CHAPTER XI.
Mr. Wickham was so perfectly satisfied with this conversation, that henever again distressed himself, or provoked his dear sister Elizabeth,by introducing the subject of it; and she was pleased to find that shehad said enough to keep him quiet.
The day of his and Lydia's departure soon came, and Mrs. Bennet wasforced to submit to a separation, which, as her husband by no meansentered into her scheme of their all going to Newcastle, was likely tocontinue at least a twelvemonth.
”Oh! my dear Lydia,” she cried, ”when shall we meet again?”
”Oh, lord! I don't know. Not these two or three years perhaps.”
”Write to me very often, my dear.”
”As often as I can. But you know married women have never much time forwriting. My sisters may write to _me_. They will have nothing else todo.”
Mr. Wickham's adieus were much more affectionate than his wife's. Hesmiled, looked handsome, and said many pretty things.
”He is as fine a fellow,” said Mr. Bennet, as soon as they were out ofthe house, ”as ever I saw. He simpers, and smirks, and makes love to usall. I am prodigiously proud of him. I defy even Sir William Lucashimself, to produce a more valuable son-in-law.”
The loss of her daughter made Mrs. Bennet very dull for several days.
”I often think,” said she, ”that there is nothing so bad as parting withone's friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”
”This is the consequence you see, Madam, of marrying a daughter,” saidElizabeth. ”It must make you better satisfied that your other four aresingle.”
”It is no such thing. Lydia does not leave me because she is married;but only because her husband's regiment happens to be so far off. Ifthat had been nearer, she would not have gone so soon.”
But the spiritless condition which this event threw her into, wasshortly relieved, and her mind opened again to the agitation of hope, byan article of news, which then began to be in circulation. Thehousekeeper at Netherfield had received orders to prepare for thearrival of her master, who was coming down in a day or two, to shootthere for several weeks. Mrs. Bennet was quite in the fidgets. Shelooked at Jane, and smiled, and shook her head by turns.
”Well, well, and so Mr. Bingley is coming down, sister,” (for Mrs.Philips first brought her the news.) ”Well, so much the better. Not thatI care about it, though. He is nothing to us, you know, and I am sure_I_ never want to see him again. But, however, he is very welcome tocome to Netherfield, if he likes it. And who knows what _may_ happen?But that is nothing to us. You know, sister, we agreed long ago never tomention a word about it. And so, is it quite certain he is coming?”
”You may depend on it,” replied the other, ”for Mrs. Nicholls was inMeryton last night; I saw her passing by, and went out myself on purposeto know the truth of it; and she told me that it was certain true. Hecomes down on Thursday at the latest, very likely on Wednesday. She wasgoing to the butcher's, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat onWednesday, and she has got three couple of ducks, just fit to bekilled.”
Miss Bennet had not been able to hear of his coming, without changingcolour. It was many months since she had mentioned his name toElizabeth; but now, as soon as they were alone together, she said,
”I saw you look at me to-day, Lizzy, when my aunt told us of the presentreport; and I know I appeared distressed. But don't imagine it was fromany silly cause. I was only confused for the moment, because I feltthat I _should_ be looked at. I do assure you, that the news does notaffect me either with pleasure or pain. I am glad of one thing, that hecomes alone; because we shall see the less of him. Not that I am afraidof _myself_, but I dread other people's remarks.”
Elizabeth did not know what to make of it. Had she not seen him inDerbyshire, she might have supposed him capable of coming there, with noother view than what was acknowledged; but she still thought him partialto Jane, and she wavered as to the greater probability of his comingthere _with_ his friend's permission, or being bold enough to comewithout it.
”Yet it is hard,” she sometimes thought, ”that this poor man cannot cometo a house, which he has legally hired, without raising all thisspeculation! I _will_ leave him to himself.”
In spite of what her sister declared, and really believed to be herfeelings, in the expectation of his arrival, Elizabeth could easilyperceive that her spirits were affected by it. They were more disturbed,more unequal, than she had often seen them.
The subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their parents,about a twelvemonth ago, was now brought forward again.
”As soon as ever Mr. Bingley comes, my dear,” said Mrs. Bennet, ”youwill wait on him of course.”
”No, no. You forced me into visiting him last year, and promised if Iwent to see him, he should marry one of my daughters. But it ended innothing, and I will not be sent on a fool's errand again.”
His wife represented to him how absolutely necessary such an attentionwould be from all the neighbouring gentlemen, on his returning toNetherfield.
”'Tis an etiquette I despise,” said he. ”If he wants our society, lethim seek it. He knows where we live. I will not spend _my_ hours inrunning after my neighbours every time they go away, and come backagain.”
