"Now, Jane, it will do you no good to take for truth what is at best a conjecture. Your aunt has already said so and I will say it again: if you do not believe your Mr. Bingley will make a good husband, then you do not have to marry him. But I wish you would get clarification from the man himself rather than suppose you understand his thinking."
"Isn't it why we are here, Uncle? Isn't this our purpose: to get married?"
"A person's purpose in life, be them men or women, should not be to get married to the highest bidder. I know I insisted that you find yourselves husbands and to that end I have hired masters for you and Lydia and your parents hired Mrs. Croft.
It was she, Mrs. Croft, who first pointed out to us that we should not hurry you into a marriage that could lead to unhappiness."
"I do not believe you would have pressured us, Uncle."
"Do not be so sure, my dear. I am still rather disappointed at myself for the way I have spoken to you and Lydia, but especially to you. I, who knew what it meant for my sister to be married to a man who does not complement her strengths. In truth they compound each other's weaknesses. I would not want the same for you or for any other niece of mine."
"Mr. Bingley is fickle. He was perfectly happy to show his preference for me and engage my company when in Hertfordshire, but a word from a friend was enough to change his mind."
"Maybe he is. Your Mr. Bingley is quite young, Jane. If you think about it, we have girls getting married at fifteen and expect them to be capable of running their households, but nobody would advise a man of three and twenty to get married. He is too young, you see; a mere child," he said and winked at her.
"You are not serious!"
"You are too serious, my dear niece."
"But what am I to do? He'll be here tomorrow, I will have to give him an answer!"
"Did he ask for your hand, Jane? Before talking to me?" Mr. Gardiner scowled deeply and all his bonhomie vanished.
"Oh, no! No, indeed!"
"Then what answer would you need to give him?"
"I suppose, if he should continue to call on me or not."
"Ah, that is well then," he patted her hand and smiled again. "Well, I do not want to interfere in your affairs, Jane. Both of you have too many friends who give their opinions too freely, if you ask me."
"Not me, Uncle," Jane smiled. "My friends do not give their opinions too freely. I have been trying to ascertain yours for a good half hour now!"
Mr. Gardiner let out a surprised laugh, greatly pleased to see a bit of levity from his eldest niece.
"I had Lizzy in mind when I talked about freely expressed opinions."
"Lizzy? Impossible!"
"Listen to me, Jane. From what I could gather, your sister encouraged your preference towards Mr. Bingley. Is that so?"
"Yes. But, Uncle, it was my preference."
"Exactly, it was your preference which she encouraged. She did not, however, encourage you to be more open to him and maybe talk to him about serious matters."
"It would not have been proper! It hardly is now!"
"Oh, tosh! You girls are so afraid of resembling your mother and aunt Philips, I reckon you do not have the slightest idea of what is proper and what is not. Madeline did not have a lot of time for you after our children started to arrive."
"I do not understand."
"Consider this: just as Elizabeth tried to convince you that Mr. Bingley cared for you, all based on a month's dinners and visits, his friends tried to convince your young man of something else."
"Lizzy was right, though, Uncle. Otherwise why would he insist on calling if he does not care for me?"
"Lizzy guessed right, Jane. In the case of Mr. Wickham she guessed wrong. Now, maybe his friends guessed wrong. Imagine, if you will, that Mr. Darcy holds the same sway over Mr. Bingley as Lizzy holds over you."
"I see. And you believe - "
"Nothing I care to share, my dear niece. I won't be giving you any advice, other than to talk to your young man. Too many people pretend to know the mind of another, I won't add to their number."
-`o´-
"Mrs. Croft? I believe I know now what you wanted me to answer," Mary said one afternoon when there were just the two of them in the music room.
There was just a touch of defiance in the young woman's voice and it made Mrs. Croft smile. She much preferred to work with strong willed young ladies. True, any advice was bound to be met with an objection if not complete rejection, but the advantage was that such girls would retain much of their own disposition and character. There was very little danger of doing too much.
"Then I am very interested in hearing all about it."
"You wanted me to admit that I am not the most accomplished of my sisters, not at all better than them, and furthermore that I would have not made a good wife to my cousin. I am guilty of being proud."
"You are being proud, Miss Mary. You will need to work to learn humility, but take heart. Humility is a lifetime's work and not one of us is perfect. What is expected of us is to strive to be good, kind, and humble."
"Of course, Mrs. Croft."
