“I have already found it very instructive,” she replied with a slight smile.
“Instructive?”
“I have learned a great deal,” she said. “Particularly in the management of conversation.”
He returned her look. “That is a skill not easily acquired.”
“No,” she said, “but it may be improved by practice.”
There was a brief pause, in which neither seemed inclined to withdraw.
“I wished,” she said at last, her tone altering slightly, “to thank you.”
Darcy felt the shift immediately. “There is no occasion —”
“There is every occasion,” she said earnestly, though quietly. “You warned me when I had no reason to expect it, and you acted when I could not. I cannot suppose that either required little from you.”
Darcy met her gaze, though it cost him a small effort. “You give me more credit than I deserve.”
“I do not think so.”
“It was only what ought to have been done.”
“And yet,” she said, “it was not done by anyone else.”
He hesitated, though only for a moment. “That does not make it extraordinary.”
“Perhaps not,” she allowed. “Perhaps it was only essential.”
There was something in her manner thatrendered further denial unnecessary. Darcy inclined his head slightly. “You are very generous.”
“I am only just,” she said.
Though simply spoken, the words remained with him.
But before he could answer, Lady Catherine’s voice rose again, recalling the attention of the room, and the moment was lost in the general movement of the company. During supper, he was seated too far from Elizabeth to speak to her. Fitzwilliam had better luck, and to judge by his smiles and chuckles over supper, he found himself very well amused indeed. Darcy hoped to speak to Elizabeth again in the interval after the meal, but there, too, he was disappointed. Lady Catherine held court so forcefully that there was little opportunity for any individual conversation.
The evening concluded with all the ceremony that had attended its beginning. Mr Collins expressed his gratitude at length enough to test the patience of everyone but himself and Lady Catherine, and Mrs Collins bore it with the same composure she had shown throughout.
Darcy spoke little as they took their leave.
His attention, though not visibly withdrawn from the company, had settled on a single point from which it did not easily move. The conversation he had shared with Elizabeth, brief as it had been,returned to him with a clarity that resisted distraction. There had been nothing in it to surprise an observer, yet he was conscious of having felt more in those few moments than in many longer exchanges.
He had not expected her gratitude to be so earnest. Nor had he expected to value it so deeply.
Lady Catherine retired early and required her daughter to do likewise. As the others sat in the drawing room together, Fitzwilliam spoke of the evening with easy animation, commenting on Mr Collins with amusement and on Lady Catherine with a degree of freedom Darcy could not entirely condone, though with so much truth he could not object. Encouraged by her own success, Georgiana added her impressions with a quiet satisfaction that Darcy was pleased to hear.
“You liked Miss Bennet, then,” Fitzwilliam said at last, turning toward her.
“Very much,” Georgiana replied. “I think she will add greatly to my enjoyment of our visit.”
“And mine as well,” Fitzwilliam agreed.
Darcy did not speak; he did not trust himself not to answer with revealing warmth.
Unfortunately, Fitzwilliam chose that very moment to glance curiously at him. “And you, Darcy? You have been unusually silent. What do you think?”
Darcy cleared his throat. “I agree with you both,” he said. “Miss Bennet was a most engaging acquaintance when we met before. I look forward to deepening our acquaintance, for I have rather known a woman more charming, nor any person of quicker wit.”
