Nell looked quite frustrated as she glanced between Darcy, Lady Catherine, and Emily, who still sat in Elizabeth’s arms.
Darcy walked over to Nell, spoke to her for half a minute in a low voice, and then he said, “Come here, Emily.”
Emily squirmed to be put down, and she ran over to her father who picked her up, tossed her high in the air twice as she squealed, and then swung her about. Putting her down again, he said, “Now off you go to the nursery with Nell, and you’ll come down later in the evening after you eat. Nell will give you some of that cake you liked so much!”
“Cake!” cheered Emily, who happily went off with her nurse after having that promise made.
“And that is another matter,” Lady Catherine said. “A child must never be given leave to eat sweets. Only after they are an adult can their digestion manage sugar.”
“She likes the sugar very much,” Darcy replied. “And I do not permit her to eat an excess of pastries.”
“I never allowed Anne to eat any sweetmeats at all until she was four and ten,” Lady Catherine replied.
“AndIhave permitted Emily to eat cakes, and biscuits, sorbets and all matters of sugared delights frequently,” was Darcy’s reply.
“Her teeth shall rot out,” Lady Catherine prophesied.
“In moderation,” Darcy replied.
“But do dismiss the nurse before too much damage is done.”
“What damage?” was the clipped response.
“She has already formed a close attachment to the woman! You can see that clearly! It must be stopped, or else she will love a servant more than you.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam coughed and said, “Little chance of that, the way Darcy mothers the child. He dotes on her.”
“I do not adhere to this common notion,” Darcy said, “that a child must never be permitted to form a close attachment to any servant.”
“The lower orders do not have the delicacy and propriety of spirit which we have. That is why they are thelowerorders. When you allowmy grandchildto be alone with a servant, you expose her to notions and phrases that she cannot unhear.”
“And which notions are that? Which phrases specifically? Nell is an excellent woman, of excellent character, whose family has lived on my estate for generations, and her husband is a man of good character who Mrs. Reynolds depends on. I can trust her to not treat Emily in a way—”
“I do despise that name,” Lady Catherine replied peevishly. “Must you use it? Can you not refer to her as ‘the child?’ or ‘the girl’?”
Elizabeth winced.
The fact was that the behaviour of the two of them together was much like Elizabeth had expected to see. If she had not worried about Darcy’s feelings, she would have been delighted to watch the interplay.
Darcy’s jaw tightened, and from the way his eyes flashed, Elizabeth rather suspected that he wished to say something truly awful to his aunt.
“No matter how confident you might be in your nurse,” Lady Catherine added, “every family has a servant who they believe is different from the ordinary. But they make a terrible mistake when they allow their child to be too much in the presence of any servant, without the constant supervision of the parent. And worse, I have observed that you allow the girl to play with the woman’s own children. She will begin to think of herself as one ofthem.”
“One of who?” Elizabeth asked, unable to stop herself.
“Thelower orders.”
“Ah, yes. Likely,” Elizabeth replied. “Every gentlewoman who I know, who ever ran about in childhood with a servant’s child, believes herself to be required to milk cows, cook her own food, and spin her own thread.”
“Do not be impertinent with me, Miss Bennet.”
“I apologize,” Elizabeth said, carefully repressing her smile. “But I am not wholly certain… What do you mean when you say that Emily will think about herself as a member of the lower orders?”
“She will have no dignity. She will not keep a sufficient distance between herself and the servants. She will let them speak to her familiarly,” Lady Catherine replied.
“That is not likely,” Darcy replied. “As she grows, she will certainly learn the proper manner of behaviour amongst those of her dependents who she holds in great affection. Furthermore, I constantly supervise Emily, and I am not sure what you recommend for me to do, unless you wish me to bring her to dinner.”
“Hire a woman of good character and good family, a gentlewoman fallen on difficult times to take charge of her now that she is weaned. There is no further reason for her to be on any terms of intimacy with persons not well educated and of good blood, and whose legitimate ancestors cannot be traced back in all directions for at least four generations.”
