Her face lighted up.
"I am glad to have seen him," she said; "I have read of him so often. Do you admire him?"
"I admire bravery," he replied, "but not unscrupulous daring. Do you see that lady sitting under the ilex tree?"
"The one with the sad, thoughtful face?" asked Hyacinth.
"Yes. Twelve months ago she was the leading star of the most brilliant court in Europe; now she has no home that she can call her own."
Hyacinth turned her face to his.
"Mr. Darcy," she said, "is the world then so full of reverses? I thought that, when one was happy and prosperous, sorrow and trouble did not approach. What is stable if money, and friendship, and happiness fail?"
"Just one thing," he replied, with the beautiful luminous smile she had never seen on any other face—"Heaven!"