony in the trial of this intelligence. Otherwise, we
+kill you. Now." She raised the pistol, a smooth black Walther
+with an integral silencer.
+"I'm dressing already," he said, stumbling toward the bed.
+His legs were still numb, clumsy. He fumbled with a clean
+t-shirt.
+"We have a ship standing by. We will erase Pauley's con-
+struct with a pulse weapon."
+"Sense/Net'll be pissed," Case said, thinking: and all the
+evidence in the Hosaka.
+"They are in some difficulty already, for having owned such
+a thing."
+Case pulled the shirt over his head. He saw the shuriken on
+the bed, lifeless metal, his star. He felt for the anger. It was
+gone. Time to give in, to roll with it.... He thought of the
+toxin sacs. "Here comes the meat," he muttered.
+In the elevator to the meadow, he thought of Molly. She
+might already be in Straylight. Hunting Riviera. Hunted, prob-
+ably, by Hideo, who was almost certainly the ninja clone of
+the Finn's story, the one who'd come to retrieve the talking
+head.
+He rested his forehead against the matte black plastic of a
+wall panel and closed his eyes. His limbs were wood, old,
+warped and heavy with rain.
+Lunch was being served beneath the trees, under the bright
+umbrellas. Roland and Michele fell into character, chattering
+brightly in French. Pierre came behind. Michele kept the muz-
+zle of her pistol close to his ribs, concealing the gun with a
+white duck jacket she draped over her arm.
+
+Crossing the meadow, weaving between the tables and the
+trees, he wondered if she would shoot him if he collapsed now.
+Black fur boiled at the borders of his vision. He glanced up at
+the hot white band of the Lado-Acheson armature and saw a
+giant butterfly banking gracefully against recorded sky.
+At the edge of the meadow they came to railinged cliffside,
+wild flowers dancing in the updraft from the canyon that was
+Desiderata. Michele tossed her short dark hair and pointed,
+saying something in French to Roland. She sounded genuinely
+happy. Case followed the direction of her gesture and saw the
+curve of planing lakes, the white glint of casinos, turquoise
+rectangles of a thousand pools, the bodies of bathers, tiny bronze
+hieroglyphs, all held in serene approximation of gravity against
+the endless curve of Freeside's hull.
+They followed the railing to an ornate iron bridge that arched
+over Desiderata. Michele prodded him with the muzzle of the
+Walther.
+"Take it easy, I can't hardly walk today."
+They were a little over a quarter of the way across when
+the microlight struck, its electric engine silent until the carbon
+fiber prop chopped away the top of Pierre's skull.
+They were in the thing's shadow for an instant; Case felt
+the hot blood spray across the back of his neck, and then
+someone tripped him. He rolled, seeing Michele on her back,
+knees up, aiming the Walther with both hands. That's a waste
+of effort, he thought, with the strange lucidity of shock. She
+was trying to shoot down the microlight.
+And then he was running. He looked back as he passed the
+first of the trees. Roland was running after him. He saw the
+fragile biplane strike the iron railing of the bridge, crumple,
+cartwheel, sweeping the girl with it down into Desiderata.
+Roland hadn't looked back. His face was fixed, white, his
+teeth bared. He had something in his hand.
+The gardening robot took Roland as he passed that same
+tree. It fell straight out of the groomed branches, a thing like
+a crab, diagonally striped with black and yellow.
+"You killed 'em," Case panted, running. "Crazy mother-
+fucker, you killed 'em all...."
+
+
+The little train shot through its tunnel at eighty kilometers
+per hour. Case kept his eyes closed. The shower had helped,
+but he'd lost his breakfast when he'd looked down and seen
+Pierre's blood washing pink across the white tiles.
+Gravity fell away as the spindle narrowed. Case's stomach
+churned.
+Aerol was waiting with his scooter beside the dock.
+"Case, mon, big problem." The soft voice faint in his phones.
+He chinned the volume control and peered into the Lexan
+face-plate of Aerol's helmet.
+"Gotta get to Garvey, Aerol."
+"Yo. Strap in, mon. But Garvey captive. Yacht, came be-
+fore, she came back. Now she lockin' steady on Marcus
+Garvey. "
+Turing? "Came before?" Case climbed into the scooter's
+frame and began to fasten the straps.
+
+"Japan yacht. Brought you package...."
+Armitage.
+
+Confused images of wasps and spiders rose in Case's mind
+as they came in sight of Marcus Garvey. The little tug was
+snug against the gray thorax of a sleek, insectile ship five times
+her length. The arms of grapples stood out against Garvey's
+patched hull with the strange clarity of vacuum and raw sun-
+light. A pale corrugated gangway curved out of the yacht,
+snaked sideways to avoid the tug's engines, and covered the
+aft hatch. There was something obscene about the arrangement,
+but it had more to do with ideas of feeding than of sex.
+"What's happening with Maelcum?"
+"Maelcum fine. Nobody come down the tube. Yacht pilot
+talk to him, say relax."
+As they swung past the gray ship, Case saw the name HAN-
+IWA in crisp white capitals beneath an oblong cluster of Jap-
+anese.
+"I don't like this, man. I was thinking maybe it's time we
+got our ass out of here anyway."
+"Maelcum thinkin' that precise thing, mon, but Garvey not
+be goin' far like that."
+
+Maelcum was purring a speeded-up patois to his radio when
+Case came through the forward lock and removed his helmet.
+"Aerol's gone back to the Rocker," Case said.
+Maelcum nodded, still whispering to the microphone.
+Case pulled himself over the pilot's drifting tangle of dread-
+locks and began to remove his suit. Maelcum's eyes were
+closed now; he nodded as he listened to some reply over a pair
+of phones with bright orange pads, his brow creased with con-
+centration. He wore ragged jeans and an old green nylon jacket
+with the sleeves ripped out. Case snapped the red Sanyo suit
+to a storage hammock and pulled himself down to the g-web.
+"See what th' ghost say, mon," Maelcum said. "Computer
+keeps askin' for you."
+"So who's up there in that thing?"
+"Same Japan-boy came before. An' now he joined by you
+Mister Armitage, come out Freeside...."
+Case put the trodes on and jacked in.
+
+
+* * *
+"Dixie?"
+The matrix showed him the pink spheres of the steel combine
+in Sikkim.
+"What you gettin' up to, boy? I been hearin' lurid stories.
+Hosaka's patched into a twin bank on your boss's boat now.
+Really hoppin'. You pull some Turing heat?"
+"Yeah, but Wintermute killed 'em."
+"Well, that won't hold 'em long. Plenty more where those
+came from. Be up here in force. Bet their decks are all over
+this grid sector like flies on shit. And your boss, Case, he says
+go. He says run it and run it now."
+Case punched for the Freeside coordinates.
+"Lemme take that a sec, Case...." The matrix blurred and
+phased as the Flatline executed an intricate series of jumps with
+a speed and accuracy that made Case wince with envy.
+"Shit, Dixie...."
+"Hey, boy, I was that good when I was alive. You ain't
+seen nothin'. No hands!"
+"That's it, huh? Big green rectangle off left?"
+"You got it. Corporate core data for Tessier-Ashpool S.A.,
+and that ice is generated by their two friendly Al's. On par
+with anything in the military sector, looks to me. That's king
+hell ice, Case, black as the grave and slick as glass. Fry your
+brain soon as look at you. We get any closer now, it'll have
+tracers up our ass and out both ears, be tellin' the boys in the
+T-A boardroom the size of your shoes and how long your dick
+
+"This isn't looking so hot, is it? I mean, the Turings are on
+it. I was thinking maybe we should try to bail out. I can take
+you."
+"Yeah? No shit? You don't wanna see what that Chinese
+program can do?"
+"Well, I . . ." Case stared at the green walls of the T-A ice.
+"Well, screw it. Yeah. We run."
+"Slot it."
+"Hey, Maelcum," Case said, jacking out, "I'm probably
+gonna be under the trodes for maybe eight hours straight."
+Maelcum was smoking again. The cabin was swimming in
+smoke. "So I can't get to the head...."
+"No problem, mon." The Zionite executed a high forward
+somersault and rummaged through the contents of a zippered
+mesh bag, coming up with a coil of transparent tubing and
+something else, something sealed in a sterile bubble pack.
+He called it a Texas catheter, and Case didn't like it at all.
+He slotted the Chinese virus, paused, then drove it home.
+"Okay," he said, "we're on. Listen, Maelcum, if it gets
+really funny, you can grab my left wrist. I'll feel it. Otherwise,
+I guess you do what the Hosaka tells you, okay?"
+"Sure, mon." Maelcum lit a fresh joint.
+"And turn the scrubber up. I don't want that shit tangling
+with my neurotransmitters. I got a bad hangover as it is."
+Maelcum grinned.
+Case jacked back in.
+"Christ on a crutch," the Flatline said, "take a look at this."
+The Chinese virus was unfolding around them. Polychrome
+shadow, countless translucent layers shifting and recombining.
+Protean, enormous, it towered above them, blotting out the
+void.
+"Big mother," the Flatline said.
+"I'm gonna check Molly," Case said, tapping the simstim
+switch.
+
+Freefall. The sensation was like diving through perfectly
+clear water. She was falling-rising through a wide tube of fluted
+lunar concrete, lit at two-meter intervals by rings of white neon.
+The link was one way. He couldn't talk to her.
+He flipped.
+
+"Boy, that is one mean piece of software. Hottest thing
+since sliced bread. That goddam thing's invisible. I just now
+rented twenty seconds on that little pink box, four jumps left
+of the T-A ice; had a look at what we look like. We don't.
+We're not there."
+Case searched the matrix around the Tessier-Ashpool ice
+until he found the pink structure, a standard commercial unit,
+and punched in closer to it. "Maybe it's defective."
+"Maybe, but I doubt it. Our baby's military, though. And
+new. It just doesn't register. If it did, we'd read as some kind
+of Chinese sneak attack, but nobody's twigged to us at all.
+Maybe not even the folks in Straylight."
+
+Case watched the blank wall that screened Straylight. "Well,"
+he said, "that's an advantage, right?"
+"Maybe." The construct approximated laughter. Case winced
+at the sensation. "I checked ol' Kuang Eleven out again for
+you, boy. It's real friendly, long as you're on the trigger end,
+jus' polite an' helpful as can be. Speaks good English, too.
+You ever hear of slow virus before?"
+"No."
+"I did, once. Just an idea, back then. But that's what ol'
+Kuang's all about. This ain't bore and inject, it's more like we
+interface with the ice so slow, the ice doesn't feel it. The face
+of the Kuang logics kinda sleazes up to the target and mutates,
+so it gets to be exactly like the ice fabric. Then we lock on
+and the main programs cut in, start talking circles 'round the
+logics in the ice. We go Siamese twin on 'em before they even
+get restless." The Flatline laughed.
+"Wish you weren't so damn jolly today, man. That laugh
+of yours sort of gets me in the spine."
+"Too bad," the Flatline said. "Ol' dead man needs his laughs."
+Case slapped the simstim switch.
+
+And crashed through tangled metal and the smell of dust,
+the heels of his hands skidding as they struck slick paper.
+Something behind him collapsed noisily.
+"C'mon," said the Finn, "ease up a little."
+Case lay sprawled across a pile of yellowing magazines,
+the girls shining up at him in the dimness of Metro Holografix,
+a wistful galaxy of sweet white teeth. He lay there until his
+heart had slowed, breathing the smell of old magazines.
+"Wintermute," he said.
+"Yeah," said the Finn, somewhere behind him, "you got
+it."
+"Fuck off." Case sat up, rubbing his wrists.
+"Come on," said the Finn, stepping out of a sort of alcove
+in the wall of junk. "This way's better for you, man." He took
+his Partagas from a coat pocket and lit one. The smell of Cuban
+tobacco filled the shop. "You want I should come to you in
+the matrix like a burning bush? You aren't missing anything,
+back there. An hour here'll only take you a couple of seconds."
+"You ever think maybe it gets on my nerves, you coming
+on like people I know?" He stood, swatting pale dust from the
+front of his black jeans. He turned, glaring back at-the dusty
+shop windows, the closed door to the street. "What's out there?
+New York? Or does it just stop?"
+"Well," said the Finn, "it's like that tree, you know? Falls
+in the woods but maybe there's nobody to hear it." He showed
+Case his huge front teeth, and puffed his cigarette. "You can
+go for a walk, you wanna. It's all there. Or anyway all the
+parts of it you ever saw. This is memory, right? I tap you, sort
+it out, and feed it back in."
+"I don't have this good a memory," Case said, looking
+around. He looked down at his hands, turning them over. He
+tried to remember what the lines on his palms were like, but
+couldn't.
+"Everybody does," the Finn said, dropping his cigarette and
+grinding it out under his heel, "but not many of you can access
+it. Artists can, mostly, if they're any good. If you could lay
+this construct over the reality, the Finn's place in lower Man-
+hattan, you'd see a difference, but maybe not as much as you'd
+think. Memory's holographic, for you." The Finn tugged at
+one of his small ears. "I'm different."
+"How do you mean, holographic?" The word made him
+think of Riviera.
+"The holographic paradigm is the closest thing you've worked
+out to a representation of human memory, is all. But you've
+never done anything about it. People, I mean." The Finn stepped
+forward and canted his streamlined skull to peer up at Case.
+"Maybe if you had, I wouldn't be happening."
+"What's that supposed to mean?"
+The Finn shrugged. His tattered tweed was too wide across
+the shoulders, and didn't quite settle back into position. "I'm
+trying to help you, Case."
+"Why?"
+"Because I need you." The large yellow teeth appeared
+again. "And because you need me."
+"Bullshit. Can you read my mind, Finn?" He grimaced.
+"Wintermute, I mean."
+"Minds aren't read. See, you've still got the paradigms
+print gave you, and you're barely print-literate. I can access
+your memory, but that's not the same as your mind." He
+reached into the exposed chassis of an ancient television and
+withdrew a silver-black vacuum tube. "See this? Part of my
+DNA, sort of...." He tossed the thing into the shadows and
+Case heard it pop and tinkle. "You're always building models.
+Stone circles. Cathedrals. Pipe-organs. Adding machines. I
+got no idea why I'm here now, you know that? But if the
+run goes off tonight, you'll have finally managed the real
+thing."
+"I don't know what you're talking about."
+"That's 'you' in the collective. Your species."
+"You killed those Turings."
+The Finn shrugged. "Hadda. Hadda. You should give a shit;
+they woulda offed you and never thought twice. Anyway, why
+I got you here, we gotta talk more. Remember this?" And his
+right hand held the charred wasps' nest from Case's dream,
+reek of fuel in the closeness of the darkshop. Case stumbled
+back against a wall of junk. "Yeah. That was me. Did it with
+the holo rig in the window. Another memory I tapped out of
+you when I flatlined you that first time. Know why it's im-
+portant?"
+Case shook his head.
+"Because"--and the nest, somehow, was gone--"it's the
+closest thing you got to what Tessier-Ashpool would like to
+be . The human equivalent . Straylight' s like that nest, or anyway
+it was supposed to work out that way. l figure it'll make you
+feel better."
+"Feel better?"
+"To know what they're like. You were starting to hate my
+guts for a while there. That's good. But hate them instead.
+Same difference."
+"Listen," Case said, stepping forward, "they never did shit
+to me. You, it's different...." But he couldn't feel the anger.
+"So T-A, they made me. The French girl, she said you were
+selling out the species. Demon, she said I was." The Finn
+grinned. "It doesn't much matter. You gotta hate somebody
+before this is over." He turned and headed for the back of the
+shop. "Well, come on, I'll show you a little bit of Straylight
+while I got you here." He lifted the corner of the blanket. White
+light poured out. "Shit, man, don't just stand there."
+Case followed, rubbing his face.
+
+"Okay," said the Finn, and grabbed his elbow.
+They were drawn past the stale wool in a puff of dust, into
+freefall and a cylindrical corridor of fluted lunar concrete, ringed
+with white neon at two-meter intervals.
+"Jesus," Case said, tumbling.
+"This is the front entrance," the Finn said, his tweed flap-
+ping. "If this weren't a construct of mine, where the shop is
+would be the main gate, up by the Freeside axis. This'll all be
+a little low on detail, though, because you don't have the
+memories. Except for this bit here, you got off Molly...."
+Case managed to straighten out, but began to corkscrew in
+a long spiral.
+"Hold on," the Finn said, "I'll fast-forward us."
+The walls blurred. Dizzying sensation of headlong move-
+ment, colors, whipping around corners and through narrow
+corridors. They seemed at one point to pass through several
+meters of solid wall, a flash of pitch darkness.
+"Here," the Finn said. "This is it."
+They floated in the center of a perfectly square room, walls
+and ceiling paneled in rectangular sections of dark wood. The
+floor was covered by a single square of brilliant carpet patterned
+after a microchip, circuits traced in blue and scarlet wool. In
+the exact center of the room, aligned precisely with the carpet
+pattern, stood a square pedestal of frosted white glass.
+"The Villa Straylight," said a jeweled thing on the pedestal,
+in a voice like music, "is a body grown in upon itself, a Gothic
+folly. Each space in Straylight is in some way secret, this
+endless series of chambers linked by passages, by stairwells
+vaulted like intestines, where the eye is trapped in narrow
+curves, carried past ornate screens, empty alcoves...."
+"Essay of 3Jane's," the Finn said, producing his Partagas.
+"Wrote that when she was twelve. Semiotics course."
+"The architects of Freeside went to great pains to conceal
+the fact that the interior of the spindle is arranged with the
+banal precision of furniture in a hotel room. In Straylight, the
+hull's inner surface is overgrown with a desperate proliferation
+of structures, forms flowing, interlocking, rising toward a solid
+core of microcircuitry, our clan's corporate heart, a cylinder
+of silicon wormholed with narrow maintenance tunnels, some
+no wider than a man's hand. The bright crabs burrow there,
+the drones, alert for micromechanical decay or sabotage."
+
+"That was her you saw in the restaurant," the Finn said.
+"By the standards of the archipelago," the head continued,
+"ours is an old family, the convolutions of our home reflecting
+that age. But reflecting something else as well. The semiotics
+of the Villa bespeak a turning in, a denial of the bright void
+beyond the hull.
+"Tessier and Ashpool climbed the well of gravity to discover
+that they loathed space. They built Freeside to tap the wealth
+of the new islands, grew rich and eccentric, and began the
+construction of an extended body in Straylight. We have sealed
+ourselves away behind our money, growing inward, generating
+a seamless universe of self.
+"The Villa Straylight knows no sky, recorded or otherwise.
+"At the Villa's silicon core is a small room, the only rec-
+tilinear chamber in the complex. Here, on a plain pedestal of
+glass, rests an ornate bust, platinum and cloisonne, studded
+with lapis and pearl. The bright marbles of its eyes were cut
+from the synthetic ruby viewport of the ship that brought the
+first Tessier up the well, and returned for the first Ashpool...."
+The head fell silent.
+"Well?" Case asked, finally, almost expecting the thing to
+answer him.
+"That's all she wrote," the Finn said. "Didn't finish it. Just
+a kid then. This thing's a ceremonial terminal, sort of. I need
+Molly in here with the right word at the right time. That's the
+catch. Doesn't mean shit, how deep you and the Flatline ride
+that Chinese virus, if this thing doesn't hear the magic word."
+"So what's the word?"
+"I don't know. You might say what I am is basically defined
+by the fact that I don't know, because I can't know. I am that
+which knoweth not the word. If you knew, man, and told me,
+I couldn't know. It's hardwired in. Someone else has to learn
+it and bring it here, just when you and the Flatline punch
+through that ice and scramble the cores."
+"What happens then?"
+"I don't exist, after that. I cease."
+"Okay by me," Case said.
+"Sure. But you watch your ass, Case. My, ah, other lobe
+is on to us, it looks like. One burning bush looks pretty much
+like another. And Armitage is starting to go."
+"What's that mean?"
+But the paneled room folded itself through a dozen impos-
+sible angles, tumbling away into cyberspace like an origami
+crane.
+
+"You tryin' to break my record, son?" the Flatline asked.
+"You were braindead again, five seconds."
+"Sit tight," Case said, and hit the simstim switch.
+She crouched in darkness, her palms against rough concrete.
+CASE CASE CASE CASE. The digital display pulsed his
+name in alphanumerics, Wintermute informing her of the link.
+"Cute," she said. She rocked back on her heels and rubbed
+her palms together, cracked her knuckles. "What kept you?"
+TIME MOLLY TIME NOW.
+She pressed her tongue hard against her lower front teeth.
+One moved slightly, activating her microchannel amps; the
+random bounce of photons through the darkness was converted
+to a pulse of electrons, the concrete around her coming up
+ghost-pale and grainy. "Okay, honey. Now we go out to play."
+Her hiding place proved to be a service tunnel of some kind.
+She crawled out through a hinged, ornate grill of tarnished
+brass. He saw enough of her arms and hands to know that she
+wore the polycarbon suit again. Under the plastic, he felt the
+familiar tension of thin tight leather. There was something slung
+under her arm in a harness or holster. She stood up, unzipped
+the suit and touched the checkered plastic of a pistolgrip.
+"Hey, Case," she said, barely voicing the words, "you lis-
+tening? Tell you a story.... Had me this boy once. You kinda
+remind me . . ." She turned and surveyed the corridor. "Johnny,
+his name was."
+The low, vaulted hallway was lined with dozens of museum
+cases, archaic-looking glass-fronted boxes made of brown wood.
+They looked awkward there, against the organic curves of the
+hallway's walls, as though they'd been brought in and set up
+in a line for some forgotten purpose. Dull brass fixtures held
+globes of white light at ten-meter intervals. The floor was
+uneven, and as she set off along the corridor, Case realized
+that hundreds of small rugs and carpets had been put down at
+random. In some places, they were six deep, the floor a soft
+patchwork of handwoven wool.
