“Come now, Darcy.” Sykes patted Darcy familiarly on the arm. “I’ve seen how you notice pretty girls. You are no molly. Had to marry her for the money, and the family, but she was nothing to look at — not like Miss Bennet here.”
A glance at Miss Bennet showed that Elizabeth was clearly disgusted by the gentleman.
Mr. Collins entered their conversation and said, “Mr. Darcy, it is always a matter ecstatic to see a scion of the noble Fitzwilliam line. I have also insisted that Mrs. Collins accompany us to town, as walking a great deal is salutary for pregnant women.”
“So I have read,” Darcy replied.
“If only wealthy women generally would walk more frequently, in the way that peasant girls do, the scourge of Evewould be eliminated, and none would die in the childbed. Lady Catherine herself told me that her own daughter, your wife, likely died because she did not walk so frequently before her confinement as she ought to have. Mistakes on the part of those who care for them are the chief cause of deaths amongst children and women. But I am so blessed as to have little cause for concern for my own Mrs. Collins.”
And so saying he turned to his wife and elaborately bowed to her.
“Diamond of the first water!” Mr. Sykes exclaimed, also looking at Mrs. Collins, who cheerily spoke with a smiling Bingley. “Even in the middle of growing her animal, she’s a better looker than Miss Bennet. Not, by Gad,” he said to Elizabeth, “that you cannot claim to be a fine looking woman yourself. By Gad, you are a finely curved and worthy specimen. By my lights, I’d stare at you for hours without boredom.”
The twist of Elizabeth’s mouth suggested that the compliment had not fallen on fertile soil.
Darcy took the opportunity to step between the two of them in a gesture that he thought was rather awkward and obvious, and he took Elizabeth’s arm. “And where were you going to in town?”
Sykes exclaimed, “No, no! You’ll not cut me out. I was walking with Miss Bennet.”
That urge to slap the man and pray that he offered a challenge in turn returned.
Rather to Darcy’s surprise, a look of sobriety briefly entered Sykes eyes, and he backed away from Darcy’s glare, slightly raising his hands. “All friends here.”
Mr. Bingley exclaimed, “You all are invited to my ball on this coming Tuesday. Both you, Mr. Collins, and you, Mr. Sykes. You are acquainted with Darcy? Very good, very good. More friends always make the world a better place. I love friends!”
“A ball? By Gad, I love a good ball,” Mr. Sykes happily exclaimed, stumbling over the curb as he did so in a way that nearly had him topple into a small pile of horse droppings. “Miss Bennet, I’ll have you dance the first two with me. By Gad, I do insist on the first two.”
Darcy felt a strong surge of what he suspected to be jealousy.
Ridiculous, Elizabeth was fully aware of how terrible Mr. Sykes's character was — the gentleman made no effort to hide his awfulness — and Darcy would be sure to tell her about the tales of his mistreatment of his previous wives. She was in no danger from such a man, even if he did own a fine estate worth three thousand a year.
Seeming to see no option, perhaps especially with Mr. Collins staring peculiarly at her, but to assent, Elizabeth agreed to dance the first two with Mr. Sykes.
They came up to Mrs. Phillips's door, and the woman immediately invited all of them to enter, saying that any friend of her nieces’ was a dear friend of her own.
Bingley now recollected that he had many more persons who he wished to deliver the invitations for the ball to, and that as much delight as he had in the company of Mrs. Collins and all the rest of them, he ought to fulfil his responsibilities, but that he expected to see each and every person here at his ball, and he would be gravely offended if any of them did not attend without ample excuse.
That was said with such a laugh and a smile as to make it impossible for any of them to be frightened of Bingley’s future disapprobation.
Darcy did not wish to leave Elizabeth alone with Mr. Sykes, but it seemed he had no choice in the matter.
Mrs. Phillips loudly offered an invitation to everyone in the party to attend a nice comfortable noisy game of lottery tickets that evening, with a bit of hot supper afterwards.
To Darcy’s enormous surprise he agreed to attend, even though the prospect of a “comfortable noisy game” sounded wholly unappealing, and even though he would not bring Emily to join such a crowd.
Bingley of course also very cheerfully promised to come, and to bring his sisters if they wished to come.
Elizabeth looked at Darcy oddly, as though she were surprised that he had agreed to come to the card party.
He tilted his hat to her when she went into her aunt’s house, and said, “Till this evening.”
A warm smile and a promise of “this evening” was Darcy’s reward.
That evening Darcy and Bingley arrived rather later than Darcy had wished to, as Bingley’s sisters at first planned to attend, and then at the last minute Miss Bingley changed her mind, and spent twenty minutes attempting to convince them all that it would be a tiresome, hot, vulgar, unpleasant, with little elegance, low stakes at the cards, and a supper following that would not be worthy of the august title offood.
Those final two considerations were sufficient to convince Mr. Hurst thathewished to have no part in the evening entertainments. What purpose cards, if the stakes were not high enough to make them interesting, and what purpose had a meal if the food was not the best food that he could acquire for the occasion?
Darcy listened to the whole argument with ever increasing annoyance. Finally, Miss Bingley turned to him with a bright smile and said, “My dear, dear Darcy, you cannot wish to abandon your sweet Emily for the whole night for such an event?”
