“Nonsense,” Lady Catherine said. “And I’ll have you say nothing of that sort in one of your sermons.”
“No, no, of course I will not!” Mr. Collins replied. “Not if you think it better if I do not.”
“And I observe,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “that the woman can be at least the equal of man in matters of command.”
Lady Catherine glared at her nephew. “I learned the habit of command from the same source as you, the long tradition of Fitzwilliam blood and service.”
“Madam, I do not make sport of you, I am wholly serious,” Colonel Fitzwilliam replied, grinning in a way that suggested that he was not at all serious.
Elizabeth determined that she did like Colonel Fitzwilliam.
Darcy looked at her with an odd expression, there was something in his eyes that made Elizabeth’s stomach feel hollow, and she felt a sudden tilt in her world. Something had changed in him.
“Darcy, now,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “you must take the opposite position. You will defend the claim that women are inferior to men in all mental points, or at their best their equals in a few.”
“Must I? — A man can feel. Miss Bennet,” Darcy said, “a man can know what it is like to be helpless, to be forced by society to do that which he does not want, to have a fate he cannot defeat.”
“Can a man have that which he loves most ripped from him, without him able to do anything? — It can happen to a man… would you say that it has happened to you?”
Darcy did not reply. But his eyes… it was impossible for Elizabeth to be angry, properly angry, with him when he looked at her with those eyes.
She turned away. She looked at Colonel Fitzwilliam. “And what is the place of women in this case? What is she to do when in your theory males are the superior in all matters?”
“She is to fulfil the role that is already ordained for her by society and the Almighty,” Mr. Collins offered.
“But Colonel Fitzwilliam, what isyourview?”
“I had asked Mr. Darcy to serve as the chief barrister for complete female inferiority, I do not offer to undertake the task. And Darcy, you must.”
Looking between Elizabeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcy shrugged. “Supposing the premises to be true — which I do not — I would follow the notion proposed by Ricardo of comparative advantage. Even if the woman is inferior in every single point, so long as there are places where the severity of her inferiority isless, or where a high quality of execution is of less importance, she might do those tasks.”
“I had not taken you to be a man who thought child rearing to be of no importance,” Elizabeth immediately replied.
“It is a case where her degree of inferiority is less,” Darcy replied, with a manner that put her to mind of her father when he argued a point for the joy of the debate, rather than out of any conviction, “not where the importance of the task is less. Those areas where her muscular inferiority makes the largest difference, such as working in the fields or digging ditches, should be the focus of a man.”
“Ah, and in a like manner women should become predominant in those fields where the man’s greater similarity to a beast of burden is of no benefit. Cases such as the production of scholarly tomes, arguing at law, and of course in parliament,” Elizabeth agreed. “Colonel Fitzwilliam, how important is muscular power upon the battlefield?”
“As much as I would wish to agree with you on this matter,” the officer replied, “if only to stymie my cousin, quickly loading a musket, digging fieldworks, and marching fifteen miles in a day while carrying rations and an ample supply of gunpowder are all matters of physical strength. I would trust many women to stand up under fire. I think fewer could keep up a rate of four volleys a minute.”
“Then,” Elizabeth said grandly, “I shall reserve the right of being shot at to the gentlemen, while only keeping for my own sex the matters of leadership. I do not believe a general needs to be any great physical specimen?”
Colonel Fitzwilliam replied laughingly, “Not at all. No, that is no requirement.”
Darcy grinned at her, though Elizabeth thought that Lady Catherine was less pleased.
Mr. Collins exclaimed, “Cousin Elizabeth, do not let your high spirits run away with you! You speak nonsense.”
“It is Mr. Darcy who speaks nonsense,” Elizabeth replied. “He is the one who claims that men are superior to women in all respects.”
“I do hope you have not forgotten that I was ordered by my cousin to serve as the advocate for that view.”
“As I said, Darcy sincerely believes, without any doubt, that there is no possibility of a woman being superior in any respect, except that of her ability to put a child to suck. Fie, fie, fie! Surely not! The Almighty would not have arranged it so. No, I demand that we are either different in essentials, or that the difference is a matter of convention.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam laughingly said, “With such opinions as you attribute to him, the question is whether Darcy might convince any woman to marry him, not whether we might convince him to marry again.”
“It has been my observation that many women prefer men who loudly profess their superiority,” Darcy replied.
“Fie, fie!” Elizabeth laughed. “And you cannot claimthatis not your true opinion. You are severe on my sex.”