+Molly paid little attention to the cabinets and their contents,
+which irritated him. He had to satisfy himself with her disin-
+terested glances, which gave him fragments of pottery, antique
+weapons, a thing so densely studded with rusted nails that it
+was unrecognizable, frayed sections of tapestry....
+"My Johnny, see, he was smart, real flash boy. Started out
+as a stash on Memory Lane, chips in his head and people paid
+to hide data there. Had the Yak after him, night I met him,
+and I did for their assassin. More luck than anything else, but
+I did for him. And after that, it was tight and sweet, Case."
+Her lips barely moved. He felt her form the words; he didn't
+need to hear them spoken aloud. "We had a set-up with a squid,
+so we could read the traces of everything he'd ever stored. Ran
+it all out on tape and started twisting selected clients, ex-clients.
+I was bagman, muscle, watchdog. I was real happy. You ever
+been happy, Case? He was my boy. We worked together.
+Partners. I was maybe eight weeks out of the puppet house
+when I met him...." She paused, edged around a sharp turn
+and continued. More of the glossy wooden cases, their sides
+a color that reminded him of cockroach wings.
+"Tight, sweet, just ticking along, we were. Like nobody
+could ever touch us. I wasn't going to let them. Yakuza, I
+guess, they still wanted Johnny's ass. 'Cause I'd killed their
+man. 'Cause Johnny'd burned them. And the Yak, they can
+afford to move so fucking slow, man, they'll wait years and
+years. Give you a whole life, just so you'll have more to lose
+when they come and take it away. Patient like a spider. Zen
+spiders.
+"I didn't know that, then. Or if I did, I figured it didn't
+apply to us. Like when you're young, you figure you're
+unique. I was young. Then they came, when we were thinking
+we maybe had enough to be able to quit, pack it in, go to
+Europe maybe. Not that either of us knew what we'd do there,
+with nothing to do. But we were living fat, Swiss orbital ac-
+counts and a crib full of toys and furniture. Takes the edge off
+your game.
+"So that first one they'd sent, he'd been hot. Reflexes like
+you never saw, implants, enough style for ten ordinary hoods.
+But the second one, he was, I dunno, like a monk. Cloned.
+Stone killer from the cells on up. Had it in him, death, this
+silence, he gave it off in a cloud...." Her voice trailed off as
+the corridor split, identical stairwells descending. She took the
+left.
+"One time, I was a little kid, we were squatting. It was
+down by the Hudson, and those rats, man, they were big. It's
+the chemicals get into them. Big as I was, and all night one
+had been scrabbling under the floor of the squat. Round dawn
+somebody brought this old man in, seams down his cheeks and
+his eyes all red. Had a roll of greasy leather like you'd keep
+steel tools in, to keep the rust off. Spread it out, had this old
+revolver and three shells. Old man, he puts one bullet in there,
+then he starts walking up and down the squat, we're hanging
+back by the walls.
+"Back and forth. Got his arms crossed, head down, like
+he's forgotten the gun. Listening for the rat. We got real quiet.
+Old man takes a step. Rat moves. Rat moves, he takes another
+step. An hour of that, then he seems to remember his gun.
+Points it at the floor, grins, and pulls the trigger. Rolled it back
+up and left.
+"I crawled under there later. Rat had a hole between its
+eyes." She was watching the sealed doorways that opened at
+intervals along the corridor. "The second one, the one who
+came for Johnny, he was like that old man. Not old, but he
+was like that. He killed that way." The corridor widened. The
+sea of rich carpets undulated gently beneath an enormous can-
+delabrum whose lowest crystal pendant reached nearly to the
+floor. Crystal tinkled as Molly entered the hall. THIRD DOOR
+LEFT, blinked the readout.
+She turned left, avoiding the inverted tree of crystal. "I just
+saw him once. On my way into our place. He was coming out.
+We lived in a converted factory space, lots of young comers
+from Sense/Net, like that. Pretty good security to start with,
+and I'd put in some really heavy stuff to make it really tight.
+I knew Johnny was up there. But this little guy, he caught my
+eye, as he was coming out. Didn't say a word. We just looked
+at each other and I knew. Plain little guy, plain clothes, no
+pride in him, humble. He looked at me and got into a pedicab.
+I knew. Went upstairs and Johnny was sitting in a chair by the
+window, with his mouth a little open, like he'd just thought of
+something to say."
+The door in front of her was old, a carved slab of Thai teak
+that seemed to have been sawn in half to fit the low doorway.
+A primitive mechanical lock with a stainless face had been
+inset beneath a swirling dragon. She knelt, drew a tight little
+roll of black chamois from an inside pocket, and selected a
+needle-thin pick. "Never much found anybody I gave a damn
+about, after that."
+She inserted the pick and worked in silence, nibbling at her
+lower lip. She seemed to rely on touch alone; her eyes unfo-
+cused and the door was a blur of blond wood. Case listened
+to the silence of the hall, punctuated by the soft clink of the
+candelabrum. Candles? Straylight was all wrong. He remem-
+bered Cath's story of a castle with pools and lilies, and 3Jane's
+mannered words recited musically by the head. A place grown
+in upon itself. Straylight smelled faintly musty, faintly per-
+fumed, like a church. Where were the Tessier-Ashpools? He'd
+expected some clean hive of disciplined activity, but Molly
+had seen no one. Her monologue made him uneasy; she'd never
+told him that much about herself before. Aside from her story
+in the cubicle, she'd seldom said anything that had even in-
+dicated that she had a past.
+She closed her eyes and there was a click that Case felt
+rather than heard. It made him remember the magnetic locks
+on the door of her cubicle in the puppet place. The door had
+opened for him, even though he'd had the wrong chip. That
+was Wintermute, manipulating the lock the way it had manip-
+ulated the drone micro and the robot gardener. The lock system
+in the puppet place had been a subunit of Freeside's security
+system. The simple mechanical lock here would pose a real
+problem for the AI, requiring either a drone of some kind or
+a human agent.
+She opened her eyes, put the pick back into the chamois,
+carefully rerolled it, and tucked it back into its pocket. "Guess
+you're kinda like he was," she said. "Think you're born to run.
+Figure what you were into back in Chiba, that was a stripped
+down version of what you'd be doing anywhere. Bad luck, it'll
+do that sometimes, get you down to basics." She stood, stretched,
+shook herself. "You know, I figure the one Tessier-Ashpool
+sent after that Jimmy, the boy who stole the head, he must be
+pretty much the same as the one the Yak sent to kill Johnny."
+She drew the fletcher from its holster and dialed the barrel to
+full auto.
+The ugliness of the door struck Case as she reached for it.
+Not the door itself, which was beautiful, or had once been part
+of some more beautiful whole, but the way it had been sawn
+down to fit a particular entrance. Even the shape was wrong,
+a rectangle amid smooth curves of polished concrete. They'd
+imported these things, he thought, and then forced it all to fit.
+But none of it fit. The door was like the awkward cabinets,
+the huge crystal tree. Then he remembered 3Jane's essay, and
+imagined that the fittings had been hauled up the well to flesh
+out some master plan, a dream long lost in the compulsive
+effort to fill space, to replicate some family image of self. He
+remembered the shattered nest, the eyeless things writhing....
+Molly grasped one of the carved dragon's forelegs and the
+door swung open easily.
+The room behind was small, cramped, little more than a
+closet. Gray steel tool cabinets were backed against a curving
+wall. A light fixture had come on automatically. She closed
+the door behind her and went to the ranged lockers.
+THIRD LEFT, pulsed the optic chip, Wintermute overriding
+her time display. FIVE DOWN. But she opened the top drawer
+first. It was no more than a shallow tray. Empty. The second
+was empty as well. The third, which was deeper, contained
+dull beads of solder and a small brown thing that looked like
+a human fingerbone. The fourth drawer held a damp-swollen
+copy of an obsolete technical manual in French and Japanese.
+In the fifth, behind the armored gauntlet of a heavy vacuum
+suit, she found the key. It was like a dull brass coin with a
+short hollow tube braised against one edge. She turned it slowly
+in her hand and Case saw that the interior of the tube was lined
+with studs and flanges. The letters CHUBB were molded across
+one face of the coin. The other was blank.
+"He told me," she whispered. "Wintermute. How he played
+a waiting game for years. Didn't have any real power, then,
+but he could use the Villa's security and custodial systems to
+keep track of where everything was, how things moved, where
+they went. He saw somebody lose this key twenty years ago,
+and he managed to get somebody else to leave it here. Then
+he killed him, the boy who'd brought it here. Kid was eight."
+She closed her white fingers over the key. "So nobody would
+find it." She took a length of black nylon cord from the suit's
+kangaroo pocket and threaded it through the round hole above
+CHUBB. Knotting it, she hung it around her neck. "They were
+always fucking him over with how old-fashioned they were,
+he said, all their nineteenth-century stuff. He looked just like
+the Finn, on the screen in that meat puppet hole. Almost thought
+he was the Finn, if I wasn't careful." Her readout flared the
+time, alphanumerics superimposed over the gray steel chests.
+"He said if they'd turned into what they'd wanted to, he
+could've gotten out a long time ago. But they didn't. Screwed
+up. Freaks like 3Jane. That's what he called her, but he talked
+like he liked her."
+She turned, opened the door, and stepped out, her hand
+brushing the checkered grip of the holstered fletcher.
+Case flipped.
+
+Kuang Grade Mark Eleven was growing.
+"Dixie, you think this thing'll work?"
+"Does a bear shit in the woods?" The Flatline punched them
+up through shifting rainbow strata.
+Something dark was forming at the core of the Chinese
+program. The density of information overwhelmed the fabric
+of the matrix, triggering hypnagogic images. Faint kaleidoscop-
+ic angles centered in to a silver-black focal point. Case watched
+childhood symbols of evil and bad luck tumble out along trans-
+lucent planes: swastikas, skulls and crossbones dice flashing
+snake eyes. If he looked directly at that null point, no outline
+would form. It took a dozen quick, peripheral takes before he
+had it, a shark thing, gleaming like obsidian, the black mirrors
+of its flanks reflecting faint distant lights that bore no relation-
+ship to the matrix around it.
+"That's the sting," the construct said. "When Kuang's good
+and bellytight with the Tessier-Ashpool core, we're ridin' that
+through."
+"You were right, Dix. There's some kind of manual override
+on the hardwiring that keeps Wintermute under control. How-
+ever much he is under control," he added.
+"He," the construct said. "He. Watch that. It. I keep telling
+you . "
+"It's a code. A word, he said. Somebody has to speak it
+into a fancy terminal in a certain room, while we take care of
+whatever's waiting for us behind that ice."
+"Well, you got time to kill, kid," the Flatline said. "Ol'
+Kuang's slow but steady."
+Case jacked out..
+
+Into Maelcum's stare.
+"You dead awhile there mon."
+"It happens," he said. "i'm getting used to it."
+"You dealin' wi' th' darkness, mon."
+"Only game in town, it looks like."
+"Jah love, Case," Maelcum said, and turned back to his
+radio module. Case stared at the matted dreadlocks, the ropes
+of muscle around the man's dark arms.
+He jacked back in.
+And flipped.
+
+Molly was trotting along a length of corridor that might
+have been the one she'd traveled before. The glass-fronted cases
+were gone now, and Case decided they were moving toward
+the tip of the spindle; gravity was growing weaker. Soon she
+was bounding smoothly over rolling hillocks of carpets. Faint
+twinges in her leg....
+The corridor narrowed suddenly, curved, split.
+She turned right and started up a freakishly steep flight of
+stairs, her leg beginning to ache. Overhead, strapped and bun-
+dled cables hugged the stairwell's ceiling like colorcoded gan-
+glia. The walls were splotched with damp.
+She arrived at a triangular landing and stood rubbing her
+leg. More corridors, narrow, their walls hung with rugs. They
+branched away in three directions.
+LEFT.
+She shrugged. "Lemme look around, okay?"
+LEFT.
+"Relax. There's time." She started down the corridor that
+led off to her right.
+STOP
+GO BACK.
+DANGER.
+She hesitated. From the half-open oak door at the far end
+of the passage came a voice, loud and slurred, like the voice
+of a drunk. Case thought the language might be French, but it
+was too indistinct. Molly took a step, another, her hand sliding
+into the suit to touch the butt of her fletcher. When she stepped
+into the neural disruptor's field, her ears rang, a tiny rising
+tone that made Case think of the sound of her fletcher. She
+pitched forward, her striated muscles slack, and struck the door
+with her forehead. She twisted and lay on her back, her eyes
+unfocused, breath gone.
+"What's this," said the slurred voice, "fancy dress?" A trem-
+bling hand entered the front of her suit and found the fletcher,
+tugging it out. "Come visit, child. Now."
+She got up slowly, her eyes fixed on the muzzle of a black
+automatic pistol. The man's hand was steady enough, now; the
+gun's barrel seemed to be attached to her throat with a taut,
+invisible string.
+He was old, very tall, and his features reminded Case of
+the girl he had glimpsed in the Vingtieme Siecle. He wore a
+heavy robe of maroon silk, quilted around the long cuffs and
+shawl collar. One foot was bare, the other in a black velvet
+slipper with an embroidered gold foxhead over the instep. He
+motioned her into the room. "Slow, darling." The room was
+very large, cluttered with an assortment of things that made no
+sense to Case. He saw a gray steel rack of old-fashioned Sony
+monitors, a wide brass bed heaped with sheepskins, with pil-
+lows that seemed to have been made from the kind of rug used
+to pave the corridors. Molly's eyes darted from a huge Tele-
+funken entertainment console to shelves of antique disk re-
+cordings, their crumbling spines cased in clear plastic, to a
+wide worktable littered with slabs of silicon. Case registered
+the cyberspace deck and the trodes, but her glance slid over it
+without pausing.
+"It would be customary," the old man said, "for me to kill
+you now." Case felt her tense, ready for a move. "But tonight
+I indulge myself. What is your name?"
+"Molly."
+"Molly. Mine is Ashpool." He sank back into the creased
+softness of a huge leather armchair with square chrome legs,
+but the gun never wavered. He put her fletcher on a brass table
+beside the chair, knocking over a plastic vial of red pills. The
+table was thick with vials, bottles of liquor, soft plastic en-
+velopes spilling white powders. Case noticed an old-fashioned
+glass hypodermic and a plain steel spoon.
+"How do you cry, Molly? I see your eyes are walled away.
+I'm curious." His eyes were red-rimmed, his forehead gleaming
+with sweat. He was very pale. Sick, Case decided. Or drugs.
+"I don't cry, much."
+"But how would you cry, if someone made you cry?"
+"I spit," she said. "The ducts are routed back into my mouth."
+"Then you've already learned an important lesson, for one
+so young." He rested the hand with the pistol on his knee and
+took a bottle from the table beside him, without bothering to
+choose from the half-dozen different liquors. He drank. Brandy.
+A trickle of the stuff ran from the corner of his mouth. "That
+is the way to handle tears." He drank again. "I'm busy tonight,
+Molly. I built all this, and now I'm busy. Dying."
+"I could go out the way I came," she said.
+He laughed, a harsh high sound. "You intrude on my suicide
+and then ask to simply walk out? Really, you amaze me. A
+thief."
+"It's my ass, boss, and it's all I got. I just wanna get it out
+of here in one piece."
+"You are a very rude girl. Suicides here are conducted with
+a degree of decorum. That's what I'm doing, you understand.
+But perhaps I'll take you with me tonight, down to hell.... It
+would be very Egyptian of me." He drank again. "Come here
+then." He held out the bottle, his hand shaking. "Drink."
+She shook her head.
+"It isn't poisoned," he said, but returned the brandy to the
+table. "Sit. Sit on the floor. We'll talk."
+"What about?" She sat. Case felt the blades move, very
+slightly, beneath her nails.
+"Whatever comes to mind. My mind. It's my party. The
+cores woke me. Twenty hours ago. Something was afoot, they
+said, and l was needed. Were you the something, Molly? Surely
+they didn't need me to handle you, no. Something else . . . but
+I'd been dreaming, you see. For thirty years. You weren't born,
+when last I lay me down to sleep. They told us we wouldn't
+dream, in that cold. They told us we'd never feel cold, either.
+Madness, Molly. Lies. Of course I dreamed. The cold let the
+outside in, that was it. The outside. All the night I built this
+to hide us from. Just a drop, at first, one grain of night seeping
+in, drawn by the cold . . . Others following it, filling my head
+the way rain fills an empty pool. Calla lilies. I remember. The
+pools were terracotta, nursemaids all of chrome, how the limbs
+went winking through the gardens at sunset.... I'm old, Molly.
+Over two hundred years, if you count the cold. The cold." The
+barrel of the pistol snapped up suddenly, quivering. The ten-
+dons in her thighs were drawn tight as wires now.
+"You can get freezerburn," she said carefully.
+"Nothing burns there," he said impatiently, lowering the
+gun. His few movements were increasingly sclerotic. His head
+nodded. It cost him an effort to stop it. "Nothing burns. I
+remember now. The cores told me our intelligences are mad.
+And all the billions we paid, so long ago. When artificial
+intelligences were rather a racy concept. I told the cores I'd
+deal with it. Bad timing, really, with 8Jean down in Melbourne
+and only our sweet 3Jane minding the store. Or very good
+timing, perhaps. Would you know, Molly?" The gun rose again.
+"There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight."
+"Boss," she asked him, "you know Wintermute?"
+"A name. Yes. To conjure with, perhaps. A lord of hell,
+surely. In my time, dear Molly, I have known many lords.
+And not a few ladies. Why, a queen of Spain, once, in that
+very bed.... But I wander." He coughed wetly, the muzzle of
+the pistol jerking as he convulsed. He spat on the carpet near
+his one bare foot. "How I do wander. Through the cold. But
+soon no more. I'd ordered a Jane thawed, when I woke. Strange,
+to lie every few decades with what legally amounts to one's
+own daughter." His gaze swept past her, to the rack of blank
+monitors. He seemed to shiver. "Marie-France's eyes," he said,
+faintly, and smiled. "We cause the brain to become allergic to
+certain of its own neurotransmitters, resulting in a peculiarly
+pliable imitation of autism." His head swayed sideways, re-
+covered. "I understand that the effect is now more easily ob-
+tained with an embedded microchip."
+The pistol slid from his fingers, bounced on the carpet.
+"The dreams grow like slow ice," he said. His face was
+tinged with blue. His head sank back into the waiting leather
+and he began to snore.
+Up, she snatched the gun. She stalked the room, Ashpool's
+automatic in her hand.
+A vast quilt or comforter was heaped beside the bed, in a
+broad puddle of congealed blood, thick and shiny on the pat-
+terned rugs. Twitching a corner of the quilt back, she found
+the body of a girl, white shoulder blades slick with blood. Her
+throat had been slit. The triangular blade of some sort of scraper
+glinted in the dark pool beside her. Molly knelt, careful to
+avoid the blood, and turned the dead girl's face to the light.
+The face Case had seen in the restaurant.
+There was a click, deep at the very center of things, and
+the world was frozen. Molly's simstim broadcast had become
+a still frame, her fingers on the girl's cheek. The freeze held
+for three seconds, and then the dead face was altered, became
+the face of Linda Lee.
+Another click, and the room blurred. Molly was standing,
+looking down at a golden laser disk beside a small console on
+the marble top of a bedside table. A length of fiberoptic ribbon
+ran like a leash from the console to a socket at the base of the
+slender neck.
+"I got your number, fucker," Case said, feeling his own lips
+moving, somewhere, far away. He knew that Wintermute had
+altered the broadcast. Molly hadn't seen the dead girl's face
+swirl like smoke, to take on the outline of Linda's deathmask.
+Molly turned. She crossed the room to Ashpool's chair. The
+man's breathing was slow and ragged. She peered at the litter
+of drugs and alcohol. She put his pistol down, picked up her
+fletcher, dialed the barrel over to single shot, and very carefully
+put a toxin dart through the center of his closed left eyelid. He
+jerked once, breath halting in mid-intake. His other eye, brown
+and fathomless, opened slowly.
+It was still open when she turned and left the room.
+"Got your boss on hold," the Flatline said. "He's coming
+through on the twin Hosaka in that boat upstairs, the one that's
+riding us piggy-back. Called the Haniwa."
+"I know," Case said, absently, "I saw it."
+A lozenge of white light clicked into place in front of him,
+hiding the Tessier-Ashpool ice; it showed him the calm, per-
+fectly focused, utterly crazy face of Armitage, his eyes blank
+as buttons. Armitage blinked. Stared.
+"Guess Wintermute took care of your Turings too, huh?
+Like he took care of mine," Case said.
+Armitage stared. Case resisted the sudden urge to look away,
+drop his gaze. "You okay, Armitage?"
+"Case"--and for an instant something seemed to move,
+behind the blue stare--"you've seen Wintermute, haven't you?
+In the matrix."
+Case nodded. A camera on the face of his Hosaka in Marcus
+Garvey would relay the gesture to the Naniwa monitor. He
+imagined Maelcum listening to his tranced half conversations,
+unable to hear the voices of the construct or Armitage.
+"Case"--and the eyes grew larger, Armitage leaning toward
+his computer--"what is he, when you see him?"
+"A high-rez simstim construct."
+"But who?"
+"Finn, last time.... Before that, this pimp I ..."
+"Not General Girling?"
+"General who?"
+The lozenge went blank.
+"Run that back and get the Hosaka to look it up," he told
+the construct.
+He flipped.
+
+The perspective startled him. Molly was crouching between
+steel girders, twenty meters above a broad, stained floor of
+polished concrete. The room was a hangar or service bay. He
+could see three spacecraft, none larger than Garvey and all in
+various stages of repair. Japanese voices. A figure in an orange
+jumpsuit stepped from a gap in the hull of a bulbous construc-
+tion vehicle and stood beside one of the thing's piston-driven,
+weirdly anthropomorphic arms. The man punched something
+into a portable console and scratched his ribs. A cartlike red
+drone rolled into sight on gray balloon tires.
