CHAPTER II.
After a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity, Mr.Collins was called from his amiable Charlotte by the arrival ofSaturday. The pain of separation, however, might be alleviated on hisside, by preparations for the reception of his bride, as he had reasonto hope, that shortly after his next return into Hertfordshire, the daywould be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men. He took leaveof his relations at Longbourn with as much solemnity as before; wishedhis fair cousins health and happiness again, and promised their fatheranother letter of thanks.
On the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of receiving herbrother and his wife, who came as usual to spend the Christmas atLongbourn. Mr. Gardiner was a sensible, gentleman-like man, greatlysuperior to his sister, as well by nature as education. The Netherfieldladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived bytrade, and within view of his own warehouses, could have been so wellbred and agreeable. Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger thanMrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips, was an amiable, intelligent, elegantwoman, and a great favourite with all her Longbourn nieces. Between thetwo eldest and herself especially, there subsisted a very particularregard. They had frequently been staying with her in town.
The first part of Mrs. Gardiner's business on her arrival, was todistribute her presents and describe the newest fashions. When this wasdone, she had a less active part to play. It became her turn to listen.Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of. Theyhad all been very ill-used since she last saw her sister. Two of hergirls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothingin it.
”I do not blame Jane,” she continued, ”for Jane would have got Mr.Bingley, if she could. But, Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very hard to thinkthat she might have been Mr. Collins's wife by this time, had not itbeen for her own perverseness. He made her an offer in this very room,and she refused him. The consequence of it is, that Lady Lucas will havea daughter married before I have, and that Longbourn estate is just asmuch entailed as ever. The Lucases are very artful people indeed,sister. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it ofthem, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwartedso in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselvesbefore anybody else. However, your coming just at this time is thegreatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us, oflong sleeves.”
Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before, inthe course of Jane and Elizabeth's correspondence with her, made hersister a slight answer, and in compassion to her nieces turned theconversation.
When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on the subject. ”Itseems likely to have been a desirable match for Jane,” said she. ”I amsorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man, suchas you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a pretty girlfor a few weeks, and when accident separates them, so easily forgetsher, that these sort of inconstancies are very frequent.”
”An excellent consolation in its way,” said Elizabeth, ”but it will notdo for _us_. We do not suffer by _accident_. It does not often happenthat the interference of friends will persuade a young man ofindependent fortune to think no more of a girl, whom he was violently inlove with only a few days before.”
”But that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed, sodoubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is asoften applied to feelings which arise from an half-hour's acquaintance,as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how _violent was_ Mr. Bingley'slove?”
”I never saw a more promising inclination. He was growing quiteinattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her. Every timethey met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own ball heoffended two or three young ladies, by not asking them to dance, and Ispoke to him twice myself, without receiving an answer. Could there befiner symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
”Oh, yes!--of that kind of love which I suppose him to have felt. PoorJane! I am sorry for her, because, with her disposition, she may not getover it immediately. It had better have happened to _you_, Lizzy; youwould have laughed yourself out of it sooner. But do you think shewould be prevailed on to go back with us? Change of scene might be ofservice--and perhaps a little relief from home, may be as useful asanything.”
Elizabeth was exceedingly pleased with this proposal, and felt persuadedof her sister's ready acquiescence.
”I hope,” added Mrs. Gardiner, ”that no consideration with regard tothis young man will influence her. We live in so different a part oftown, all our connections are so different, and, as you well know, we goout so little, that it is very improbable they should meet at all,unless he really comes to see her.”
”And _that_ is quite impossible; for he is now in the custody of hisfriend, and Mr. Darcy would no more suffer him to call on Jane in such apart of London! My dear aunt, how could you think of it? Mr. Darcy mayperhaps have _heard_ of such a place as Gracechurch Street, but he wouldhardly think a month's ablution enough to cleanse him from itsimpurities, were he once to enter it; and depend upon it, Mr. Bingleynever stirs without him.”
”So much the better. I hope they will not meet at all. But does not Janecorrespond with the sister? _She_ will not be able to help calling.”
”She will drop the acquaintance entirely.”
But in spite of the certainty in which Elizabeth affected to place thispoint, as well as the still more interesting one of Bingley's beingwithheld from seeing Jane, she felt a solicitude on the subject whichconvinced her, on examination, that she did not consider it entirelyhopeless. It was possible, and sometimes she thought it probable, thathis affection might be re-animated, and the influence of his friendssuccessfully combated by the more natural influence of Jane'sattractions.
Miss Bennet accepted her aunt's invitation with pleasure; and theBingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the time, than as shehoped that, by Caroline's not living in the same house with her brother,she might occasionally spend a morning with her, without any danger ofseeing him.
The Gardiners staid a week at Longbourn; and what with the Philipses,the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day without itsengagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainmentof her brother and sister, that they did not once sit down to a familydinner. When the engagement was for home, some of the officers alwaysmade part of it, of which officers Mr. Wickham was sure to be one; andon these occasions, Mrs. Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth'swarm commendation of him, narrowly observed them both. Without supposingthem, from what she saw, to be very seriously in love, their preferenceof each other was plain enough to make her a little uneasy; and sheresolved to speak to Elizabeth on the subject before she leftHertfordshire, and represent to her the imprudence of encouraging suchan attachment.
To Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham had one means of affording pleasure,unconnected with his general powers. About ten or a dozen years ago,before her marriage, she had spent a considerable time in that very partof Derbyshire, to which he belonged. They had, therefore, manyacquaintance in common; and, though Wickham had been little there sincethe death of Darcy's father, five years before, it was yet in his powerto give her fresher intelligence of her former friends, than she hadbeen in the way of procuring.
Mrs. Gardiner had seen Pemberley, and known the late Mr. Darcy bycharacter perfectly well. Here consequently was an inexhaustible subjectof discourse. In comparing her recollection of Pemberley, with theminute description which Wickham could give, and in bestowing hertribute of praise on the character of its late possessor, she wasdelighting both him and herself. On being made acquainted with thepresent Mr. Darcy's treatment of him, she tried to remember something ofthat gentleman's reputed disposition when quite a lad, which might agreewith it, and was confident at last, that she recollected having heardMr. Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-naturedboy.