He had continued to do a great deal of thinking, but it was all variations upon the same themes: He loved Elizabeth; seeking his own happiness was not wrong; he often was a fool.
Try to be less foolish in the future.
Darcy suspected that would not be such easy advice to follow. While making such a request might be bringing coals to Newcastle, he would strongly encourage Elizabeth to tell him any time she noticed him being particularly foolish.
When the parties separated after dinner, neither he nor Colonel Fitzwilliam were particularly desirous of sitting over tobacco and cognac, and so after a ceremonial fifteen minutesof listening to Mr. Collins praise them and their aunt, Darcy departed for the nursery to retrieve Emily, who exclaimed “Be-ne,” on seeing him, and immediately grabbed his hand so that he could help her walk down the stairs.
Which she did, jumping three of them at a time, and doing her best to pull her father off his balance.
Fortunately, she did not even weigh two stone, so her efforts were in vain, no matter how enthusiastically she pursued this end.
Darcy gained little further opportunity to speak to Elizabeth as Emily immediately took her hand, walked her about the doll house, and involved Elizabeth in a game where Emily was feeding thin gruel, Darcy presumed, from an empty wooden bowl to her doll.
Occasionally, Elizabeth was offered the imagined substance, and she always made a show of lip smacking delight.
Emily did not need a mother, but he thought she would like very much to have a Be-ne in her life. That was, of course, if he was not presumptuous in thinking that Elizabeth would actually give him a favourable reply when he offered once more for her hand the next day.
The main point, Darcy thought, was that he must avoid saying anything foolish and offensive. No speeches about how lowering her connections in trade were — besides, from what Elizabeth had said, he would like them. Certainly nothing should be said about how frustrating he found her mother. Darcy was well aware that Elizabeth found her mother deeply frustrating, but she was still most dear to her, as she ought to be. The womanwasher mother, and it would be Darcy’s place to respect her as such.
Assuming, of course, that he received an affirmative response.
Darcy began to feel nervous once more.
Near what Darcy thought would be the end of the evening an increasingly sleepy Emily started to scream loudly, in joy, as she ran about the room, and Lady Catherine took it upon her to grab the girl as she ran past, and shout at her. “Be quiet! Children are to be seen not heard!”
Emily tried to pull away.
Lady Catherine shook her again, and said, “Promise that you will keep your noise to a reasonable level. You understand me! I know you understand me. Say that you will behave as a decent girl. Decent girls do not run about everywhere.”
Emily sobbed, and Lady Catherine went to shake her again.
Darcy grabbed his girl from her grandmother and bounced her up and down on his shoulder until she calmed. “Madam,” Darcy said, “I will beg you kindly to leave such decisions about how to teach Emily to behave to me.”
“She makes a spectacle of herself.”
“It is a matter of harmless pleasure for her. If she climbed over someone, or became a bother, I would curb her, but, madam, I believe you chiefly are frustrated that Emily is not behaving in a decorous manner, not that she was damaging the pleasures of others.”
“She’ll be a hoyden, and then she will run off with your steward’s son, just likethat girldid, and then everything I ever did in my life will have been wasted. My daughter is already dead, do not force me to believe that I will eventually wish that my granddaughter had died.”
Darcy opened his mouth to give an angry retort. But something about what Lady Catherine said struck him as terribly poignant and sad. Instead, he said, “It pains me to see that you think your whole life will have been wasted if you do not approve of Emily’s future behaviour.”
She stared at him, and Darcy was keenly aware that the whole room, including Elizabeth, watched this argument.
Lady Catherine finally said, “Our purpose is the children we bear. And—”
Suddenly Jane exclaimed, “Oh, oh, oh. That hurts. Lord!”
The eyes of Elizabeth’s sister went very wide.
Jane then let out her breath and pressed her hand against her forehead. “Do forgive me, Lady Catherine.”
The woman unsteadily stood up, wavering on her feet as Mr. Collins came to her side.
There, a pool of wetness had soaked through Jane’s dress and into the sofa below her. At first Darcy had a spasm of fear that it was blood, but upon coming closer it was clearly more like water.
Jane’s water had broken.
“Oh no, oh no!” Mr. Collins exclaimed. He dropped Jane’s arm and pointed at the pool of liquid. “The cushion shall be ruined. Dear Jane, you ought not have sat down! Look what you have done! Lady Catherine, do forgive me. I shall do anything I must to make amends for what my wife has done. And we shall return to the parsonage, immediately, so that—”
