‘I see. Thank you for explaining so fully. Is there anything else?’
Mary’s eyes became shadowed as she sighed and said, ‘There is.’
~T~
‘There is something else, although we did not find out about it until we came to London where we learnt that you have a reputation for falling in and out of love on a regular basis.’
‘Yes, what of it. I did nothing that I do not see other young men do. We all pay attention to ladies. We all flirt a little and then we move on.’
‘Mr Bingley, those other young men flirt with many young ladies, do they not?’
‘Indeed. I thought it was quite despicable how they could be so flighty,’ declared Bingley earnestly.
The sisters all gave him looks of varying levels of horror. ‘Those young men who flirt with many ladies do not raise the expectations of any one of them, since they all can see that those young men are not serious.’ Elizabeth stopped and shook her head in disbelief. ‘You on the other hand focused on a single lady at a time. By ignoring all others, you raised the expectations of that lady that you were seriously interested in her. You raised the expectations of her family and her society. They all expected you to make an offer for the lady very soon. But then… poof… you lose interest and move on to the next lady. ‘
She transfixed him with a hard stare. ‘What did you think would happen?’
‘Well… I expected that she would flirt with the next gentleman until she met up with one where the interest was mutual.’
‘As simple as that?’
‘Yes, of course. It was what I was doing all the time, similar to the other chaps I knew except, as I said, I was not as flighty as they.’
Elizabeth looked at Mary and asked, ‘Do you want me to explain?’
Mary shook her head and replied, ‘This is my story. I must tell it.’
She set up straighter and confronted Bingley.
‘Let me tell you a story. The other day at a function I met a lady in the retiring room, perhaps a year younger than myself, who seemed most uncomfortable in her surroundings. Some probing disclosed that she was terrified of marriage, due to the circumstances of her older sister who turned but nineteen years of age earlier this year.
‘Apparently two years ago the sister met a very charming and personable young man who seemed quite taken with her. For weeks he singled her out at every function. Although he did not ask for an official courtship, he called on her almost daily and appeared most determined to not only win her good opinion, but also her hand in marriage. After about six weeks, she could resist no longer and started to reciprocate his feelings.
‘The very next day after she confessed to a tendre, he did not call on her and two days later she saw him at another function, paying the same kind of attention which he had shown her to another young lady.
‘Mr Bingley, let me tell you what really happens to those young ladies when you move on. You should know that if a young lady is in an official courtship, everyone knows that she will be properly chaperoned and nothing improper can happen. It is also accepted that not all courtships lead to marriage. But without the safety of an official courtship people speculate.
By your sudden loss of interest, you exposed them not only to society’s derision for disappointed hopes but also to speculation as to why you lost interest so suddenly. People speculate about what is wrong with the young lady if even the son of a tradesman spurns her after weeks of ardent attention. They wonder if perhaps you simply moved on after you had sampled everything she had to give. Society is most unforgiving, even cruel to young women. The slightest breath of scandal and she can say goodbye to any hopes of a good marriage. Atbest, she can hope for any kind of marriage. And her loss of reputation can affect her sisters as well.
‘That is exactly what happened to this young lady. As she had no prospects of an honourable marriage to a pleasant man, her parents contracted a marriage with a much older man who was prepared to take her off their hands so that no shame would fall on her two younger sisters. Since the young lady loved her sisters, she agreed to the match.
‘My new young friend, after not having seen her sister for over a year, had encountered her by accident a few months ago. She seemed to have aged decades rather than a year and she moved with great difficulty as she was covered in terrible bruises, some old, some new. She told her sister that her husband had only married her because she had no one to defend her.’ Mary went on to describe the details which the distraught young woman had confided in her about her sister’s condition, which explained her own terror of marriage.
Bingley looked sick when Mary stopped speaking. ‘That is horrible. Can no one stop that monster? Surely, he can be arrested for brutality.’
‘No, Mr Bingley. The law is on his side. His wife is his property, to do with as he pleases, as long as he does not kill her. Although in this case that point is moot, since a fortnight after that meeting, the older sister died in anaccident.’
‘I do not understand, why are you telling me this story? I can do nothing to change the law.’
’We know that you cannot change the law, but as to the reason for the story… The young man who toyed with the young lady’s affection and then dropped her like a hot stone… That man was you...’
Bingley turned green and started to retch as Elizabeth took over and drove home the message. ‘If not for your thoughtlessness, this young woman might have had a chance at a good marriage. Instead…’
Elizabeth had to pause as Bingley rushed to a side table and grabbed an empty vase, which he used to capture the content of his stomach. When his stomach was empty, a footman appeared to take the vase and hand him a glass of boiled water, which Bingley had to hold with both hands as they were shaking badly.
Once he had himself under control he turned back to his accusers with tears in his eyes as he collapsed into a chair. ‘I never meant for any lady to be hurt. I never imagined such a thing. I…’ Words failed him.
Elizabeth had become angry again at hearing Mary recount the story as she had been on first hearing it and was going to accuse Bingley of being responsible for the girl’s suffering. But seeing that Bingley was honestly distraught cooled her ire at least a little and instead she sighed and merely said, ‘After Mary related the story to me, we found out that several other ladies had similar experiences with you. Fortunately, they did not end as badly as that, but it made me determined that you had to be stopped… you had to be made aware of the potential harm you were causing.’
