Chapter-10
The entertainment of dining at Rosings was repeated twice a week. Every evening was exactly like the first.
They had a few other entertainments, but Elizabeth enjoyed her conversations with Charlotte and the pleasant walks in the neighbourhood.
Before Easter there was an addition to the family at Rosings. Mr. Darcy was expected to spend the holiday with his aunt. Although Elizabeth liked him least of the people she knew, she looked forward to someone new at their Rosings parties.
On the day after his arrival Mr. Collins hurried to Rosings to pay his respects. Mr. Darcy had brought with him a cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, the son of his uncle, Lord Marling. To everyone’s great surprise, the two gentlemen came back with Mr. Collins when he returned from Rosings.
Charlotte, seeing them from the bedroom, ran to tell the girls what an honour was coming. “I may thank you, Elizabeth, for this,” she said, “Mr. Darcy would never have come so soon to visit me.”
Elizabeth scarcely had time to say that this could not be true, before the gentlemen entered the room. Colonel Fitzwilliam was about thirty. He was not handsome but very gentlemanly in his appearance and manners. Mr. Darcy looked just as he had looked in Hertfordshire. He met Elizabeth with his usual calm and she curtseyed without saying a word.
After dinner Colonel Fitzwilliam asked Elizabeth to play to him. She sat down at the piano and he took a chair near her. Lady Catherine listened to half a song and then talked as before to her other nephew. At last the latter walked away from her, with his usual calm, and stood beside the piano where he had a full view of Elizabeth’s face. Elizabeth saw what he was doing and, at the first pause, said to him with a smile, “You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming like this to hear me. But I refuse to be frightened. I am a stubborn person. My courage always rises when others try to frighten me.”
“You do not really believe I wish to frighten you,” he replied, “I have known you long enough to know that you enjoy saying things you do not really believe.”
Elizabeth laughed at this picture of herself and said to Colonel Fitzwilliam, “Your cousin will teach you not to believe a word I say. I am particularly unlucky meeting someone able to reveal my real character in this part of the world. Indeed, Mr. Darcy, it is very unwise of you to mention the faults which you discovered in me while in Hertfordshire. You may tempt me to tell about you.”
“I am not afraid of you,’said he smilingly.
“Let me hear what you accuse him of,” cried Colonel Fitzwilliam, “I should like to know how he behaves amongst strangers.”
“Prepare then for something very dreadful. The first time I ever saw him in Hertfordshire was at a ball—and at this ball what do you think he did? He danced only four dances! I am sorry to pain you—but so it was. He danced only four dances, although, to my knowledge, several young ladies were sitting down, wanting partners. Mr. Darcy, you cannot deny it!”
“I did not have the pleasure of knowing any lady except my own party.”
“True. But could you not be introduced?”
“Perhaps,” said Darcy, “that would have been better. But I am not at ease amongst strangers.”
“Shall we ask your cousin the reason for this?” Elizabeth asked Colonel Fitzwilliam.
“I can answer your question,” said Fitzwilliam “without asking him. It is because he will not take the trouble.”
“I certainly do not have the talent which some people have,” said Darcy, “of talking easily with people whom I have never seen before. I cannot follow their conversation or appear interested in them as others do.”
“My fingers,” said Elizabeth, “do not move over this piano as easily as other women’s do. But I have always supposed this was my own fault—because I do not practise enough.”
Darcy smiled and said, “You are perfectly right, but you have used your time better. No one allowed the happiness of hearing you can think anything lacking.”
They were then interrupted by Lady Catherine, who continued her remarks about Elizabeth’s performance, with many instructions, until her ladyship’s carriage was ready to take them home.
Elizabeth was sitting by herself the next morning, writing to Jane, while Mrs. Collins and Maria went to the village. She heard a ring at the door and was putting her letter away when the door opened and, to her very great surprise, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Darcy alone, entered the room.
He seemed astonished too at finding her alone and apologized, saying that he had thought all the ladies were at home.
They then sat down and, after a polite question by Elizabeth, seemed in danger of total silence. It was absolutely necessary to think of something to say. At last Elizabeth said, “How very suddenly you all left Netherfield last November, Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley and his sisters were well, I hope, when you left London.”
“Perfectly so—I thank you.”
She received no other answer—and after a short pause added, “I hear that Mr. Bingley will not return to Netherfield again.”
“I have never heard him say so. But he probably will spend little time there in future. I should not be surprised if he were to give it up.”
Elizabeth, having nothing else to say, was now determined to leave the trouble of finding a subject to him. With long pauses, they discussed the Parsonage, the journey from Longbourn and the county of Kent. The discussion was ended by the entrance of Charlotte and her sister. The presence of Darcy alone with Elizabeth surprised them. Mr. Darcy explained the mistake he had made and, after sitting a few minutes without saying much to anybody, went away.
“Oh, yes,” said Elizabeth. “Mr. Darcy is extremely kind to Mr. Bingley and takes a great deal of care of him.”
“Care of him! Yes, I really believe Darcy does take care of him in some ways. I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that Darcy was talking about Bingley.”
“What is it you mean?”
“What Darcy told me was merely this: that he was pleased to have lately saved a friend from a most unwise marriage. No names were mentioned, but I thought it might be Bingley because they were together all summer.”
“Did Mr. Darcy give you his reasons for this interference?”
“I understood there were some very strong objections against the lady. But he only told me what I have now told you.”
Elizabeth made no answer, and walked on, her heart swelling with anger, until they reached the Parsonage. There, shut in her own room, she could think without interruption of what she had heard. She had never doubted that Darcy had been concerned in the separation of Mr. Bingley and Jane. But she had always thought Miss Bingley was the chief organizer. If Darcy was correct, however, he was the cause of all that Jane had suffered and still continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world.
“There were some very strong objections against the lady,” Colonel Fitzwilliam had said. To Jane herself there could be no possible objection. She was all loveliness and goodness, with excellent intelligence and charming manners. Nor could anything be said against her father. When she thought of her mother, Elizabeth felt less confident. But she was sure that Mr. Darcy’s pride was more concerned with rank than with intelligence. His strongest objections to Jane must be because she had one uncle who was only a country lawyer and another who was in business in London.
Her unhappiness and tears gave her a headache. This, and her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, made her decide not to go to Rosings for tea that afternoon, although Mr. Collins could not hide his fear that Lady Catherine would be displeased by her absence.
