Thus, we careened along. Most mornings, the gentlemen went out shooting, and most afternoons I spent with Bingley, trying to force him to pay attention to what I tried to teach him.
And while he expressed eagerness to learn, he only became truly eager when he had visitors or went out visiting. Unlike me, Bingley was a man who loved to be amiable, social, and accommodating. But he was not without compassion, and he seemed not only to understand but to provide for my preference for solitude.
“A local gentleman, Sir William Lucas, called on me yesterday while you were out,” he told me one afternoon.
I had gone for the third time to Longbourn and spenta solid hour instilling a particle of discipline in my brainless student—Bandit, not Miss Bennet.
“Oh? And how did you find him?” I said, dragging my mind away from the Bennets.
“Quite cordial, in fact. He has offered to introduce me to everybody worth knowing.”
I groaned inwardly, but replied impartially. “Oh?”
“You do not want to always be visiting,” Bingley said with a burst of perspicacity, “but if you would like to join me, of course you are welcome. I leave it to you, Darcy.”
“I have enjoyed my solitary walks,” I murmured, drowning out my twinging conscience, since my absences were all spent, not alone, but in company at Longbourn.
“And I have no intention of disrupting your pleasure,” Bingley continued. “I am for Lucas Lodge to pay a call, and I mean to take Hurst with me if I can roust him off the sofa.”
“Hmm? What?” mumbled the man drowsing by the fire.
“I was only jesting, Hurst,” Bingley said, in the loud voice one uses with an elderly or drunken person. “I am making a few calls this afternoon if you would like to go.”
“Take Caroline and Louisa,” Hurst mumbled, before once again closing his eyes.
When the subject was brought up with the ladies, they agreed to go. Miss Bingley looked perfectly satisfied with the plan, and I suspected that my presence when the invitation was extended implied I would go along. How Bingley got her to leave the house without me I do not know, for I was already hacking to Longbourn.