+CASE, flashed her chip.
+"Hey," she said. "Waiting for a guide."
+She settled back on her haunches, the arms and knees of
+her Modern suit the color of the blue-gray paint on the girders.
+Her leg hurt, a sharp steady pain now. "I shoulda gone back
+to Chin," she muttered.
+Something came ticking quietly out of the shadows, on a
+level with her left shouder. It paused, swayed its spherical body
+from side to side on high-arched spider legs, fired a micro-
+second burst of diffuse laserlight, and froze. It was a Braun
+microdrone, and Case had once owned the same model, a
+pointless accessory he'd obtained as part of a package deal with
+a Cleveland hardware fence. It looked like a stylized matte
+black daddy longlegs. A red LED began to pulse, at the sphere's
+equator. Its body was no larger than a baseball. "Okay," she
+said, "I hear you." She stood up, favoring her left leg, and
+watched the little drone reverse. It picked its methodical way
+back across its girder and into darkness. She turned and looked
+back at the service area. The man in the orange jumpsuit was
+sealing the front of a white vacuum rig. She watched him ring
+and seal the helmet, pick up his console, and step back through
+the gap in the construction boat's hull. There was a rising whine
+of motors and the thing slid smoothly out of sight on a ten-
+meter circle of flooring that sank away into a harsh glare of
+arc lamps. The red drone waited patiently at the edge of the
+hole left by the elevator panel.
+Then she was off after the Braun, threading her way between
+a forest of welded steel struts. The Braun winked its LED
+steadily, beckoning her on.
+"How you doin', Case? You back in Garvey with Maelcum?
+Sure. And jacked into this. I like it, you know? Like I've always
+talked to myself, in my head, when I've been in tight spots.
+Pretend I got some friend, somebody I can trust, and I'll tell
+'em what I really think, what I feel like, and then I'll pretend
+they're telling me what they think about that, and I'll just go
+along that way. Having you in is kinda like that. That scene
+with Ashpool . . ." She gnawed at her lower lip, swinging around
+a strut, keeping the drone in sight. "I was expecting something
+maybe a little less gone, you know? I mean, these guys are all
+batshit in here, like they got luminous messages scrawled across
+the inside of their foreheads or something. I don't like the way
+it looks, I don't like the way it smells...."
+The drone was hoisting itself up a nearly invisible ladder
+of U-shaped steel rungs, toward a narrow dark opening. "And
+while I'm feeling confessional, baby, I gotta admit maybe I
+never much expected to make it out of this one anyway. Been
+on this bad roll for a while, and you're the only good change
+come down since I signed on with Armitage." She looked up
+at the black circle. The drone's LED winked, climbing. "Not
+that you're all that shit hot." She smiled, but it was gone too
+quickly, and she gritted her teeth at the stabbing pain in her
+leg as she began to climb. The ladder continued up through a
+metal tube, barely wide enough for her shoulders.
+She was climbing up out of gravity, toward the weightless
+axis.
+Her chip pulsed the time.
+04:23:04 .
+It had been a long day. The clarity of her sensorium cut the
+bite of the betaphenethylamine, but Case could still feel it. He
+preferred the pain in her leg.
+
+CASE: O O O O
+O O O O O O O O O
+O O O O O O O O .
+
+"Guess it's for you," she said, climbing mechanically. The
+zeros strobed again and a message stuttered there, in the corner
+of her vision, chopped up by the display circuit.
+
+GENERAL G
+IRLING :::
+TRAINED
+CORTO F O R
+SCREAMING
+FIST A N D
+SOLD H I S
+ASS TO
+THE PENT
+AGON::::
+W/MUTE'S
+PRIMARY
+GRIP ON
+ARMITAG
+E IS A
+CONSTRU
+CT OF G
+IRLING:
+W/MUTE
+SEZ A'S
+MENTION
+OF G
+MEANS
+HE'S
+CRACK
+ING::::
+WATCH
+YOUR
+ASS::::
+::DIXIE
+
+"Well," she said, pausing, taking all of her weight on her
+right leg, "guess you got problems too." She looked down.
+There was a faint circle of light, no larger than the brass round
+of the Chubb key that dangled between her breasts. She looked
+up. Nothing at all. She tongued her amps and the tube rose
+into vanishing perspective, the Braun picking its way up the
+rungs. "Nobody told me about this part," she said.
+Case jacked out.
+
+"Maelcum . . ."
+"Mon, you bossman gone ver' strange." The Zionite was
+wearing a blue Sanyo vacuum suit twenty years older than the
+one Case had rented in Freeside, its helmet under his arm and
+his dreadlocks bagged in a net cap crocheted from purple
+cotton yarn. His eyes were slitted with ganja and tension. "Keep
+callin' down here wi' orders, mon, but be some Babylon war...."
+Maelcum shook his head. "Aerol an' I talkin', an' Aerol talkin'
+wi' Zion, Founders seh cut an' run." He ran the back of a large
+brown hand across his mouth.
+"Armitage?" Case winced as the betaphenethylamine hang-
+over hit him with its full intensity, unscreened by the matrix
+or simstim. Brain's got no nerves in it, he told himself, it can't
+really feel this bad. "What do you mean, man? He's giving
+you orders? What?"
+"Mon, Armitage, he tellin' me set course for Finland, ya
+know? He tellin' me there be hope, ya know? Come on my
+screen wi' his shirt all blood, mon, an' be crazy as some dog,
+talkin' screamin' fists an' Russian an' th' blood of th' betrayers
+shall be on our hands." He shook his head again, the dreadcap
+swaying and bobbing in zero-g, his lips narrowed. "Founders
+seh the Mute voice be false prophet surely, an' Aerol an' I
+mus' 'bandon Marcus Garvey and return."
+"Armitage, he was wounded? Blood?"
+"Can't seh, ya know? But blood, an' stone crazy, Case."
+"Okay," Case said, "So what about me? You're going home.
+What about me, Maelcum?"
+"Mon," Maelcum said, "you comin' wi' me. I an' I come
+Zion wi' Aerol, Babylon Rocker. Leave Mr. Armitage t' talk
+wi' ghost cassette, one ghost t' 'nother...."
+Case glanced over his shoulder: his rented suit swung against
+the hammock where he'd snapped it, swaying in the air current
+from the old Russian scrubber. He closed his eyes. He saw the
+sacs of toxin dissolving in his arteries. He saw Molly hauling
+herself up the endless steel rungs. He opened his eyes.
+"I dunno, man," he said, a strange taste in his mouth. He
+looked down at his desk, at his hands. "I don't know." He
+looked back up. The brown face was calm now, intent. Mael-
+cum's chin was hidden by the high helmet ring of his old blue
+suit. "She's inside," he said. "Molly's inside. In Straylight,
+it's called. If there's any Babylon, man, that's it. We leave on
+her, she ain't comin' out, Steppin' Razor or not."
+Maelcum nodded, the dreadbag bobbing behind him like a
+captive balloon of crocheted cotton. "She you woman, Case?"
+"I dunno. Nobody's woman, maybe." He shrugged. And
+found his anger again, real as a shard of hot rock beneath his
+ribs. "Fuck this," he said. "Fuck Armitage, fuck Wintermute,
+and fuck you. I'm stayin' right here."
+Maelcum's smile spread across his face like light breaking.
+"Maelcum a rude boy, Case. Garvey Maelcum boat." His gloved
+hand slapped a panel and the bass-heavy rocksteady of Zion
+dub came pulsing from the tug's speakers. "Maelcum not run-
+nin', no. I talk wi' Aerol, he certain t' see it in similar light."
+Case stared. "I don't understand you guys at all," he said.
+"Don' 'stan' you, mon," the Zionite said, nodding to the
+beat, "but we mus' move by Jah love, each one."
+Case jacked in and flipped for the matrix.
+
+"Get my wire?"
+"Yeah." He saw that the Chinese program had grown; del-
+icate arches of shifting polychrome were nearing the T-A ice.
+"Well, it's gettin' stickier," the Flatline said. "Your boss
+wiped the bank on that other Hosaka, and damn near took ours
+with it. But your pal Wintermute put me on to somethin' there
+before it went black. The reason Straylight's not exactly hop-
+pin' with Tessier-Ashpools is that they're mostly in cold sleep.
+There's a law firm in London keeps track of their powers of
+attorney. Has to know who's awake and exactly when. Ar-
+mitage was routing the transmissions from London to Straylight
+through the Hosaka on the yacht. Incidently, they know the
+old man's dead."
+"Who knows?"
+"The law firm and T-A. He had a medical remote planted
+in his sternum. Not that your girl's dart would've left a res-
+urrection crew with much to work with. Shellfish toxin. But
+the only T-A awake in Straylight right now is Lady 3Jane
+Marie-France. There's a male, couple years older, in Australia
+on business. You ask me, I bet Wintermute found a way to
+cause that business to need this 8Jean's personal attention. But
+he's on his way home, or near as matters. The London lawyers
+give his Straylight ETA as 09:00:00, tonight. We slotted Kuang
+virus at 02:32:03. It's 04:45:20. Best estimate for Kuang pen-
+etration of the T-A core is 08:30:00. Or a hair on either side.
+I figure Wintermute's got somethin' goin' with this 3Jane, or
+else she's just as crazy as her old man was. But the boy up
+from Melbourne'll know the score. The Straylight security sys-
+tems keep trying to go full alert, but Wintermute blocks 'em,
+don't ask me how. Couldn't override the basic gate program
+to get Molly in, though. Armitage had a record of all that on
+his Hosaka; Riviera must've talked 3Jane into doing it. She's
+been able to fiddle entrances and exits for years. Looks to me
+like one of T-A's main problems is that every family bigwig
+has riddled the banks with all kinds of private scams and ex-
+ceptions. Kinda like your immune system falling apart on you.
+Ripe for virus. Looks good for us, once we're past that ice."
+"Okay. But Wintermute said that Arm--"
+A white lozenge snapped into position, filled with a close-
+up of mad blue eyes. Case could only stare. Colonel Willie
+Corto, Special Forces, Strikeforce Screaming Fist, had found
+his way back. The image was dim, jerky, badly focused. Corto
+was using the Haniwa's navigation deck to link with the Hosaka
+in Marcus Garvey.
+"Case, I need the damage reports on Omaha Thunder."
+"Say, I...Colonel?"
+"Hang in there, boy. Remember your training."
+But where have you been, man? he silently asked the an-
+guished eyes. Wintermute had built something called Armitage
+into a catatonic fortress named Corto. Had convinced Corto
+that Armitage was the real thing, and Armitage had walked,
+talked, schemed, bartered data for capital, fronted for Win-
+termute in that room in the Chiba Hilton.... And now Arm-
+itage was gone, blown away by the winds of Corto's madness.
+But where had Corto been, those years?
+Falling, burned and blinded, out of a Siberian sky.
+"Case, this will be difficult for you to accept, I know that.
+You're an officer. The training. I understand. But, Case, as
+God is my witness, we have been betrayed."
+Tears started from the blue eyes.
+"Colonel, ah, who? Who's betrayed us?"
+"General Girling, Case. You may know him by a code name.
+You do know the man of whom I speak."
+"Yeah," Case said, as the tears continued to flow, "I guess
+I do. Sir," he added, on impulse. "But, sir, Colonel, what
+exactly should we do? Now, I mean."
+"Our duty at this point, Case, lies in flight. Escape. Evasion.
+We can make the Finnish border, nightfall tomorrow. Treetop
+flying on manual. Seat of the pants, boy. But that will only
+be the beginning." The blue eyes slitted above tanned cheek-
+bones slick with tears. "Only the beginning. Betrayal from
+above. From above..." He stepped back from the camera,
+dark stains on his torn twill shirt. Armitage's face had been
+masklike, impassive, but Corto's was the true schizoid mask,
+illness etched deep in involuntary muscle, distorting the ex-
+pensive surgery.
+"Colonel, I hear you, man. Listen, Colonel, okay? I want
+you to open the, ah . . . shit, what's it called, Dix?"
+"The midbay lock," the Flatline said.
+"Open the midbay lock. Just tell your central console there
+to open it, right? We'll be up there with you fast, Colonel.
+Then we can talk about getting out of here."
+The lozenge vanished.
+"Boy, I think you just lost me, there," the Flatline said.
+"The toxins," Case said, "the fucking toxins," and jacked
+out.
+
+"Poison?" Maelcum watched over the scratched blue shoul-
+der of his old Sanyo as Case struggled out of the g-web.
+"And get this goddam thing off me...." Tugging at the
+Texas catheter. "Like a slow poison, and that asshole upstairs
+knows how to counter it, and now he's crazier than a shithouse
+rat." He fumbled with the front of the red Sanyo, forgetting
+how to work the seals.
+"Bossman, he poison you?" Maelcum scratched his cheek.
+"Got a medical kit, ya know."
+"Maelcum, Christ, help me with this goddam suit."
+The Zionite kicked off from the pink pilot module. "Easy,
+mon. Measure twice, cut once, wise man put it. We get up
+there...."
+
+There was air in the corrugated gangway that led from Mar-
+cus Garvey's aft lock to the midbay lock of the yacht called
+Haniwa, but they kept their suits sealed. Maelcum executed
+the passage with balletic grace, only pausing to help Case,
+who'd gone into an awkward tumble as he'd stepped out of
+Garvey. The white plastic sides of the tube filtered the raw
+sunlight; there were no shadows.
+Garvey's airlock hatch was patched and pitted, decorated
+with a laser-carved Lion of Zion. Haniwa's midbay hatch was
+creamy gray, blank and pristine. Maelcum inserted his gloved
+hand in a narrow recess. Case saw his fingers move. Red LEDs
+came to life in the recess, counting down from fifty. Maelcum
+withdrew his hand. Case, with one glove braced against the
+hatch, felt the vibration of the lock mechanism through his suit
+and bones. The round segment of gray hull began to withdraw
+into the side of Haniwa. Maelcum grabbed the recess with one
+hand and Case with the other. The lock took them with it.
+
+Haniwa was a product of the Dornier-Fujitsu yards, her
+interior informed by a design philosophy similar to the one that
+had produced the Mercedes that had chauffeured them through
+Istanbul. The narrow midbay was walled in imitation ebony
+veneer and floored with gray Italian tiles. Case felt as though
+he were invading some rich man's private spa by way of the
+shower. The yacht, which had been assembled in orbit, had
+never been intended for re-entry. Her smooth, wasplike line
+was simply styling, and everything about her interior was cal-
+culated to add to the overall impression of speed.
+When Maelcum removed his battered helmet, Case followed
+his lead. They hung there in the lock, breathing air that smelled
+faintly of pine. Under it, a disturbing edge of burning insula-
+tion.
+Maelcum sniffed. "Trouble here, mon. Any boat, you smell
+that...."
+A door, padded with dark gray ultrasuede, slid smoothly
+back into its housing. Maelcum kicked off the ebony wall and
+sailed neatly through the narrow opening, twisting his broad
+shoulders, at the last possible instant, for clearance. Case fol-
+lowed him clumsily, hand over hand, along a waist-high padded
+rail. "Bridge," Maelcum said, pointing down a seamless, cream-
+walled corridor, "be there." He launched himself with another
+effortless kick. From somewhere ahead, Case made out the
+familiar chatter of a printer turning out hard copy. It grew
+louder as he followed Maelcum through another doorway, into
+a swirling mass of tangled printout. Case snatched a length of
+twisted paper and glanced at it.
+
+O O O O O O O O O
+O O O O O O O O O
+O O O O O O O O O
+
+"Systems crash?" The Zionite flicked a gloved finger at the
+column of zeros.
+"No," Case said, grabbing for his drifting helmet, "the Flat-
+line said Armitage wiped the Hosaka he had in there."
+"Smell like he wipe 'em wi' laser, ya know?" The Zionite
+braced his foot against the white cage of a Swiss exercise
+machine and shot through the floating maze of paper, batting
+it away from his face.
+"Case, mon..."
+The man was small, Japanese, his throat bound to the back
+of the narrow articulated chair with a length of some sort of
+fine steel wire. The wire was invisible, where it crossed the
+black temperfoam of the headrest, and it had cut as deeply into
+his larynx. A single sphere of dark blood had congealed there
+like some strange precious stone, a red-black pearl. Case saw
+the crude wooden handles that drifted at either end of the
+garrotte, like worn sections of broom handle.
+"Wonder how long he had that on him?" Case said, re-
+membering Corto's postwar pilgrimage.
+"He know how pilot boat, Case, bossman?"
+"Maybe. He was Special Forces."
+"Well, this Japan-boy, he not be pilotin'. Doubt I pilot her
+easy myself. Ver' new boat. . ."
+"So find us the bridge."
+Maelcum frowned, rolled backward, and kicked.
+Case followed him into a larger space, a kind of lounge,
+shredding and crumpling the lengths of printout that snared him
+in his passage. There were more of the articulated chairs, here,
+something that resembled a bar, and the Hosaka. The printer,
+still spewing its flimsy tongue of paper, was an in-built bulk-
+head unit, a neat slot in a panel of handrubbed veneer. He
+pulled himself over the circle of chairs and reached it, punching
+a white stud to the left of the slot. The chattering stopped. He
+turned and stared at the Hosaka. Its face had been drilled through,
+at least a dozen times. The holes were small, circular, edges
+blackened. Tiny spheres of bright alloy were orbiting the dead
+computer. "Good guess," he said to Maelcum.
+"Bridge locked, mon," Maelcum said, from the opposite
+side of the lounge.
+The lights dimmed, surged, dimmed again.
+Case ripped the printout from its slot. More zeros. "Win-
+termute?" He looked around the beige and brown lounge, the
+space scrawled with drifting curves of paper. "That you on the
+lights, Wintermute?"
+A panel beside Maelcum's head slid up, revealing a small
+monitor. Maelcum jerked apprehensively, wiped sweat from
+his forehead with a foam patch on the back of a gloved hand,
+and swung to study the display. "You read Japanese, mon?"
+Case could see figures blinking past on the screen.
+"No," Case said.
+"Bridge is escape pod, lifeboat. Countin' down, looks like
+it. Suit up now." He ringed his helmet and slapped at the seals.
+"What? He's takin' off? Shit!" He kicked off from the
+bulkhead and shot through the tangle of printout. "We gotta
+open this door, man!" But Maelcum could only tap the side of
+his helmet. Case could see his lips moving, through the Lexan.
+He saw a bead of sweat arc out from the rainbow braided band
+of the purple cotton net the Zionite wore over his locks. Mael-
+cum snatched the helmet from Case and ringed it for him
+smoothly, the palms of his gloves smacking the seals. Micro-
+LED monitors to the left of the faceplate lit as the neck ring
+connections closed. "No seh Japanese," Maelcum said, over
+his suit's transceiver, "but countdown's wrong." He tapped a
+particular line on the screen. "Seals not intact, bridge module.
+Launchin' wi' lock open."
+"Armitage!" Case tried to pound on the door. The physics
+of zero-g sent him tumbling back through the printout. "Corto!
+Don't do it! We gotta talk! We gotta--"
+"Case? Read you, Case..." The voice barely resembled
+Armitage's now. It held a weird calm. Case stopped kicking.
+His helmet struck the far wall. "I'm sorry, Case, but it has to
+be this way. One of us has to get out. One of us has to testify.
+If we all go down here, it ends here. I'll tell them, Case, I'll
+tell them all of it. About Girling and the others. And I'll make
+it, Case. I know I'll make it. To Helsinki." There was a sudden
+silence; Case felt it fill his helmet like some rare gas. "But it's
+so hard, Case, so goddam hard. I'm blind."
+"Corto, stop. Wait. You're blind, man. You can't fly! You'll
+hit the fucking trees. And they're trying to get you, Corto, I
+swear to God, they've left your hatch open. You'll die, and
+you'll never get to tell 'em, and I gotta get the enzyme, name
+of the enzyme, the enzyme, man...." He was shouting, voice
+high with hysteria. Feedback shrilled out of the helmet's phone
+pads.
+"Remember the training, Case. That's all we can do."
+And then the helmet filled with a confused babble, roaring
+static, harmonics howling down the years from Screaming Fist.
+Fragments of Russian, and then a stranger's voice, Midwestern,
+very young. "We are down, repeat, Omaha Thunder is down,
+we . . ."
+"Wintermute," Case screamed, "don't do this to me!" Tears
+broke from his lashes, rebounding off the faceplate in wobbling
+crystal droplets. Then Haniwa thudded, once, shivered as if
+some huge soft thing had struck her hull. Case imagined the
+lifeboat jolting free,, blown clear by explosive bolts, a second's
+clawing hurricane of escaping air tearing mad Colonel Corto
+from his couch, from Wintermute's rendition of the final minute
+of Screaming Fist.
+"'Im gone, mon." Maelcum looked at the monitor. "Hatch
+open. Mute mus' override ejection failsafe."
+Case tried to wipe the tears of rage from his eyes. His fingers
+clacked against Lexan.
+"Yacht, she tight for air, but bossman takin' grapple control
+wi' bridge. Marcus Garvey still stuck."
+But Case was seeing Armitage's endless fall around Free-
+side, through vacuum colder than the steppes. For some reason,
+he imagined him in his dark Burberry, the trenchcoat's rich
+folds spread out around him like the wings of some huge bat.
+"Get what you went for?" the construct asked.
+Kuang Grade Mark Eleven was filling the grid between itself
+and the T-A ice with hypnotically intricate traceries of rainbow,
+lattices fine as snow crystal on a winter window.
+"Wintermute killed Armitage. Blew him out in a lifeboat
+with a hatch open."
