See No Evil(Dialogue Only)
Assembly Rooms—Meryton, Hertfordshire—Tues 15 Oct 1810
~~~
“You are staring, Mr Darcy!”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You are staring.”
“My apologies. That is unaccountably rude.”
“I am not censuring you, sir.”
“You are not?”
“Absolutely not. More like showing off, I should think.”
“If that is your objective, you have achieved it… er… miss… er… madam… ah—”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!I am Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and you are Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy! There, is that better now that we have been properly introduced? May we presume to have bowed, curtseyed, looked embarrassed, and inquired after health and weather?”
“What about the state of the roads?”
“That as well!”
“Notprecisely proper, Miss Bennet, but sufficient for our needs, I believe.”
“I am Miss Elizabeth. Miss Bennet is my eldest sister Jane—your Mr Bingley’slatest angel.”
“Oh… I… I… Oh—”
“Do not discompose yourself, sir, I meant no censure that time either.Are you always this skittish?”
“In crowded assembly rooms, I imagine I am.”
“I thought so. I can practically smell it. Do you feel you have a great matrimonial target on your back?”
“Er… Ah—”
“You know what I mean—your pounds and pounds, carriages and carriages, acres and acres, circles and circles, and so forth—and such a wealthy man must be unbearably handsome as well!”
“Well—”
“You are staring again, sir.”
“Yes, well, you—”
“Yes, yes, I know. I discompose you.The blind girl always does that.”
“I… I apolog—”
“None of that, sir!You need to learn to cease apologising every second sentence or go back to talking to sighted people. Or perhaps you could return to stalking angrily around the room if you prefer that to my company.”
“Stalking?”
“That sounds ever so much better thansulking, does it not?”
