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Elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts and meditations which had at length closed her eyes. She could not yet recover from the surprise of what had happened; it was impossible to think of anything else; and, totally indisposed for employment, she resolved, soon after breakfast, to indulge herself in air and exercise. She was proceeding directly to her favourite walk, when the recollection of Mr. Darcy's sometimes coming there stopped her, and instead of entering the park, she turned up the lane, which led farther from the turnpike-road. The park paling was still the boundary on one side, and she soon passed one of the gates into the ground.
After walking two or three times along that part of the lane, she was tempted, by the pleasantness of the morning, to stop at the gates and look into the park. The five weeks which she had now passed in Kent had made a great difference in the country, and every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees. She was on the point of continuing her walk, when she caught a glimpse of a gentleman within the sort of grove which edged the park; he was moving that way; and, fearful of its being Mr. Darcy, she was directly retreating. But the person who advanced was now near enough to see her, and stepping forward with eagerness, pronounced her name. She had turned away; but on hearing herself called, though in a voice which proved it to be Mr. Darcy, she moved again towards the gate. He had by that time reached it also, and, holding out a letter, which she instinctively took, said, with a look of haughty composure, "I have been walking in the grove some time in the hope of meeting you. Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?" And then, with a slight bow, turned again into the plantation, and was soon out of sight.
With no expectation of pleasure, but with the strongest curiosity, Elizabeth opened the letter, and, to her still increasing wonder, perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letter-paper, written quite through, in a very close hand. The envelope itself was likewise full. Pursuing her way along the lane, she then began it. It was dated from Rosings, at eight o'clock in the morning, and was as follows:—
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"Be not alarmed, madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments or renewal of those offers which were last night so disgusting to you. I write without any intention of paining you, or humbling myself, by dwelling on wishes which, for the happiness of both, cannot be too soon forgotten; and the effort which the formation and the perusal of this letter must occasion, should have been spared, had not my character required it to be written and read. You must, therefore, pardon the freedom with which I demand your attention; your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly, but I demand it of your justice.
"Two offenses of a very different nature, and by no means of equal magnitude, you last night laid to my charge. The first mentioned was, that, regardless of the sentiments of either, I had endeavored to detach Mr. Bingley from your sister, and the other, that I had, in defiance of various claims, in defiance of honour and charity, judged your family as unworthy while turning a blind eye when the very same behaviour was displayed by mine.
"But from the severity of that blame which was last night so liberally bestowed, respecting each circumstance, I shall hope to be in the future secured, when the following account of my actions and their motives has been read. If, in the explanation of them, which is due to myself, I am under the necessity of relating feelings which may be offensive to yours, I can only say that I am sorry. The necessity must be obeyed, and further apology would be absurd.
"I had not been long in Hertfordshire, before I saw, in common with others, that Bingley preferred your elder sister to any other young woman in the country. Bingley unites a great humility of spirit with true amiability and a steadfast loyalty to his friends. I am sorry to have lost his friendship and his trust, but I have not learnt to repent my actions. It would not have been the first time a young woman, or her family, were trying to take advantage of his good nature.
"The part which I acted is now to be explained. His sisters' uneasiness had been equally excited with my own; our coincidence of feeling was soon discovered, and, alike sensible that no time was to be lost in detaching their brother, we shortly resolved on joining him directly in London. There I have engaged in the office of pointing out to him all the evils which would be necessarily attached to such an union. The only thing that convinced him to drop the acquaintance was the assurance, which I have not hesitated to give, of your sister's indifference. He had before believed her to return his affection with sincere, if not with equal regard. But Bingley has great natural modesty, with a stronger dependence on my judgement than on his own.
"You have spoken last night about not being willing to consider a man who might have ruined the happiness of a most beloved sister. I pray that you were in earnest, madam, and that my friend's happiness too is secured in being united with your sister.
"With respect to that other, more weighty accusation, of overlooking the faults of my own family while finding the same distasteful in yours, I can only refute it by laying out the reasons that form the foundation of my opinion.
"The situation of your mother's family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison to that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father. Pardon me. It pains me to offend you. But amidst your concern for the defects of your nearest relations, and your displeasure at this representation of them, let it give you consolation to consider that, to have conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of the like censure, is praise no less generally bestowed on you and your elder sister, than it is honourable to the sense and disposition of both.
"I was shocked to hear that my own aunt took the liberty to discuss my private concerns with strangers, even more so when the information she imparted in no way represents my wishes for my future felicity. You must have surmised that Lady Catherine has been wishing for a closer union between us for years, yet neither one of us has ever given her reason to believe such union is likely to take place.