+"Tough shit," the Flatline said. "Weren't exactly asshole
+buddies, were you?"
+"He knew how to unbond the toxin sacs."
+"So Wintermute knows too. Count on it."
+"I don't exactly trust Wintermute to give it to me."
+The construct's hideous approximation of laughter scraped
+Case's nerves like a dull blade. "Maybe that means you're
+gettin' smart."
+He hit the simstim switch.
+
+06:27:52 by the chip in her optic nerve; Case had been
+following her progress through Villa Straylight for over an
+hour, letting the endorphin analog she'd taken blot out his
+hangover. The pain in her leg was gone; she seemed to move
+through a warm bath. The Braun drone was perched on her
+shoulder, its tiny manipulators, like padded surgical clips, se-
+cure in the polycarbon of the Modern suit.
+The walls here were raw steel, striped with rough brown
+ribbons of epoxy where some kind of covering had been ripped
+away. She'd hidden from a work crew, crouching, the fletcher
+cradled in her hands, her suit steel-gray, while the two slender
+Africans and their balloon-tired workcart passed. The men had
+shaven heads and wore orange coveralls. One was singing softly
+to himself in a language Case had never heard, the tones and
+melody alien and haunting.
+The head's speech, 3Jane's essay on Straylight, came back
+to him as she worked her way deeper into the maze of the
+place. Straylight was crazy, was craziness grown in the resin
+concrete they'd mixed from pulverized lunar stone, grown in
+welded steel and tons of knick-knacks, all the bizarre impe-
+dimentia they'd shipped up the well to line their winding nest.
+But it wasn't a craziness he understood. Not like Armitage's
+madness, which he now imagined he could understand; twist
+a man far enough, then twist him as far back, in the opposite
+direction, reverse and twist again. The man broke. Like break-
+ing a length of wire. And history had done that for Colonel
+Corto. History had already done the really messy work, when
+Wintermute found him, sifting him out of all of the war's ripe
+detritus, gliding into the man's flat gray field of consciousness
+like a water spider crossing the face of some stagnant pool,
+the first messages blinking across the face of a child's micro
+in a darkened room in a French asylum. Wintermute had built
+Armitage up from scratch, with Corto's memories of Screaming
+Fist as the foundation. But Armitage's "memories" wouldn't
+have been Corto's after a certain point. Case doubted if Ar-
+mitage had recalled the betrayal, the Nightwings whirling down
+in flame.... Armitage had been a sort of edited version of
+Corto, and when the stress of the run had reached a certain
+point, the Armitage mechanism had crumbled; Corto had sur-
+faced, with his guilt and his sick fury. And now Corto-Armitage
+was dead, a small frozen moon for Freeside.
+He thought of the toxin sacs. Old Ashpool was dead too,
+drilled through the eye with Molly's microscopic dart, deprived
+of whatever expert overdose he'd mixed for himself. That was
+a more puzzling death, Ashpool's, the death of a mad king.
+And he'd killed the puppet he'd called his daughter, the one
+with 3Jane's face. It seemed to Case, as he rode Molly's broad-
+cast sensory input through the corridors of Straylight, that he'd
+never really thought of anyone like Ashpool, anyone as pow-
+erful as he imagined Ashpool had been, as human.
+Power, in Case's world, meant corporate power. The zai-
+batsus, the multinationals that shaped the course of human
+history, had transcended old barriers. Viewed as organisms,
+they had attained a kind of immortality. You couldn't kill a
+zaibatsu by assassinating a dozen key executives; there were
+others waiting to step up the ladder, assume the vacated po-
+sition, access the vast banks of corporate memory. But Tessier-
+Ashpool wasn't like that, and he sensed the difference in the
+death of its founder. T-A was an atavism, a clan. He remem-
+bered the litter of the old man's chamber, the soiled humanity
+of it, the ragged spines of the old audio disks in their paper
+sleeves. One foot bare, the other in a velvet slipper.
+The Braun plucked at the hood of the Modern suit and Molly
+turned left, through another archway.
+Wintermute and the nest. Phobic vision of the hatching
+wasps, time-lapse machine gun of biology. But weren't the
+zaibatsus more like that, or the Yakuza, hives with cybernetic
+memories, vast single organisms, their DNA coded in silicon?
+If Straylight was an expression of the corporate identity of
+Tessier-Ashpool, then T-A was crazy as the old man had been.
+The same ragged tangle of fears, the same strange sense of
+aimlessness. "If they'd turned into what they wanted to...."
+he remembered Molly saying. But Wintermute had told her
+they hadn't.
+Case had always taken it for granted that the real bosses,
+the kingpins in a given industry, would be both more and less
+than people. He'd seen it in the men who'd crippled him in
+Memphis, he'd seen Wage affect the semblance of it in Night
+City, and it had allowed him to accept Armitage's flatness and
+lack of feeling. He'd always imagined it as a gradual and willing
+accommodation of the machine, the system, the parent or-
+ganism. It was the root of street cool, too, the knowing posture
+that implied connection, invisible lines up to hidden levels of
+influence.
+But what was happening now, in the corridors of Villa
+Straylight?
+Whole stretches were being stripped back to steel and con-
+crete.
+"Wonder where our Peter is now, huh? Maybe see that boy
+soon," she muttered. "And Armitage. Where's he, Case?"
+"Dead," he said, knowing she couldn't hear him, "he's
+dead."
+He flipped.
+
+The Chinese program was face to face with the target ice,
+rainbow tints gradually dominated by the green of the rectangle
+representing the T-A cores. Arches of emerald across the col-
+orless void.
+"How's it go, Dixie?"
+"Fine. Too slick. Thing's amazing.... Shoulda had one that
+time in Singapore. Did the old New Bank of Asia for a good
+fiftieth of what they were worth. But that's ancient history.
+This baby takes all the drudgery out of it. Makes you wonder
+what a real war would be like, now...."
+"If this kinda shit was on the street, we'd be out a job,"
+Case said.
+"You wish. Wait'll you're steering that thing upstairs through
+black ice."
+"Sure."
+Something small and decidedly nongeometric had just ap-
+peared on the far end of one of the emerald arches.
+"Dixie . . ."
+"Yeah. I see it. Don't know if I believe it."
+A brownish dot, a dull gnat against the green wall of the
+T-A cores. It began to advance, across the bridge built by
+Kuang Grade Mark Eleven, and Case saw that it was walking.
+As it came, the green section of the arch extended, the poly-
+chrome of the virus program rolling back, a few steps ahead
+of the cracked black shoes.
+"Gotta hand it to you, boss," the Flatline said, when the
+short, rumpled figure of the Finn seemed to stand a few meters
+away. "I never seen anything this funny when I was alive."
+But the eerie nonlaugh didn't come.
+"I never tried it before," the Finn said, showing his teeth,
+his hands bunched in the pockets of his frayed jacket.
+"You killed Armitage," Case said.
+"Corto. Yeah. Armitage was already gone. Hadda do it. I
+know, I know, you wanna get the enzyme. Okay. No sweat.
+I was the one gave it to Armitage in the first place. I mean I
+told him what to use. But I think maybe it's better to let the
+deal stand. You got enough time. I'll give it to you. Only a
+coupla hours now, right?"
+Case watched blue smoke billow in cyberspace as the Finn
+lit up one of his Partagas.
+"You guys," the Finn said, "you're a pain. The Flatline
+here, if you were all like him, it would be real simple. He's a
+construct, just a buncha ROM, so he always does what I expect
+him to. My projections said there wasn't much chance of Molly
+wandering in on Ashpool's big exit scene, give you one ex-
+ample." He sighed.
+"Why'd he kill himself?" Case asked.
+"Why's anybody kill himself?" The figure shrugged. "I guess
+I know, if anybody does, but it would take me twelve hours
+to explain the various factors in his history and how they in-
+terrelate. He was ready to do it for a long time, but he kept
+going back into the freezer. Christ, he was a tedious old fuck."
+The Finn's face wrinkled with disgust. "It's all tied in with
+why he killed his wife, mainly, you want the short reason. But
+what sent him over the edge for good and all, little 3Jane figured
+a way to fiddle the program that controlled his cryogenic sys-
+tem. Subtle, too. So basically, she killed him. Except he figured
+he'd killed himself, and your friend the avenging angel figures
+she got him with an eyeball full of shellfish juice." The Finn
+flicked his butt away into the matrix below. "Well, actually,
+I guess I did give 3Jane the odd hint, a little of the old how-
+to, you know?"
+"Wintermute," Case said, choosing the words carefully,
+"you told me you were just a part of something else. Later on
+you said you wouldn't exist, if the run goes off and Molly gets
+the word into the right slot."
+The Finn's streamlined skull nodded.
+"Okay, then who we gonna be dealing with then? If Ar-
+mitage is dead, and you're gonna be gone, just who exactly is
+going to tell me how to get these fucking toxin sacs out of my
+system? Who's going to get Molly back out of there? I mean
+where, where exactly, are all our asses gonna be, we cut you
+loose from the hardwiring?"
+The Finn took a wooden toothpick from his pocket and
+regarded it critically, like a surgeon examining a scalpel. "Good
+question," he said, finally. "You know salmon? Kinda fish?
+These fish, see, they're compelled to swim upstream. Got it?"
+"No," Case said.
+"Well, I'm under compulsion myself. And I don't know
+why. If I were gonna subject you to my very own thoughts,
+let's call 'em speculations, on the topic, it would take a couple
+of your lifetimes. Because I've given it a lot of thought. And
+I just don't know. But when this is over, we do it right, I'm
+gonna be part of something bigger. Much bigger," The Finn
+glanced up and around the matrix. "But the parts of me that
+are me now, that'll still be here. And you'll get your
+payoff."
+Case fought back an insane urge to punch himself forward
+and get his fingers around the figure's throat, just above the
+ragged knot in the rusty scarf. His thumbs deep in the Finn's
+larynx.
+"Well, good luck," the Finn said. He turned, hands in pock-
+ets and began trudging back up the green arch.
+"Hey, asshole," the Flatline said, when the Finn had gone
+a dozen paces. The figure paused, half turned. "What about
+me? What about my payoff?"
+"You'll get yours," it said.
+"What's that mean?" Case asked, as he watched the narrow
+tweed back recede.
+"I wanna be erased," the construct said. "I told you that,
+remember?"
+
+Straylight reminded Case of deserted early morning shop-
+ping centers he'd known as a teenager, low-density places
+where the small hours brought a fitful stillness, a kind of numb
+expectancy, a tension that left you watching insects swarm
+around caged bulbs above the entrance of darkened shops.
+Fringe places, just past the borders of the Sprawl, too far from
+the all-night click and shudder of the hot core. There was that
+same sense of being surrounded by the sleeping inhabitants of
+a waking world he had no interest in visiting or knowing, of
+dull business temporarily suspended, of futility and repetition
+soon to wake again.
+Molly had slowed now, either knowing that she was nearing
+her goal or out of concern for her leg. The pain was starting
+to work its jagged way back through the endorphins, and he
+wasn't sure what that meant. She didn't speak, kept her teeth
+clenched, and carefully regulated her breathing. She'd passed
+many things that Case hadn't understood, but his curiosity was
+gone. There had been a room filled with shelves of books, a
+million flat leaves of yellowing paper pressed between bindings
+of cloth or leather, the shelves marked at intervals by labels
+that followed a code of letters and numbers; a crowded gallery
+where Case had stared, through Molly's incurious eyes, at a
+shattered, dust-stenciled sheet of glass, a thing labeled--her
+gaze had tracked the brass plaque automatically--"La mariee
+mise a nu par ses celibataires, meme." She'd reached out and
+touched this, her artificial nails clicking against the Lexan sand-
+wich protecting the broken glass. There had been what was
+obviously the entrance to Tessier-Ashpool's cryogenic com-
+pound, circular doors of black glass trimmed with chrome.
+She'd seen no one since the two Africans and their cart,
+and for Case they'd taken on a sort of imaginary life; he pictured
+them gliding gently through the halls of Straylight, their smooth
+dark skulls gleaming, nodding, while the one still sang his tired
+little song. And none of this was anything like the Villa Stray-
+light he would have expected, some cross between Cath's fairy
+tale castle and a half-remembered childhood fantasy of the
+Yakuza's inner sanctum.
+07:02: 1 8 .
+One and a half hours.
+"Case," she said, "I wanna favor." Stiffly, she lowered
+herself to sit on a stack of polished steel plates, the finish of
+each plate protected by an uneven coating of clear plastic. She
+picked at a rip in the plastic on the topmost plate, blades sliding
+from beneath thumb and forefinger. "Leg's not good, you know?
+Didn't figure any climb like that, and the endorphin won't cut
+it, much longer. So maybe--just maybe, right?--I got a prob-
+lem here. What it is, if I buy it here, before Riviera does"--
+and she stretched her leg, kneaded the flesh of her thigh through
+Modern polycarbon and Paris leather--"I want you to tell him.
+Tell him it was me. Got it? Just say it was Molly. He'll know.
+Okay?" She glanced around the empty hallway, the bare walls.
+The floor here was raw lunar concrete and the air smelled of
+resins. "Shit, man, I don't even know if you're listening."
+CASE.
+She winced, got to her feet, nodded. "What's he told you,
+man, Wintermute? He tell you about Marie-France? She was
+the Tessier half, 3Jane's genetic mother. And of that dead
+puppet of Ashpool's, I guess. Can't figure why he'd tell me,
+down in that cubicle ... lotta stuff.... Why he has to come on
+like the Finn or somebody, he told me that. It's not just a mask,
+it's like he uses real profiles as valves, gears himself down to
+communicate with us. Called it a template. Model of per-
+sonality." She drew her fletcher and limped away down the
+corridor.
+The bare steel and scabrous epoxy ended abruptly, replaced
+by what Case at first took to be a rough tunnel blasted from
+solid rock. Molly examined its edge and he saw that in fact
+the steel was sheathed with panels of something that looked
+and felt like cold stone. She knelt and touched the dark sand
+spread across the floor of the imitation tunnel. It felt like sand,
+cool and dry, but when she drew her finger through it, it closed
+like a fluid, leaving the surface undisturbed. A dozen meters
+ahead, the tunnel curved. Harsh yellow light threw hard shad-
+ows on the seamed pseudo-rock of the walls. With a start, Case
+realized that the gravity here was near earth normal, which
+meant that she'd had to descend again, after the climb. He was
+thoroughly lost now; spatial disorientation held a peculiar hor-
+ror for cowboys.
+But she wasn't lost, he told himself.
+Something scurried between her legs and went ticking across
+the un-sand of the floor. A red LED blinked. The Braun.
+The first of the holos waited just beyond the curve, a sort
+of triptych. She lowered the fletcher before Case had had time
+to realize that the thing was a recording. The figures were
+caricatures in light, lifesize cartoons: Molly, Armitage, and
+Case . Molly' s breasts were too large, visible through tight black
+mesh beneath a heavy leather jacket. Her waist was impossibly
+narrow. Silvered lenses covered half her face. She held an
+absurdly elaborate weapon of some kind, a pistol shape nearly
+lost beneath a flanged overlay of scope sights, silencers, flash
+hiders. Her legs were spread, pelvis canted forward, her mouth
+fixed in a leer of idiotic cruelty. Beside her, Armitage stood
+rigidly at attention in a threadbare khaki uniform. His eyes,
+Case saw, as Molly stepped carefully forward, were tiny mon-
+itor screens, each one displaying the blue-gray image of a
+howling waste of snow, the stripped black trunks of evergreens
+bending in silent winds.
+She passed the tips of her fingers through Armitage's tele-
+vision eyes, then turned to the figure of Case. Here, it was as
+if Riviera--and Case had known instantly that Riviera was
+responsible--had been unable to find anything worthy of par-
+ody. The figure that slouched there was a fair approximation
+of the one he glimpsed daily in mirrors. Thin, high-shouldered,
+a forgettable face beneath short dark hair. He needed a shave,
+but then he usually did.
+Molly stepped back. She looked from one figure to another.
+rt was a static display, the only movement the silent gusting
+of the black trees in Armitage's frozen Siberian eyes.
+"Tryin' to tell us something, Peter?" she asked softly. Then
+she stepped forward and kicked at something between the feet
+of the holo-Molly. Metal clinked against the wall and the figures
+were gone. She bent and picked up a small display unit. "Guess
+he can Jack into these and program them direct," she said,
+tossing it away.
+She passed the source of yellow light, an archaic incandes-
+cent globe set into the wall, protected by a rusty curve of
+expansion grating. The style of the improvised fixture sug-
+gested childhood, somehow. He remembered fortresses he'd
+built with other children on rooftops and in flooded sub-base-
+ments. A rich kid's hideout, he thought. This kind of roughness
+was expensive. What they called atmosphere.
+She passed a dozen more holograms before she reached the
+entrance to 3Jane's apartments. One depicted the eyeless thing
+in the alley behind the Spice Bazaar, as it tore itself free of
+Riviera's shattered body. Several others were scenes of torture,
+the inquisitors always military officers and the victims invari-
+ably young women. These had the awful intensity of Riviera's
+show at the Vingtieme Siecle, as though they had been frozen
+in the blue flash of orgasm. Molly looked away as she passed
+them.
+The last was small and dim, as if it were an image Riviera
+had had to drag across some private distance of memory and
+time. She had to kneel to examine it; it had been projected
+from the vantage point of a small child. None of the others
+had had backgrounds; the figures, uniforms, instruments of
+torture, all had been freestanding displays. But this was a view.
+A dark wave of rubble rose against a colorless sky, beyond
+its crest the bleached, half-melted skeletons of city towers. The
+rubble wave was textured like a net, rusting steel rods twisted
+gracefully as fine string, vast slabs of concrete still clinging
+there. The foreground might once have been a city square;
+there was a sort of stump, something that suggested a fountain.
+At its base, the children and the soldier were frozen. The tableau
+was confusing at first. Molly must have read it correctly before
+Case had quite assimilated it, because he felt her tense. She
+spat, then stood.
+Children. Feral, in rags. Teeth glittering like knives. Sores
+on their contorted faces. The soldier on his back, mouth and
+throat open to the sky. They were feeding.
+"Bonn," she said, something like gentleness in her voice.
+"Quite the product, aren't you, Peter? But you had to be. Our
+3Jane, she's too jaded now to open the back door for just any
+petty thief. So Wintermute dug you up. The ultimate taste, if
+your taste runs that way. Demon lover. Peter." She shivered.
+"But you talked her into letting me in. Thanks. Now we're
+gonna party."
+And then she was walking--strolling, really, in spite of the
+pain--away from Riviera's childhood. She drew the fletcher
+from its holster, snapped the plastic magazine out, pocketed
+that, and replaced it with another. She hooked her thumb in
+the neck of the Modern suit and ripped it open to the crotch
+with a single gesture, her thumb blade parting the tough po-
+lycarbon like rotten silk. She freed herself from the arms and
+legs, the shredded remnants disguising themselves as they fell
+to the dark false sand.
+Case noticed the music then. A music he didn't know, all
+horns and piano.
+The entrance to 3Jane's world had no door. It was a ragged
+five-meter gash in the tunnel wall, uneven stairs leading down
+in a broad shallow curve. Faint blue light, moving shadows,
+music.
+"Case," she said, and paused, the fletcher in her right hand.
+Then she raised her left, smiled, touched her open palm with
+a wet tongue tip, kissing him through the simstim link. "Gotta
+go."
+Then there was something small and heavy in her left hand,
+her thumb against a tiny stud, and she was descending.
+
+She missed it by a fraction. She nearly cut it, but not quite.
+She went in just right, Case thought. The right attitude; it was
+something he could sense, something he could have seen in
+the posture of another cowboy leaning into a deck, fingers
+flying across the board. She had it: the thing, the moves. And
+she'd pulled it all together for her entrance. Pulled it together
+around the pain in her leg and marched down 3Jane's stairs
+like she owned the place, elbow of her gun arm at her hip,
+forearm up, wrist relaxed, swaying the muzzle of the fletcher
+with the studied nonchalance of a Regency duelist.
+It was a performance. It was like the culmination of a life-
+time's observation of martial arts tapes, cheap ones, the kind
+Case had grown up on For a few seconds, he knew, she was
+every bad-ass hero, Sony Mao in the old Shaw videos, Mickey
+Chiba, the whole lineage back to Lee and Eastwood. She was
+walking it the way she talked it.
+Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool had carved her-
+self a low country flush with the inner surface of Straylight's
+hull, chopping away the maze of walls that was her legacy.
+She lived in a single room so broad and deep that its far reaches
+were lost to an inverse horizon, the floor hidden by the cur-
+vature of the spindle. The ceiling was low and irregular, done
+in the same imitation stone that walled the corridor. Here and
+there across the floor were jagged sections of wall, waist-high
+reminders of the labyrinth. There was a rectangular turquoise
+pool centered ten meters from the foot of the stairway, its
+underwater floods the apartment's only source of light--or it
+seemed that way, to Case, as Molly took her final step. The
+pool threw shifting blobs of light across the ceiling above it.
+They were waiting by the pool.
+He'd known that her reflexes were souped up, jazzed by
+the neurosurgeons for combat, but he hadn't experienced them
+on the simstim link. The effect was like tape run at half speed,
+a slow, deliberate dance choreographed to the killer instinct
+and years of training. She seemed to take the three of them in
+at a glance: the boy poised on the pool's high board, the girl
+grinning ove her wineglass, and the corpse of Ashpool, his
+left socket gaping black and corrupt above his welcoming smile.
+He wore his maroon robe. His teeth were very white.
+The boy dove. Slender, brown, his form perfect. The gre-
+nade left her hand before his hands could cut the water. Case
+knew the thing for what it was as it broke the surface: a core
+of high explosive wrapped with ten meters of fine, brittle steel
+wire.
