His Good Opinion: A Mr. Darcy Novel by Nancy Kelley

long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?"

    From the corner of his eye, Darcy saw Elizabeth bow her head low over her needlework to hide her amusement. This dance of interacting with her without actually speaking directly to her stimulated Darcy more than he had imagined conversation with a lady ever could.

    By chance, Miss Bennet's eyes met his for a bare instant before dropping back to her lap. The sparkle there stole his breath, and he paused to catch it before he could answer Miss Bingley's question. "They are generally long; but whether always charming, it is not for me to determine."

    Miss Bingley smiled coyly. "It is a rule with me, that a person who can write a long letter, with ease, cannot write ill."

    Bingley, lounging in a chair by the fire, took this opportunity to join the conversation. "That will not do for compliment to Darcy, Caroline, because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables--do you not, Darcy?"

    Darcy realized with a start he had almost forgotten anyone else was in the room, so intent was he on his game with Elizabeth. His discomfort acute, he said, "My style of writing is very different from yours."

    Eager that she should not be forgotten, Miss Bingley interjected. "Oh! Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."

    Bingley shrugged; clearly the epithet against him did not bother him. "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."

    Miss Bennet joined the conversation then but Mr. Darcy had little liking for the subject. "Your humility, Mr. Bingley, must disarm reproof."

    Her continued praise of Bingley throughout the day provoked Darcy in a way little else could, and for once, he spoke without thinking. "Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

    Bingley raised an eyebrow. "And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"

    Darcy put his pen down and leaned back in his chair. "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 idea that Elizabeth might find Bingley fascinating added a bite to his tone. "The power of doing anything with quickness is always much prized 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 on quitting Netherfield Park you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, a 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?"

    Bingley blinked, but quickly rallied to defend himself. "Nay, this is too much, to remember at night all the foolish things that were said in the morning. And yet, upon my honor, I believed 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."

    For some unfathomable reason, this upset Darcy even more. "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, you might stay a month."

    "You have only proved by this that Mr. Bingley did not do justice to his own disposition." Miss Bennet set her needlework down in her basket and leaned forward. "You have shown him off now much