Mr. Darcy’s face stiffened. Elizabeth realized this was a subject he did not like.
Your spirits are always too high! Be more cautious when you speak with him.
Except Elizabeth thought that advice to herself was quite misguided. What was the point of conversation with an interesting gentleman such as Mr. Darcy if she must remain guarded the entire time? Why would she wish to deepen the acquaintance if she could not speak freely?
A view much the opposite of Charlotte’s advice. And thus, Elizabeth would end her life as a spinster, and she was resigned to it.
“It is my view,” Darcy said after contemplation, “that a man can do anything of importance for a child that a woman can. Emily would gain no great benefit if I remarried.”
Darcy’s stated intention to never marry again made Elizabeth feel sharper and annoyed. “But if a man can do everything that a woman might do, you must also think that a woman can do anything of importance that a man can do. As a matter of symmetry.”
“That does not follow at all,” Darcy said. “It would be possible for a man to be superior in some respects, and equal in all others. Note: I do not say thisisthe case.”
“You think it is the case,” Elizabeth insisted, suddenly wanting him to say something that would give her a good and proper cause to be annoyed with him. “You do think that men are superior to women in every important point.”
Darcy shrugged. “I do not know.”
“I see the true reason you shall not marry again — you do not like the fairer sex.”
Darcy frowned.
Elizabeth realized her tone had been rather too harsh, and she began to apologize.
However, Mr. Darcy held up his hand, and shook his head. “I am not offended. No, what you said only made me wonder…” After a handful of seconds, he slowly continued, “I suppose… I do not. With exceptions. Anne was one… Women often practice deceitful arts and allurements for the sake of attaching eligible men — nearly every unmarried woman I have met since Emily was born sought to make a display of how strong her maternal instincts are. I have heard a dozen women’s long speeches about a woman’s desperate desire to take care of a child, any child.”
Elizabeth pressed her lips together. She was suddenly quite amused. “Inowcan sketch your character.”
“Yes?” Darcy tilted his head curiously.
“Let me gladly inform you that I know nothing about children. I confess to having the same warm glow in my breast upon holding an infant that almost every woman has, but it is not an experience I unceasingly seek out or even have thrust upon me frequently. I donotknow for certain that I would be an excellent mother, perhaps I am too flighty, or too cheerful for a task requiring such seriousness, diligence, and unceasing devotion to the wellbeing of another, and beyond that…”
She frowned and lapsed into silence.
“Beyond that?”
Elizabeth wanted to say this to someone. She had never spoken it before.
She leaned up closer to Darcy’s head, to ensure that Mr. Morris couldn’t hear her, nor Mrs. Long’s niece sprawled in a chair on the opposite side of the room with a copy ofUdolpho’ssecond volume in front of her face. “I truly do not wish to become like my mother.”
Darcy looked at her steadily. Then he said quietly, “I hope that Emily will never have a similar thought about me.”
Charlotte returned to the room, and Mr. Darcy left to take his carriage back to Netherfield. Even though she had not hada chance to read further inThe Monk, Elizabeth found that she was quite pleased with the afternoon.
Chapter Five
Upon her return to Longbourn, Elizabeth found the house all in a buzz. Her mother stood in the hallway, her face all flustered, as she waved wildly a letter from Mr. Collins. “Jane and Collins shall begin a sudden visit in two days! Two days, to prepare everything for the master! And with so few servants. Not thatheshallexcuse anything on that basis, even though it is wholly his fault. Only two days! I do believe I shall go distracted. Distracted.”
“Now, now, Mama,” Elizabeth said comfortingly, though she sincerely wished Jane was still here to do the office of calming their mother when she fluttered. “All shall be put in good order, and he cannot expect any sort of perfection in the house when he has given us leave to hire so few servants.”
“Oh, men! Men! They are all unreasonable awful creatures. Your Papa always expected everything to be done ridiculously cheap, and he never understood when anything he took it in his mind to consider important was poorly done. They are all the same!”
“I suppose then,” Elizabeth replied impishly, “that I ought to join Mr. Darcy in taking a vow to never marry.”
“Oh, that man! He was so rude to us all. And to not realize how his poor girl suffers. You can see how disordered her rearing is without a mother to superintend over it — he ought to marry one ofus. You are pretty enough to be thesecondwife to even a very great gentleman. Even without any fortune.”
Elizabeth refrained from telling Mama at this point that she had met the gentleman again and conversed with him at length.
The fact was that she had been subtly annoyed on the walk back home, even though she had enjoyed her conversation with him enormously. She liked Mr. Darcy too much, and it would beeasy, much too easy, for her to forget herself and become open to a deep heartbreak. She ought to be more cautious around him.