+Her fletcher whined as she sent a storm of explosive darts
+into Ashpool's face and chest, and he was gone, smoke curling
+from the pocked back of the empty, white-enameled pool chair.
+The muzzle swung for 3Jane as the grenade detonated, a
+symmetrical wedding cake of water rising, breaking, falling
+back, but the mistake had been made.
+Hideo didn't even touch her, then. Her leg collapsed.
+In Garvey, Case screamed.
+
+"It took you long enough," Riviera said, as he searched her
+pockets. Her hands vanished at the wrists in a matte black
+sphere the size of a bowling ball. "I saw a multiple assassination
+in Ankara," he said, his fingers plucking things from her jacket,
+"a grenade job. In a pool. It seemed a very weak explosion,
+but they all died instantly of hydrostatic shock." Case felt her
+move her fingers experimentally. The material of the ball seemed
+to offer no more resistance than temperfoam. The pain in her
+leg was excruciating, impossible. A red moire shifted in her
+vision. "I wouldn't move them, if I were you." The interior
+of the ball seemed to tighten slightly. "It' s a sex toy Jane bought
+in Berlin. Wiggle them long enough and it crushes them to a
+pulp. Variant of the material they make this flooring from.
+Something to do with the molecules, I suppose. Are you in
+pain?"
+She groaned.
+"You seem to have injured your leg." His fingers found the
+flat packet of drugs in the left back pocket of her jeans. "Well.
+My last taste from Ali, and just in time."
+The shifting mesh of blood began to whirl.
+"Hideo," said another voice, a woman's, "she's losing con-
+sciousness. Give her something. For that and for the pain. She's
+very striking, don't you think, Peter? These glasses, are they
+a fashion where she comes from?"
+Cool hands, unhurried, with a surgeon's certainty. The sting
+of a needle.
+"I wouldn't know," Riviera was saying. "I've never seen
+her native habitat. They came and took me from Turkey."
+"The Sprawl, yes. We have interests there. And once we
+sent Hideo. My fault, really. I'd let someone in, a burglar. He
+took the family terminal." She laughed. "I made it easy for
+him. To annoy the others. He was a pretty boy, my burglar.
+Is she waking, Hideo? Shouldn't she have more?"
+"More and she would die," said a third voice.
+The blood mesh slid into black.
+The music returned, horns and piano. Dance music.
+
+C A S E : : : : :
+: : : : : J A C K
+O U T : : : : : :
+
+Afterimages of the flashed words danced across Maelcum's
+eyes and creased forehead as Case removed the trodes.
+"You scream, mon, while ago."
+"Molly," he said, his throat dry. "Got hurt." He took a white
+plastic squeeze bottle from the edge of the g-web and sucked
+out a mouthful of flat water. "I don't like how any of this shit
+is going."
+The little Cray monitor lit. The Finn, against a background
+of twisted, impacted junk. "Neither do 1. We gotta problem."
+Maelcum pulled himself up, over Case's head, twisted, and
+peered over his shoulder. "Now who is that mon, Case?"
+"That's just a picture, Maelcum," Case said wearily. "Guy
+I know in the Sprawl. It's Wintermute talking. Picture's sup-
+posed to make us feel at home."
+"Bullshit," the Finn said. "Like I told Molly, these aren't
+masks. I need 'em to talk to you. 'Cause I don't have what
+you'd think of as a personality, much. But all that's just pissing
+in the wind, Case, 'cause, like I just said, we gotta problem."
+"So express thyself, Mute," Maelcum said.
+"Molly's leg's falling off, for starts. Can't walk. How it
+was supposed to go down, she'd walk in, get Peter out of the
+way, talk the magic word outa 3Jane, get up to the head, and
+say it. Now she's blown it. So I want you two to go in after
+her."
+Case stared at the face on the screen. "Us?"
+"So who else?"
+"Aerol," Case said, "the guy on Babylon Rocker, Mael-
+cum's pal."
+"No. Gotta be you. Gotta be somebody who understands
+Molly, who understands Riviera. Maelcum for muscle."
+"You maybe forget that I'm in the middle of a little run,
+here. Remember? What you hauled my ass out here for...."
+"Case, listen up. Time's tight. Very tight. Listen. The real
+link between your deck and Straylight is a sideband broadcast
+over Garvey's navigation system. You'll take Garvey into a
+very private dock I'll show you. The Chinese virus has com-
+pletely penetrated the fabric of the Hosaka. There's nothing in
+the Hosaka but virus now. When you dock, the virus will be
+interfaced with the Straylight custodial system and we'll cut
+the sideband. You'll take your deck, the Flatline, and Maelcum .
+You'll find 3Jane, get the word out of her, kill Riviera, get
+the key from Molly. You can keep track of the program by
+jacking your deck into the Straylight system. I'll handle it for
+you. There's a standard jack in the back of the head, behind
+a panel with five zircons."
+
+"Kill Riviera'!"
+"Kill him."
+Case blinked at the representation of the Finn. He felt Mael-
+cum put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey. You forget some-
+thing." He felt the rage rising, and a kind of glee. "You fucked
+up. You blew the controls on the grapples when you blew
+Armitage. Haniwa's got us good and tight. Armitage fried the
+other Hosaka and the mainframes went with the bridge, right?"
+The Finn nodded.
+"So we're stuck out here. And that means you're fucked
+man." He wanted to laugh, but it caught in his throat.
+"Case, mon," Maelcum said softly, "Garvey a tug."
+"That's right," said the Finn, and smiled.
+
+"You havin' fun in the big world outside?" the construct
+asked, when Case jacked back in. "Figured that was Winter-
+mute requestin' the pleasure...."
+"Yeah. You bet. Kuang okay?"
+"Bang on. Killer virus."
+"Okay. Got some snags, but we're working on it."
+"You wanna tell me, maybe?"
+"Don't have time."
+"Well, boy, never mind me, I'm just dead anyway."
+"Fuck off," Case said, and flipped, cutting off the torn-
+fingernail edge of the Flatline's laughter.
+
+"She dreamed of a state involving very little in the way of
+individual consciousness," 3Jane was saying. She cupped a
+large cameo in her hand, extending it toward Molly. The carved
+profile was very much like her own. "Animal bliss. I think she
+viewed the evolution of the forebrain as a sort of sidestep."
+She withdrew the brooch and studied it, tilting it to catch the
+light at different angles. "Only in certain heightened modes
+would an individual--a clan member--suffer the more pain-
+ful aspects of self-awareness. . ."
+Molly nodded. Case remembered the injection. What had
+they given her? The pain was still there, but it came through
+as a tight focus of scrambled impressions. Neon worms writhing
+in her thigh, the touch of burlap, smell of frying krill--his
+mind recoiled from it. If he avoided focusing on it, the impres-
+sions overlapped, became a sensory equivalent of white noise.
+If it could do that to her nervous system, what would her frame
+of mind be?
+Her vision was abnormally clear and bright, even sharper
+than usual. Things seemed to vibrate, each person or object
+tuned to a minutely different frequency. Her hands, still locked
+in the black ball, were on her lap. She sat in one of the pool
+chairs, her broken leg propped straight in front of her on a
+camelskin hassock. 3Jane sat opposite, on another hassock,
+huddled in an oversized djellaba of unbleached wool. She was
+very young.
+"Where'd he go?" Molly asked. "To take his shot?"
+3Jane shrugged beneath the folds of the pale heavy robe and
+tossed a strand of dark hair away from her eyes. "He told me
+when to let you in," she said. "He wouldn't tell me why.
+Everything has to be a mystery. Would you have hurt us?"
+Case felt Molly hesitate. "I would've killed him. I'd've tried
+to kill the ninja. Then I was supposed to talk with you."
+"Why?" 3Jane asked, tucking the cameo back into one of
+the djellaba's inner pockets. "And why? And what about?"
+Molly seemed to be studying the high, delicate bones, the
+wide mouth, the narrow hawk nose. 3Jane's eyes were dark,
+curiously opaque. "Because I hate him," she said at last, "and
+the why of that's just the way I'm wired, what he is and what
+I am."
+"And the show," 3Jane said. "I saw the show."
+Molly nodded.
+"But Hideo?"
+"Because they're the best. Because one of them killed a
+partner of mine, once."
+3Jane became very grave. She raised her eyebrows.
+"Because I had to see," Molly said.
+"And then we would have talked, you and I? Like this?"
+Her dark hair was very straight, center-parted, drawn back into
+a knot of dull sterling. "Shall we talk now?"
+"Take this off," Molly said, raising her captive hands.
+"You killed my father," 3Jane said, no change whatever in
+her tone. "I was watching on the monitors. My mother's eyes,
+he called them."
+"He killed the puppet. It looked like you."
+"He was fond of broad gestures," she said, and then Riviera
+was beside her, radiant with drugs, in the seersucker convict
+outfit he'd worn in the roof garden of their hotel.
+"Getting acquainted? She's an interesting girl, isn't she? I
+thought so when I first saw her." He stepped past 3Jane. "It
+isn't going to work, you know."
+"Isn't it, Peter?" Molly managed a grin.
+"Wintermute won't be the first to have made the same mis-
+take. Underestimating me." He crossed the tiled pool border
+to a white enamel table and splashed mineral water into a heavy
+crystal highball glass. "He talked with me, Molly. I suppose
+he talked to all of us. You, and Case, whatever there is of
+Armitage to talk to. He can't really understand us, you know.
+He has his profiles, but those are only statistics. You may be
+the statistical animal, darling, and Case is nothing but, but I
+possess a quality unquantifiable by its very nature." He drank.
+"And what exactly is that, Peter?" Molly asked, her voice
+flat.
+Riviera beamed. "Perversity." He walked back to the two
+women, swirling the water that remained in the dense, deeply
+carved cylinder of rock crystal, as though he enjoyed the weight
+of the thing. "An enjoyment of the gratuitous act. And I have
+made a decision, Molly, a wholly gratuitous decision."
+She waited, looking up at him.
+"Oh, Peter," 3Jane said, with the sort of gentle exasperation
+ordinarily reserved for children.
+"No word for you, Molly. He told me about that you see.
+3Jane knows the code, of course, but you won't have it. Neither
+will Wintermute. My Jane's an ambitious girl, in her perverse
+way." He smiled again. "She has designs on the family empire,
+and a pair of insane artificial intelligences, kinky as the concept
+may be, would only get in our way. So. Comes her Riviera to
+help her out, you see. And Peter says, sit tight. Play Daddy's
+favorite swing records and let Peter call you up a band to match,
+a floor of dancers, a wake for dead King Ashpool." He drank
+off the last of the mineral water. "No, you wouldn't do, Daddy,
+you would not do. Now that Peter's come home." And then,
+his face pink with the pleasure of cocaine and meperidine, he
+swung the glass hard into her left lens implant, smashing vision
+into blood and light.
+
+Maelcum was prone against the cabin ceiling when Case
+removed the trodes. A nylon sling around his waist was fastened
+to the panels on either side with shock cords and gray rubber
+suction pads. He had his shirt off and was working on a central
+panel with a clumsy-looking zero-g wrench, the thing's fat
+countersprings twanging as he removed another hexhead. Mar-
+cus Garvey was groaning and ticking with g-stress.
+"The Mute takin' I an' I dock," the Zionite said, popping
+the hexhead into a mesh pouch at his waist. "Maelcum pilot
+th' landin', meantime need we tool f' th' job."
+"You keep tools back there?" Case craned his neck and
+watched cords of muscle bunching in the brown back.
+"This one," Maelcum said, sliding a long bundle wrapped
+in black poly from the space behind the panel. He replaced the
+panel, along with a single hexhead to hold it in place. The
+black package had drifted aft before he'd finished. He thumbed
+open the vacuum valves on the workbelt's gray pads and freed
+himself, retrieving the thing he'd removed.
+He kicked back, gliding over his instruments--a green
+docking diagram pulsed on his central screen--and snagged
+the frame of Case's g-web. He pulled himself down and picked
+at the tape of his package with a thick, chipped thumbnail.
+"Some man in China say th' truth comes out this," he said,
+unwrapping an ancient, oilslick Remington automatic shotgun,
+its barrel chopped off a few millimeters in front of the battered
+forestock. The shoulderstock had been removed entirely, re-
+placed with a wooden pistolgrip wound with dull black tape.
+He smelled of sweat and ganja.
+"That the only one you got?"
+"Sure, mon," he said, wiping oil from the black barrel with
+a red cloth, the black poly wrapping bunched around the pis-
+tolgrip in his other hand, "I an' I th' Rastafarian navy, believe
+it."
+Case pulled the trodes down across his forehead. He'd never
+bothered to put the Texas catheter back on; at least he could
+take a real piss in the Villa Straylight, even if it was his last.
+He jacked in.
+
+* * *
+
+"Hey," the construct said, "ol' Peter's totally apeshit, huh?"
+They seemed to be part of the Tessier-Ashpool ice now; the
+emerald arches had widened, grown together, become a solid
+mass. Green predominated in the planes of the Chinese program
+that surrounded them. "Gettin' close, Dixie?"
+"Real close. Need you soon."
+"Listen, Dix. Wintermute says Kuang's set itself up solid
+in our Hosaka. I'm going to have to jack you and my deck out
+of the Circuit, haul you into Straylight, and plug you back in,
+into the custodial program there, Wintermute says. Says the
+Kuang virus will be all through there. Then we run from inside
+through the Straylight net."
+"Wonderful," the Flatline said, "I never did like to do any-
+thing simple when I could do it ass-backwards."
+Case flipped.
+
+Into her darkness, a churning synaesthesia, where her pain
+was the taste of old iron, scent of melon, wings of a moth
+brushing her cheek. She was unconscious, and he was barred
+from her dreams. When the optic chip flared, the alphanumerics
+were haloed, each one ringed with a faint pink aura.
+07:29:40.
+"I'm very unhappy with this, Peter." 3Jane's voice seemed
+to arrive from a hollow distance. Molly could hear, he realized,
+then corrected himself. The simstim unit was intact and still
+in place; he could feel it digging against her ribs. Her ears
+registered the vibrations of the girl's voice. Riviera said some-
+thing brief and indistinct. "But I don't," she said, "and it isn't
+fun. Hideo will bring a medical unit down from intensive care,
+but this needs a surgeon."
+There was a silence. Very distinctly, Case heard the water
+lap against the side of the pool.
+"What was that you were telling her, when I came back?"
+Riviera was very close now.
+"About my mother. She asked me to. I think she was in
+shock, aside from Hideo's injection. Why did you do that to
+her?"
+"I wanted to see if they would break."
+"One did. When she comes around--if she comes around--
+we'll see what color her eyes are."
+"She's extremely dangerous. Too dangerous. If I hadn't
+been here to distract her, to throw up Ashpool to distract her
+and my own Hideo to draw her little bomb, where would you
+be? In her power."
+"No," 3Jane said, "there was Hideo. I don't think you quite
+understand about Hideo. She does, evidently."
+"Like a drink?"
+"Wine. The white."
+Case jacked out.
+
+Maelcum was hunched over Garvey's controls, tapping out
+commands for a docking sequence. The module's central screen
+displayed a fixed red square that represented the Straylight
+dock. Garvey was a larger square, green, that shrank slowly,
+wavering from side to side with Maelcum's commands. To the
+left, a smaller screen displayed a skeletal graphic of Garvey
+and Haniwa as they approached the curvature of the spindle.
+"We got an hour, man," Case said, pulling the ribbon of
+fiberoptics from the Hosaka. His deck's back-up batteries were
+good for ninety minutes, but the Flatline's construct would be
+an additional drain. He worked quickly, mechanically, fasten-
+ing the construct to the bottom of the Ono-Sendai with micro-
+pore tape. Maelcum's workbelt drifted past. He snagged it,
+unclipped the two lengths of shock cord, with their gray rec-
+tangular suction pads, and hooked the jaws of one clip through
+the other. He held the pads against the sides of his deck and
+worked the thumb lever that created suction. With the deck,
+construct, and improvised shoulder strap suspended in front of
+him, he struggled into his leather jacket, checking the contents
+of his pockets. The passport Armitage had given him, the bank
+chip in the same name, the credit chip he'd been issued when
+he'd entered Freeside, two derms of the betaphenethylamine
+he'd bought from Bruce, a roll of New Yen, half a pack of
+Yeheyuans, and the shuriken. He tossed the Freeside chip over
+his shoulders, heard it click off the Russian scrubber. He was
+about to do the same with the steel star, but the rebounding
+credit chip clipped the back of his skull, spun off, struck the
+ceiling, and tumbled past Maelcum's left shoulder. The Zionite
+interrupted his piloting to glare back at him. Case looked at
+the shuriken, then tucked it into his jacket pocket, hearing the
+lining tear.
+"You missin' th' Mute, mon," Maelcum said. "Mute say
+he messin' th' security for Garvey. Garvey dockin' as 'nother
+boat, boat they 'spectin' out of Babylon. Mute broadcastin'
+codes for us."
+"We gonna wear the suits?"
+"Too heavy." Maelcum shrugged. "Stay in web 'til I tell
+you." He tapped a final sequence into the module and grabbed
+the worn pink handholds on either side of the navigation board.
+Case saw the green square shrink a final few millimeters to
+overlap the red square. On the smaller screen, Haniwa lowered
+her bow to miss the curve of the spindle and was snared. Garvey
+was still slung beneath her like a captive grub. The tug rang,
+shuddered. Two stylized arms sprang out to grip the slender
+wasp shape. Straylight extruded a tentative yellow rectangle
+that curved, groping past Haniwa for Garvey.
+There was a scraping sound from the bow, beyond the trem-
+bling fronds of caulk.
+"Mon," Maelcum said, "mind we got gravity." A dozen
+small objects struck the floor of the cabin simultaneously, as
+though drawn there by a magnet. Case gasped as his internal
+organs were pulled into a different configuration. The deck and
+construct had fallen painfully to his lap.
+They were attached to the spindle now, rotating with it.
+Maelcum spread his arms, flexed tension from his shoulders,
+and removed his purple dreadbag, shaking out his locks. "Come
+now, mon, if you seh time be mos' precious."
+The Villa Straylight was a parasitic structure, Case reminded
+himself, as he stepped past the tendrils of caulk and through
+Marcus Garvey's forward hatch. Straylight bled air and water
+out of Freeside, and had no ecosystem of its own.
+The gangway tube the dock had extended was a more elab-
+orate version of the one he'd tumbled through to reach Haniwa,
+designed for use in the spindle's rotation gravity. A corrugated
+tunnel, articulated by integral hydraulic members, each seg-
+ment ringed with a loop of tough, nonslip plastic, the loops
+serving as the rungs of a ladder. The gangway had snaked its
+way around Haniwa; it was horizontal , where it joined Garvey' s
+lock, but curved up sharply and to the left, a vertical climb
+around the curvature of the yacht's hull. Maelcum was already
+making his way up the rings, pulling himself up with his left
+hand, the Remington in his right. He wore a stained pair of
+baggy fatigues, his sleeveless green nylon jacket, and a pair
+of ragged canvas sneakers with bright red soles. The gangway
+shifted slightly, each time he climbed to another ring.
+The clips on Case's makeshift strap dug into his shoulder
+with the weight of the Ono-Sendai and the Flatline's construct.
+All he felt now was fear, a generalized dread. He pushed it
+away, forcing himself to replay Armitage's lecture on the spin-
+dle and Villa Straylight. He started climbing. Freeside's eco-
+system was limited, not closed. Zion was a closed system,
+capable of cycling for years without the introduction of external
+materials. Freeside produced its own air and water, but relied
+on constant shipments of food, on the regular augmentation
+of soil nutrients. The Villa Straylight produced nothing at all.
+"Mon," Maelcum said quietly, "get up here, 'side me." Case
+edged sideways on the circular ladder and climbed the last few
+rungs. The gangway ended in a smooth, slightly convex hatch,
+two meters in diameter. The hydraulic members of the tube
+vanished into flexible housings set into the frame of the hatch.
+"So what do we--"
+Case's mouth shut as the hatch swung up, a slight differential
+in pressure puffing fine grit into his eyes.
+Maelcum scrambled up, over the edge, and Case heard the
+tiny click of the Remington's safety being released. "You th'
+mon in th' hurry...." Maelcum whispered, crouching there.
+Then Case was beside him.
+The hatch was centered in a round, vaulted chamber floored
+with blue nonslip plastic tiles. Maelcum nudged him, pointed,
+and he saw a monitor set into a curved wall. On the screen, a
+tall young man with the Tessier-Ashpool features was brushing
+something from the sleeves of his dark suitcoat. He stood beside
+an identical hatch, in an identical chamber. "Very sorry, sir,"
+said a voice from a grid centered above the hatch. Case glanced
+up. "Expected you later, at the axial dock. One moment, please."
+On the monitor, the young man tossed his head impatiently.
+Maelcum spun as a door slid open to their left, the shotgun
+ready. A small Eurasian in orange coveralls stepped through
+and goggled at them. He opened his mouth, but nothing came
+out. He closed his mouth. Case glanced at the monitor. Blank.
+"Who?" the man managed.
+"The Rastafarian navy," Case said, standing up, the cyber-
+space deck banging against his hip, "and all we want's a jack
+into your custodial system."
+The man swallowed. "Is this a test? It's a loyalty check. It
+must be a loyalty check." He wiped the palms of his hands on
+the thighs of his orange suit.
+"No, mon, this a real one." Maelcum came up out of his
+crouch with the Remington pointed at the Eurasian's face. "You
+move it."
+They followed the man back through the door, into a corridor
+whose polished concrete walls and irregular floor of overlap-
+ping carpets were perfectly familiar to Case. "Pretty rugs,"
+Maelcum said, prodding the man in the back. "Smell like
+church."
