Mr. Bingley was the embodiment of warmth and welcome. He took no part in the contrivance, albeit that in itself was done most unwittingly; unwittingly done of the Bingley women because it was in their nature to act unpleasantly to anyone whom did not arouse in them a feeling of superiority and of Darcy because his attractions to Miss Elizabeth could find no other channel but aloof indifference.
In the course of the few days that Elizabeth had spent in the house, she had seen it all. From the very first day, she had been abused and gossiped about— at first, because of her state of arrival; and then later because of her impertinence in observing her views and also in stating them. Also, she had seen her sister well attended by the Bingley women contrary to their treatment of herself; for that she decided to be civil in her interactions with them. Her stay also had brought her in interaction with Mr. Bingley and she couldn't seize her admiration for the man's kindness and solicitude towards her sister; his was the only genuine emotions she could accord any respect and acknowledgement and her profuse thanks were always waved away by him whenever she chanced to mention it. Mr. Hurst was as unmoved as a stranger by her continued stay and she couldn't have exchanged more words with him than she could count on all fingers of a hand.
As for Mr. Darcy, he was a bit of all the characters in the house rolled into one individual. Sometimes, he was decidedly civil towards her; other times, he ignored her; but from time to time, she fancied that he liked her a bit. However, since she had no means of knowing which of his reactions to her were his true nature and she very well could not ask him, she took the option of ignoring him and addressing him only when the situation direly called for it. As a consequence, their verbal exchange was vastly limited.
However, what she found most curious about Mr. Darcy since her stay in the house was something she had no reason to conjecture but this she did—at odd times, such as when they encountered on the stairwell especially at night with flickering torches on the wall, she was besieged with a feeling that she had met Mr. Darcy before the Meryton assembly. Knowing the impossibility of moving in the same social circle before his arrival at Netherfield assured her that she hadn't, and the knowledge that she wasn't an accomplished traveller and so, they couldn't have met elsewhere. Nonetheless, the feeling persisted still.
Earlier in the day, she had requested her mother to visit Jane through a note delivered by a servant and her mother had hastened to comply, with her two youngest daughters. The three, her mother especially, had caused Elizabeth no small amount of embarrassment and discomfiture that she was infinitely pleased to see their backs. All entreaties to move Jane and follow her mother had fallen on deaf ears as her mother schemed for her and Jane; Jane especially, to continue their stay at Netherfield for her matchmaking purposes to yield positively. Her mother's obstinacy was seconded by the apothecary who came visiting close to that time. He declared Jane unfit for moving out of the house for a travel and pronounced that she continued to stay exactly where she lay. And, thus, went Elizabeth's wish to leave the party's company for the solace of her own people.
The chain of events of the day was tiresome and her only consolation was that Jane's pallor appeared better than it was when she arrived, but three days ago. So after she drifted off into sleep, Elizabeth had left her to sit in the drawing room mostly because she sought to hear what pronouncement of the family; on her family; particularly Mr. Darcy- he and her mother had had some kind of disagreement. Saying unkind things as she often overhead Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst as soon she turned her back was petty and she detested it greatly. She would rather they said it all whilst she was in their midst- if they dared.
However, nothing of what she thought to hear was said as the occupants in the room were otherwise engaged in a business that was entirely theirs to comprehend. Mr. Bingley and his brother in law played at cards with their sole observer being Mrs. Hurst. Miss Bingley was too busy observing Mr. Darcy in his business of writing a letter which through listening to their rather tasteless discourse, Elizabeth surmised that it was to Mr. Darcy's young sister in his home at Pemberley. Taking up some needle work was the only recourse which she saw and this, Elizabeth did with repletion.
None so much as acknowledged her entry, but Mr. Bingley who smiled kindly and asked after Jane. Elizabeth soon became weary of Miss Bingley's excessive praises of Mr. Darcy's penmanship and was saved from uttering a caustic riposte by her brother himself.
"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline, because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?" Mr. Bingley admonished when his sister uttered something about writing well simply because a person wrote at length.
