Page:Jane Austen (Sarah Fanny Malden 1889).djvu/92

 very well pleased, particularly (pray, tell Fanny) with a small portrait of Mrs Bingley, excessively like her. I went in hopes of seeing one of her sisters, but there was no Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps, however, I may find her in the great exhibition, which we shall go to if we have time. I have no change of her in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds's paintings, which is now showing in Pall Mall, and which we are also to visit. Mrs. Bingley's is exactly herself—size, shaped face, features, and sweetness; there never was a greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown with green ornaments, which convinces me of what I had always supposed, that green was a favourite color with her. I dare say Mrs. D. will be in yellow." A little later comes a message to her favourite niece Fanny Knight, who had written her as to Miss Darcy, and wanted an answer in character, but this request Jane Austen was obliged to decline. "It made me laugh heartily, but I cannot pretend to answer it. Even had I more time, I should not feel at all sure of the sort of letter that Miss D. would write," and most readers of Pride and Prejudice will feel that they cannot realize Georgiana Darcy as a letter-writer. Finally, "we have been both to the exhibition (the Royal Academy), and Sir. J. Reynolds's, and I am disappointed, for there was nothing like Mrs. D. at either. I can only imagine that Mr. D. prizes any pictures of her too much to like it should be exposed to the public eye. I can imagine he would have that sort of feeling—that mixture of love, pride, and delicacy."

No admirer of Elizabeth Bennet will wonder that her delineator could not find a satisfactory portrait of her, for she is e vary rare type of character; indeed, it is a distinguishing characteristic of Pride and