“But he is a man who does his duty as he sees it,” Mr. Bennet said. “We have established that he is a gentleman who is as contrary as I am, but with more principles.”
“I did not make any claim about you,” Mr. Darcy said.
“Now, now, let us not engage in any sort of disguise. Youthoughtthat.” Mr. Bennet shrugged. “But you have answered the question I hadforyou. And we must go to the other room to watch everyone dance. Do you two mean to dance?”
“The third set,” Elizabeth said. “If Mary is agreeable Darcy shall dance with her once she is done with Mr. Collins.”
Mr. Bennet rolled his eyes. “Jove do not worry so much upon my wife’s tender nerves—I shall manage her. Dance as soon as the next set begins and have a happy time.”
Darcy did ask Miss Mary if she would dance with him after this set, but he did not pursue the other sisters for a request while standing near Elizabeth, even though he planned to.
When they stepped out onto the floor, Elizabeth hesitated at first, and she looked about to watch and follow the other dancers. However, she had a natural sense of rhythm, and within minutes she easily enough stepped through the dance, though not with the polished fineness that could only be given by many hours of practice under the eye of a tutor who slapped your hand with a stick when you made any significant mistake.
Darcy took joy in Elizabeth’s evident joy at how the steps came easier and easier. She looked at him with a brilliant smile.
She was happy.
“We must have conversation,” Elizabeth said. “To stand across for ten minutes without saying a word, everyone must think us ridiculous.”
“I believe they must be too preoccupied in admiringyouto think any such thing.”
She blushed redly, and Darcy had a sense that he said too much, but at the same time he wished her to understand herselfas admirable, and to know that any person of sense would look upon her as an attractive creature.
“Books or Greek?” Darcy asked.
“Books or Greek! In a ballroom! We cannot speak of books at a ball. That would be wholly too ordinary. I speak of books all the time.”
“Then let us talk about your cousin, he seems very much the sort of man my Aunt Catherine would be happy to have asherrector.”
“It is so odd to watch him sit next to Mary. I do not know if she has decided whether she will accept him, or even if he has determined to offer. But I think she almost likes his speeches. And he certainly is a man who will listen when she gives him orders.”
“A great many words,” Darcy said. “I am afraid that I just recalled a matter which I must speak to you upon. I saw you making a new acquaintance the other day when Bingley and I rode into town. At the time I thoughtlessly only wished to cut him and show my disregard for him, and thus I did not consider that I ought to warn you against Mr. Wickham.”
Elizabeth frowned. Her eyes then shot around until they settled on a corner. He looked over and found Mrs. Bennet looking upon them with her own frown.
Much of Elizabeth’s happiness seemed to be evaporating.
Darcy said quickly, “I do hope that you are not... He has a charming manner. He is most unlike me in his ability to easily enter amiable conversation with strangers, and particularly to flirt and flatter women. Perhaps he has—”
Elizabeth grinned, that momentary cloud dissipating. “You consider yourself particularly unable to flirt and flatter?” She seemed clearly very amused by this. “I tell you, Mr. Darcy, I would not see your manners changed for a thousand pounds sterling.”
He smiled back at her, warmed by this approval, though not wholly sure in what way to take it. “I do wish you to be cautious around Mr. Wickham. He has been the ruination of more than one young and unprotected woman.”
“Such a man?” Elizabeth replied. “I think I need fear nothing from Mr. Wickham. My benefactress and Lady Lucas may be his dupes, butIam not. I do not know the details of what happened with that living that he says ought to have been his, but I think too highly of your character to imagine you acting in the manner he accused you of.”
This brought a severe frown to Darcy’s face. “Has he been spreading such stories around? And finding willing ears?”
“Mr. Darcy,” she was smiling at him again, “I hope this does not give you pain, but you are not well liked by the neighborhood. There are many who think you to be very proud, and to consider yourself better than the gentry here—they do not like to be treated in a manner that reminds them of how they treat those they see beneath themselves—and your failure to dance every dance at the Assembly Ball could only ever be forgotten if you were to marry the daughter of a local squire.”
“Surely it is not so bad. They cannot in reason expect every man to happily dance with strangers.”
“I give you the common opinion.Ishall venture no judgement upon whether it is fair to leave young ladies to languish merely because they have not been given consequence by other young men.”
Darcy laughed. “Though you refrain from stating it, I guess at your opinion on that point.”
“Yes, but only there. You are proud, but your income is far greater. It is beneficial to the soul of Mrs. Bennet and Lady Lucas to have someone who does not treat them as being of great consequence because they are rich in a place where no oneelse is. I do not at all mind that you never seem to forget your position.”
This justification of Darcy’s mode of presenting himself at once suggested a deficiency in both his behavior and Elizabeth’s education. Heoughtto think on it more deeply later. “Has Mr. Wickham merely told a story of a living refused, and nothing else?”