"My style of writing is very different from yours," returned the man under discussion.
"Oh! Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest," interrupted the faithless sister.
And so began an argument that bordered around Mr. Bingley's penmanship- or lack of thereof as enthusiastically pointed out by his friend and seconded by his sister before it came to rest upon one of Mr. Bingley's statements in the morning to her mother. The argument was not so much in favour of Mr. Darcy and alas, it was soon quieted. Elizabeth couldn't check her thoughts that Mr. Darcy was a very sore loser as he went back to attending his letter.
His letter done with and dispatched, the man entreated for a piece of music of her and Miss Bingley to which Elizabeth declined, permitting Miss Bingley sole occupancy of the pianoforte which she did most grandly. Her singing was thus accompanied by her sister who came to take the chair close to Elizabeth.
It was during the music rendition that Elizabeth observed Mr. Darcy's eyes on herself. This attention flabbergasted Elizabeth. His relations with her thus far, that she had been in the house was cordial at most and to be held in contempt on the other extreme end. Elizabeth, therefore, saw no reason for this new interest in her. Thinking of it, she decided that he must have found something abominable about her person or looks, but that either gave no cause for a prolonged look in her direction. She only just decided to ignore him when he came over to address her directly.
"Do not you feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize such an opportunity of dancing a reel?" he asked.
Indeed Miss Bingley was creating a lively air with an Italian song, but Elizabeth failed to see how it suddenly seemed to entice Mr. Darcy into asking her for a dance. She held on to her silence and perusal of a music book and Mr. Darcy fancied that she hadn't heard him and thus repeated his question.
"Oh, I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply," she revealed to him with a smile on her face. "You wanted me, I know, to say, 'Yes,' that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all—and now despise me if you dare."
He said that he dared not—throwing Elizabeth into yet another surprise.
She was saved from making a reply by Mr. Darcy's obvious admirer whose admiration was not requited. Miss Caroline suddenly terminated the song and hastened to them both. Their proximity was quite alarming to her in spite that a small child could be safely tucked in between them, apart as they stood.
"Mr. Darcy, what did you think of my rendition just now?" she asked with an air of impatience. "I should think I comfortably fit into the list of half a dozen of accomplished women in your acquaintance."
Elizabeth smiled inwardly. She felt the insult aimed in her direction but she ignored it. It was only another day in the house on Netherfield.
The content of Elizabeth and Darcy's conversation was relayed to Caroline by her sister, with no small amounts of embellishments. Caroline was vastly annoyed by this new intelligence and she sought to do all in her might to discourage Mr. Darcy on the path that he was in the process of threading. In her opinion,
the likes of Miss Elizabeth Bennet were conceited and impertinent, employing the tactics of a female rooster in engaging the attractions of the opposite sex- running around under pretence of disinterest while the male was unable to help its intrigue and as such gave chase until the female succumbed. Something had to be done so that the female rooster stopped attracting the attention of the male.
It was such thoughts that thus provoked Miss Caroline Bingley into a scheme on the next morning. In a bid to show Elizabeth Bennet her rightful place in life, which was nowhere near Mr. Darcy, she plotted with her sister. Their plot was typical of their character; inept and lacking in ingenuity.
After breakfast, Elizabeth repaired to her sister's bedside to check upon her status. Seeing it greatly improved, she sat a while before making an appearance in the drawing room and she had barely stepped her foot in the room when Mrs. Hurst invited her for a walk along the garden path. Some quarter of an hour later, Caroline invited Mr. Darcy for the same.
Walking the path most regally as a queen, Caroline commented on what a fine day it was, eliciting a short mumble of an agreement from her companion. Smiling like a veritable urchin, she fancied that she knew the topic to unglue the lips of her companion and proceeded to introduce it.
"I hope," said she, changing the subject under discourse, "you will give your mother-in-law a few hints, when this desirable event takes place, as to the advantage of holding her tongue; and if you can compass it, do cure the younger girls of running after officers. And, if I may mention so delicate a subject, endeavour to check that little something, bordering on conceit and impertinence, which your lady possesses."