"Many a mother tried to nudge Bingley towards their daughters and I am sure he would have been married for years now, had it not been for my advice to take his own wishes into account when behaving to please his larger circle of acquaintances.
"I shall not scruple to assert that the compliant nature of your sister was such as might have given the most acute observer a conviction that she was not likely to oppose your mother's wishes on the question of marriage, even going so far as to disregard her own preference.
"Your superior knowledge of your sister would, no doubt, help put this matter to rest. Maybe I should have judged better to seek clarifications and come to a more complete understanding of Miss Bennet's character, but from everything I witnessed during the Netherfield ball, I felt I should act with some urgency.
"This, madam, is a faithful narrative of every event in which we have been concerned together; and if you do not absolutely reject it as false, you will, I hope, acquit me henceforth of deliberate cruelty and inconsistency.
"I shall endeavour to find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in the course of the morning. I will only add, God bless you.
"FITZWILLIAM DARCY"
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Author note: Thank you all for your comments, they are wonderful!
Guest Colleen S:
I'm very glad you liked it! I wanted it to be both better - no wild and unfounded accusations - and worse - what she said is actually harder to refute. Darcy will have to write a very good letter, right? :D
Guest who said Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine behave the same:
I suspect JA wrote Lady Catherine as an upper crust version of Mrs. Bennet. Her way of making fun of pompous fools.
Guest who said upheaval did not apply to aristocracy and upper gentry:
You're mostly right. But I'm talking about Bennets, Bingleys, and Hursts. At their level life was pretty fluid. I'll add a note about Emma to illustrate my point.
Guest who said there might be no need for a letter:
I'm very glad you liked it!
It was complicated to live in that time, wasn't it? Or maybe it wasn't, but it all seems so foreign.
And there's every need for a letter. We cannot have PP fanfiction without a letter! ;)
Guest who said we'll agree to disagree:
Sure!
I'll add a note about Emma because I tend to ramble and there's a part there that's illustrative of how I see the Bennets.
Guest who was glad to read the new chapters:
I'm glad you've enjoyed them!
Guest who wants to help me with my grammar:
You're right. I absolutely need to remove "toi et moi" from my mind, unfortunately I need and use French all the time and they kind of bleed into each other.
I'll continue to try though, who knows.
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About Emma and Pride and Prejudice
I said in the last chapter that these two novels should be read together, because they shed light on one another.
For one, we have the character of Mr. Elton, parson, and poor, who feels entitled to ask for the hand of a heiress, daughter of an estate owner, because he felt they were at the same level.
They kind of were. Emma is still higher, but not that much as that would have been an issue, if Elton was any good.
I said that this is what old Mr. Darcy intended for Wickham: instant gentry advancement, just add water - I mean money. Join the church, find a well-dowered Miss Augusta Hawkins and you're set for life.
Another character of Emma is Miss Bates.
Knightley scolds Emma for her beviour towards Miss Bates ( end of Volume III Chapter VII, project Gutenberg edition):
"She is poor; she has sunk from the comforts she was born to; and, if she live to old age, must probably sink more. Her situation should secure your compassion."
That's the future of the Bennet women. Having to live on whatever their wealthier neighbours could spare. Once Mr. Bennet was dead and if at least one of them was not married into serious wealth, then they were in deep doo-doo.
Everybody knew that. The Hursts knew it, Caroline knew it, Darcy knew it.
Even Mrs. Bennet knew it!
Quite a few comments pointed out that a bankrupt lord was still a lord. That's true, but this was not the case here. These families are all commoners. Lady Catherine is a commoner too, Mr. Collins' worship of her notwithstanding.
The son of a gentleman who went into trade or became a steward or an attorney or did any kind of paid work was not a gentleman anymore. Women fared even worse.
Unlike a nobility title, which would still be yours even if you were bankrupt, the status of a gentleman / gentlewoman was restricted to people who did not work for their money or had an acceptable job - the church, the army, later the navy.
JA looks at what happens at the end of the line. What's the fate of the people who depend on the estate for their status, but have no rights to it?
The next master of Longbourn will be Mr. Collins. There are no more Bennet sons to carry on the name and once this event takes place, the Bennet women will change from daughters of an estate owner to distant cousins of an estate owner. England was chock-full of distant relatives of estate owners.
The point I'm trying to make is not that the class system did not matter, but that the Bennets were just about to make the transition from landed gentry to just people - they lacked the money to maintain their status. The Bingleys were on the upward trend and had the money needed to sustain advancement.
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Yet another short note:
The story is plotted right up to the Epilogue. Unfortunately for the past two weeks I only wrote proposals.
It just didn't work right and it took time so now I'm out of chapters. I hope to post on Monday as usual, but unfortunately I can make no promises.