[ ofprejudice ]

His steps were fluid, GRACEFUL, in manner. It was surprising to Elizabeth, for she expected him to be RIGID due to his cold nature and the fact that he told her he tries not to dance ( Even at a ball! How ridiculous! ) But he was anything but – and the dance WOULD HAVE BEEN enjoyable if conversation had been more in depth.

Instead, it was if he was looking DOWN upon her for trying to initiate conversation of any sort, even the trivial kind. It was if she was somehow not living up to expectations created in his mind. BUT OF COURSE THAT WASN’T THE CASE. Why would a man like Mr. Darcy think of her in any such way if she was not in his presence?

“I wish to discuss something of importance, of course, Mr. Darcy,” Elizabeth explained – EXASPERATED. “But I do not think there is something between the two of us that could possibly be considered important, as our interactions have been very minimal.”
                                                                                                       ( a pause ) 
“Tell me, Mr. Darcy, why would you ask me to dance with you if you have no desire to speak to me?”

Her frustration was clear, purposefully so perhaps, but it served only to magnify his anxiety. This, of course, instilled in him another long moment of quiet as he attempted desperately to catch onto words appropriate enough to describe his feelings. Phrases and vocabulary whispered like flames and distinguished into wispy smoke that escaped his fingertips.

Would that he could only speak to her, for it was his every desire! To hear her speak, even so callously as he deserved, was something he so oft imagined; he hardly remembered a time he daydreamed so vividly when things of greater import were before him.

“ It is difficult for me, ” said Mr. Darcy quietly, pausing in his steps to look down at the woman, “ to find the words to speak with you, Miss Bennet. ”