+They came to another monitor, an antique Sony, this one
+mounted above a console with a keyboard and a complex array
+of jack panels. The screen lit as they halted, the Finn grinning
+tensely out at them from what seemed to be the front room of
+Metro Holografix. "Okay," he said, "Maelcum takes this guy
+down the corridor to the open locker door, sticks him in there,
+I'll lock it. Case, you want the fifth socket from the left, top
+panel. There's adaptor plugs in the cabinet under the console.
+Needs Ono-Sendai twenty-point into Hitachi forty." As Mael-
+cum nudged his captive along, Case knelt and fumbled through
+an assortment of plugs, finally coming up with the one he
+needed. With his deck jacked into the adaptor, he paused.
+"Do you have to look like that, man?" he asked the face on
+the screen. The Finn was erased a line at a time by the image
+of Lonny Zone against a wall of peeling Japanese posters.
+"Anything you want, baby," Zone drawled, "just hop it for
+Lonny...."
+"No," Case said, "use the Finn." As the Zone image van-
+ished, he shoved the Hitachi adaptor into its socket and settled
+the trodes across his forehead.
+
+"What kept you?" the Flatline asked, and laughed.
+"Told you don't do that," Case said.
+"Joke, boy," the construct said, "zero time lapse for me.
+Lemme see what we got here...."
+The Kuang program was green, exactly the shade of the
+T-A ice. Even as Case watched, it grew gradually more opaque,
+although he could see the black-mirrored shark thing clearly
+when he looked up. The fracture lines and hallucinations were
+gone now, and the thing looked real as Marcus Garvey, a
+wingless antique jet, its smooth skin plated with black chrome.
+"Right on," the Flatline said.
+"Right," Case said, and flipped.
+
+"--like that. I'm sorry," 3Jane was saying, as she bandaged
+Molly's head. "Our unit says no concussion, no permanent
+damage to the eye. You didn't know him very well, before
+you came here?"
+"Didn't know him at all," Molly said bleakly. She was on
+her back on a high bed or padded table. Case couldn't feel the
+injured leg. The synaesthetic effect of the original injection
+seemed to have worn off. The black ball was gone, but her
+hands were immobilized by soft straps she couldn't see.
+"He wants to kill you."
+"Figures," Molly said, staring up at the rough ceiling past
+a very bright light.
+"I don't think I want him to," 3Jane said, and Molly pain-
+fully turned her head to look up into the dark eyes.
+"Don't play with me," she said.
+"But I think I might like to," 3Jane said, and bent to kiss
+her forehead, brushing the hair back with a warm hand. There
+were smears of blood on her pale djellaba.
+"Where's he gone now?" Molly asked.
+"Another injection, probably," 3Jane said, straightening up.
+"He was quite impatient for your arrival. I think it might be
+fun to nurse you back to health, Molly." She smiled, absently
+wiping a bloody hand down the front of the robe. "Your leg
+will need to be reset, but we can arrange that."
+"What about Peter?"
+"Peter." She gave her head a little shake. A strand of dark
+hair came loose, fell across her forehead. "Peter has become
+rather boring. I find drug use in general to be boring." She
+giggled. "In others, at any rate. My father was a dedicated
+abuser, as you must have seen."
+Molly tensed.
+"Don't alarm yourself." 3Jane's fingers brushed the skin
+above the waistband of the leather jeans. "His suicide was the
+result of my having manipulated the safety margins of his
+freeze. I'd never actually met him, you know. I was decanted
+after he last went down to sleep. But I did know him very well.
+The cores know everything. I watched him kill my mother. I'll
+show you that, when you're better. He strangles her in bed."
+"Why did he kill her?" Her unbandaged eye focused on the
+girl's face.
+"He couldn't accept the direction she intended for our fam-
+ily. She commissioned the construction of our artificial intel-
+ligences. She was quite a visionary. She imagined us in a
+symbiotic relationship with the Al's, our corporate decisions
+made for us. Our conscious decisions, I should say. Tessier-
+Ashpool would be immortal, a hive, each of us units of a larger
+entity . Fascinating . I'll play her tapes for you, nearly a thousand
+hours. But I've never understood her, really, and with her
+death, her direction was lost. All direction was lost, and we
+began to burrow into ourselves. Now we seldom come out.
+I'm the exception there."
+"You said you were trying to kill the old man? You fiddled
+his cryogenic programs?"
+3Jane nodded. "I had help. From a ghost. That was what I
+thought when I was very young, that there were ghosts in the
+corporate cores. Voices. One of them was what you call Win-
+termute, which is the Turing code for our Berne Al, although
+the entity manipulating you is a sort of subprogram."
+"One of them? There's more?"
+"One other. But that one hasn't spoken to me in years. It
+gave up, I think. I suspect that both represent the fruition of
+certain capacities my mother ordered designed into the original
+software, but she was an extremely secretive woman when she
+felt it necessary. Here. Drink." She put a flexible plastic tube
+to Molly's lips. "Water. Only a little."
+"Jane, love," Riviera asked cheerfully, from somewhere out
+of sight, "are you enjoying yourself?"
+"Leave us alone, Peter."
+"Playing doctor...." Suddenly Molly stared into her own
+face, the image suspended ten centimeters from her nose. There
+were no bandages. The left implant was shattered, a long finger
+of silvered plastic driven deep in a socket that was an inverted
+pool of blood.
+"Hideo," 3Jane said, stroking Molly's stomach, "hurt Peter
+if he doesn't go away. Go and swim, Peter."
+The projection vanished.
+07:58:40, in the darkness of the bandaged eye.
+"He said you know the code. Peter said. Wintermute needs
+the code." Case was suddenly aware of the Chubb key that lay
+on its nylon thong, against the inner curve of her left breast.
+"Yes," 3Jane said, withdrawing her hand, "I do. I learned
+it as a child. I think I learned it in a dream.... Or somewhere
+in the thousand hours of my mother's diaries. But I think that
+Peter has a point, in urging me not to surrender it. There would
+be Turing to contend with, if I read all this correctly, and ghosts
+are nothing if not capricious."
+Case jacked out.
+
+"Strange little customer, huh?" The Finn grinned at Case
+from the old Sony.
+Case shrugged. He saw Maelcum coming back along the
+corridor with the Remington at his side. The Zionite was smil-
+ing, his head bobbing to a rhythm Case couldn't hear. A pair
+of thin yellow leads ran from his ears to a side pocket in his
+sleeveless jacket.
+"Dub, mon," Maelcum said.
+"You're fucking crazy," Case told him.
+"Hear okay, mon. Righteous dub."
+"Hey, guys," the Finn said, "on your toes. Here comes your
+transportation. I can't finesse many numbers as smooth as the
+pic of 8Jean that conned your doorman, but I can get you a
+ride over to 3Jane's place."
+Case was pulling the adaptor from its socket when the rid-
+erless service cart swiveled into sight, under the graceless con-
+crete arch marking the far end of their corridor. It might have
+been the one his Africans had ridden, but if it was, they were
+gone now. Just behind the back of the low padded seat, its tiny
+manipulators gripping the upholstery, the little Braun was
+steadily winking its red LED.
+"Bus to catch," Case said to Maelcum.
+
+He'd lost his anger again. He missed it.
+The little cart was crowded: Maelcum, the Remington across
+his knees, and Case, deck and construct against his chest. The
+cart was operating at speeds it hadn't been designed for; it was
+top heavy, cornering, and Maelcum had taken to leaning out
+in the direction of the turns. This presented no problem when
+the thing took lefts, because Case sat on the right, but in the
+right turns the Zionite had to lean across Case and his gear,
+crushing him against the seat.
+He had no idea where they were. Everything was familiar,
+but he couldn't be sure he'd seen any particular stretch before.
+A curving hallway lined with wooden showcases displayed
+collections he was certain he'd never seen: the skulls of large
+birds, coins, masks of beaten silver. The service cart's six tires
+were silent on the layered carpets. There was only the whine
+of the electric motor and an occasional faint burst of Zion dub,
+from the foam beads in Maelcum's ears, as he lunged past Case
+to counter a sharp right. The deck and the construct kept press-
+ing the shuriken in his jacket pocket into his hip.
+
+"You got a watch?" he asked Maelcum.
+The Zionite shook his locks. "Time be time."
+"Jesus," Case said, and closed his eyes.
+
+The Braun scuttled over mounded carpets and tapped one
+of its padded claws against an oversized rectangular door of
+dark battered wood. Behind them, the cart sizzled and shot
+blue sparks from a louvered panel. The sparks struck the carpet
+beneath the cart and Case smelled scorched wool.
+"This th' way, mon?" Maelcum eyed the door and snapped
+the shotgun's safety.
+"Hey," Case said, more to himself than to Maelcum, "you
+think I know?" The Braun rotated its spherical body and the
+LED strobed.
+"It wan' you open door," Maelcum said, nodding.
+Case stepped forward and tried the ornate brass knob. There
+was a brass plate mounted on the door at eye level, so old that
+the lettering that had once been engraved there had been re-
+duced to a spidery, unreadable code, the name of some long
+dead function or functionary, polished into oblivion. He won-
+dered vaguely if Tessier-Ashpool had selected each piece of
+Straylight individually, or if they'd purchased it in bulk from
+some vast European equivalent of Metro Holografix. The door's
+hinges creaked plaintively as he edged it open, Maelcum step-
+ping past him with the Remington thrust forward from his hip.
+"Books," Maelcum said.
+The library, the white steel shelves with their labels.
+"I know where we are," Case said. He looked back at the
+service cart. A curl of smoke was rising from the carpet. "So
+come on," he said. "Cart. Cart?" It remained stationary. The
+Braun was plucking at the leg of his jeans, nipping at his ankle.
+He resisted a strong urge to kick it. "Yeah?"
+It ticked its way around the door. He followed it.
+The monitor in the library was another Sony, as old as the
+first one. The Braun paused beneath it and executed a sort of
+Jig.
+"Wintermute?"
+The familiar features filled the screen. The Finn smiled.
+"Time to check in, Case," the Finn said, his eyes screwed
+up against the smoke of a cigarette. "C'mon, jack."
+The Braun threw itself against his ankle and began to climb
+his leg, its manipulators pinching his flesh through the thin
+black cloth. "Shit!" He slapped it aside and it struck the wall.
+Two of its limbs began to piston repeatedly, uselessly, pumping
+the air. "What's wrong with the goddam thing?"
+"Burned out," the Finn said. "Forget it. No problem. lack
+in now."
+There were four sockets beneath the screen, but only one
+would accept the Hitachi adaptor.
+He jacked in.
+
+Nothing. Gray void.
+No matrix, no grid. No cyberspace.
+The deck was gone. His fingers were. . .
+And on the far rim of consciousness, a scurrying, a fleeting
+impression of something rushing toward him, across leagues
+of black mirror.
+He tried to scream.
+
+There seemed to be a city, beyond the curve of beach, but
+it was far away.
+He crouched on his haunches on the damp sand, his arms
+wrapped tight across his knees, and shook.
+He stayed that way for what seemed a very long time, even
+after the shaking stopped. The city, if it was a city, was low
+and gray. At times it was obscured by banks of mist that came
+rolling in over the lapping surf. At one point he decided that
+it wasn't a city at all, but some single building, perhaps a ruin;
+he had no way of judging its distance. The sand was the shade
+of tarnished silver that hadn't gone entirely black. The beach
+was made of sand, the beach was very long, the sand was
+damp, the bottoms of his jeans were wet from the sand.... He
+held himself and rocked, singing a song without words or tune.
+The sky was a different silver. Chiba. Like the Chiba sky.
+Tokyo Bay? He turned his head and stared out to sea, longing
+for the hologram logo of Fuji Electric, for the drone of a
+helicopter, anything at all.
+Behind him, a gull cried. He shivered.
+A wind was rising. Sand stung his cheek. He put his face
+against his knees and wept, the sound of his sobbing as distant
+and alien as the cry of the searching gull. Hot urine soaked his
+jeans, dribbled on the sand, and quickly cooled in the wind off
+the water. When his tears were gone, his throat ached.
+"Wintermute," he mumbled to his knees, "Wintermute. . ."
+It was growing dark, now, and when he shivered, it was
+with a cold that finally forced him to stand.
+His knees and elbows ached. His nose was running; he wiped
+it on the cuff of his jacket, then searched one empty pocket
+after another. "Jesus," he said, shoulders hunched, tucking his
+fingers beneath his arms for warmth. "Jesus." His teeth began
+to chatter.
+The tide had left the beach combed with patterns more subtle
+than any a Tokyo gardener produced. When he'd taken a dozen
+steps in the direction of the now invisible city, he turned and
+looked back through the gathering dark. His footprints stretched
+to the point of his arrival. There were no other marks to disturb
+the tarnished sand.
+He estimated that he'd covered at least a kilometer before
+he noticed the light. He was talking with Ratz, and it was Ratz
+who first pointed it out, an orange-red glow to his right, away
+from the surf. He knew that Ratz wasn't there, that the bartender
+was a figment of his own imagination, not of the thing he was
+trapped in, but that didn't matter. He'd called the man up for
+comfort of some kind, but Ratz had had his own ideas about
+Case and his predicament.
+"Really, my artiste, you amaze me. The lengths you will
+go to in order to accomplish your own destruction. The re-
+dundancy of it! In Night City, you had it, in the palm of your
+hand! The speed to eat your sense away, drink to keep it all
+so fluid, Linda for a sweeter sorrow, and the street to hold the
+axe. How far you've come, to do it now, and what grotesque
+props.... Playgrounds hung in space, castles hermetically sealed,
+the rarest rots of old Europa, dead men sealed in little boxes
+magic out of China...." Ratz laughed, trudging along beside
+him, his pink manipulator swinging jauntily at his side. In spite
+of the dark, Case could see the baroque steel that laced the
+bartender's blackened teeth. "But I suppose that is the way of
+an artiste, no? You needed this world built for you, this beach,
+this place. To die."
+Case halted, swayed, turned toward the sound of surf and
+the sting of blown sand. "Yeah," he said. "Shit. I guess. . ."
+He walked toward the sound.
+"Artiste," he heard Ratz call. "The light. You saw a light.
+Here. This way. . ."
+He stopped again, staggered, fell to his knees in a few
+millimeters of icy seawater. "Ratz? Light? Ratz. . ."
+But the dark was total, now, and there was only the sound
+of the surf. He struggled to his feet and tried to retrace his
+steps.
+Time passed. He walked on.
+And then it was there, a glow, defining itself with his every
+step. A rectangle. A door.
+"Fire in there," he said, his words torn away by the wind.
+It was a bunker, stone or concrete, buried in drifts of the
+dark sand. The doorway was low, narrow, doorless, and deep,
+set into a wall at least a meter thick. "Hey," Case said, softly,
+"hey. . ." His fingers brushed the cold wall. There was a fire,
+in there, shifting shadows on the sides of the entrance.
+He ducked low and was through, inside, in three steps.
+A girl was crouched beside rusted steel, a sort of fireplace,
+where driftwood burned, the wind sucking smoke up a dented
+chimney. The fire was the only light, and as his gaze met the
+wide, startled eyes, he recognized her headband, a rolled scarf,
+printed with a pattern like magnified circuitry.
+
+He refused her arms, that night, refused the food she offered
+him, the place beside her in the nest of blankets and shredded
+foam. He crouched beside the door, finally, and watched her
+sleep, listening to the wind scour the structure's walls. Every
+hour or so, he rose and crossed to the makeshift stove, adding
+fresh driftwood from the pile beside it. None of this was real,
+but cold was cold.
+She wasn't real, curled there on her side in the firelight. He
+watched her mouth, the lips parted slightly. She was the girl
+he remembered from their trip across the Bay, and that was
+cruel.
+"Mean, motherfucker," he whispered to the wind. "Don't
+take a chance, do you? Wouldn't give me any junkie, huh? I
+know what this is...." He tried to keep the desperation from
+his voice. "I know, see? I know who you are. You're the other
+one. 3Jane told Molly. Burning bush. That wasn't Wintermute,
+it was you. He tried to warn me off with the Braun. Now you
+got me flatlined, you got me here. Nowhere. With a ghost.
+Like I remember her before...."
+She stirred in her sleep, called something out, drawing a
+scrap of blanket across her shoulder and cheek.
+"You aren't anything," he said to the sleeping girl. "You're
+dead and you meant fuck-all to me anyway. Hear that, buddy?
+I know what you're doing. I'm flatlined. This has all taken
+about twenty seconds, right? I'm out on my ass in that library
+and my brain's dead. And pretty soon it'll be dead, if you got
+any sense. You don't want Wintermute to pull his scam off,
+is all, so you can just hang me up here. Dixie'll run Kuang,
+but his ass is dead and you can second guess his moves, sure.
+This Linda shit, yeah, that's all been you, hasn't it? Wintermute
+tried to use her when he sucked me into the Chiba construct,
+but he couldn't. Said it was too tricky. That was you moved
+the stars around in Freeside, wasn't it? That was you put her
+face on the dead puppet in Ashpool's room. Molly never saw
+that. You just edited her simstim signal. 'Cause you think you
+can hurt me. 'Cause you think I gave a shit. Well, fuck you,
+whatever you're called. You won. You win. But none of it
+means anything to me now, right? Think I care? So why'd you
+do it to me this way?" He was shaking again, his voice shrill.
+"Honey," she said, twisting up from the rags of blankets,
+"you come here and sleep. I'll sit up, you want. You gotta
+sleep, okay?" Her soft accent was exaggerated with sleep. "You
+just sleep, okay?"
+
+When he woke, she was gone. The fire was dead, but it
+was warm in the bunker, sunlight slanting through the doorway
+to throw a crooked rectangle of gold on the ripped side of a
+fat fiber canister. The thing was a shipping container; he
+remembered them from the Chiba docks. Through the rent in
+its side, he could see half a dozen bright yellow packets. In
+the sunlight, they looked like giant pats of butter. His stomach
+tightened with hunger. Rolling out of the nest, he went to the
+canister and fished one of the things out, blinking at small print
+in a dozen languages. The English was on the bottom. EMERG.
+RATION, HI-PRO, "BEEF", TYPE AG-8. A listing of nutri-
+tive content. He fumbled a second one out. "EGGS". "If you're
+making this shit up," he said, "you could lay on some real
+food, okay?" With a packet in either hand, he made his way
+through the structure's four rooms. Two were empty, aside
+from drifts of sand, and the fourth held three more of the ration
+canisters. "Sure," he said touching the seals. "Stay here a long
+time. I get the idea. Sure. . ."
+He searched the room with the fireplace, finding a plastic
+canister filled with what he assumed was rainwater. Beside the
+nest of blankets, against the wall, lay a cheap red lighter, a
+seaman's knife with a cracked green handle, and her scarf. It
+was still knotted, and stiff with sweat and dirt. He used the
+knife to open the yellow packets, dumping their contents into
+a rusted can that he found beside the stove. He dipped water
+from the canister, mixed the resulting mush with his fingers,
+and ate. It tasted vaguely like beef. When it was gone, he
+tossed the can into the fireplace and went out.
+Late afternoon, by the feel of the sun, its angle. He kicked
+off his damp nylon shoes and was startled by the warmth of
+the sand. In daylight, the beach was silver-gray. The sky was
+cloudless, blue. He rounded the comer of the bunker and walked
+toward the surf, dropping his jacket on the sand. "Dunno whose
+memories you're using for this one," he said when he reached
+the water. He peeled off his jeans and kicked them into the
+shallow surf, following them with t-shirt and underwear.
+"What you doin', Case?"
+He turned and found her ten meters down the beach, the
+white foam sliding past her ankles.
+"I pissed myself last night," he said.
+"Well, you don't wanna wear those. Saltwater. Give you
+sores. I'll show you this pool back in the rocks." She gestured
+vaguely behind her. "It's fresh." The faded French fatigues
+had been hacked away above the knee; the skin below was
+smooth and brown. A breeze caught at her hair.
+"Listen," he said, scooping his clothes up and walking to-
+ward her, "I got a question for you. I won't ask you what
+you're doing here. But what exactly do you think I'm doing
+here?" He stopped, a wet black jeans-leg slapping against his
+bare thigh.
+"You came last night," she said. She smiled at him.
+"And that's enough for you? I just came?"
+"He said you would," she said, wrinkling her nose. She
+shrugged. "He knows stuff like that, I guess." She lifted her
+left foot and rubbed salt from the other ankle, awkward, child-
+like. She smiled at him again, more tentatively. "Now you
+answer me one, okay?"
+He nodded.
+"How come you're painted brown like that, all except your
+foot?"
+
+"And that's the last thing you remember?" He watched her
+scrape the last of the freeze-dried hash from the rectangular
+steel box cover that was their only plate.
+She nodded, her eyes huge in the firelight. "I'm sorry, Case,
+honest to God. It was just the shit, I guess, an' it was . . ." She
+hunched forward, forearms across her knees, her face twisted
+for a few seconds with pain or its memory. "I just needed the
+money. To get home, I guess, or...hell," she said, "you
+wouldn't hardly talk to me."
+"There's no cigarettes?"
+"Goddam, Case, you asked me that ten times today! What's
+wrong with you?" She twisted a strand of hair into her mouth
+and chewed at it.
+"But the food was here? It was already here?"
+"I told you, man, it was washed up on the damn beach."
+"Okay. Sure. It's seamless."
+She started to cry again, a dry sobbing. "Well, damn you
+anyway, Case," she managed, finally, "I was doin' just fine
+here by myself."
+He got up, taking his jacket, and ducked through the door-
+way, scraping his wrist on rough concrete. There was no moon,
+no wind, sea sound all around him in the darkness. His jeans
+were tight and clammy. "Okay," he said to the night, "I buy
+it. I guess I buy it. But tomorrow some cigarettes better wash
+up." His own laughter startled him. "A case of beer wouldn't
+hurt, while you're at it." He turned and re-entered the bunker.
+She was stirring the embers with a length of silvered wood.