"Have you anything else to propose for my domestic felicity?" replied Mr. Darcy.
The smile lingered on Miss Bingley's face. It was exactly as she thought. Delighted that she now had his sole attention, she continued the discourse, covertly taking a step closer to his tall form.
"Oh! Yes," she cried in all seriousness. "Do let the portraits of your uncle and Aunt Phillips be placed in the gallery at Pemberley. Put them next to your great-uncle, the judge. They are in the same profession, you know, only in different lines. As for your Elizabeth's picture, you must not have it taken, for what painter could do justice to those beautiful eyes?"
She still held bitterness that he contrived to conceive her eyes beautiful. Why, Caroline thought, the eyes were rather plain and could certainly never be comparable to her own eyes. Mr. Darcy must mean this business about Miss Elizabeth Bennet's eyes as a joke; only that the joke was beginning to grow weary on her.
"It would not be easy, indeed, to catch their expression," replied her companion, "but their colour and shape, and the eyelashes, so remarkably fine, might be copied."
It was on the tip of her tongue to disprove the nonsense about the eyes when the figure of the she-devil under discourse and Mrs. Hurst appeared around a shrubbery on their way into the garden. The frown hitherto brought to Miss Bingley's face was quick to dissipate upon the sight and she fixed Mr. Darcy with a simpering gaze that bordered on pleasure on something he had said.
"That is so flattering of you, Mr. Darcy," she said coquettishly. "Why, I didn't know you had it in you to be so endearing."
Mr. Darcy cast a look in her direction in utter disbelief. She saw a knowing look dawn upon his face before he frowned and looked upon the approaching ladies. Caroline quickly turned her attention to the ladies, too, remembering the subject of their exchange and hoping that their voices hadn't carried to Miss Elizabeth's ears. Raptures about her eyes would further inflate her existing impudence, Caroline was afraid.
"I did not know that you intended to walk," she said to Elizabeth and her sister, even though she did.
Her gaze fixed briefly on her sister's and from the absence of intelligence on her feature, surmised that none of the women had heard her and Mr. Darcy talk. Her relief was immense.
"You used us abominably ill," Mrs. Hurst declared, continuing the charade that her sister introduced, "running away without telling us that you were coming out."
As planned, Mrs. Hurst took hold of Mr. Darcy's disengaged arm, the other firmly held on to by Miss Bingley, the action thus leaving Elizabeth by herself and looking up at the three like an insurmountable wall.
"This walk is not wide enough for our party. We had better go into the avenue," Mr. Darcy said, frowning in turn at both sisters to his left and right.
And there, Caroline would have thrown in the most charming part of their plot- that Miss Elizabeth was only a visitor in the house and as such, surely, she did not expect to walk on the arms of Mr. Darcy; she could walk behind them, she would suggest most innocently. However, Elizabeth thwarted her plan by saying:
"No, no; stay where you are. You are charmingly grouped, and appear to uncommon advantage. The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth. Good-bye."
And with that, she ran off away from them into the house, leaving the trio standing and watching her go, with Miss Bingley in great vexation.
Chapter Eleven
Seven long hours passed before Fitzwilliam laid his eyes on the figure of Miss Elizabeth at dinner.
After the drama enacted by the Bingley women, which he could not be contrived upon to believe was less than deliberate, he had promptly taken his leave of their company and gone to the stable for his horse. Though he had no business to attend to outside Netherfield, he saddled the horse and took off. He had spent another hour or two or three; he could not say for certain for he was too deep in thoughts, deliberating upon his entrancement with Elizabeth Bennet.
Fitzwilliam detested deceit and he believed that it was the greatest injustice to deceive oneself especially; thus he was honest enough to acknowledge to himself the truth of his fascination. He fancied Elizabeth Bennet more than he ought to...and more than she deserved from the ilk of him. Judging from the constant repair of his thoughts to her, he figured that her lowly connections in the world would have but been of little consequence; he would have perhaps encouraged a closer relationship with her regardless of Miss Bingley's wiles. However, her repute was doubt-worthy in his sight and this; he was disinclined to forgive as easily as he acknowledged her fine eyes.
