Due to her beauty, Miss Bennet was the only one of the group who anyone could imagine having a right to a gentleman of his consequence. That made Darcy particularly dislike offering to dance with her.
However, he was not dancing with the Bennet sisters for his own sake, nor for theirs. Elizabeth had asked him to dance with them all, and hewould.
Darcy came up to where Miss Bennet stood next to Mr. Bingley, and he asked in a tight voice if he might have the honorof dancing with her for the next dance during which she was unengaged.
“Certainly, but the next is the supper dance, and I am engaged for it with Mr. Bingley. Will you happily dance the one following?”
“That is acceptable.”
It was clear that Mr. Bingley was quite surprised by Darcy making the offer, and he smiled at him. “I am deuced glad to see you making more of an effort to be kind to the Bennet family. I saw you dancing with Miss Kitty. All of them are monstrous nice girls, are they not. Though Miss Bennet is the prettiest, without doubt.”
Miss Bennet blushed to be praised so directly, but she kept a clear smile which showed that she was not so greatly affected by the praise as he might have expected from the girl that Bingley had flirted with for a whole month.
The seating at the supper proved to be a mix of the fortunate and unfortunate. He sat close enough that he could easily see Elizabeth but not speak to her. And further, Mrs. Bennet and Lady Lucas were the parties between Darcy and Elizabeth.
For the whole dinner Mrs. Bennet loudly exclaimed to Lady Lucas about how delighted she was to have two daughters on the verge of marriage. “Mary is nice enough—though she is so plain. So very plain. Even with what she has done to improve, I do not trust Mr. Collins to come up to scratch—he ought to! He owes us some great favor, since he will receive Longbourn on the basis of an entail. I would be terribly ashamed to receive an estate which was merely entailed onme. But her hopes are nothing toJane’s.”
Mrs. Bennet engaged in a lengthy discourse upon the virtues of such a match, the excellence of Mr. Bingley, the excellence of his purse, the excellence of the chances that thiswould give her to throw her other daughters into the paths of many rich men, the closeness of Netherfield, and how fond Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst were of Jane.
Until now Mr. Darcy had not thought Bingley to have any serious intentions towards Miss Bingley. He had known her to be an object of interest to him, but not one whom he was prepared to marry.
Yet it seemed that the gossip of the town had now united them in matrimony, with only the date of the happy event still to be determined.
Darcy must speak to Mr. Bingley, to warn him that he must act to disentangle himself immediately if he did not mean to marry the girl.
But further, when Darcy looked at the couple and studied them, he found reason to worry that Bingley did in fact mean to marry the girl. Bingley’s conversation was enthused, was eager, and he looked at Miss Bennet in such a way as to suggest thatheknew what it was to love. Miss Bennet received these attentions with politeness, with sweet smiles, with acceptance of Bingley’s attentions.
But Darcy perceived no sign in her of particular attachment.
“The best of it,” Mrs. Bennet loudly said for the third time, “is that she shall throw the other girls into the paths of very rich men!”
Elizabeth had a harassed look.
Darcy met her eyes, and he made a slight smile. She smiled back and shrugged. Her mood clearly improved after this.
That Mrs. Bennet was vulgar and determined to speak loudly of hopes that ought to be kept private threw no shade upon Elizabeth.
The nature of that family was well enough known to Darcy that he could understand the situation. For Miss Bennet to refuse the attentions of a very eligible gentleman would be impossible. Perhaps Miss Bennet did not wish to. Perhaps she was as mercenary as her mother.
Darcy determined that he needed to follow Bingley immediately to London and make every effort that he could to dissuade him both from the match, and from returning to Hertfordshire.
This made him feel sad, as he did not wish his acquaintance with Elizabeth to end so suddenly. Yet, it was a matter of a duty to a friend to do the best that he might to protect him from a serious error of judgement. If Bingley married a woman who was indifferent to him, the consequences of that decision would haunt him for the whole course of his life. Even if this made Elizabeth’s life worse, he had a duty to his friend, and he had a duty to be honest and say what he had truly observed.
That Darcy thought ill of the whole family due to their treatment of Elizabeth tended to convince him that anyone marrying one of the Bennet girls would be making a mistake.
When the servants removed the plates, and the announcement that the dancing would resume in the other room was made, Darcy immediately approached Miss Bennet, and with a bow claimed her for the next set.
Bingley grinned widely. “You shall soon be best of friends with Miss Bennet—note that I did not forget myself this time.”
Miss Bennet smiled at Bingley good naturedly. “I have observed your success.”
“But off,” Bingley added. “Though I am not at all confident that I shall live through your absence for two sets.”
“I fear,” Miss Bennet replied smiling, “that it will be four sets, for Mr. Gould has my hand for the set after Mr. Darcy.”
But though it looked as though the two might very happily continue to speak, Miss Bennet went with Darcy to the dance floor, while Mr. Bingley danced with one of the nieces of Mrs. Long.
Darcy felt a little anger towards this imperturbable woman. Something about Bingley’s manner now made him sure that his friend’s heart had been deeply touched.
