Chapter 10 -Country Hours
In which the day gets seized, like it or not
The following Sunday at church, the vicar spoke with great feeling about life and death, fear and hope, caring and charity. Everyone was moved by his prayers for those who had died and for those who were ailing, and Mr. Hurst was able to stay awake during the entire sermon. The congregants participated enthusiastically in the singing of the hymns as well. Some of them might have been rather off key but everyone worships in their own way. Let us not allow lack of musical talent be an impediment to piety.
When the services were about to end, the vicar had some practical announcements to make. "Have you heard that the Netherfield ball has been cancelled at last? The kitchens at Netherfield had already prepared some refreshments for the ball, so the gentlemen of Netherfield have asked me to inform you that they are willing to arrange for the extra food to be delivered, if anyone knows of families in need."
At this, several voices were heard from the congregation. "Pray, you do not have to tell me right now, all at the same time, I will wait at the door for names to be taken after the services. Yes, sir, it is very kind of them. Yes, madam, likely some of it would spoil anyway. Oh what? Can you say it again? Oh I understand. Did you all hear that? Miss Bingley would prefer that your own containers be used."
The overall consensus in the general hubbub seemed to be that if the ball was to be cancelled the next best thing would be to be able to partake of the food without all the bad violinists.
"I wonder if they deliver the punch," one of the officers remarked, which sparked some laughter.
The vicar was not amused. "I must say that I have never seen the church as full as this morning, and there are some faces that I have never seen in this building before. I do hope that most people came to pray for your neighbours and to seek divine comfort in these troubled times, but I suspect that at least some of you are here because so many of your other pleasures have been suspended and right now, the church is the likeliest place to meet for some gossip and chat."
"Anything that brings people to church is a good thing," said Mr. Collins whose sermons could rarely draw a large crowd.
"I hope to see everyone here in good health next week. Please take care of each other and heed the safety advice of those who know best." The vicar's conclusion was well-meant but whether everyone could agree who knew best was doubtful. So few of those present knew Lady Catherine DeBourgh.
Some congregants seemed fearful of making physical contact and attempted to get away from people as soon as they could, presumably to minimize their risk of infection, although what good it would do after spending two hours in a packed church is not known. However, the church was slow to empty, as people who wanted to speak with the vicar about getting food delivered blocked the exit. Others were eager to prove the vicar right and intentionally stopped to gossip and chat with their friends, including Miss Catherine and Miss Lydia who had come to the church with Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. They had not seen many officers out and about in Meryton and were happy to greet as many as they could. But even their cheer was a little subdued as they noticed the people in black.
Miss King and her aunt had attended church wearing mourning clothes and now stood in the middle of a crowd, receiving condolences from those neighbours who had not given theirs before the services. Miss King was sniffling, and Mr. Wickham was kind enough to give her his handkerchief. They were quiet enough that the content of their conversation is not a matter of general knowledge but one would like to assume Mr. Wickham comforted her regarding her uncle's recent passing, saying all that was proper. After all, asking about her inheritance would have been terribly gauche.
"I do not see Maria Lucas," said Miss Lydia.
"Nobody from Lucas Lodge is here today," said Miss Catherine.
Mrs. Bennet stood still at the end of their family pew, blocking the way for the rest of the Bennets, in an apparent attempt to maintain their distance from everyone else. However, her hopes proved futile as Mr. Bingley fixed his gaze on them and approached through the crowd. "Oh, he is no doubt looking for an audience with you again, as if you're the pope! That man does not know how to take no for an answer!"
Mr. Bingley had come to Longbourn several times the previous week, asking to see Mr. Bennet, but either Mrs. Bennet or Hill had managed to turn him away each time.
"So vexing! Whenever one wants young men to visit there are none to be found but when one is trying to keep them at some remove you simply cannot get rid of them!"
"Let him have his say," Mr. Bennet said. "I am not going anywhere at the moment."
"Mama, it is very kind of Mr. Bingley to offer to have food delivered, do you not think?" said Miss Elizabeth.
"I dare say it is. But they'd be heartily sick of white soup if they made enough for everybody and ate it all themselves."
Mrs. Bennet may have had more to say about white soup but it had to wait for Mr. Bingley had reached them. After everything he had been through in order to see Mr. Bennet he had no time for general pleasantries and got straight to the point.
"Mr. Bennet, I would like your consent to marry your daughter."
