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伊丽莎白嚷道：“我从来没有认为道路的远近，也成了这门婚姻的有利条件之一，我决不会说柯林斯太太住得离家很近。”
"It must be very agreeable for her to be settled within so easy a distance of her own family and friends. "
"An easy distance, do you call it? It is nearly fifty miles. "
"And what is fifty miles of good road? Little more than half a day's journey. Yes, I call it a VERY easy distance. "
"I should never have considered the distance as one of the ADVANTAGES of the match, " cried Elizabeth. "I should never have said Mrs. Collins was settled NEAR her family. "
"It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far. "
As he spoke there was a sort of smile which Elizabeth fancied she understood; he must be supposing her to be thinking of Jane and Netherfield, and she blushed as she answered:
"I do not mean to say that a woman may not be settled too near her family. The far and the near must be relative, and depend on many varying circumstances. Where there is fortune to make the expenses of travelling unimportant, distance becomes no evil. But that is not the case HERE. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have a comfortable income, but not such a one as will allow of
frequent journeys--and I am persuaded my friend would not call herself NEAR her family under less than HALF the present distance. "
Mr. Darcy drew his chair a little towards her, and said, "YOU cannot have a right to such very strong local attachment. YOU cannot have been always at Longbourn. "
Elizabeth looked surprised. The gentleman experienced some change of feeling; he drew back his chair, took a newspaper from the table, and glancing over it, said, in a colder voice:
"Are you pleased with Kent?"
A short dialogue on the subject of the country ensued, on either side calm and concise--and soon put an end to by the entrance of Charlotte and her sister, just returned from her walk. The tete-a-tete surprised them. Mr. Darcy related the mistake which had occasioned his intruding on Miss Bennet, and after sitting a few minutes longer without saying much to anybody, went away.
"What can be the meaning of this?" said Charlotte, as soon as he was gone. "My dear, Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he would never have called us in this familiar way. "