”Well, all I know is, that it will be abominably rude if you do notwait on him. But, however, that shan't prevent my asking him to dinehere, I am determined. We must have Mrs. Long and the Gouldings soon.That will make thirteen with ourselves, so there will be just room attable for him.”
Consoled by this resolution, she was the better able to bear herhusband's incivility; though it was very mortifying to know that herneighbours might all see Mr. Bingley in consequence of it, before _they_did. As the day of his arrival drew near,
”I begin to be sorry that he comes at all,” said Jane to her sister. ”Itwould be nothing; I could see him with perfect indifference, but I canhardly bear to hear it thus perpetually talked of. My mother means well;but she does not know, no one can know how much I suffer from what shesays. Happy shall I be, when his stay at Netherfield is over!”
”I wish I could say any thing to comfort you,” replied Elizabeth; ”butit is wholly out of my power. You must feel it; and the usualsatisfaction of preaching patience to a sufferer is denied me, becauseyou have always so much.”
Mr. Bingley arrived. Mrs. Bennet, through the assistance of servants,contrived to have the earliest tidings of it, that the period of anxietyand fretfulness on her side, might be as long as it could. She countedthe days that must intervene before their invitation could be sent;hopeless of seeing him before. But on the third morning after hisarrival in Hertfordshire, she saw him from her dressing-room window,enter the paddock, and ride towards the house.
Her daughters were eagerly called to partake of her joy. Jane resolutelykept her place at the table; but Elizabeth, to satisfy her mother, wentto the window--she looked,--she saw Mr. Darcy with him, and sat downagain by her sister.
”There is a gentleman with him, mamma,” said Kitty; ”who can it be?”
”Some acquaintance or other, my dear, I suppose; I am sure I do notknow.”
”La!” replied Kitty, ”it looks just like that man that used to be withhim before. Mr. what's his name. That tall, proud man.”
”Good gracious! Mr. Darcy!--and so it does I vow. Well, any friend ofMr. Bingley's will always be welcome here to be sure; but else I mustsay that I hate the very sight of him.”
Jane looked at Elizabeth with surprise and concern. She knew but littleof their meeting in Derbyshire, and therefore felt for the awkwardnesswhich must attend her sister, in seeing him almost for the first timeafter receiving his explanatory letter. Both sisters were uncomfortableenough. Each felt for the other, and of course for themselves; and theirmother talked on, of her dislike of Mr. Darcy, and her resolution to becivil to him only as Mr. Bingley's friend, without being heard by eitherof them. But Elizabeth had sources of uneasiness which could not besuspected by Jane, to whom she had never yet had courage to shew Mrs.Gardiner's letter, or to relate her own change of sentiment towards him.To Jane, he could be only a man whose proposals she had refused, andwhose merit she had undervalued; but to her own more extensiveinformation, he was the person, to whom the whole family were indebtedfor the first of benefits, and whom she regarded herself with aninterest, if not quite so tender, at least as reasonable and just, aswhat Jane felt for Bingley. Her astonishment at his coming--at hiscoming to Netherfield, to Longbourn, and voluntarily seeking her again,was almost equal to what she had known on first witnessing his alteredbehaviour in Derbyshire.
The colour which had been driven from her face, returned for half aminute with an additional glow, and a smile of delight added lustre toher eyes, as she thought for that space of time, that his affection andwishes must still be unshaken. But she would not be secure.
”Let me first see how he behaves,” said she; ”it will then be earlyenough for expectation.”
She sat intently at work, striving to be composed, and without daring tolift up her eyes, till anxious curiosity carried them to the face of hersister, as the servant was approaching the door. Jane looked a littlepaler than usual, but more sedate than Elizabeth had expected. On thegentlemen's appearing, her colour increased; yet she received them withtolerable ease, and with a propriety of behaviour equally free from anysymptom of resentment, or any unnecessary complaisance.
Elizabeth said as little to either as civility would allow, and sat downagain to her work, with an eagerness which it did not often command. Shehad ventured only one glance at Darcy. He looked serious as usual; andshe thought, more as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, than asshe had seen him at Pemberley. But, perhaps he could not in her mother'spresence be what he was before her uncle and aunt. It was a painful, butnot an improbable, conjecture.
Bingley, she had likewise seen for an instant, and in that short periodsaw him looking both pleased and embarrassed. He was received by Mrs.Bennet with a degree of civility, which made her two daughters ashamed,especially when contrasted with the cold and ceremonious politeness ofher curtsey and address to his friend.
