Darcy bit back a smile. It was good to know, after the unexpected and difficult summer Darcy had endured, that some people were so predictable.
“Tell me about her,” he requested.
The particulars that Bingley related about his latest angel, a lady named Miss Jane Bennet, were for the most part familiar from his former infatuations. Miss Bennet was, according to his friend, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, ethereal and golden-haired and ever so graceful. Darcy realised once again that his friend had a particular type of woman he considered ideal. Miss Bennet had, Bingley reported, the serenity and goodness that matched her angelic looks; Darcy hoped, rather than believed, that this was true. “Best of all,” Bingley said, “she likes me for myself rather than for my fortune.”
Although Darcy might have wished he were not so cynical, he very much doubted that last claim. He felt tempted to pretend an attraction to Bingley’s “angel” to convince his friend how mercenary ladies were brought up to be. He was almost positive that she would switch her attentions to Darcy, since he was much wealthier than Bingley.
Darcy shifted in his seat, thoroughly uncomfortable with his ungentlemanly thoughts.Of coursehe would not pretend anysuch thing. It would be a terrible affront to his friend, for one thing, and also potentially harmful, possibly ruinous, to the lady’s reputation.
He felt strongly that his friend would only be truly happy in a union of equal affection—but seeing how very elated Bingley was now, and considering all the times he had seen his friend before, during, and after his former infatuations, Darcy had to admit that Bingley had a gift for being happy. He vowed to himself that he would not interfere in any way with his romances.
When Bingley finally wound down in his paean to Miss Bennet, Darcy asked a carefully worded question: “What is Miss Bennet’s situation? Is she the daughter of a gentleman, or of a professional, or of a tradesman?”
“She is the daughter of a gentleman.”
Darcy felt relief, and somehow that loosened him up to ask far too many questions: “What is her place in her family, and what sort of dowry and inheritance will she have? What are her connexions?”
Bingley’s face fell. “And so the lecture commences,” he muttered.
Cringing, Darcy protested, “I am not lecturing you. I am merely asking you questions you should consider if you wish to court her with the intention of marriage.”
“Well, all of the answers to these questions are going to seem like negatives in your book, Darcy, and this is what I wished to discuss. Please attend to me carefully, and I will consider your words just as carefully.”
Then Bingley proceeded to answer every question, and as he had warned, it painted quite a grim picture. Miss Jane Bennet was the eldest of five daughters; the family had no sons, and the estate was entailed to the male line. Upon Mr Bennet’s death, the estate would go to a distant cousin. Their mother’s marriage settlement of five thousand pounds would, upon herdeath, be divided amongst the daughters, thus providing an eventual dowry of only one thousand pounds for each. The family’s connexions were limited to a small-town solicitor and a prosperous London merchant.
Darcy prompted his friend, “Please tell me what you wish to discuss about each point. Let us start with the entailment.”
“Well, that matters not at all to me. I have the funds to purchase an estate, so I do not need to marry a lady who will inherit an estate.”
“But,” Darcy pointed out, “when Mr Bennet dies, you may have to provide for his widow and unmarried daughters. It could be that you will take on providing for, not just one lady—your wife—but six.”
“Ohhh.” Bingley paled as he considered such a thing.
“I am not saying you should not marry Miss Bennet because of this possibility, but I feel strongly that you ought to consider it. Now, what do you say about her paltry dowry?”
“I have enough money not to worry about that. Or at least, I thought I did, when I considered only Miss Bennet. If I have to provide for six, and especially if I have daughters….”
Bingley looked crushed. Darcy said, “Again, we are talking about possibilities. I feel that there are steps you could take that would offset some of these unfortunate circumstances. Let us get to the last point: the low connexions of the Bennet family. Remember that society considersyourconnexions to be ‘low,’ as well—the taint of trade is a bit less important these days, but still of some significance . Therefore, if you could manage to marry a gentleman’s daughter with a few better connexions among the landed gentry, that would be helpful to elevating your own standing.”
Rising from his chair and pacing back and forth, Bingley cast his eyes downwards and chewed his lip. After several circuits of the room, he halted in front of Darcy and said, “Honestly,Darce, even if I could manage to find a gentleman’s daughter with good connexions whom I could love, and whom I could convince to love me in return, I am fairly positive that her family would not stand for her marrying someone like me. So I believe that taking the first steps of acquiring an estate and marrying a gentlewoman with poor connexions is still a large leap for my family, and future generations can stand upon that foundation and reach higher.”
Darcy stood in order to clap his friend’s shoulder. “That is well expressed, Bingley. As it happens, I was thinking along these same lines…. Still, I have a suggestion: you could continue to get to know Miss Bennet, to see if your feelings for her remain constant or die away, as your feelings for other ladies have in the past. After some time, if you feel very confident about your mutual feelings and you are certain you wish to marry, we could discuss ways of dealing with the possible problems created by the first two items we just reviewed.”
Bingley looked at him as if he was a literal saviour, and Darcy shook his head at his friend, saying, “I am not positive how much I could help you; the only assurance I can give is that I wouldtryto be of service.”
His friend nodded vigorously.
The two men returned to their seats and their glasses of claret. Darcy was not usually the chatty one, but when the silence dragged on for more than a minute or two, he attempted to interest his friend in several topics. Bingley barely responded, and so the two sat silently for a quarter hour.
Finally, Bingley sighed and said, “Darcy, you need to marry someday, do you not?”
“I believe Iwishto marry someday more than Ineedto. Pemberley is not entailed, and my current will names Georgiana and her eventual children as my heir. Still, yes, I will soon start looking for the next mistress of Pemberley.”
“And how will you choose her? What traits will you be looking for?”
“Well, I should like her to be pretty, thus appealing to me. That should not be a problem, for there are at least a hundred lovely ladies in theton. My wife should be respectable, well mannered, well spoken, well informed, and very genteel. She must have the best character, as she and I will be the models for our children—that means she must be honest, virtuous, and even-tempered.” He thought hard and added, “I suppose she should be elegant and demure, as well.”
“This sounds like far too many wonderful traits to be realistic, but I am convinced that your list perfectly describes Miss Bennet, and there must be another such lady, somewhere, for you.”