"Come, Miss Mary. You are past the age of pouting and peevishness is not a good look on anybody."
"I am sorry," Mary said, blushing at being caught. She was rather disappointed that their companion agreed that she had been proud.
"However, you are wide of the mark about what my exercise was meant to accomplish. I am glad you recognized your prideful nature, so we'll leave this aside. I trust that now that you understand yourself you will take steps to rectify this trait."
Mary nodded, then smiled a little. It was… nice, she supposed. Mrs. Croft talked to her like their father talked to Lizzy some of the time. Like she was clever and capable.
"I wanted you to think about at least one thing that you do better than most everybody in your family and even among your larger circle of acquaintances. It does not mean that it makes you better than any of them though."
"But if I do something better than everybody I know, does it not follow that I am better than them?"
"I do not believe that it does. We should recognize and nurture our good qualities, just as we should recognize and correct our flaws. What use is it to any of us to concentrate on being better than other people? Who would keep the tally?"
"I am not sure I follow."
"For the moment just think about it. We have more important things before us, we are yet to establish your strengths, Miss Mary.
Shall we call Miss Catherine? Her perspicacity will serve us well here, I am sure."
Marry rolled her eyes at this description of her sister, but called on a maid to ask her sister to come to the music room. Catherine was soon with them and Mrs. Croft wasted no time.
"Miss Catherine, what would you say is your sister's strength?"
"Mary's?"
"Yes. Miss Mary and I were discussing strengths and weaknesses."
"Oh, Mary is hardworking! The only one of us to be so, no doubt. And she is patient when she wants to master something."
"There you have it, Miss Mary, right from the horse's mouth. You should understand that everybody who knows you has the same opinion of you. You are a most dependable, hardworking young woman."
"And preachy," Kitty couldn't help herself.
"We take the good with the bad, is that not so, my dears? All it remains for me is to help you find more varied interests."
-`o´-
"I must offer my excuses, Mr. Bingley, for abruptly interrupting our conversation the other day. It was not my intention to do so, I assure you."
"Think nothing of it, Miss Bennet. I know you to be the kindest, most gentle person I ever had the pleasure to meet. You would not inflict pain on another on purpose."
From her seat at the window Lydia snorted indelicately, then giggled. Oh, but Mr. Bingley was in for a surprise if he thought Jane would always be nice to him.
She then remembered she was not supposed to hear anything and started on the second act of L'Avare. After ascertaining her tastes, her uncle had provided her only with comedies to practice her French. That many of them had love, secret engagements, and mean parents as the subject only made her that much more inclined to persevere.
"My sister knows I can have quite a temper when so provoked," Jane said with a smile. She could not help but be pleased that Mr. Bingley did not mention her beauty as one of her main attributes. She had had enough of people who only saw her beauty and nothing else.
It gave her hope they could perhaps do well together. Her beauty, after all, would not last forever; or it would become insignificant if her husband could not stand the sight of her.
"I would start, if you do not mind. I thought a lot about our talk during our walk in the park and I cannot be happy with how I expressed myself. I am sure I came out as a dunce blaming my friend and my sisters for all the misfortunes in my life."
"No, indeed. My uncle is of the opinion we both have a surfeit of friends who give their opinions too freely. My sisters, especially Lizzy, indulged my fancy and encouraged me in my attachment, giving me to understand that your regard for me was plain to see. We both trusted our friends, that is all."
"Well, your sister was right!" Mr. Bingley cried, "unlike my friends, I might add."
"She was, yes. However, she had no basis for her good guess; no more than your friends had a basis for their wrong guess. We are both guilty of listening and bowing to the wishes and opinions of other people, I think."
"'tis true. Darcy has such a presence and knows so much, it is hard to imagine anybody would ever dare contradict him. Except perhaps your sister."
"My sister?" Jane looked at Lydia puzzled. "Lydia, you mean?"
"Miss Elizabeth. She always argued with him and I could tell he was quite provoked at times, but then so was she."
"I can well believe it of Lizzy, but Mr. Darcy was always so composed."
"He is, he is, no doubt about this. Your sister, however, has a way about her that always discomposes him."
"Does she now?" This was new information to her. Elizabeth had talked but little about her time at Netherfield. She would keep this in mind and maybe talk to her aunt about it. Or better yet, with her uncle. He had a way of getting to the heart of the matter that Jane envied and wished for herself. She could only imagine how much simpler and happier her life would be then!