Mrs. Bennet shrieked.
"Charles!" cried Miss Bingley.
"Well, Mr. Bingley, you are a fortunate man," Mr. Bennet said, "for I have five for you to choose from."
"I mean Jane," said Mr. Bingley. "I mean Miss Bennet."
"And Jane, are you agreed?" asked Mr. Bennet.
"Yes, a thousand times yes!"
"That might take a while but once or twice is enough for now," said Mr. Bennet.
"Jane! Oh my sweetest Jane! I always knew this would happen," rejoiced Mrs. Bennet. Although it must be noted that this was a gross falsehood, for just a moment ago she had had no idea.
"Charles, what are you doing?"
"Getting Mr. Bennet's consent, Caroline."
"Granted," said Mr. Bennet.
"Do you not think this is rather sudden?" asked Miss Bingley.
"Well, yes," said Mr. Bingley. "But the thing is, so many people are ill, or dying, or mourning, and life is so very short and uncertain, and nobody knows what tomorrow might bring, and it is up to us to seize the day, to grab what happiness we can, right here, right now, and I realized I did not want to wait."
"And I did not want to wait either," said Miss Bennet.
"So if we spoke with the vicar today we could buy a common licence and marry a week from Monday," said Mr. Bingley.
"So soon! What about Jane's trousseau? What about the wedding breakfast?"
"Nobody knows how long it would take until we can have large celebrations again, Mrs. Bennet, and whatever Jane already has is fine. I do not care about her clothes, we can buy anything she needs once we are married and once it is safer to go shopping again."
"Jane, do you agree?"
"I do, I do, I do, I do, I do!"
"It seems everything is settled then," said Mr. Bennet.
The happy couple was congratulated by Jane's sisters, by the Hursts, by Mr. Darcy, as well as many others in the hearing range. A lot of congregants had been in the hearing range for Mrs. Bennet's shrieking so the young couple's happiness was soon a matter of common interest.
"I am so happy for you both," said Miss Elizabeth.
"I knew you could not be so beautiful for nothing, Jane," said Mrs. Bennet.
"My Jane is an angel," said Mr. Bingley.
"I hope you will be happy together for the rest of your lives," said Miss Mary, "and that neither one of you will die very soon."
"May I have Jane's room?" asked Miss Catherine.
Mr. Collins shared plenty of thoughts about how to achieve perfect felicity in a marriage, something that he had no experience of.
"What a blessed day," said Mrs. Phillips. "Too bad the Lucases are not here."
"Mr. Bingley, do you want me to do the paperwork for the marriage settlements for you?" asked Mr. Phillips.
Mr. Bingley thought that it would suit. He had no desire to travel to London at such a time.
"Has anyone heard from the Lucases?" asked Miss Elizabeth. "Are they well?"
Miss Bingley was still struck by her brother's news. "Mr. Darcy, do you not think this is very impulsive?"
"Bingley and Miss Bennet make their own decisions in their own time."
"Come now, Caroline, I think we all knew all along that Charles would end up just like that, falling in love one day and engaged the next," Mr. Hurst said.
"But I wanted to be the first of my sisters to be married," Miss Lydia lamented.
"Are you not a bit too young?" said Mrs. Hurst. "Do you want to be expecting at sixteen and a mother of three or four when you are twenty?"
"Amazing," said Mr. Hurst. "One never knows who is the maternal type."
"Oh I did not think about that..." Miss Lydia said. "I do not care about children but it might be fun to marry an officer. Think of the parties!"
"What parties do you speak of?" Mr. Hurst asked. "They are all at church because this is the best entertainment they get all week."
"Still, if there was no epidemic I could easily marry one of the officers," Miss Lydia said.
"I am sure you could easily find a penniless bounder who would run away with a fifteen-year-old girl," said Mr. Darcy, "but whether you would enjoy being married to him is less certain."
After some more neighbours had expressed their feelings about the engagement (it was wonderful to have some joyful news at such a sorrowful time, they had always known that Miss Bennet was a jewel who would marry well, and it was entirely too bad that there was to be no wedding breakfast for Mrs. Bennet always hosted a great party, but they were sure that Mr. Bennet would save some money, har-har), Miss Bingley still could not understand how the engagement came about.
"How did you even have time to propose? We have hardly seen Miss Bennet recently."
"If Charles keeps country hours he can accomplish a whole lot before breakfast," Mr. Hurst said.