Ashley & Mr Darcy
"That's a marvelous idea," he said softly. Darcy gave her a genuine smile, and then silently cursed himself for being so easy. He knew next to nothing about this woman, but then, he supposed, that was meant to be the entire point of having a conversation. And he was often so frightfully bad at them, that maybe it was a good thing that she was making it quite easy for a change.
"Gosh. That must be a very large family that you have," he commented. He really did want to know more about her family, but perhaps prying too deeply into it would just be obvious and ill-mannered. He'd find out more in time, and until then he just had to stop being so damned silly. This sudden interest was purely because of Lizzie's rejection, he was certain of it. One didn't throw away all of their principles purely because of a broken heart.
Good grief - a broken heart. He was worse up than he'd admitted to even himself.