“We may as well leave them by themselves, you know,” said her mother as soon as she was in the hall.“Kitty and I are going upstairs to sit in my dressing-room.”
Elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother,but remained quietly in the hall till she and Kitty were out of sight, then returned into the drawing-room.
Mrs. Bennet’s schemes for this day were ineffectual. Bingley was everything that was charming,except the professed lover of her daughter.His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party;and he bore with the ill-judged officiousness of the mother,and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter.
He scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper; and before he went away an engagement was formed,chiefly through his own and Mrs. Bennet’s means,for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband.
After this day, Jane said no more of her indifference.Not a word passed between the sisters concerning Bingley;but Elizabeth went to bed in the happy belief that all must speedily be concluded, unless Mr.Darcy returned within the stated time. Seriously, however,she felt tolerably persuaded that all this must have taken place with that gentleman’s concurrence.
Bingley was punctual to his appointment; and he and Mr. Bennet spent the morning together,as had been agreed on. The latter was much more agreeable than his companion expected.There was nothing of presumption or folly in Bingley that could provoke his ridicule,or disgust him into silence; and he was more communicative, and less eccentric,than the other had ever seen him. Bingley of course returned with him to dinner;and in the evening Mrs. Bennet’s invention was again at work to get everybody away from him and her daughter.Elizabeth, who had a letter to write, went into the breakfast-room for that purpose soon after tea;for as the others were all going to sit down to cards,she could not be wanted to counteract her mother’s schemes.
But on her returning to the drawing-room, when her letter was finished, she saw,to her infinite surprise, there was reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for her.On opening the door, she perceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth,as if engaged in earnest conversation; and had this led to no suspicion, the faces of both,as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other, would have told it all._Their_ situation was awkward enough; but _hers_ she thought was still worse.Not a syllable was uttered by either; and Elizabeth was on the point of going away again,when Bingley, who as well as the other had sat down, suddenly rose, and,whispering a few words to her sister, ran out of the room.
Jane could have no reserves from Elizabeth, where confidence would give pleasure; and,instantly embracing her, acknowledged, with the liveliest emotion,that she was the happiest creature in the world.
“’Tis too much!” she added, “by far too much. I do not deserve it. Oh, why is not everybody as happy?”
Elizabeth’s congratulations were given with a sincerity, a warmth, a delight,which words could but poorly express. Every sentence of kindness was a fresh source of happiness to Jane.But she would not allow herself to stay with her sister, or say half that remained to be said, for the present.
“I must go instantly to my mother,” she cried.“I would not on any account trifle with her affectionate solicitude,or allow her to hear it from anyone but myself. He is gone to my father already. Oh, Lizzy,to know that what I have to relate will give such pleasure to all my dear family!how shall I bear so much happiness?”
She then hastened away to her mother, who had purposely broken up the card-party, and was sitting upstairs with Kitty.
Elizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled,that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.
“And this,” said she, “is the end of all his friend’s anxious circumspection!of all his sister’s falsehood and contrivance!the happiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!”
In a few minutes she was joined by Bingley,whose conference with her father had been short and to the purpose.
“Where is your sister?” said he hastily, as he opened the door.
“With my mother upstairs. She will be down in a moment, I dare say.”
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; and then, till her sister came down,she had to listen to all he had to say of his own happiness, and of Jane’s perfections;and in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed all his expectations of felicity to be rationally founded,because they had for basis the excellent understanding and super-excellent disposition of Jane,and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself.
It was an evening of no common delight to them all;the satisfaction of Miss Bennet’s mind gave such a glow of sweet animation to her face,as made her look handsomer than ever. Kitty simpered and smiled,and hoped her turn was coming soon. Mrs. Bennet could not give her consent,or speak her approbation in terms warm enough to satisfy her feelings,though she talked to Bingley of nothing else, for half an hour; and when Mr.Bennet joined them at supper, his voice and manner plainly showed how really happy he was.
Not a word, however, passed his lips in allusion to it,till their visitor took his leave for the night; but 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, “and I have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled.I have not a doubt of 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,” cried his wife, “what are you talking of?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 shan’t 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!”
Wickham, Lydia, were all forgotten. Jane was beyond competition her favourite child.At that moment she cared for no other. Her younger sisters soon began to make interest with her for objects of happiness which she might in future be able to dispense.
Mary petitioned for the use of the library at Netherfield;and 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, and always remaining till after supper;unless 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;for while he was present Jane had no attention to bestow on anyone else:but 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 totally 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 sisters’ 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 contented, 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,” said Elizabeth, “that I ever heard you utter. 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 really 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; for,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. Philips, 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, when Lydia had first run away,they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER LVI.
[Illustration]
One morning, about a week after Bingley’s engagement with Jane had been formed,as he and the females of the family were sitting together in the dining-room,their attention was suddenly drawn to the window by the sound of a carriage;and 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. The horses were post;and neither the carriage, nor the livery of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them.As it was certain, however, 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,till the door was thrown open, and their visitor entered. It was Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
They were of course all intending to be surprised:but their astonishment was beyond their expectation; and on the part of Mrs. Bennet and Kitty,though she was perfectly unknown to them, even inferior to what Elizabeth felt.
She entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious,made no other reply to Elizabeth’s salutation than a slight inclination of the head,and sat down without saying a word. Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother on her Ladyship’s entrance,though no request of introduction had been made.
Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a guest of such high importance,received her with the utmost politeness. After sitting for a moment in silence, she 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 a Lady Catherine.“She is my youngest girl but one. My youngest of all is lately married,and my eldest is somewhere about the ground, 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; and then added,--
“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, begged her Ladyship to take some refreshment:but Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not very politely, declined eating anything; and then, rising up, 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 own 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, and pronouncing them,after a short survey, to be decent-looking rooms, 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.