Close observation of her character did not reveal to him her true nature which he observed at the tavern and he consented that she was a great actress to lead two separate lives so.
His uncharitable thoughts toward her, however, in no way abated his enthusiasm to see her during dinner and he had scarcely been able to draw his eyes away from her figure in the entire course of the meal. After dinner, she removed above stairs again to her sister while they all removed to their rooms. Bingley engaged the time to apprise Darcy of the invitation to a hunting game he received in the noon and together, they decided on their plans to honour it or not. Having decided to honour the invitation- it was from Colonel Forster - they each decided to move in the direction of the drawing room to join the ladies.
Fitzwilliam was pleasantly surprised to behold the atmosphere in the room. It was one of easy companionship that can only be attributed to the presence of Jane in the room. Caroline was in the process of describing a happenstance to Jane, who was settled comfortably in a corner with the liveliest spirit he could yet attribute to her. Mrs. Hurst was smiling in a way that included her entire face- another feat he had previously thought impossible. Even Miss Elizabeth was smiling, underlining her fine eyes to perfection- her face was animated with relaxation and joy and once more, Fitzwilliam found himself further captivated by her.
The little party for the women, however, disbanded as soon as the women observed him, Bingley and Mr. Hurst appear in the room. Jane Bennet seized to be entertained any longer as Caroline turned to him instantly. He expressed his pleasure at Jane Bennet's evident recovery to Elizabeth in as much civil voice as he could manage- in accordance to his new resolve to be wary of her; while Charles did so with the greatest display of joy and true delight. Mr. Hurst only demonstrated some semblance of an acknowledging bow i
n Elizabeth's general direction that annoyed Fitzwilliam for no plausible reason.
Miss Bennet acknowledge their congratulations with demure smiles and appreciation for their care while Elizabeth expressed sincerely, how glad she was to have her sister in good health and, thus, hinted of their impending removal to Longbourn.
Ensuring to take his seat furthest away from Elizabeth, he was soon ordered on his feet again by Charles who fancied that Miss Bennet might catch a cold again and declared a need to build a fire. Both men were thus engaged for a brief period of time until Bingley declared the fire warm enough to ward off any cold that dared to threaten Miss Bennet's health. Thereafter, Bingley suggested that she remove to draw closer to the fire and when she did, he sat by her, promptly forgetting about his friend and all others in the room.
Tea was served and was quickly over, owing largely to the lack of conversation in the room, especially on Bingley's part- he continued to pay his undivided attention to Miss Jane Bennet. Mr. Hurst spoke up then, to invite Caroline to set the gaming table and engage the others in cards, but Caroline turned down his offer.
"Nobody else seems interested in a game of cards tonight, dearest brother-in-law." She smiled at him in a way that brooked no argument.
The man thus had not another resort but to take the sofa and send himself off to sleep. Shaking his head at his friend's obvious enamoured state with the ailing Miss Bennet and the little scene with Caroline and Mr. Hurst, Fitzwilliam proceeded to select a book from the shelf in the room and resumed his seat. It was, but a scarce amount of time, that he observed that Miss Bingley selected a book; the second volume of the one he was reading and settled down next to him. Set upon his resolution to avoid Elizabeth, he became studious, willing himself not to observe her as she knitted a yarn in the corner of the room, occasionally watching her sister and Bingley. In the end, he succeeded in his attempts to entice his eyes away from her figure and Fitzwilliam was soon lost in the book, but for Miss Bingley's disturbance now and then; glancing into his book and attempting to engage him in conversation with her. He, however, was unaffected by her disturbances- he could wager that she soon would become bored with the book for he knew that she had no burning passion for books like Miss Elizabeth.
When Mr. Darcy Met Lizzy Page 7