Pride and Prejudice — Chapter Fifty-Five
Abridged for Intermediate-High Learners

A few days later, Bingley called alone. His friend had left for London. He stayed an hour, in good spirits. Mrs. Bennet invited him to dine, but he was engaged elsewhere. "Can you come tomorrow?" He had no engagement, and accepted with alacrity.

He came so early the next day that the ladies were not dressed. Mrs. Bennet rushed to their room, crying, "Make haste, Jane! Mr. Bingley is come!" Jane would not go down without one of her sisters.

That evening Mrs. Bennet tried to leave them alone. After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library. Mrs. Bennet winked at Elizabeth and Kitty, until Kitty asked, "What do you keep winking at me for, mamma?" "Nothing, child, nothing." Then she took Kitty away. Jane gave Elizabeth a look. Soon she called, "Lizzy, I want to speak with you." Elizabeth waited until they were gone, then returned.

Mrs. Bennet's schemes were ineffectual. Bingley was charming, except the lover of her daughter. He bore her officiousness, which delighted Jane. Before he left, it was agreed he would come the next morning to shoot with Mr. Bennet.

After that, Jane said no more of her indifference. Elizabeth went to bed believing all would be settled, and feeling sure it had Mr. Darcy's concurrence.

Bingley was punctual, and he and Mr. Bennet spent the morning shooting. He returned with him to dinner, and Mrs. Bennet's invention was at work to separate him and Jane.

Elizabeth went to write a letter. Returning to the drawing room, she saw her sister and Bingley standing over the hearth. Their faces, as they turned away, told it all. Not a syllable was uttered. Bingley rose, whispered to Jane, and ran out of the room.

Jane embraced Elizabeth, saying she was the happiest creature in the world. "'Tis too much! Oh, why is not everybody as happy?" "I must go to my mother," she cried. "He is gone to my father. How shall I bear this happiness?"

Elizabeth smiled at its rapidity. "And this," she said, "is the end of his friend's circumspection! Of his sister's falsehood and contrivance! The happiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!" Bingley joined her; his talk with her father had been short.

When Mr. Bennet joined them at supper, his manner showed how happy he was. When Bingley was gone, he said, "Jane, I congratulate you. You will be a happy woman. You are a good girl, and I have pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled."

Mrs. Bennet cried, "Oh, my dear Jane, I am so happy! I always said it must be so. He is the handsomest man that ever was seen!" Wickham and Lydia were all forgotten. Jane was beyond competition her favourite child.

Bingley was a visitor at Longbourn every day, coming before breakfast and staying till after supper. In Jane's absence he talked to Elizabeth of Jane, and Jane talked to Elizabeth of him.

"He has made me happy," said Jane, "by telling me he never knew I was there last spring!" "I suspected it," said Elizabeth. "It must have been his sisters' doing. They were no friends to his acquaintance with me." He had not betrayed his friend's interference.

"I am the most fortunate creature!" cried Jane. "Oh, Lizzy, why am I singled from my family, and blessed?" "If you were to give me forty such men I never could be so happy as you," said Elizabeth. "Let me shift for myself."

The news could not be a secret. Mrs. Bennet whispered it to Mrs. Philips, who told her neighbours in Meryton. The Bennets were pronounced the luckiest family, though weeks before, when Lydia ran away, they were marked out for misfortune.