Chapter Four: Jane's Letter
It was settled that Mr. Collins would leave Longbourn on Sunday as scheduled, and return in a fortnight to be wedded to his fiancée. Neither Mrs. Bennet nor Mary could speak enough of Mr. Collins' merits; Lydia and Kitty were tolerably happy for their sister, though only because they would no longer have to listen to her moral extracts or boring concertos once she was gone, and frequently mourned the loss of having lost the opportunity to be the first of the Bennet girls married off. Mr. Bennet had little to say on the subject, except that he could not conceive a better son-in-law; and though Elizabeth could detect his sarcasm, Mary chose to look past it and found it inspiration to comment on something of Mr. Collins' assets. Every other sentence that Mrs. Bennet spoke had something to do with her good girl Mary having saved them all from destitution, since it seemed that she was her new favorite child.
"You know," said Mary at breakfast, a few days after Mr. Collins had left, "my dear Mr. Collins tells me that Lady Catherine would recommend that you all come to Kent around Easter. You could all meet her and her daughter then, and Mr. Collins tells me that Mr. Darcy and his cousin always come to stay at Rosings around that time."
At the mention of Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet could not resist smiling broadly at Elizabeth, who insincerely returned it, though with not half so much enthusiasm. Mrs. Bennet, therefore, was very much in favor of the idea; however, Lydia and Kitty were as displeased as Elizabeth with the scheme, for they had discovered that any place that was not brimming with officers was not a place worth visiting at all. The rest of the conversation went on as usual, lingering on any compliments of Mr. Collins or his patroness, and listing the price of numerous pieces of furniture in Rosings, even though Mary was yet to see the place.
"It really must be charming," concluded Mary, "since my Mr. Collins, you know, never exaggerates anything, so it is very much paying a compliment to the place by having procured his good opinion."
Elizabeth could have laughed at this; and Lydia actually did, which earned the latter many a scornful look from Mary and her mother. She had never seen her sister speak such nonsense! She could have wished for her to return to her tedious studying and incessant piano playing rather than have her be influenced by the ridiculous Mr. Collins.
After they had all quitted the dining parlor, Jane and Elizabeth were discussing how much they really fancied the idea of visiting Hunsford, when a servant entered with a letter for Miss Bennet.
"Thank you, Hill," said Jane, seizing the letter at once after she glanced at the address and saw that it had come from Netherfield, and began to read it eagerly. She seated herself as she read, looking increasingly troubled and distraught; and when she had finished, Elizabeth was fearful of her bursting into tears.
"What is the matter? What does it say?" asked Elizabeth, her voice full of concern and solicitude.
"Caroline Bingley has just written—and—oh, they have all left Netherfield! They will be gone by now!" cried Jane. Elizabeth felt guilty for the relief which she received in learning that Mr. Darcy had left Hertfordshire, till she realized that she would also have to put on a facade in front of her mother that she was equally disturbed by such news when word got round about it.
"Surely they cannot be gone long? Why, they will return in a fortnight, will they not?"
"It seems that they will be gone the whole winter. I had known that something was the matter when we saw Mr. Bingley the day after the Netherfield ball on our walk! It must have been very serious business; but that is not what troubles me the most."
"Is it not? Oh, my dear Jane, what else has she written?"
"Mr. Darcy is impatient to see his sister, and to confess the truth, we are scarcely less eager to meet her again. I really do not think Georgiana Darcy has her equal for beauty, elegance, and accomplishments; and the affection she inspires in Louisa and myself is heightened into something still more interesting, from the hope we dare to entertain of her being hereafter our sister. I do not know whether I ever before mentioned to you my feelings on this subject, but I will not leave the country without confiding them, and I trust you will not esteem them unreasonable. My brother admires her greatly already, he will have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing, her relations all wish the connection as much as his own, and a sister's partiality is not misleading me, I think, when I call Charles most capable of engaging any woman's heart. With all these circumstances to favor an attachment and nothing to prevent it, am I wrong, my dearest Jane, in indulging the hope of an event which will secure the happiness of so many?"
Upon her finishing reading that passage, Jane was very silent.
"I see how it is, Jane. Miss Bingley sees that her brother is in love with you, and wants him to marry Miss Darcy. She follows him to town in the hope of keeping him there, and tries to persuade you that he does not care about you."
"I cannot believe that, Lizzy. I know Caroline Bingley to be incapable of willfully deceiving anyone; and it is no wonder that they prefer Miss Darcy, for they have known her longer. It is much more likely that Mr. Bingley never cared for me, than Caroline to have lied about it all."
Jane then allowed Elizabeth to read over the entirety of the letter; and, once she had finished it, put it down and said,
"There is no reason for them to not wish their brother to marry you other than our lack of fortune. In fact, you must have been correct initially, Jane: that some terrible business has forced Mr. Bingley to go to London, and that he will return as soon as it is settled, and that all of this nonsense about Miss Darcy is simply the work of Miss Bingley's imagination. I will be very much surprised if he is not dining at Longbourn again in three weeks."
Elizabeth's words seemed to comfort Jane a bit, though Elizabeth was still skeptical that Mr. Bingley's sisters or Mr. Darcy did not have anything to do with their separation. It made the prospect of visiting Kent at Easter even more disagreeable; but there would be no arguing the point with her mother, since it would be exactly contradicting the sentiments which she had made her mother believe that she had felt. It was difficult, especially for Jane, to keep her spirits tolerably high for the rest of the day, since she did not wish to interrupt the cheerful atmosphere of the household in light of Mary's betrothal. Elizabeth was barely less eager to keep the news of the departure of the Netherfield party a secret, since she knew not what embarrassing remarks her mother would make about both herself and Jane on learning that her two prospective son-in-laws were no longer there to court her daughters.
