CHAPTER XXVII.
January and February passed quietly at Longbourn. By March Elizabeth was eager for Hunsford, Charlotte’s visit sweetened by hopes of seeing Jane in London. Mr. Wickham’s farewell was amicable; he reminded Elizabeth she had first excited his admiration and trusted their judgments would always coincide, leaving her convinced he remained her model of the amiable. The journey with Sir William Lucas and Maria was unremarkable.
At Gracechurch Street Jane met them at the window, looking healthful and lovely, and the cousins’ children swarmed the staircase. After shopping and the theatre, Elizabeth sat by her aunt and learned Jane suffered dejection and had given up the Bingley acquaintance. Mrs. Gardiner rallied Elizabeth on Wickham’s defection to Miss King; Elizabeth parried that at Christmas her aunt had feared Wickham marrying her as imprudent, and now feared his mercenary pursuit of a girl with only ten thousand pounds. Her aunt replied that the young lady’s not objecting proved her own deficiency in sense. Elizabeth laughed it off, declaring herself sick of them all and thankful to be going to find a man wholly without agreeable qualities. Before the play ended Mrs. Gardiner offered to include Elizabeth in a summer tour, possibly to the Lakes; Elizabeth accepted rapturously, crying that mountains and rocks should drive away disappointment and spleen, and picturing hours of transport among lakes, mountains, and rivers which they would know accurately, not jumbled together as other travellers did.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The next day’s journey brought fresh country. Turning into Hunsford lane they saw the Parsonage with its garden and laurel hedge. Mr. Collins and Charlotte received them formally; he detained Elizabeth at the gate to inquire after her family and repeated his wife’s offers of refreshment. He displayed the parlour as if wishing her to feel what she had lost, but though all was neat and comfortable she could summon no sigh of repentance. She wondered how Charlotte maintained a cheerful air with such a companion; when Collins said anything his wife might be ashamed of, Charlotte wisely did not hear.
He led them into the garden, which he had personally laid out, walking them through every walk and pointing out the prospect of Rosings through an opening in the trees. The ladies, lacking shoes for the white frost, turned back, and Charlotte showed them over the house—small but well built, with a great air of comfort when Collins could be forgotten. At dinner Collins announced they would see Lady Catherine at church and described how they dined at Rosings twice weekly and were sent home in her carriage. Charlotte added Lady Catherine was a respectable, sensible woman and attentive neighbour.
The middle of the next day Maria came breathless from the gate: two ladies sat there in a low phaeton. Elizabeth, expecting Lady Catherine, was told the older was Mrs. Jenkinson and the other Miss de Bourgh, thin and small. Elizabeth, struck with other ideas, thought she looked sickly and cross and would do for him very well. Collins soon appeared to congratulate them: the whole party was asked to dine at Rosings the next day.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Collins’s triumph was complete; such early condescension was precisely what he had wished. He instructed them in what to expect, advised Elizabeth merely to put on her superior clothes, and came two or three times to urge haste, frightening Maria almost as much as her father had been at St. James’s.
Ascending the steps, Maria’s alarm increased. In the drawing-room Lady Catherine arose with great condescension to receive them. She was tall and large, with strongly-marked features, an air not conciliating, and a tone so authoritative as to bring Wickham immediately to Elizabeth’s mind. Miss de Bourgh was pale and sickly, speaking only in a low voice to Mrs. Jenkinson.
At dinner Collins carved and praised with delighted alacrity. Elizabeth sat between Charlotte and Miss de Bourgh; Mrs. Jenkinson watched how little the latter ate. In the drawing-room Lady Catherine talked without intermission, inquiring minutely into Charlotte’s domestic concerns and addressing many questions to Elizabeth—her sisters’ ages, likelihood of marriage, handsomeness, education, her father’s carriage, and her mother’s maiden name. She was incredulous all five Bennet sisters were out and astonished none had a governess. The card tables were placed; Lady Catherine, Sir William, and the Collinses played quadrille. When the party departed in Lady Catherine’s carriage, Elizabeth gave an opinion of Rosings more favourable than it really was, for Charlotte’s sake, though Collins was soon obliged to take her Ladyship’s praise into his own hands.
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