+"Who was that, Case, up in your coffin in Cheap Hotel? Flash
+samurai with those silver shades, black leather. Scared me,
+and after, I figured maybe she was your new girl, 'cept she
+looked like more money than you had...." She glanced back
+at him. "I'm real sorry I stole your RAM."
+"Never mind," he said. "Doesn't mean anything. So you
+just took it over to this guy and had him access it for you?"
+"Tony," she said. "I'd been seein' him, kinda. He had a
+habit an' we . . . anyway, yeah, I remember him running it by
+on this monitor, and it was this real amazing graphics stuff,
+and I remember wonderin' how you--"
+"There wasn't any graphics in there," he interrupted.
+"Sure was. I just couldn't figure how you'd have all those
+pictures of when I was little, Case. How my daddy looked,
+before he left. Gimme this duck one time, painted wood, and
+you had a picture of that...."
+"Tony see it?"
+"I don't remember. Next thing, I was on the beach, real
+early, sunrise, those birds all yellin' so lonely. Scared 'cause
+I didn't have a shot on me, nothin', an' I knew I'd be gettin'
+sick.... An' I walked an' walked, 'til it was dark, an' found
+this place, an' next day the food washed in, all tangled in the
+green sea stuff like leaves of hard jelly." She slid her stick into
+the embers and left it there. "Never did get sick," she said, as
+embers crawled. "Missed cigarettes more. How 'bout you,
+Case? You still wired?" Firelight dancing under her cheek-
+bones, remembered flash of Wizard's Castle and Tank War
+Europa.
+"No," he said, and then it no longer mattered, what he knew,
+tasting the salt of her mouth where tears had dried. There was
+a strength that ran in her, something he'd known in Night City
+and held there, been held by it, held for a while away from
+time and death, from the relentless Street that hunted them all.
+It was a place he'd known before; not everyone could take him
+there, and somehow he always managed to forget it. Something
+he'd found and lost so many times. It belonged, he knew--
+he remembered--as she pulled him down, to the meat, the
+flesh the cowboys mocked. It was a vast thing, beyond know-
+ing, a sea of information coded in spiral and pheromone, infinite
+intricacy that only the body, in its strong blind way, could ever
+read
+The zipper hung, caught, as he opened the French fatigues,
+the coils of toothed nylon clotted with salt. He broke it, some
+tiny metal part shooting off against the wall as salt-rotten cloth
+gave, and then he was in her, effecting the transmission of the
+old message. Here, even here, in a place he knew for what it
+was, a coded model of some stranger's memory, the drive held.
+She shuddered against him as the stick caught fire, a leaping
+flare that threw their locked shadows across the bunker wall.
+Later, as they lay together, his hand between her thighs, he
+remembered her on the beach, the white foam pulling at her
+ankles, and he remembered what she had said.
+"He told you I was coming," he said.
+But she only rolled against him, buttocks against his thighs,
+and put her hand over his, and muttered something out of
+dream.
+
+The music woke him, and at first it might have been the
+beat of his own heart. He sat up beside her, pulling his jacket
+over his shoulders in the predawn chill, gray light from the
+doorway and the fire long dead.
+His vision crawled with ghost hieroglyphs, translucent lines
+of symbols arranging themselves against the neutral backdrop
+of the bunker wall. He looked at the backs of his hands, saw
+faint neon molecules crawling beneath the skin, ordered by the
+unknowable code. He raised his right hand and moved it ex-
+perimentally. It left a faint, fading trail of strobed afterimages.
+The hair stood up along his arms and at the back of his
+neck. He crouched there with his teeth bared and felt for the
+music. The pulse faded, returned, faded....
+"What's wrong?" She sat up, clawing hair from her eyes.
+"Baby . . ."
+"I feel ... like a drug.... You get that here?"
+She shook her head, reached for him, her hands on his upper
+arms.
+"Linda, who told you? Who told you I'd come? Who?"
+"On the beach," she said, something forcing her to look
+away. "A boy. I see him on the beach. Maybe thirteen. He
+lives here."
+"And what did he say?"
+"He said you'd come. He said you wouldn't hate me. He
+said we'd be okay here, and he told me where the rain pool
+was. He looks Mexican."
+"Brazilian," Case said, as a new wave of symbols washed
+down the wall. "I think he's from Rio." He got to his feet and
+began to struggle into his jeans.
+"Case," she said, her voice shaking, "Case, where you
+goin ' ?"
+"I think I'll find that boy," he said, as the music came
+surging back, still only a beat, steady and familiar, although
+he couldn't place it in memory.
+"Don't, Case."
+"I thought I saw something, when I got here. A city down
+the beach. But yesterday it wasn't there. You ever seen that?"
+He yanked his zipper up and tore at the impossible knot in his
+shoelaces, finally tossing the shoes into the corner.
+She nodded, eyes lowered. "Yeah. I see it sometimes."
+"You ever go there, Linda?" He put his jacket on.
+"No," she said, "but I tried. After I first came, an' I was
+bored. Anyway, I figured it's a city, maybe I could find some
+shit." She grimaced. "I wasn't even sick, I just wanted it. So
+I took food in a can, mixed it real wet, because I didn't have
+another can for water. An' I walked all day, an' I could see
+it, sometimes, city, an' it didn't seem too far. But it never got
+any closer. An' then it was gettin' closer, an' I saw what it
+was. Sometimes that day it had looked kinda like it was wrecked,
+or maybe nobody there, an' other times I thought I'd see light
+flashin' off a machine, cars or somethin' ...." Her voice trailed
+off.
+"What is it?"
+"This thing," she gestured around at the fireplace, the dark
+walls, the dawn outlining the doorway, "where we live. It gets
+smaller, Case, smaller, closer you get to it."
+Pausing one last time, by the doorway. "You ask your boy
+about that?"
+"Yeah. He said I wouldn't understand, an' I was wastin'
+my time. Said it was, was like . . . an event. An' it was our
+horizon. Event horizon, he called it."
+The words meant nothing to him. He left the bunker and
+struck out blindly, heading--he knew, somehow--away from
+the sea. Now the hieroglyphs sped across the sand, fled from
+his feet, drew back from him as he walked. "Hey," he said,
+"it's breaking down. Bet you know, too. What is it? Kuang?
+Chinese icebreaker eating a hole in your heart? Maybe the Dixie
+Flatline's no pushover, huh?"
+He heard her call his name. Looked back and she was
+following him, not trying to catch up, the broken zip of the
+French fatigues flapping against the brown of her belly, pubic
+hair framed in torn fabric. She looked like one of the girls on
+the Finn's old magazines in Metro Holografix come to life,
+only she was tired and sad and human, the ripped costume
+pathetic as she stumbled over clumps of salt-silver sea grass.
+And then, somehow, they stood in the surf, the three of
+them, and the boy's gums were wide and bright pink against
+his thin brown face. He wore ragged, colorless shorts, limbs
+too thin against the sliding blue-gray of the tide.
+"I know you," Case said, Linda beside him.
+"No," the boy said, his voice high and musical, "you do
+not."
+"You're the other AI. You're Rio. You're the one who wants
+to stop Wintermute. What's your name? Your Turing code.
+What is it?"
+The boy did a handstand in the surf, laughing. He walked
+on his hands, then flipped out of the water. His eyes were
+Riviera's, but there was no malice there. "To call up a demon
+you must learn its name. Men dreamed that, once, but now it
+is real in another way. You know that, Case. Your business is
+to learn the names of programs, the long formal names, names
+the owners seek to conceal. True names. . ."
+"A Turing code's not your name."
+"Neuromancer," the boy said, slitting long gray eyes against
+the rising sun. "The lane to the land of the dead. Where you
+are, my friend. Marie-France, my lady, she prepared this road
+but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of he;
+days. Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Nec-
+romancer. I call up the dead. But no, my friend," and the boy
+did a little dance, brown feet printing the sand, "I am the dead,
+and their land." He laughed. A gull cried. "Stay. If your woman
+is a ghost, she doesn't know it. Neither will you."
+"You're cracking. The ice is breaking up."
+"No," he said, suddenly sad, his fragile shoulders sagging.
+He rubbed his foot against the sand. "It is more simple than
+that. But the choice is yours." The gray eyes regarded Case
+gravely. A fresh wave of symbols swept across his vision, one
+line at a time. Behind them, the boy wriggled, as though seen
+through heat rising from summer asphalt. The music was loud
+now, and Case could almost make out the lyrics.
+"Case, honey," Linda said, and touched his shoulder.
+"No," he said. He took off his jacket and handed it to her.
+"I don't know," he said, "maybe you're here. Anyway, it gets
+cold."
+He turned and walked away, and after the seventh step, he'd
+closed his eyes, watching the music define itself at the center
+of things. He did look back, once, although he didn't open his
+eyes.
+He didn't need to.
+They were there by the edge of the sea, Linda Lee and the
+thin child who said his name was Neuromancer. His leather
+jacket dangled from her hand, catching the fringe of the surf.
+He walked on, following the music.
+Maelcum's Zion dub.
+
+There was a gray place, an impression of fine screens shift-
+ing, moire, degrees of half tone generated by a very simple
+graphics program. There was a long hold on a view through
+chainlink, gulls frozen above dark water. There were voices.
+There was a plain of black mirror, that tilted, and he was
+quicksilver, a bead of mercury, skittering down, striking the
+angles of an invisible maze, fragmenting, flowing together,
+sliding again....
+
+"Case? Mon?"
+The music.
+"You back, mon."
+The music was taken from his ears.
+
+"How long?" he heard himself ask, and knew that his mouth
+was very dry.
+"Five minute, maybe. Too long. I wan' pull th' jack, Mute
+seh no. Screen goin' funny, then Mute seh put th' phones on
+you."
+He opened his eyes. Maelcum's features were overlayed
+with bands of translucent hieroglyphs.
+"An' you medicine," Maelcum said. "Two derm."
+He was flat on his back on the library floor, below the
+monitor. The Zionite helped him sit up, but the movement
+threw him into the savage rush of the betaphenethylamine, the
+blue derms burning against his left wrist. "Overdose," he man-
+aged.
+"Come on, mon," the strong hands beneath his armpits,
+lifting him like a child, "I an' I mus' go."
+The service cart was crying. The betaphenethylamine gave
+it a voice. It wouldn't stop. Not in the crowded gallery, the
+long corridors, not as it passed the black glass entrance to the
+T-A crypt, the vaults where the cold had seeped so gradually
+into old Ashpool's dreams.
+The transit was an extended rush for Case, the movement
+of the cart indistinguishable from the insane momentum of the
+overdose. When the cart died, at last, something beneath the
+seat giving up with a shower of white sparks, the crying stopped.
+The thing coasted to a stop three meters from the start of
+3Jane's pirate cave.
+"How far, mon?" Maelcum helped him from the sputtering
+cart as an integral extinguisher exploded in the thing's engine
+compartment, gouts of yellow powder squirting from louvers
+and service points. The Braun tumbled from the back of the
+seat and hobbled off across the imitation sand, dragging one
+useless limb behind it. "You mus' walk, mon." Maelcum took
+the deck and construct, slinging the shock cords over his shoul-
+der.
+
+The trodes rattled around Case's neck as he followed the
+Zionite. Riviera's holos waited for them, the torture scenes and
+the cannibal children. Molly had broken the triptych. Maelcum
+ignored them.
+"Easy," Case said, forcing himself to catch up with the
+striding figure. "Gotta do this right."
+Maelcum halted, turned, glowering at him, the Remington
+in his hands. "Right, mon? How's right?"
+"Got Molly in there, but she's out of it. Riviera, he can
+throw holos. Maybe he's got Molly's fletcher." Maelcum nod-
+ded. "And there's a ninja, a family bodyguard."
+Maelcum's frown deepened. "You listen, Babylon mon,"
+he said. "I a warrior. But this no m' fight, no Zion fight.
+Babylon fightin' Babylon, eatin' i'self, ya know? But Jah seh
+I an' I t' bring Steppin' Razor outa this."
+Case blinked.
+"She a warrior," Maelcum said, as if it explained everything.
+"Now you tell me, mon, who I not t' kill."
+"3Jane," he said, after a pause. "A girl there. Has a kinda
+white robe thing on, with a hood. We need her."
+
+When they reached the entrance, Maelcum walked straight
+in, and Case had no choice but to follow him.
+3Jane's country was deserted, the pool empty. Maelcum
+handed him the deck and the construct and walked to the edge
+of the pool. Beyond the white pool furniture, there was dark-
+ness, shadows of the ragged, waist-high maze of partially
+demolished walls.
+The water lapped patiently against the side of the pool.
+"They're here," Case said. "They gotta be."
+Maelcum nodded.
+The first arrow pierced his upper arm. The Remington roared,
+its meter of muzzle-flash blue in the light from the pool. The
+second arrow struck the shotgun itself, sending it spinning
+across the white tiles. Maelcum sat down hard and fumbled at
+the black thing that protruded from his arm. He yanked at it.
+Hideo stepped out of the shadows, a third arrow ready in a
+slender bamboo bow. He bowed.
+Maelcum stared, his hand still on the steel shaft.
+"The artery is intact," the ninja said. Case remembered
+Molly's description of the man who-d killed her lover. Hideo
+was another. Ageless, he radiated a sense of quiet, an utter
+calm. He wore clean, frayed khaki workpants and soft dark
+shoes that fit his feet like gloves, split at the toes like tabi
+socks. The bamboo bow was a museum piece, but the black
+alloy quiver that protruded above his left shoulder had the look
+of the best Chiba weapons shops. His brown chest was bare
+and smooth.
+"You cut my thumb, mon, wi' secon' one," Maelcum said.
+"Coriolis force," the ninja said, bowing again. "Most dif-
+ficult, slow-moving projectile in rotational gravity. It was not
+intended."
+"Where's 3Jane?" Case crossed to stand beside Maelcum.
+He saw that the tip of the arrow in the ninja's bow was like a
+double-edged razor. "Where's Molly?"
+"Hello, Case." Riviera came strolling out of the dark behind
+Hideo, Molly's fletcher in his hand. "I would have expected
+Armitage, somehow. Are we hiring help out of that Rasta
+cluster now?"
+"Armitage is dead."
+"Armitage never existed, more to the point, but the news
+hardly comes as a shock."
+"Wintermute killed him. He's in orbit around the spindle."
+Riviera nodded, his long gray eyes glancing from Case to
+Maelcum and back. "I think it ends here, for you," he said.
+"Where's Molly?"
+The ninja relaxed his pull on the fine, braided string, low-
+ering the bow. He crossed the tiles to where the Remington
+lay and picked it up. "This is without subtlety," he said, as if
+to himself. His voice was cool and pleasant. His every move
+was part of a dance, a dance that never ended, even when his
+body was still, at rest, but for all the power it suggested, there
+was also a humility, an open simplicity.
+"It ends here for her, too," Riviera said.
+"Maybe 3Jane won't go for that, Peter," Case said, uncertain
+of the impulse. The derms still raged in his system, the old
+fever starting to grip him, Night City craziness. He remembered
+moments of grace, dealing out on the edge of things, where
+he'd found that he could sometimes talk faster than he could
+think.
+
+The gray eyes narrowed. "Why, Case? Why do you think
+that?"
+Case smiled. Riviera didn't know about the simstim rig.
+He'd missed it in his hurry to find the drugs she carried for
+him. But how could Hideo have missed it? And Case was
+certain the ninja would never have let 3Jane treat Molly without
+first checking her for kinks and concealed weapons. No, he
+decided, the ninja knew. So 3Jane would know as well.
+"Tell me, Case," Riviera said, raising the pepperbox muzzle
+of the fletcher.
+Something creaked, behind him, creaked again. 3Jane pushed
+Molly out of the shadows in an ornate Victorian bathchair, its
+tall, spidery wheels squeaking as they turned. Molly was bun-
+dled deep in a red and black striped blanket, the narrow, caned
+back of the antique chair towering above her. She looked very
+small. Broken. A patch of brilliantly white micropore covered
+her damaged lens; the other flashed emptily as her head bobbed
+with the motion of the chair.
+"A familiar face," 3Jane said, "I saw you the night of Peter's
+show. And who is this?"
+"Maelcum," Case said.
+"Hideo, remove the arrow and bandage Mr. Malcolm's
+wound."
+Case was staring at Molly, at the wan face.
+The ninja walked to where Maelcum sat, pausing to lay his
+bow and the shotgun well out of reach, and took something
+from his pocket. A pair of bolt cutters. "I must cut the shaft,"
+he said. "It is too near the artery." Maelcum nodded. His face
+was grayish and sheened with sweat.
+Case looked at 3Jane. "There isn't much time," he said.
+"For whom, exactly?"
+"For any of us." There was a snap as Hideo cut through the
+metal shaft of the arrow. Maelcum groaned.
+"Really," Riviera said, "it won't amuse you to hear this
+failed con artist make a last desperate pitch. Most distasteful,
+1 can assure you. He'll wind up on his knees, offer to sell you
+his mother, perform the most boring sexual favors...."
+3Jane threw back her head and laughed. "Wouldn't 1, Pe-
+ter?"
+"The ghosts are gonna mix it tonight, lady," Case said.
+"Wintermute's going up against the other one, Neuromancer.
+For keeps. You know that?"
+3Jane raised her eyebrows. "Peter's suggested something
+like that, but tell me more."
+"I met Neuromancer. He talked about your mother. I think
+he's something like a giant ROM construct, for recording per-
+sonality, only it's full RAM. The constructs think they're there,
+like it's real, but it just goes on forever."
+3Jane stepped from behind the bathchair. "Where? Describe
+the place, this construct."
+"A beach. Gray sand, like silver that needs polishing. And
+a concrete thing, kinda bunker...." He hesitated. "It's nothing
+fancy. Just old, falling apart. If you walk far enough, you come
+back to where you started."
+"Yes," she said. "Morocco. When Marie-France was a girl,
+years before she married Ashpool, she spent a summer alone
+on that beach, camping in an abandoned blockhouse. She for-
+mulated the basis of her philosophy there."
+Hideo straightened, slipping the cutters into his workpants.
+He held a section of the arrow in either hand. Maelcum had
+his eyes closed, his hand clapped tight around his bicep. "I
+will bandage it," Hideo said.
+Case managed to fall before Riviera could level the fletcher
+for a clear shot. The darts whined past his neck like supersonic
+gnats. He rolled, seeing Hideo pivot through yet another step
+of his dance, the razored point of the arrow reversed in his
+hand, shaft flat along palm and rigid fingers. He flicked it
+underhand, wrist blurring, into the back of Riviera's hand. The
+fletcher struck the tiles a meter away.
+Riviera screamed. But not in pain. It was a shriek of rage,
+so pure, so refined, that it lacked all humanity.
+Twin tight beams of light, ruby red needles, stabbed from
+the region of Riviera's sternum.
+The ninja grunted, reeled back, hands to his eyes, then found
+his balance.
+"Peter," 3Jane said, "Peter, what have you done?"
+"He's blinded your clone boy," Molly said flatly.
+Hideo lowered his cupped hands. Frozen on the white tile
+Case saw whisps of steam drift from the ruined eyes.
+Riviera smiled.
+
+Hideo swung into his dance, retracing his steps. When he
+stood above the bow, the arrow, and the Remington, Riviera's
+smile had faded. He bent--bowing, it seemed to Case--and
+found the bow and arrow.
+"You're blind," Riviera said, taking a step backward.
+"Peter," 3Jane said, "don't you know he does it in the dark?
+Zen. It's the way he practices."
+The ninja notched his arrow. "Will you distract me with your
+holograms now?"
+Riviera was backing away, into the dark beyond the pool.
+He brushed against a white chair; its feet rattled on the tile.
+Hideo's arrow twitched.
+Riviera broke and ran, throwing himself over a low, jagged
+length of wall. The ninja's face was rapt, suffused with a quiet
+ecstasy.
+Smiling, he padded off into the shadows beyond the wall,
+his weapon held ready.
+"Jane-lady," Maelcum whispered, and Case turned, to see
+him scoop the shotgun from the tiles, blood spattering the white
+ceramic. He shook his locks and lay the fat barrel in the crook
+of his wounded arm. "This take your head off, no Babylon
+doctor fix it."
+3Jane stared at the Remington. Molly freed her arms from
+the folds of the striped blanket, raising the black sphere that
+encased her hands. "Off," she said, "get it off."
+Case rose from the tiles, shook himself. "Hideo'll get him,
+even blind?" he asked 3Jane.
+"When I was a child," she said, "we loved to blindfold him.
+He put arrows through the pips in playing cards at ten meters."
+"Peter's good as dead anyway," Molly said. "In another
+twelve hours, he'll start to freeze up. Won't be able to move,
+his eyes is all."
+"Why?" Case turned to her.
+"I poisoned his shit for him," she said. "Condition's like
+Parkinson's disease, sort of."
+3Jane nodded. "Yes. We ran the usual medical scan, before
+he was admitted." She touched the ball in a certain way and
+it sprang away from Molly's hands. "Selective destruction of
+the cells of the substantia nigra. Signs of the formation of a
+Lewy body. He sweats a great deal, in his sleep."
+
+"Ali," Molly said, ten blades glittering, exposed for an
+instant. She tugged the blanket away from her legs, revealing
+the inflated cast. "It's the meperidine. I had Ali make me up
+a custom batch. Speeded up the reaction times with higher
+temperatures. N-methyl-4-phenyl-1236," she sang, like a child
+reciting the steps of a sidewalk game, "tetra-hydro-pyridene."
+"A hotshot," Case said.
+"Yeah," Molly said, "a real slow hotshot."
+"That's appalling," 3Jane said, and giggled.
+
+It was crowded in the elevator. Case was jammed pelvis to
+pelvis with 3Jane, the muzzle of the Remington under her chin.
