“I do.” There was nothing more than simple acknowledgment in his tone, yet it admitted no correction.
Lady Catherine appeared inclined to continue, but after a moment, she turned her attention aside, reserving her opinion for another occasion.
Darcy did not remain. He withdrew to his own room without seeking further company.
The house was quiet, with nothing to engage him but his own thoughts. Yet they did not require arrangement. His aunt’s disapproval was expected and could not alter his views. It had been weighed,and it was insufficient. The objections which might be urged had long been known to him. He had once allowed them influence. He did not intend to make that mistake now.
What could any consideration matter, weighed against such an understanding as he had with Elizabeth? If Lady Catherine thought she could present any rational argument that would shake him, she would find herself badly mistaken.
Chapter 19
Sometimes nothing has yet been arranged, and yet everything has been decided. After the conversation she had with Darcy under the shade of an old oak, Elizabeth felt it was so. He had not yet made her the offer that would change their lives forever, but Elizabeth had no doubt it would soon come. When it did, she would not need to consider her answer.
With such pleasant thoughts to occupy her, Elizabeth was not sorry to be left alone at the parsonage the next day. Mr Collins had been summoned to Rosings Park by Lady Catherine, as evidentially happened with some regularity. Having no other engagements, Charlotte and Maria had gone out together soon after breakfast for a walk into the village, after civilly offering not to go and fearing that Elizabeth might be lonely.
Politeness would have required Elizabeth to urge them on regardless, but it was no great sacrifice. If she could have, Elizabeth would haveenjoyed the exercise, but her ankle was still too weak to go so far. Since she could not have the pleasure of a walk, Charlotte and Maria might as well enjoy it for her. After offering to stay with her once again, Charlotte at last set out, her sister by her side.
The morning, thus left to her own disposal, might have been employed in any number of ways. A book lay within reach, and there were letters which might have been answered. Yet she found herself inclined to neither. Her thoughts were not easily directed toward any occupation that required sustained attention.
It was a far more agreeable employment to allow them to wander where they would: directly to Darcy.
The pain in her ankle seemed to disappear as Elizabeth thought back to the sunlight shining through the leaves of the tree above, to Darcy’s face, by turns serious and amused, and to the strength of his hand taking hers. It was a moment in which she might have gladly lived forever.
In one sense, Elizabeth supposed, perhaps she might — or better still, might store up a treasure of similar moments, different in time and place, but all wonderfully the same in that they might be shared with a gentleman who had gradually come to occupy a place in her heart so uniquely his own.
Elizabeth was shaken out of her reflections bythe sound of wheels on the gravel in front of the house. The approach of a carriage was sufficiently uncommon at that hour to engage her attention, and Elizabeth waited for the servant to announce the visitor with considerable curiosity. No visitor could be so welcome to her as Darcy, but it could not be he. The distance between Rosings and the parsonage was so small that he would not have ridden, let alone taken a carriage.
Elizabeth’s wait was then over, as Lady Catherine strode into the room.
Her manner was not hurried, and she walked with an air of stately superiority. Mr Collins followed close behind her, his expression a queasy mix of self-importance and uneasiness. Elizabeth rose to greet them and gave a small bow.
“Miss Bennet,” Lady Catherine said without troubling herself to bow or make any other civil greeting, “I have called upon you on a matter which admits of no delay.”
“Good morning, Lady Catherine,” Elizabeth said civilly. “Please tell me why you have come, then. I am quite at your service.”
“As you ought to be,” Lady Catherine said, with very particular emphasis. “I am informed that you have been much in the society of my nephew.”
Though Elizabeth could not entirely keep a blush from her cheeks, her voice was level. “MrDarcy has been so obliging as to visit the parsonage.”
“Very obliging indeed,” Lady Catherine said contemptuously. “You wish me to believe, then, that my nephew’s actions are nothing more than those of a concerned gentleman performing his social obligations for an injured neighbour?”
Elizabeth did not immediately answer.
“I shall speak plainly,” Lady Catherine said in a tone of ice. “Your conduct has not been such as I can approve. You have permitted attentions which were not proper for you to receive, and which are still less proper for you to encourage.”
“I have done nothing of which I need be ashamed,” Elizabeth told her. “My conduct has been entirely free of impropriety.”
Lady Catherine regarded her with increased severity. “You cannot suppose me ignorant of what has passed. My nephew is not a man to bestow his time without motive, and I am not to be deceived by any appearance of indifference on your part.”
“I do not claim to be indifferent,” Elizabeth told her, meeting Lady Catherine’s gaze without a flinch. “Only to have acted in accordance with my obligations and with the proper dictates of society. But perhaps your ladyship has been misinformed on this point, and I can now reassure you.”
“I have not been misinformed,” Lady Catherinesaid icily. “I know very well what is due to Darcy, and what is required of those who are admitted to his acquaintance. You have not acted with the discretion which your situation ought to have dictated. Not content with the sphere of your birth, you have shamelessly attempted to entice my nephew.”
Elizabeth gasped in insulted astonishment, and Mr Collins, who had been shifting from one foot to the other with increasing agitation, now spoke up. “My dear Lady Catherine,” he said, “Miss Elizabeth can have had no intention, no improper intention, I am persuaded. Her conduct has always been most correct. Most exemplary.”
Lady Catherine silenced him with a look.
“I am not accustomed to forming my opinions without sufficient grounds,” she said. “Nor am I inclined to alter them at the suggestion of others.” She turned again to Elizabeth. “You will therefore understand me when I say that your remaining in this neighbourhood can no longer be permitted. You will leave Hunsford immediately.”
