“I can dance well enough. But as for the rest, no.”
“French, German and the modern languages?”
Elizabeth stared at the table before answering. She pushed the pennies side to side. And then that change came over her again. As Darcy watched, she once more ceased to be the devoted and frightened servant of Mrs. Bennet and turned into the quite odd, but charming and lively girl that he thought was far nearer Elizabeth’s true self.
“My dear Miss Bingley,” Elizabeth said her head high, and meeting the gazes all about. “I am eccentric, not unaccomplished. While I have no notion of how to speak any of the modern languages, though I read French well enough, I speak the ancient languages very well.” She then said something which it took Darcy half a minute to decipher from the Greek.
“But for mine own part, it was Greek to me?” Darcy asked laughing.
“Bravo.” She clapped and grinned. “Mr. Bennet says that it is rare for gentlemen to be able to speak the old languages at all, mostly they just read in them.”
“Thatisa book in Greek?” Bingley asked in a horrified tone. “The one you brought? I thought so, but I could not believe it, I refused to believe it.”
With another laugh, and satisfied air, Elizabeth replied, “I began a reread ofThe Iliadlast night.”
Bingley laughed. “You are more like Darcy thanme.”
“All your accomplishments were given to you byMr. Bennet’stutelage, and not superintended by Mrs. Bennet?” Miss Bingley inquired.
“Chiefly.”
“And dare I ask if you have other odd abilities, beyond that to read Greek.”
“Latin. Also,cogito ergo sum.”
Bingley remembered enough of classes on philosophy to chuckle with Darcy, while Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst both look confused.
“Mr. Bennet and I make a point of talking in one or the other for a half hour every day.”
“How useful,” Miss Bingley said in a tone that suggested she thought that it was not useful at all. She also perhaps thought that the gentlemen were now a little too impressed with Elizabeth. “And I must imagine that you were also taught to shoot and ride a horse while following the hounds?”
“I’ve never liked horses. Awful large creatures. Quite too far from the ground when seated on them. But I am recognized as one of the best shots in the neighborhood. I’ve also a little muff pistol that Mr. Bennet taught me how to use quite well. He insists I bring it with me everywhere. It is in my baggage upstairs.”
Both Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst were shocked by that. “Why would you bring a gun with you to visit?”
“Did you not hear,” Elizabeth said laughing, “Mr. Bennet insists. I would feel quite odd carrying it everywhere, so I do not.”
“Why does he insist upon this?” Darcy asked. “Few of the difficulties that a gentlewoman faces can be prevented by the use of a gun.” A pistol would have offered no aid to his sister, for example, when she nearly eloped with his father’s godson.
“How strange,” Miss Bingley said. “My point, however, is proven. You have not been educated in the normal manner of a gentlewoman, and despite the bluestocking oddity of the skills you do claim, I do not think that would make you what is commonly referred to as ‘highly accomplished’.”
“I think that is all a high accomplishment, and the next time we go shooting I promise to invite you out with me and Darcy.” Bingley said, “Caroline, nothing you say will make me think otherwise. Have you any other odd accomplishments, Miss Elizabeth?”
“I can manage not only with simple sums, and not even merely with algebra. But also, I can manage my calculus, both integral and differential. And I have read all of Newton’sPrincipiaand I fancy myself, perhaps incorrectly, to have understood it. So now you may despise me, however much you will.”
“I do not despise you,” Mr. Darcy said. “Rather the opposite.”
Elizabeth looked at him with a smile.
“Tell me of the younger girls,” Miss Bingley asked, perhaps deciding that Miss Elizabeth’s education, unorthodox as it was, would not offend her brother’s broad sensibilities. “We hardly know them, but they seem quite energetic.”
Darcy asked out of real interest, “Did Miss Lydia really approach me in that way as a joke?”
“Ah, well…” Elizabeth flushed. “Possibly I should have refrained from telling that story. Though it is quite amusing, I think. But while high spirited, Lydia never intends any ill.” And then in a different manner, Elizabeth said firmly, “And I like Mary very much, and she hardly gets the attention that she ought.”
Neither do you.
Darcy made a strong note in his mind to remember the name of the plain sister.
