An accomplished woman - Pride & Prejudice (2005) subs ES/PT-BR
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- Опубликовано: 10 май 2024
- Una mujer talentosa - Orgullo y prejuicio (2005)
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_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 head-quarters._
_Their visits to Mrs. Philips 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. Philips visited them all, and this opened to his nieces a source 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._
*_Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 7_*
_She (Jane) 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 asleep, and when it appeared to her rather right than pleasant that she should go down stairs 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 soon be increased by seeing her quite well.”_
_Elizabeth thanked him from her heart, and then walked towards a 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 by 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 any one 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 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._
_“Eliza 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 daresay, 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 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._
*_Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 8_*
_..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 hand-writing, 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 unison 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 to 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.”_
*_Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 10_*
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