by Eliza Gordon
He then shut the door, and, coming up to her, claimed the good wishes and affection of a sister. Elizabeth honestly and heartily expressed her delight in the prospect of their relationship. They shook hands with great cordiality. Then, till her sister came down, she had to listen to all he had to say of his happiness, and of Jane's perfections. In spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth believed all his expectations of happiness to be rationally founded. They had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between them.
It was an evening of no common delight to them all. The satisfaction of Jane's mind gave a glow of such sweet animation to her face, as made her look more handsome than ever.
Kitty simpered and smiled, and hoped her turn was coming soon.
Mrs. Bennet could not give her consent or speak her approval in terms warm enough to satisfy her, she talked to Bingley of nothing else for half an hour.
When Mr. Bennet joined them at supper, his voice and manner plainly showed how happy he was.
Not a word, however, passed his lips in allusion to it, till their visitor took his leave for the night. As soon as he was gone, he turned to his daughter, and said, "Jane, I congratulate you. You will be a very happy woman."
Jane went to him instantly, kissed him, and thanked him for his goodness.
"You are a good girl;" he replied. "I have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled. I do not doubt your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying, that nothing will ever be resolved on. So easy, that every servant will cheat you. And so generous, that you will always exceed your income."
"I hope not so. Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable in me."
"Exceed their income! My dear Mr. Bennet, what are you talking of?" cried his wife. "Why, he has four or five thousand a year, and very likely more." Then addressing her daughter, "Oh! My dear, dear Jane, I am so happy! I am sure I shall not get a wink of sleep all night. I knew how it would be. I always said it must be so, at last. I was sure you could not be so beautiful for nothing! I remember, as soon as ever I saw him, when he first came into Hertfordshire last year, I thought how likely it was that you should come together. Oh! he is the handsomest young man that ever was seen!"
Mary petitioned for the use of the library at Netherfield.
Kitty begged very hard for a few balls there every winter.
Bingley, from this time, was of course a daily visitor at Longbourn. Coming frequently before breakfast, he always remained till after supper. Except when some barbarous neighbour, who could not be enough detested, had given him an invitation to dinner which he thought himself obliged to accept.
Elizabeth had now but little time for conversation with her sister. While he was present, Jane had no attention to bestow on anyone else. She found herself considerably useful to both of them in those hours of separation that must sometimes occur. In the absence of Jane, he always attached himself to Elizabeth, for the pleasure of talking of her. And when Bingley was gone, Jane constantly sought the same means of relief.
"He has made me so happy," said she, one evening, "by telling me that he was ignorant of my being in town last spring! I had not believed it possible."
"I suspected as much," replied Elizabeth. "But how did he account for it?"
"It must have been his sister's doing. They were certainly no friends to his acquaintance with me, which I cannot wonder at, since he might have chosen so much more advantageously in many respects. But when they see, as I trust they will, that their brother is happy with me, they will learn to be content, and we shall be on good terms again. Though we can never be what we once were to each other."
"That is the most unforgiving speech that I ever heard you utter," said Elizabeth, "Good girl! It would vex me, indeed, to see you again the dupe of Miss Bingley's pretended regard."
"Would you believe it, Lizzy, that when he went to town last November, he loved me, and nothing but a persuasion of my being indifferent would have prevented his coming down again!"
"He made a little mistake to be sure, but it is to the credit of his modesty."
This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence, and the little value he put on his own good qualities. Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not betrayed the interference of his friend. Though Jane had the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him.
"I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!" cried Jane. "Oh! Lizzy, why am I thus singled from my family, and blessed above them all! If I could but see you as happy! If there were but such another man for you!"
"If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time."
The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not be long a secret. Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it to Mrs. Phillips, and she ventured, without any permission, to do the same by all her neighbours in Meryton.
The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world. Though only a few weeks before they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune.
Chapter 53
About a week after Bingley's engagement with Jane had, he and the females of the family were sitting together in the dining-room when the sound of a carriage drew their attention. Through the window they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn. It was too early in the morning for visitors, and besides, the equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbours. Neither the carriage nor the livery of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them.
It was certain that somebody was coming.
Bingley instantly prevailed on Miss Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion, and walk away with him into the shrubbery. They both set off, and the conjectures of the remaining three continued, though with little satisfaction.
The door was thrown open, and their visitor entered.
Astonished beyond expectation, at once, Elizabeth recognised Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She uttered the name aloud by way of an introduction to the rest of her family.
With an air more than usually ungracious, Lady Catherine entered the room. She made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation other than a slight inclination of the head and sat down without saying a word.