"Well," she continued, "that's neither here nor there. We should let Lizzy and Mr. Darcy be."
"We should," Bingley agreed. "The point I was trying to make, rather convolutedly I think, was that I have depended on Darcy's good advice for a long time. He truly is a good man and I am sorry to have lost his friendship."
"You did? Why?"
"I found out he conspired with my sisters to keep me from knowing you were in London, Miss Bennet."
"How exactly did he conspire with them?"
"He knew about it from my sister and did not tell me."
"I did not write to him, sir. I see no reason why he would hurry to you with the information, especially if he thought I was not a good match for you."
"You are too kind, Miss Bennet! Only you could excuse such underhanded schemes as coming from a regard for my welfare."
"Do they not? You have accused your sister of only thinking of her own consequence when she rejected me as a possible partner for you. Can you say the same about Mr. Darcy?"
"Hang Darcy! He has no bearing on our present circumstances," Bingley replied somewhat exasperated by her insistence to examine the past in such minute detail.
"If you say so, sir. But can you likewise say that he or another one of your friends will not interfere between us at some point in the future?"
Bingley looked at his chosen Miss Bennet as he was seeing her for the first time. He had never been very good at debates, never won accolades for it that's for sure. He had been attracted to her exactly because she was not - or did not seem to be when he first knew her - the kind of person who would push him until he gave in. In other words, she was nothing like Caroline or even like Darcy was too, in many respects.
Although unlike them she did not appear to want anything for herself. He couldn't believe it of Jane - Miss Bennet to you, young man, he admonished himself - that she would go to such lengths to point out his many failures.
"You believe I was reacting rushly."
"I do not know, sir. I do not know if I have all the information to be the judge of that."
"I was talking once with Miss Elizabeth and Darcy, you know, about my propensity to think about what I wanted accomplished and act on it in an instant. And also how I was more likely than not to yield to persuasion of friends. Your sister was quite gallant in praising my sweet disposition. Darcy did not approve of it and said so, although he did not refrain from taking advantage of it, when it suited him."
"You seem to have talked to Lizzy quite a bit, Mr. Bingley."
"Oh, no, not I. She and Darcy were sparring as was their wont. I was accidentally caught between them."
"And she never said a thing to me," Jane whispered mostly to herself. "Mr. Bingley, I find that my uncle was right in another respect as well. It is unfortunate, but, unlike Elizabeth, I do not know how to converse with the gentleman I look at with a very fond regard. My sister knows more about you than I do! We have to rectify this, sir," she continued playfully.
"I believe you would like me to admit that I should not blame Darcy or even my sister for my failing to return to you last Autumn. It is true, I should not. I am afraid I cannot help but feel resentful because of the way they chose to interfere. Even though, after all, the responsibility for the decision was mine. There, I said it."
"My thoughts did not tend in that particular direction, sir. I was more worried that neither of us are in the habit of taking decisions and seeing them through. I was distressed when you did not come back -"
"I know, Miss Bennet. Mr. Denny put me on my guard about what my actions must have cost you."
"As I was saying," Jane sighed and tried to gather her thoughts. Has Mr. Bingley always been this scattered in his ideas? "I believe we are not in the habit of taking decisions and seeing them through. More than once I have agreed with my mother's schemes in spite of knowing they were the wrong thing to do. I did so to preserve the peace in our family, but I should not use such sentiments as an excuse."
"I believe I understand you, Miss Bennet, and I agree with you. All too often I did the same myself."
"So you see, Mr. Bingley, perhaps what we need is a courtship, to ascertain if ours could be a felicitous union."
Mr. Bingley smiled slightly and agreed she was right.
He was mostly content. He still would have liked to have the date of their wedding decided, but he would take advantage of Miss Bennet's kind heart and try to know about her without any pressure that she would expect his addresses at any time.
A woman who did not whine or swoon to get her way was quite a novel thing and he meant to show his appreciation and be steadfast in his pursuit of Jane.
-`o´-
Author note:
Thank you all for your comments, they are wonderful!
Guest who asked how come Wickham escaped hanging:
He did. People from the lower strata of society were hanged a lot more often than the rest.
That and the army needed cannon fodder. An able bodied potential soldier was not going to be hanged if he could be put to use to die in Spain.
Guest Colleen S:
Thank you for always being so kind and encouraging with everybody who posts in this fandom :)