[Illustration:
“After a short survey”
[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]
“How could I ever think her like her nephew?” said she, as she looked in her face.
As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began in the following manner:--
“You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither. Your own heart,your own 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,” replied her Ladyship, in an angry tone,“you ought to know that I am not to be trifled with. But 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 as this, I shall certainly not depart from it.A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told,that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married,but that _you_--that Miss Elizabeth Bennet would, in all likelihood,be soon afterwards united to my nephew--my own nephew, Mr. Darcy.Though 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,” said Elizabeth, colouring with astonishment and disdain,“I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your Ladyship propose by it?”
“At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted.”
“Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family,” said Elizabeth coolly,“will be rather a confirmation of it--if, indeed, such a report is in existence.”
“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.”
“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 to all his family. You may have drawn him in.”
“If I have, I shall 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, and then replied,--
“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; and now,at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished,is 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?If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew,I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh.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;for 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,” replied Elizabeth. “But the wife of Mr.Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation,that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.”
“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; and 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 what 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 for all, are you engaged to him?”
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine,have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation,--
“I am not.”
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
“And will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind.”
“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.”
“And I certainly _never_ shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable.Your Ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter;but would my giving you the wished-for promise make _their_ marriage at all more probable?Supposing him to be attached to me, would _my_ refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin?Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that 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 further 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 particulars 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 uncle. And is _such_ a girl to be my nephew’s sister?Is _her_ husband, who 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 in that manner, which will, in my own opinion,constitute my happiness, 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,” replied Elizabeth, “has any possible claim on me,in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy.And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world,if the former _were_ excited by his marrying me,it would not give me one moment’s concern--and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn. ”
“And this is your real opinion!This is your final resolve!Very well. I shall now know how to act. Do not imagine, Miss Bennet,that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I hoped to find you reasonable;but depend upon it I will carry my point.”
In this manner Lady Catherine talked on till they were at the door of the carriage, when, turning hastily round, she added,--
“I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother.You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.”
Elizabeth made no answer; and without attempting to persuade her Ladyship to return into the house,walked quietly into it herself. She heard the carriage drive away as she proceeded upstairs.Her mother impatiently met her at the door of her dressing-room,to ask why Lady Catherine would not come in again and rest herself.
“She did not choose it,” said her daughter; “she would go.”
“She is a very fine-looking woman!and her calling here was prodigiously civil!for she only came, I suppose, to tell us the Collinses were well. She is on her road somewhere,I dare say; and so, passing through Meryton, thought she might as well call on you.I suppose she had nothing particular to say to you, Lizzy?”
Elizabeth was forced to give in to a little falsehood here;for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was impossible.
[Illustration:
“But now it comes out” ]
CHAPTER LVII.
[Illustration]
The discomposure of spirits which this extraordinary visit threw Elizabeth into could not be easily overcome;nor could she for many hours learn to think of it less than incessantly. Lady Catherine,it appeared, had actually taken the trouble of this journey from Rosings for the sole purpose of breaking off her supposed engagement with Mr.Darcy. It was a rational scheme, to be sure!but from what the report of their engagement could originate, Elizabeth was at a loss to imagine;till she recollected that _his_ being the intimate friend of Bingley,and _her_ being the sister of Jane, was enough,at a time when the expectation of one wedding made everybody eager for another, to supply the idea.She had not herself forgotten to feel that the marriage of her sister must bring them more frequently together.And her neighbours at Lucas Lodge, therefore, (for through their communication with the Collinses,the report, she concluded, had reached Lady Catherine,) had only set _that_ down as almost certain and immediate which _she_ had looked forward to as possible at some future time.
In revolving Lady Catherine’s expressions, however,she could not help feeling some uneasiness as to the possible consequence of her persisting in this interference.From what she had said of her resolution to prevent the marriage,it occurred to Elizabeth that she must meditate an application to her nephew;and how he might take a similar representation of the evils attached to a connection with her she dared not pronounce.She knew not the exact degree of his affection for his aunt, or his dependence on her judgment,but it was natural to suppose that he thought much higher of her Ladyship than _she_ could do;and it was certain, that in enumerating the miseries of a marriage with _one_ whose immediate connections were so unequal to his own,his aunt would address him on his weakest side. With his notions of dignity,he would probably feel that the arguments, which to Elizabeth had appeared weak and ridiculous,contained much good sense and solid reasoning.
If he had been wavering before, as to what he should do, which had often seemed likely,the advice and entreaty of so near a relation might settle every doubt,and determine him at once to be as happy as dignity unblemished could make him.In that case he would return no more. Lady Catherine might see him in her way through town;and his engagement to Bingley of coming again to Netherfield must give way.
“If, therefore, an excuse for not keeping his promise should come to his friend within a few days,” she added, “I shall know how to understand it. I shall then give over every expectation,every wish of his constancy. If he is satisfied with only regretting me,when he might have obtained my affections and hand, I shall soon cease to regret him at all.”
The surprise of the rest of the family, on hearing who their visitor had been, was very great:but they obligingly satisfied it with the same kind of supposition which had appeased Mrs.Bennet’s curiosity; and Elizabeth was spared from much teasing on the subject.
The next morning, as she was going down stairs, she was met by her father,who came out of his library with a letter in his hand.
“Lizzy,” said he, “I was going to look for you: come into my room.”
She followed him thither; and her curiosity to know what he had to tell her was heightened by the supposition of its being in some manner connected with the letter he held. It suddenly struck her that it might be from Lady Catherine, and she anticipated with dismay all the consequent explanations.
She followed her father to the fireplace, and they both sat down. He then said,--