Elizabeth particularly, who knew that her mother owed to the latter thepreservation of her favourite daughter from irremediable infamy, washurt and distressed to a most painful degree by a distinction so illapplied.
Darcy, after enquiring of her how Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner did, a questionwhich she could not answer without confusion, said scarcely any thing.He was not seated by her; perhaps that was the reason of his silence;but it had not been so in Derbyshire. There he had talked to herfriends, when he could not to herself. But now several minutes elapsed,without bringing the sound of his voice; and when occasionally, unableto resist the impulse of curiosity, she raised her eyes to his face, sheas often found him looking at Jane, as at herself, and frequently on noobject but the ground. More thoughtfulness, and less anxiety to pleasethan when they last met, were plainly expressed. She was disappointed,and angry with herself for being so.
”Could I expect it to be otherwise!” said she. ”Yet why did he come?”
She was in no humour for conversation with any one but himself; and tohim she had hardly courage to speak.
She enquired after his sister, but could do no more.
”It is a long time, Mr. Bingley, since you went away,” said Mrs. Bennet.
He readily agreed to it.
”I began to be afraid you would never come back again. People _did_ say,you meant to quit the place entirely at Michaelmas; but, however, I hopeit is not true. A great many changes have happened in the neighbourhood,since you went away. Miss Lucas is married and settled. And one of myown daughters. I suppose you have heard of it; indeed, you must haveseen it in the papers. It was in the Times and the Courier, I know;though it was not put in as it ought to be. It was only said, 'Lately,George Wickham, Esq. to Miss Lydia Bennet,' without there being asyllable said of her father, or the place where she lived, or any thing.It was my brother Gardiner's drawing up too, and I wonder how he came tomake such an awkward business of it. Did you see it?”
Bingley replied that he did, and made his congratulations. Elizabethdared not lift up her eyes. How Mr. Darcy looked, therefore, she couldnot tell.
”It is a delightful thing, to be sure, to have a daughter well married,”continued her mother, ”but at the same time, Mr. Bingley, it is veryhard to have her taken such a way from me. They are gone down toNewcastle, a place quite northward, it seems, and there they are tostay, I do not know how long. His regiment is there; for I suppose youhave heard of his leaving the ----shire, and of his being gone into theregulars. Thank Heaven! he has _some_ friends, though perhaps not somany as he deserves.”
Elizabeth, who knew this to be levelled at Mr. Darcy, was in such miseryof shame, that she could hardly keep her seat. It drew from her,however, the exertion of speaking, which nothing else had so effectuallydone before; and she asked Bingley, whether he meant to make any stay inthe country at present. A few weeks, he believed.
”When you have killed all your own birds, Mr. Bingley,” said her mother,”I beg you will come here, and shoot as many as you please, on Mr.Bennet's manor. I am sure he will be vastly happy to oblige you, andwill save all the best of the covies for you.”
Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officiousattention! Were the same fair prospect to arise at present, as hadflattered them a year ago, every thing, she was persuaded, would behastening to the same vexatious conclusion. At that instant she felt,that years of happiness could not make Jane or herself amends, formoments of such painful confusion.
”The first wish of my heart,” said she to herself, ”is never more to bein company with either of them. Their society can afford no pleasure,that will atone for such wretchedness as this! Let me never see eitherone or the other again!”
Yet the misery, for which years of happiness were to offer nocompensation, received soon afterwards material relief, from observinghow much the beauty of her sister re-kindled the admiration of herformer lover. When first he came in, he had spoken to her but little;but every five minutes seemed to be giving her more of his attention. Hefound her as handsome as she had been last year; as good natured, and asunaffected, though not quite so chatty. Jane was anxious that nodifference should be perceived in her at all, and was really persuadedthat she talked as much as ever. But her mind was so busily engaged,that she did not always know when she was silent.
When the gentlemen rose to go away, Mrs. Bennet was mindful of herintended civility, and they were invited and engaged to dine atLongbourn in a few days time.
”You are quite a visit in my debt, Mr. Bingley,” she added, ”for whenyou went to town last winter, you promised to take a family dinner withus, as soon as you returned. I have not forgot, you see; and I assureyou, I was very much disappointed that you did not come back and keepyour engagement.”
Bingley looked a little silly at this reflection, and said something ofhis concern, at having been prevented by business. They then went away.
Mrs. Bennet had been strongly inclined to ask them to stay and dinethere, that day; but, though she always kept a very good table, she didnot think any thing less than two courses, could be good enough for aman, on whom she had such anxious designs, or satisfy the appetite andpride of one who had ten thousand a-year.