He avoided her eyes, yet he answered in a leisurely tone, “On a well-maintained road, it is little more than half a day’s journey. I should certainly consider it an easy distance.”
“I would never have described Mrs Collins as residing near her family,” cried Elizabeth, and this time, her annoyance showed. Yet, again, he did not seem to see or care about it.
“That is but proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire, Miss Bennet. Anything beyond the immediate neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would seem distant to you.”
As he spoke, there was a confident smile upon his countenance that Elizabeth believed she understood; he must be supposing that she was thinking of Jane and how close Netherfield was from their home. A flush rose to her cheeks as she replied, “Mr Darcy, neither nearness nor distance from one’s family should be a reason for marriage. There are far more significant criteria when choosing a spouse. I hope you agree.”
“And yet, for you, the nearness to Longbourn is essential. Fifty miles, it seems, is a distance you deem far too great,” he replied.
“I love my family, indeed, and living near them might be pleasant,” Elizabeth answered with a trace of exasperation; she did not understand his reason for persisting in such a trivial subject unless it was still a criticism addressed at Jane and that she barely supported.
Then, to her surprise, Mr Darcy moved his chair slightly nearer and said, “You cannot have a claim to such an extreme attachment to place. You cannot live all your life at Longbourn or in its immediate proximity.”
Elizabeth looked at him in some surprise. A sudden change seemed to pass over him; he drew back his chair, took up a newspaper from the table, and, glancing at it, asked in a colder tone, “Are you pleased with Kent?”
A brief conversation on the subject of the county followed and was soon interrupted by the entrance of Charlotte and her sister, newly returned from their walk.
The scene that met their eyes startled them; Mr Darcy explained the misapprehension that had led to his unexpected intrusion, and, after remaining a few minutes longer and presenting a relatively informal invitation to dinner that evening, he departed.
“What can be the meaning of this?” Charlotte exclaimed as soon as he had left. A playful smile could be seen on her face, which, until now, had reflected only the seriousness of a married woman. “My dear Eliza, he must be in love with you, or he would never have visited in so familiar a manner.”
“Charlotte!” she exclaimed reproachfully. “What a preposterous thing to say!”
But then the three ladies burst into merry laughter.
When Elizabeth recounted his visit, the idea seemed unlikely even to Charlotte’s wild imagination. After much speculation, they could arrive at no other conclusion than that his visit had been prompted by sheer lack of occupation, a supposition rendered more probable by the season of the year. All field sports were at an end. At Rosings, there was Lady Catherine and Miss de Bourgh, a selection of books, and a billiard table, yet gentlemen could not always remain indoors.
“The proximity of the Parsonage, or the pleasantness of the walk to it, or an hour of leisurely conversation with us could present sufficient inducement for the two cousins to visit us almost daily,” Charlotte said, searching for an explanation.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam visibly enjoys our presence, and we all take pleasure in our conversations,” Elizabeth said. She had secretly discovered in his company a satisfaction that echoed, albeit faintly, her former partiality for George Wickham. In weighing the two against one another, she found in Colonel Fitzwilliam less of that effortless charm Mr Wickham possessed that had once beguiled her. Yet, she could not but accept that the colonel’s understanding was the superior of the two, his mind more cultivated and his judgment sounder.
“But for Mr Darcy’s frequent visits…their cause is far more obscure,” Elizabeth continued.
It could hardly be for conversation, as he frequently sat in silence for ten minutes at a time. When he did speak, his words appeared more the product of necessity than of inclination, an obligation to decorum rather than a source of personal enjoyment. He seldom exhibited genuine animation.
“And we return to my explanation,” Charlotte said with the same unexpected playfulness. “He is interested in you. Even smitten by you. How can we explain in another way his new-found dullness, which we did not know in Hertfordshire?”
Even Colonel Fitzwilliam’s occasional jests at his cousin’s taciturnity proved this was not his usual disposition.
“And he expressed his affection by boring me to death, indulging in trivial discussions about the meaning of a short journey,” puffed Elizabeth in her sarcastic way, which, for once, did not bother Charlotte, who seemed to genuinely wish to participate in the conversation the way she would have done in Hertfordshire a few months ago.
“Perhaps you intimidate him,” ventured Maria hesitantly, but both ladies smiled.
Encouraged by her friend’s openness, Elizabeth replied, “He is far too arrogant to be intimidated.”
Yet the flush that coloured Charlotte’s cheeks told Elizabeth she had overstepped the delicate boundary between Charlotte and Mrs Collins. Still, she took comfort in what remained, for at the very least, they could still converse and even amuse themselves as they once had—albeit within certain limits.
“In any case, we shall see how matters unfold this evening at dinner,” continued Charlotte, looking more composed than she felt.
∞∞∞
Yet that evening, something unexpected occurred in what they already considered almost a routine, casting a shadow over the enjoyment Elizabeth had anticipated.
Just before she began to prepare for dinner, a message arrived from Rosings, announcing that dinner had been cancelled as Lady Catherine was not feeling well enough to receive guests.
Charlotte brought the news, settling on the small bench at the foot of the bed, waiting for Elizabeth’s response.
“Oh,” said Elizabeth, “I would not have thought to say this, but I am sorry we shall not be dining with Lady Catherine tonight.” She then laughed at her own words and took a seat beside Charlotte.
