“Oh, yes. That is a settled thing. As a customary matter he stays with his aunt for a week or two every year around Easter.”
“A most dutiful nephew,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “ThatI expect from him—I shall be most happy to see him, and think that an ample compensation, even if it prevents me from dining as often as I otherwise would have at his aunt’s table.”
“That is very proper of you,” Mr. Collins said, “to bear up under the news of misfortune.”
It was difficult, but possible, for Elizabeth to suppress her smile at that observation.
Elizabeth forced herself to pay attention to Mary, even though her spirits were all aflutter with the thought that she would soon see Mr. Darcy. And also, Miss Anne de Bourgh, who he was to marry. She very much hoped to find that woman a wholly superior creature.Thatwould be incomparably the best for her peace of mind.
Once the tour of the outdoors was done, Elizabeth was given a great tour of the housekeeping indoors. Here was the kitchen. Here the room where their maid lived, here was the arrangement they had for meals, here the set of shelves in the pantry, here the newly purchased stove upon which all was cooked, and here the way that they cleverly arranged to have the hot water for their baths heated with a minimum of additional labor.
In the little main room, Mary proudly showed the piano that Mr. Collins had purchased for her as a wedding present.
“At first,” Mr. Collins said as he explained the purchase, “Lady Catherine had thought it an extravagance, as Mrs.Collins would have been able to practice on the piano in the housekeeper’s room at Rosings and then been in no one’s way. But she withdrew her objections when we offered the consideration that this way Mrs. Collins will always be available if a parishioner calls requiring aid or council from my wife, and further the presence of the piano gives the whole of the house more of the aspect of a gentleman’s residence. After we explained all of this, Lady Catherine thought it a very pretty scheme indeed. Her Ladyship is very fond of music.”
“It is a tidy piece. Very well suited to the size of the room.”
“While small,” Mary said with delight, “it is new built. We ordered it directly from Broadwood, when we were in London I was able to play on many of the pianofortes they had for sale, and we decided directly on this one. While it is not so resonant, the sound is purer than the one at home, I mean at Longbourn. Do you wish to hear?”
“Oh, certainly.”
Mary sat and immediately began a piece that had always been a favorite of hers.
Sadly for Elizabeth’s determination to be the perfect guest, and to repay Mary’s delight in her presence with the proper attention to Mary’s interests, her rebel thoughts turned, with very few stray considerations on the purity of the notes or their lack of resonance, in one direction:
Mr. Darcy!
Mr. Darcy, here, in the same country, across the lane. Closer by far, in fact, than he had been at Netherfield.
What would his treatment of her be? Would that easy comradery and free conversation remain? Would the passage of time make him distant and quiet once more?
Perhaps she was presumptuous, but Elizabeth did not have any fear that he would pay her no attention.
Elizabeth knew that she had norightto his attention, nor reason to expect it. He had simply chosen to show her such attentions out of friendship, and if he did not continue to do so, she would have no cause to complain, not even to herself.
Of course, she could not wish to be his sole interest, nor even his chief interest—not when he was in the same house as the woman he was engaged to marry—but Elizabeth knew she would beamongsthis interests.Thatwould satisfy her.Thatwould give her cause for all the happiness she could hope for in this world.
It was around when Elizabeth had nobly determined to be easily satisfied that Mary finished the concerto and turned to the audience of Elizabeth and her husband.
Elizabeth’s claps were the more enthusiastic for her consciousness of having barely heard a note.
Mr. Collins’s praise seemed sincere, and as Mary stepped away from the piano and replaced the stool back under it, he said to Elizabeth, “It always gives me such exquisite delight to hear how well she plays. And so often as well! Each day I have the particular pleasure of being able to hear the lovely music while I write my sermons. I wonder how I could have found joy in this house when it was empty of such sound.”
Once the tour had been completed, and Mr. Collins went into his garden, Mary went up with Elizabeth to her room to look through the dresses that she had brought with her.
“Oh,” Mary exclaimed picking up a pale blue silk evening gown, “This is so very nice.”
“I thought I should have something that would not shame you when we dined at Rosings.” Elizabeth frowned at it. A part of her, a large part, still felt as though buying a dress new for herself, rather than adjusting something from another person, was a ridiculous extravagance. Who wassheto have such a dress? She had no right to expect such gifts from Mr. Bennet.
“Do put it on, I wish to see you in it.”
“Should I not wait for an appropriate occasion?”
“No.” Mary grinned. “I am now your elder as a married woman, and so I am well versed in the art of giving commands.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Are you happy, really happy?—no that is not how I should ask the question. Have you—”
“Truly I am,” Mary replied with a glow that convinced Elizabeth that she was. “The married state is delightful. Like nothing I could have imagined. And, well, uh, Mama told me things…about what I needed to tell Mr. Collins to do.” Mary’s face was very red. “When you marry, if you wish, I can tell you these things. I can assure you that the Almighty meant the married state to be a place of joy and happiness.”
