At least this time Mary blushed half as deep as Elizabeth. Colonel Fitzwilliam spoke easily to them both.
The whole time he spoke in a mix of flirtation, real questions, and well-informed opinions. Elizabeth hardly knew what to say. The whole situation was too novel to be comfortable. Her exposure to Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcyoughtto have made her feel comfortable when meeting the great, but Mr. Darcy was simplyMr. Darcyfor her. And besides, he never flirted with her and never said more than he thought or felt.
In Hertfordshire, she had always been firmly in her position as Mr. Bennet’s unfortunate ward, and Mrs. Bennet’s favorite person to send to collect things.
These two gentlemen treated her with the attention due to the chief unmarried female of a house, and what was more, they acted with authentic appreciation for her looks and manners. Elizabeth had never been treated in such a way.
Only...Mr. Darcy did not speak often. She would like to hear his voice more. He made no effort to flirt. He did frown much.
After fifteen minutes of this conversation the viscount said, “Business calls! I must posthaste return to my father. His annoyance at my merely having delayed an extra night in London shall be a grand thing to see.” He bowed deeply toElizabeth and Mary, and said, “Miss Elizabeth, Mrs. Collins, I am very happy to have met you both. Miss Elizabeth, I still swear that we met somewhere. Further, I hope that we shall meet again before you have left the neighborhood.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam likewise made his bow. “Iam more blessed, for I am certain to see you both again, as I shall make sure to ask Lady Catherine that you all be invited to dinner frequently.”
At last Darcy spoke once more. He gravely offered letters to Mary and Elizabeth that Mrs. Bingley had franked via Darcy’s carriage. He then bowed, solemnly told Elizabeth in a tight voice she looked very well and in good health. He made a like, equally solemn bow to Mary, and then departed with the other two.
“I must thankyoufor this compliment,” Mary said as Mr. Collins accompanied the gentlemen out to the gate, and then on to the lane. “Mr. Darcy and his companions would not have come so quickly to seeme.”
“If he came to see me, why did he barely speak?” Elizabeth replied.
The raised eyebrows with which Mary replied made Elizabeth laugh. Teasing, teasing man. And she could have no interest in him in any case.
“I do hope,” Mary said, “for your sake, that they prevail upon Lady Catherine to invite us to dine with them.”
The next day when Miss de Bourgh drove about on her ordinary course around the park in her phaeton, and stopped by the gate, Mary returned with the news that if they could prepare themselves in such a short time, they were invited to dine with them this afternoon.
There was, of course, no question: Theycoulddress themselves in the course of several hours.
While Mr. Collins made an effort to relieve any anxiety Elizabeth might feel on the introduction, by informing her thatLady Catherine by no means expected those who were of a station beneath her in the world to dress to the standards of finery that she herself always maintained—Lady Catherine’s appearance was always all that was proper, all that was elegant, all that was worthy of a woman of her station and consequence—shehad no desire for her guests to make a pretense of equality in their female toilettes.
This speech did nothing to change Elizabeth’s anxiety, neither for good nor for ill. It was not onLady Catherine’saccount that she eagerly studied the red lips, dark eyes, and beribboned hair in the mirror. It was not forLady Catherine’ssake that she made slight changes to the fit her dress so it would appear as fetching as she could make it.
Elizabeth could not stop herself.
However, the chief interest that Elizabeth couldacknowledgeto herself was to observe howhebehaved with Miss de Bourgh. Elizabeth was yet to be introduced to that young lady, yet her appearance was familiar from the daily stops by the rectory’s gate. Furthermore, Elizabeth had once been in the garden when she came by, and the great heiress had noticed her and in reply Elizabeth had made a curtsey, as she believed Mr. Collins would expect her to do.
Mr. Bennet would think the whole ridiculous.
It seemed to Elizabeth that it could not be an affection for that lady’spersonwhich had drawn Mr. Darcy to accept the engagement with her.
But he was a great man!
A man not inclined to simply judge matters at the surface level. There was no mystery then that he would choose for himself a wife who had all of the virtues of heart and soul, and none of those of beauty and freshness.
Yet, from all that she had heard and seen of Miss de Bourgh’sbehavior, Elizabeth could not help but also suspectthat it wasnotin fact her virtues, her high character, or her enlightened mind in which the charm lay.
What was left was family duty towards his cousin, the heiress of a great fortune.
But Elizabeth still had every, or at least a few, hopes that the evening would prove Anne de Bourgh to be a superior creature, fully deserving of a man such as Mr. Darcy, and prettier and livelier by far when viewed within a drawing room than she was when bundled in her coats against a warm spring morn.
Elizabeth’s dress was the pale blue silk dress that Mary had insisted on seeing her wear when she’d first arrived at Hunsford. The waistline was trimmed with delicate lace, the fabric glimmered in candlelight, cut in what Jane had solemnly informed them was the latest London fashion, and adorned with small pearl buttons along the back.
On an odd impulse, Elizabeth made her hair to look the way her mother wore her hair in the locket miniature. Pulled loosely back and tied at the neck, with a thick silk ribbon around the front of her hair. Elizabeth permitted herself to lightly dash cherry juice on her cheeks. Around her neck she wore the locket with the image of her mother inside.
Elizabeth stared for a while at the mirror. Her face mixed the familiar with something that she did not quite recognize herself in. Though her coloring was much darker, Elizabeth thought she could easily look like the sister of her mother’s appearance in the miniature.
Perhaps, given the sins she knew her mother to have committed, she shouldnotlike this similarity of appearance with a woman who she could barely remember. Elizabeth, however,washappy about it.
Mr. Collins said again, “Do not worry over your appearance. Lady Catherine does not expect you to be anythingexceptional. You cannot disappoint her. She will be happy enough to know you no matter how poorly you look.”
