These remarks put Darcy into such a bad humour that for once he was glad of an intervention from Sir William, who at that moment came up to compliment Bingley and his sister on the excellence of their arrangements for the ball.
The remainder of the evening passed with little incident, and nothing to please Darcy. He had some conversation with Mr. Bennet about the library at Pemberley, which the latter gentleman had heard was very fine. Darcy noticed that Mr. Bennet came alive when in discourse on the subject of reading and books, and their conversation at least passed some minutes of the evening. A few comments that Mr. Bennet let slip indicated that he regarded Mr. Collins, on whom the estate at Longbourn was apparently entailed after his death, as a source of considerable amusement, and not as a man of any great intelligence or good sense. This was not a view with which it was difficult for Darcy to concur.
The clergyman appeared to be exceptionally attentive to Miss Elizabeth, who danced no more and sat out at the side of the room. That they were joined by Miss Charlotte Lucas, Darcy noticed, seemed to be very welcome to her friend.
Darcy could find nothing other to do than to spend the remainder of the evening standing within a very short distance of them, having no interest in dancing with anyone else in the room. Meanwhile, Bingley continued his attentions to the eldest Miss Bennet.
On the following day, Darcy knew, Bingley was due to travel to town on business. He resolved to have a serious talk with his friend’s sisters in his absence. The situation between Bingley and Miss Bennet had clearly developed much further than he had anticipated, and something needed to be done.
12
Some seven days later, Darcy reviewed the events of the past week with satisfaction.
After Bingley had left for town, his friend had soon dis-covered that his disdain at the behaviour of much of the Longbourn party at the ball was endorsed and exceeded by both Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst. However pleasant the manners of the eldest Miss Bennet, it was agreed that the rest of her family, and in particular her mother and three youngest sisters, were quite inappropriate connections for a family of Bingley’s consequence. Any partiality that Charles might feel for Miss Jane Bennet could surely evaporate as rapidly as his enthusiasm for other young ladies had done in the past.
Following their discussion, Darcy had travelled himself to London with Miss Bingley and Mr. and Mrs. Hurst. It had been agreed during the journey that Bingley should be persuaded by his friend of the indifference of Miss Jane Bennet, which indeed had seemed to that gentleman to be the case from his observance of her. Miss Bingley could not resist inserting a barb about Miss Elizabeth’s “fine eyes” in the conversation, but Darcy chose to ignore this. In the privacy of his room, he had reflected that any objections that applied to the eldest Miss Bennet having any alliance with his friend were more than magnified and reinforced in the view of his own greater consequence and fortune.
In the event, Darcy was a little surprised that the task of persuading Bingley that he should remain in London was not accomplished easily.
His friend was usually more willing to accept his advice and direction than now appeared in this case. Bingley seemed to be persuaded that his feelings were stronger and persistent than on previous occasions, and less susceptible to being eradicated by time. However, by dint of repeating Darcy’s and his sisters’ conviction many times that the lady’s affections were not engaged, over a period of days Bingley was also convinced of his own indifference.
If it then seemed in the ensuing weeks that his friend was at times more pensive and reflective than was his habit, Darcy did not allow that to concern him.
There was one short alarm, when Miss Bingley told Darcy that she had had a formal call from Miss Jane Bennet. It appeared that she had travelled to London to stay for some weeks with those same relations in Cheapside of which so much sport had been made in Miss Bingley’s conversation in Hertfordshire.
However, although the call was eventually returned, the news of the visitor from Longbourn being in town was kept from Charles Bingley. Darcy could therefore contemplate with some satisfaction the way that his friend’s temporary affliction of the heart had been dealt with.
What did surprise Darcy was the obstinate difficulty he himself had in removing from his own mind the image of Miss Elizabeth Bennet during the next few weeks in town.
Darcy in his youth had spent the festive season at Pemberley, and it had been his happiest time of year in the company of his parents. Since their demise, Darcy had avoided Derbyshire until the weather at the end of the winter made the roads more fit to travel, after the January snows.
But he could not recall when he had suffered such an uneasy mind. The more he sought, as the New Year began, to eliminate Miss Elizabeth Bennet from his thoughts and interest, the less he seemed to succeed. Making more effort than usual to encounter other company in town had no countervailing effect. The society of ladies of his own consequence only seemed to provoke memories of lively conversation and pleasant and more informed wit from that other source.
Indeed, his failure to thus control his thoughts made him more abrupt than was in any case his habit. He found himself particularly short of temper in company with Miss Caroline Bingley. Her wit, which he had once found pleasantly astringent and barbed, now seemed particularly affected and tiresome. His sister’s joining him in London for once offered only some assistance in this situation.
However, to keep himself occupied, he took Georgiana to seek some new furniture for her sitting room, and had some pleasure in her delight at the opportunity. By such minor pursuits, Darcy passed the next few weeks. The prospect of any relief from the tedium of the season in town was small, and the most exciting excursion that the future promised was his annual visit for about ten days after Easter with Colonel Fitzwilliam to his aunt, Lady Catherine, in Kent.
This was not something to which Darcy normally looked forward. Fitzwilliam’s company could be had elsewhere with greater pleasure, his cousin Anne had little to recommend her, and Lady Catherine made such forceful discourse, with her own replies, as to make it even less necessary than usual for Darcy to persuade himself to make polite conversation.
The prospect of the tiresome new rector, Mr. Collins, being added to the company from time to time was no additional inducement on its own.
However, a communication from his aunt brought the surprising news that Mr. Collins had returned from his most recent visit to Hertfordshire after the Christmas festival with a bride—none other than Charlotte, the eldest daughter of Sir William Lucas.
Darcy had regarded Miss Lucas as one of the more sensible and serious young ladies he had met while at Nether-field. More significant was that she was a close friend of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. As March began, and the time of his visit drew nearer, he was aware that he would welcome the opportunity to hear some news from the new Mrs. Collins of a young lady from another county.
Then a second letter came from his aunt. Together with the usual advice to himself about Georgiana, it informed him that none other than Miss Elizabeth Bennet herself was at the parsonage at Hunsford, accompanying Miss Maria Lucas on a visit to her sister. However, their stay of some six weeks would end just before Darcy and Fitzwilliam were due to arrive in Kent.
