Pride and Prejudice

CHAPTER LV.

A few days after Darcy’s departure for London, Mr. Bingley called at Longbourn alone, having left that morning and expecting to return within ten days. He sat with the Bennets over an hour in remarkably good spirits; though Mrs. Bennet invited him to dine, he was engaged elsewhere but accepted an invitation for the next day.

He arrived so early that the ladies were undressed. Mrs. Bennet ran to her daughters’ room in her dressing-gown, crying that Mr. Bingley had come. Jane insisted on waiting for a sister; Kitty, already upstairs, was readier. Mrs. Bennet, after much badinage about sashes, was forced to leave them.

That evening she tried again to leave the lovers alone. After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library and Mary went to practice. Mrs. Bennet sat winking at Elizabeth and Catherine until Kitty innocently asked why. Summoned out, she left. Jane’s look entreated Elizabeth not to yield; Elizabeth refused her mother’s transparent suggestion that she and Kitty sit upstairs, remaining in the hall till they were gone.

Bingley was everything charming except the professed lover of her daughter; he bore Mrs. Bennet’s silly remarks with forbearance grateful to Jane. An engagement was formed for him to shoot with Mr. Bennet the next morning.

Jane now spoke no more of her indifference. Elizabeth went to bed happy, believing all must speedily conclude unless Darcy returned in time, and felt tolerably persuaded of his concurrence.

Bingley was punctual; he and Mr. Bennet spent the morning together, the latter proving communicative and not eccentric. In the evening, Elizabeth withdrew to write a letter to escape her mother’s schemes, but on returning found Jane and Bingley standing together over the hearth in earnest conversation. Their faces told the whole story; Bingley whispered a few words and ran out.

Jane embraced Elizabeth, acknowledging she was the happiest creature in the world. Elizabeth congratulated her with warmth, smiling at the rapidity with which an affair of months’ suspense was settled. “And this is the end of all his friend’s anxious circumspection! of all his sister’s falsehood and contrivance!”

Bingley returned from a short conference with her father and claimed Elizabeth’s good wishes. She expressed delight in their prospect.

At supper Mr. Bennet’s manner showed his happiness. After Bingley left, he said: “Jane, I congratulate you. You will be a very happy woman.” He added, with characteristic humor, that their tempers were alike—so complying nothing would ever be resolved on, so easy servants would cheat them, and so generous they would exceed their income. Mrs. Bennet protested he had four or five thousand a year. Wickham and Lydia were forgotten. Mary petitioned for the use of the Netherfield library; Kitty begged for a few balls every winter.

Bingley now visited daily. In Jane’s absence he talked of her to Elizabeth; in Bingley’s absence Jane sought the same relief. “He has made me so happy,” said Jane, “by telling me that he was totally ignorant of my being in town last spring.” “I suspected as much,” replied Elizabeth. Jane forgave the sisters who had worked to separate them. “That is the most unforgiving speech,” said Elizabeth, “that I ever heard you utter. Good girl!”

Mrs. Bennet whispered the news to Mrs. Philips and all her Meryton neighbours, and the Bennets were pronounced the luckiest family in the world.

CHAPTER LVI.

About a week after the engagement, as Bingley and the Bennets sat together one morning, a chaise and four drove up the lawn. The equipage matched no neighbour’s. Bingley prevailed on Jane to walk in the shrubbery; the door opened upon Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

She entered with ungracious air, barely inclined her head to Elizabeth, and sat without speaking. Mrs. Bennet received her with utmost politeness. Lady Catherine asked if the lady opposite was her mother; learned one sister was the youngest but one, that the youngest was lately married, and that the eldest was walking with a young man soon to join the family. She observed that the park was very small and the sitting-room inconvenient. She declined refreshment and asked to take a turn in Elizabeth’s wilderness.

In silence they proceeded along the gravel walk. Elizabeth resolved to make no effort at conversation. In the copse, Lady Catherine began: “You can be at no loss, Miss Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither.” Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment.

“Miss Bennet,” replied Lady Catherine angrily, “I am not to be trifled with. A report reached me two days ago that not only your sister was on the point of advantageous marriage, but that you—Miss Elizabeth Bennet—would in all likelihood be soon united to my nephew, Mr. Darcy. Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, I instantly resolved on coming.”

“If you believed it impossible,” said Elizabeth, “I wonder you took the trouble.” Lady Catherine insisted on having the report universally contradicted. Elizabeth replied that her coming to Longbourn would rather confirm it. Lady Catherine demanded to know if Darcy had made her an offer. “Your Ladyship has declared it to be impossible.” “It ought to be so; but your arts and allurements may have made him forget what he owes to himself and all his family.”

Lady Catherine then declared the engagement between Darcy and her daughter—a favourite wish from infancy. “No, never. Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now, what have you to say?” Elizabeth replied that if he were so, there could be no reason to suppose he would offer to her. Lady Catherine expatiated on the disgrace such a marriage would entail; Elizabeth answered each point with composure, refusing absolutely to promise never to enter into such an engagement. “I will make no promise of the kind.” Lady Catherine grew angrier and referred to Lydia’s infamous elopement: “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?”

“You can now have nothing further to say. You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house.” Lady Catherine rose also, and they turned back, her Ladyship highly incensed. “I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. I am most seriously displeased.” Elizabeth walked quietly in and heard the carriage drive away.