Amazed and flattered by having a guest of such high importance, Mrs. Bennet received her with the utmost politeness.
After sitting for a moment in silence, Lady Catherine said very stiffly to Elizabeth, "I hope you are well, Miss Bennet. That lady, I suppose, is your mother?"
Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.
"And that, I suppose, is one of your sisters?"
"Yes, madam," said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to Lady Catherine. "She is my youngest girl but one. My youngest of all is lately married. My eldest is somewhere about the grounds, walking with a young man who, I believe, will soon become a part of the family."
"You have a very small park here," returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.
"It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's."
"This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening, in summer; the windows are full west."
Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner. "May I take the liberty of asking your Ladyship whether you left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well."
"Yes, very well. I saw them the night before last."
Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling. But no letter appeared, and she was completely puzzled.
Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begge
d her Ladyship to take some refreshment. Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not very politely, declined eating anything. Rising up, she said to Elizabeth, "Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it if you will favour me with your company."
"Go, my dear," cried her mother, "and show her Ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage."
Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her room for her parasol, attended her noble guest downstairs. As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining-parlour and drawing-room. After a short survey, she pronounced them to be decent looking rooms, and walked on.
Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that her waiting-woman was in it. They proceeded in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse. Elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable.
As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began. "You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither. Your own heart, your conscience, must tell you why I come."
Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment. "Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam. I have not been at all able to account for the honour of seeing you here."
"Miss Bennet, you ought to know, that I am not to be trifled with," replied her Ladyship, in an angry tone. "However insincere you may choose to be, you shall not find me so. My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment like this, I shall not depart from it. A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married. Not only that but you, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would, in all likelihood, be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my nephew, Mr. Darcy. I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible. I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you."
"If you believed it impossible to be true, I wonder why you took the trouble of coming so far." Elizabeth felt her face redden as she battled with astonishment and disdain. "What could your Ladyship propose by it?"
"At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted."
"Your coming to Longbourn, to see my family and me will be rather a confirmation of it. If, indeed, such a report is in existence," said Elizabeth coolly.
"If! Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it? Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves? Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad?"
"I never heard that it was."
"And can you likewise declare, that there is no foundation for it?"
"I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your Ladyship. You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer," Elizabeth boldly replied.
"This is not to be borne. Miss Bennet, I insist on being satisfied. Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of marriage?"
"Your Ladyship has declared it to be impossible."
"It ought to be so. It must be so, while he retains the use of his reason. But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and all his family. You may have drawn him in."
"If I have, I will be the last person to confess it."
"Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world, and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns."
"But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit."
"Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place. No, never. Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now, what have you to say?"
"Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me."
Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment. "The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. It was the favourite wish of his mother, as well as of hers. While in their cradles, we planned the union. Now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family! Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends? To his tacit engagement with Miss de Bourgh? Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy? Have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin?"
"Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? Is there no other objection to my marrying your nephew? The knowledge that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh will certainly not keep me from it. You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?"
"Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest. Do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us."
"These are heavy misfortunes. The wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to regret," Elizabeth replied.
"Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you! Is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring? Is nothing due to me on that score? Let us sit down. You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose. Nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person's whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment."
"That will make your Ladyship's situation at present more pitiable, but it will have no effect on me."
"I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line. And, on the father's, from respectable, honourable, and ancient—though untitled—families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses. What is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune. Is this to be endured! But it must not, shall not be. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up."
"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal."
"True. You are a gentleman's daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition."
"Whatever my connections may be," said Elizabeth, "if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you."
"Tell me once, are you engaged to him?"
Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, answered this question. The honest answer would please Lady Catherine. After being approached in such a way, Elizabeth felt disinclined to give such pleasure.
"You are not entitled to an answer from me."
"Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.. You must promise me, never to enter into such an engagement."
"And I certainly I will make no promise of the kind. I am not to be intimidated by anything so wholly unreasonable. Your Ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter. Would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Suppos
ing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Lady Catherine, the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell. But you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject."
"Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the details of your youngest sister's infamous elopement. I know it all. That the young man's marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expense of your father and uncles. And is such a girl to be my nephew's sister? Is her husband, is the son of his late father's steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth!—of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
"You can now have nothing further to say," she resentfully answered. "You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house."
And she rose as she spoke. Lady Catherine rose also, and they turned back. Her Ladyship was highly incensed.
"You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?"
"Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments."
"You are then resolved to have him?"
"I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."
"It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honour, and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world."
"Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude have any possible claim on me, in the present instance," replied Elizabeth. "No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy. With regard to the resentment of his family if they were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern. Or the indignation of the world, the world, in general, would have too much sense to join in the scorn."