“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.”
“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.”
“Yes,very handsome.”
“Except,”thought Elizabeth,“when she goes to Ramsgate.”
Mrs. Reynolds then directed their attention to one of Miss Darcy,drawn when she was only eight years old.
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.