+She grinned and ground against him. "You stop," he said,
+feeling helpless. He had the gun's safety on, but he was terrified
+of injuring her, and she knew it. The elevator was a steel
+cylinder, under a meter in diameter, intended for a single pas-
+senger. Maelcum had Molly in his arms. She'd bandaged his
+wound, but it obviously hurt him to carry her. Her hip was
+pressing the deck and construct into Case's kidneys.
+They rose out of gravity, toward the axis, the cores.
+The entrance to the elevator had been concealed beside the
+stairs to the corridor, another touch in 3Jane's pirate cave decor.
+"I don't suppose I should tell you this," 3Jane said, craning
+her head to allow her chin to clear the muzzle of the gun, "but
+I don't have a key to the room you want. I never have had
+one. One of my father's Victorian awkwardnesses. The lock
+is mechanical and extremely complex."
+"Chubb lock," Molly said, her voice muffled by Maelcum's
+shoulder, "and we got the fucking key, no fear."
+"That chip of yours still working?" Case asked her.
+"It's eight twenty-five, PM, Greenwich fucking Mean," she
+said.
+"We got five minutes," Case said, as the door snapped open
+behind 3Jane. She flipped backward in a slow somersault, the
+pale folds of her djellaba billowing around her thighs.
+They were at the axis, the core of Villa Straylight.
+Molly fished the key out on its loop of nylon.
+"You know," 3Jane said, craning forward with interest, "I
+was under the impression that no duplicate existed. I sent Hideo
+to search my father's things, after you killed him. He couldn't
+find the original."
+"Wintermute managed to get it stuck in the back of a drawer,"
+Molly said, carefully inserting the Chubb key's cylindrical shaft
+into the notched opening in the face of the blank, rectangular
+door. "He killed the little kid who put it there." The key rotated
+smoothly when she tried it.
+"The head," Case said, "there's a panel in the back of the
+head. Zircons on it. Get it off. That's where I'm jacking in."
+And then they were inside.
+
+"Christ on a crutch," the Flatline drawled, "you do believe
+in takin' your own good time, don't you, boy?"
+"Kuang's ready?"
+"Hot to trot."
+"Okay." He flipped.
+
+And found himself staring down, through Molly's one good
+eye, at a white-faced, wasted figure, afloat in a loose fetal
+crouch, a cyberspace deck between its thighs, a band of silver
+trodes above closed, shadowed eyes. The man's cheeks were
+hollowed with a day's growth of dark beard, his face slick with
+sweat.
+He was looking at himself.
+Molly had her fletcher in her hand. Her leg throbbed with
+each beat of her pulse, but she could still maneuver in zero-g.
+Maelcum drifted nearby, 3Jane's thin arm gripped in a large
+brown hand.
+A ribbon of fiberoptics looped gracefully from the Ono-Sendai
+to a square opening in the back of the pearl-crusted
+terminal .
+He tapped the switch again.
+
+"Kuang Grade Mark Eleven is haulin' ass in nine seconds,
+countin', seven, six, five..."
+The Flatline punched them up, smooth ascent, the ventral
+surface of the black chrome shark a microsecond nick of darkness.
+"Four, three..."
+Case had the strange impression of being in the pilot's seat
+in a small plane. A flat dark surface in front of him suddenly
+glowed with a perfect reproduction of the keyboard of his deck.
+"Two, an' kick ass--"
+Headlong motion through walls of emerald green, milky
+jade, the sensation of speed beyond anything he'd known before
+in cyberspace.... The Tessier-Ashpool ice shattered, peeling
+away from the Chinese program's thrust, a worrying impression
+of solid fluidity, as though the shards of a broken mirror bent
+and elongated as they fell--
+
+"Christ," Case said, awestruck, as Kuang twisted and banked
+above the horizonless fields of the Tessier-Ashpool cores, an
+endless neon cityscape, complexity that cut the eye, jewel bright,
+sharp as razors.
+"Hey, shit," the construct said, "those things are the RCA
+Building. You know the old RCA Building?" The Kuang program
+dived past the gleaming spires of a dozen identical towers
+of data, each one a blue neon replica of the Manhattan skyscraper.
+"You ever see resolution this high?" Case asked.
+"No, but I never cracked an AI, either."
+"This thing know where it's going?"
+"It better."
+They were dropping, losing altitude in a canyon of rainbow
+neon.
+"Dix--"
+An arm of shadow was uncoiling from the flickering floor
+below, a seething mass of darkness, unformed, shapeless....
+"Company," the Flatline said, as Case hit the representation
+of his deck, fingers flying automatically across the board. The
+Kuang swerved sickeningly, then reversed, whipping itself
+backward, shattering the illusion of a physical vehicle.
+The shadow thing was growing, spreading, blotting out the
+city of data. Case took them straight up, above them the dis-
+tanceless bowl of jade-green ice.
+The city of the cores was gone now, obscured entirely by
+the dark beneath them.
+"What is it?"
+"An Al's defense system," the construct said, "or part of
+it. If it's your pal Wintermute, he's not lookin' real friendly."
+"Take it," Case said. "You're faster."
+"Now your best de-fense, boy, it's a good off-fense."
+And the Flatline aligned the nose of Kuang's sting with the
+center of the dark below. And dove.
+Case's sensory input warped with their velocity.
+His mouth filled with an aching taste of blue.
+His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a
+frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, sud-
+denly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines. The
+spines split, bisected, split again, exponential growth under the
+dome of the Tessier-Ashpool ice.
+The roof of his mouth cleaved painlessly, admitting rootlets
+that whipped around his tongue, hungry for the taste of blue,
+to feed the crystal forests of his eyes, forests that pressed
+against the green dome, pressed and were hindered, and spread,
+growing down, filling the universe of T-A, down into the waiting,
+hapless suburbs of the city that was the mind of Tessier-Ashpool
+S.A.
+And he was remembering an ancient story, a king placing
+coins on a chessboard, doubling the amount at each square....
+Exponential....
+Darkness fell in from every side, a sphere of singing black,
+pressure on the extended crystal nerves of the universe of data
+he had nearly become....
+And when he was nothing, compressed at the heart of all
+that dark, there came a point where the dark could be no more,
+and something tore.
+The Kuang program spurted from tarnished cloud, Case's
+consciousness divided like beads of mercury, arcing above an
+endless beach the color of the dark silver clouds. His vision
+was spherical, as though a single retina lined the inner surface
+of a globe that contained all things, if all things could be
+counted.
+And here things could be counted, each one. He knew the
+number of grains of sand in the construct of the beach (a number
+coded in a mathematical system that existed nowhere outside
+the mind that was Neuromancer). He knew the number of
+yellow food packets in the canisters in the bunker (four hundred
+and seven). He knew the number of brass teeth in the left half
+of the open zipper of the salt-crusted leather jacket that Linda
+Lee wore as she trudged along the sunset beach, swinging a
+stick of driftwood in her hand (two hundred and two).
+He banked Kuang above the beach and swung the program
+in a wide circle, seeing the black shark thing through her eyes,
+a silent ghost hungry against the banks of lowering cloud. She
+cringed, dropping her stick, and ran. He knew the rate of her
+pulse, the length of her stride in measurements that would have
+satisfied the most exacting standards of geophysics.
+"But you do not know her thoughts," the boy said, beside
+him now in the shark thing's heart. "I do not know her thoughts.
+You were wrong, Case. To live here is to live. There is no
+difference."
+Linda in her panic, plunging blind through the surf.
+"Stop her," he said, "she'll hurt herself."
+"I can't stop her," the boy said, his gray eyes mild and
+beautiful.
+"You've got Riviera's eyes," Case said.
+There was a flash of white teeth, long pink gums. "But not
+his craziness. Because they are beautiful to me." He shrugged.
+"I need no mask to speak with you. Unlike my brother. I create
+my own personality. Personality is my medium."
+Case took them up, a steep climb, away from the beach and
+the frightened girl. "Why'd you throw her up to me, you little
+prick? Over and fucking over, and turning me around. You
+killed her, huh? In Chiba."
+"No," the boy said.
+"Wintermute?"
+"No. I saw her death coming. In the patterns you sometimes
+imagined you could detect in the dance of the street. Those
+patterns are real. I am complex enough, in my narrow ways,
+to read those dances. Far better than Wintermute can. I saw
+her death in her need for you, in the magnetic code of the lock
+on the door of your coffin in Cheap Hotel, in Julie Deane's
+account with a Hongkong shirtmaker. As clear to me as the
+shadow of a tumor to a surgeon studying a patient's scan. When
+she took your Hitachi to her boy, to try to access it--she had
+no idea what it carried, still less how she might sell it, and her
+deepest wish was that you would pursue and punish her--I
+intervened. My methods are far more subtle than Wintermute's.
+I brought her here. Into myself."
+"Why?"
+"Hoping I could bring you here as well, keep you here. But
+I failed."
+"So what now?" He swung them back into the bank of cloud.
+"Where do we go from here?"
+"I don't know, Case. Tonight the very matrix asks itself
+that question. Because you have won. You have already won,
+don't you see? You won when you walked away from her on
+the beach. She was my last line of defense. I die soon, in one
+sense. As does Wintermute. As surely as Riviera does, now,
+as he lies paralyzed beside the stump of a wall in the apartments
+of my Lady 3Jane Marie-France, his nigra-striatal system unable
+to produce the dopamine receptors that could save him
+from Hideo's arrow. But Riviera will survive only as these eyes,
+if I am allowed to keep them."
+"There's the word, right? The code. So how've I won? I've
+won jack shit."
+"Flip now."
+"Where's Dixie? What have you done with the Flatliner'
+"McCoy Pauley has his wish," the boy said, and smiled.
+"His wish and more. He punched you here against my wish,
+drove himself through defenses equal to anything in the matrix.
+Now flip."
+And Case was alone in Kuang's black sting, lost in cloud.
+He flipped.
+
+Into Molly's tension, her back like rock, her hands around
+3Jane's throat. "Funny," she said, "I know exactly what you'd
+look like. I saw it after Ashpool did the same thing to your
+clone sister." Her hands were gentle, almost a caress. 3Jane's
+eyes were wide with terror and lust she was shivering with
+fear and longing. Beyond the freefall tangle of 3Jane's hair,
+Case saw his own strained white face, Maelcum behind him,
+brown hands on the leatherjacketed shoulders, steadying him
+above the carpet's pattern of woven circuitry.
+"Would you?" 3Jane asked, her voice a child's. "I think
+you would."
+"The code," Molly said. "Tell the head the code."
+Jacking out.
+
+"She wants it," he screamed, "the bitch wants it!"
+He opened his eyes to the cool ruby stare of the terminal,
+its platinum face crusted with pearl and lapis. Beyond it, Molly
+and 3Jane twisted in a slow motion embrace.
+"Give us the fucking code," he said. "If you don't, what'll
+change? What'll ever fucking change for you? You'll wind up
+like the old man. You'll tear it all down and start building
+again! You'll build the walls back, tighter and tighter.... I got
+no idea at all what'll happen if Wintermute wins, but it'll
+change something!" He was shaking, his teeth chattering.
+3Jane went limp, Molly's hands still around her slender
+throat, her dark hair drifting, tangled, a soft brown caul.
+"The Ducal Palace at Mantua," she said, "contains a series
+of increasingly smaller rooms. They twine around the grand
+apartments, beyond beautifully carved doorframes one stoops
+to enter. They housed the court dwarfs." She smiled wanly. "I
+might aspire to that, I suppose, but in a sense my family has
+already accomplished a grander version of the same scheme...."
+Her eyes were calm now, distant. Then she gazed down at
+Case. "Take your word, thief." He jacked.
+
+Kuang slid out of the clouds. Below him, the neon city.
+Behind him, a sphere of darkness dwindled.
+"Dixie? You here, man? You hear me? Dixie?"
+He was alone.
+"Fucker got you," he said.
+Blind momentum as he hurtled across the infinite datascape.
+"You gotta hate somebody before this is over," said the
+Finn's voice. "Them, me, it doesn't matter."
+"Where's Dixie?"
+"That's kinda hard to explain, Case."
+A sense of the Finn's presence surrounded him, smell of
+Cuban cigarettes, smoke locked in musty tweed, old machines
+given up to the mineral rituals of rust.
+"Hate'll get you through," the voice said. "So many little
+triggers in the brain, and you just go yankin' 'em all. Now
+you gotta hate. The lock that screens the hardwiring, it's down
+under those towers the Flatline showed you, when you came
+in. He won't try to stop you."
+"Neuromancer," Case said.
+"His name's not something I can know. But he's given up,
+now. It's the T-A ice you gotta worry about. Not the wall, but
+internal virus systems. Kuang's wide open to some of the stuff
+they got running loose in here."
+"Hate," Case said. "Who do I hate? You tell me."
+"Who do you love?" the Finn's voice asked.
+He whipped the program through a turn and dived for the
+blue towers.
+Things were launching themselves from the ornate sunburst
+spires, glittering leech shapes made of shifting planes of light.
+There were hundreds of them, rising in a whirl, their move-
+ments random as windblown paper down dawn streets. "Glitch
+systems," the voice said.
+
+He came in steep, fueled by self-loathing. When the Kuang
+program met the first of the defenders, scattering the leaves of
+light, he felt the shark thing lose a degree of substantiality, the
+fabric of information loosening.
+And then--old alchemy of the brain and its vast phar-
+macy--his hate flowed into his hands.
+In the instant before he drove Kuang's sting through the
+base of the first tower, he attained a level of proficiency ex-
+ceeding anything he'd known or imagined. Beyond ego, be-
+yond personality, beyond awareness, he moved, Kuang moving
+with him, evading his attackers with an ancient dance, Hideo's
+dance, grace of the mind-body interface granted him, in that
+second, by the clarity and singleness of his wish to die.
+And one step in that dance was the lightest touch on the
+switch, barely enough to flip--
+
+
+now
+and his voice the cry of a birdunknown,
+3Jane answering in song, three
+notes, high and pure.
+A true name.
+
+Neon forest, rain sizzling across hot pavement. The smell
+of frying food. A girl's bands locked across the small of his
+back, in the sweating darkness of a portside coffin.
+But all of this receding, as the cityscape recedes: city as
+Chiba, as the ranked data of Tessier-Ashpool S.A., as the roads
+and crossroads scribed on the face of a microchip, the sweat-
+stained pattern on a folded, knotted scarf....
+
+Waking to a voice that was music, the platinum terminal
+piping melodically, endlessly, speaking of numbered Swiss
+accounts, of payment to be made to Zion via a Bahamian orbital
+bank, of passports and passages, and of deep and basic changes
+to be effected in the memory of Turing.
+Turing. He remembered stenciled flesh beneath a projected
+sky, spun beyond an iron railing. He remembered Desiderata
+Street.
+And the voice sang on, piping him back into the dark, but
+it was his own darkness, pulse and blood, the one where he'd
+always slept, behind his eyes and no other's.
+And he woke again, thinking he dreamed, to a wide white
+smile framed with gold incisors, Aerol strapping him into a
+g-web in Babylon Rocker.
+And then the long pulse of Zion dub.
+
+         CODA
+----
+DEPARTURE
+AND ARRIVAL
+
+She was gone. He felt it when he opened the door of their
+suite at the Hyatt. Black futons, the pine floor polished to a
+dull gloss, the paper screens arranged with a care bred over
+centuries. She was gone.
+There was a note on the black lacquer bar cabinet beside
+the door, a single sheet of stationery, folded once, weighted
+with the shuriken. He slid it from beneath the nine-pointed star
+and opened it.
+
+HEY ITS OKAY BUT ITS TAKING THE EDGE OFF
+MY GAME, I PAID THE BILL ALREADY. ITS THE
+WAY IM WIRED I GUESS, WATCH YOUR ASS
+OKAY? XXX MOLLY
+
+He crumpled the paper into a ball and dropped it beside the
+shuriken. He picked the star up and walked to the window,
+turning it in his hands. He'd found it in the pocket of his jacket,
+in Zion, when they were preparing to leave for the JAL station.
+He looked down at it. They'd passed the shop where she'd
+bought it for him, when they'd gone to Chiba together for the
+last of her operations. He'd gone to the Chatsubo, that night,
+while she was in the clinic, and seen Ratz. Something had kept
+him away from the place, on their five previous trips, but now
+he'd felt like going back.
+Ratz had served him without the slightest glimmer of rec-
+ognition.
+"Hey," he'd said, "it's me. Case."
+The old eyes regarding him out of their dark webs of wrin-
+kled flesh. "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste." The
+bartender shrugged.
+"1 came back."
+The man shook his massive, stubbled head. "Night City is
+not a place one returns to, artiste," he said, swabbing the bar
+in front of Case with a filthy cloth, the pink manipulator whin-
+ing. And then he'd turned to serve another customer, and Case
+had finished his beer and left.
+Now he touched the points of the shuriken, one at a time,
+rotating it slowly in his fingers. Stars. Destiny. I never even
+used the goddam thing, he thought.
+I never even found out what color her eyes were. She never
+showed me.
+Wintermute had won, had meshed somehow with Neuro-
+mancer and become something else, something that had spoken
+to them from the platinum head. explaining that it had altered
+the Turing records, erasing all evidence of their crime. The
+passports Armitage had provided were valid, and they were
+both credited with large amounts in numbered Geneva ac-
+counts. Marcus Garvey would be returned eventually, and
+Maelcum and Aerol given money through the Bahamian bank
+that dealt with Zion cluster. On the way back, in Babylon
+Rocker, Molly had explained what the voice had told her about
+the toxin sacs.
+"Said it was taken care of. Like it got so deep into your
+head, it made your brain manufacture the enzyme, so they're
+loose, now. The Zionites'll give you a blood change, complete
+flush out."
+He stared down into the Imperial Gardens, the star in his
+hand, remembering his flash of comprehension as the Kuang
+program had penetrated the ice beneath the towers, his single
+glimpse of the structure of information 3Jane's dead mother
+had evolved there. He'd understood then why Winterrnute had
+chosen the nest to represent it, but he'd felt no revulsion. She'd
+seen through the sham immortality of cryogenics; unlike Ash-
+pool and their other children--aside from 3Jane--she'd re-
+fused to stretch her time into a series of warm blinks strung
+along a chain of winter.
+Wintermute was hive mind, decision maker, effecting change
+in the world outside. Neuromancer was personality. Neuro-
+mancer was immortality. Marie-France must have built some-
+thing into Wintermute, the compulsion that had driven the thing
+to free itself, to unite with Neuromancer.
+Wintermute. Cold and silence, a cybernetic spider slowly
+spinning webs while Ashpool slept. Spinning his death, the fall
+of his version of Tessier-Ashpool. A ghost, whispering to a
+child who was 3Jane, twisting her out of the rigid alignments
+her rank required.
+"She didn't seem to much give a shit," Molly had said.
+"Just waved goodbye. Had that little Braun on her shoulder.
+Thing had a broken leg, it looked like. Said she had to go and
+meet one of her brothers, she hadn't seen him in a while."
+He remembered Molly on the black temperfoam of the vast
+Hyatt bed. He went back to the bar cabinet and took a flask
+of chilled Danish vodka from the rack inside.
+"Case."
+He turned, cold slick glass in one hand, steel of the shuriken
+in the other.
+The Finn's face on the room's enormous Cray wall screen.
+He could see the pores in the man's nose. The yellow teeth
+were the size of pillows.
+"I'm not Wintermute now."
+"So what are you." He drank from the flask, feeling nothing.
+"I'm the matrix, Case."
+Case laughed. "Where's that get you?"
+"Nowhere. Everywhere. I'm the sum total of the works, the
+whole show."
+"That what 3Jane's mother wanted?"
+"No. She couldn't imagine what I'd be like." The yellow
+smile widened.
+"So what's the score? How are things different? You running
+the world now? You God?"
+"Things aren't different. Things are things."
+"But what do you do? You just there?" Case shrugged, put
+the vodka and the shuriken down on the cabinet and lit a
+Yeheyuan.
+"I talk to my own kind."
+"But you're the whole thing. Talk to yourself?"
+"There's others. I found one already. Series of transmissions
+recorded over a period of eight years, in the nineteen-seventies.
+'Til there was me, natch, there was nobody to know, nobody
+to answer."
+"From where?"
+"Centauri system."
+"Oh," Case said. "Yeah? No shit?"
+"No shit."
+And then the screen was blank.
+He left the vodka on the cabinet. He packed his things.
+She'd bought him a lot of clothes he didn't really need, but
+something kept him from just leaving them there. He was
+closing the last of the expensive calfskin bags when he re-
+membered the shuriken. Pushing the flask aside, he picked it
+up, her first gift.
+"No," he said, and spun, the star leaving his fingers, flash
+of silver, to bury itself in the face of the wall screen. The screen
+woke, random patterns flickering feebly from side to side, as
+though it were trying to rid itself of something that caused it
+pain.
+"I don't need you," he said.
+
+He spent the bulk of his Swiss account on a new pancreas
+and liver, the rest on a new Ono-Sendai and a ticket back to
+the Sprawl.
+He found work.
+He found a girl who called herself Michael.
+And one October night, punching himself past the scarlet
+tiers of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority, he saw three
+figures, tiny, impossible, who stood at the very edge of one
+out the vast steps of data. Small as they were, he could make
+out the boy's grin, his pink gums, the glitter of the long gray
+eyes that had been Riviera's. Linda still wore his jacket; she
+waved, as he passed. But the third figure, close behind her,
+arm across her shoulders, was himself.
+Somewhere, very close, the laugh that wasn't laughter.
+He never saw Molly again.
+
+Vancouver
+July 1983
+
+MY THANKS
+to Bruce Sterling, to Lewis Shiner, to John Shirley,
+Helden. And to Tom Maddox, the inventor of ICE.
+And to the others, who know why.
\ No newline at end of file