Chapter Seventeen
Sir Lucas himself came to bear the news of his daughter's engagement to the Longbourn household. Of course, none believed him and Lydia, unrestrained as the rest of the family exclaimed:
"Good Lord! Sir William, how can you tell such a story? Do not you know that Mr. Collins wants to marry Lizzy?"
Her statement was as much as calling the man an outright tale carrier, a liar, but as was with the man who never failed to be congenial, he carried on and emphasized upon the certainty of his words. Only Elizabeth's interruption, however, rendered credibility to his story and he left, grateful to her. Her family turned to her as soon as he left, asking how she came to gain intelligence and how she was so composed.
"I declined Mr. Collins' offer, did I not?" she told her family. "Why, therefore, would I receive such information with anything but composure?"
Jane was in agreement with her as well as Mr. Bennet who retired to the library in the hope of escaping his wife's censure which was sure to come; but in the present, she was still yet uncommonly tongue-tied at the news. Mary couldn't care one way or the other who married whom and the two youngest daughters were interested only for gossip material to spread.
Mrs. Bennet's state of reticence was, however, short-lived and found its target in Elizabeth.
"You insolent child," she vented, "you have succeeded in thwarting the only chance of this family of holding on to Longbourn. If this engagement is true and I daresay that if it is, that the two could never be happy together- for Charlotte Lucas is incredibly plain and Mr. Collins cannot prefer her to you or any of my girls for that matter, then it is your fault that this has happened and I hope you delight in the misery of the whole family."
Elizabeth could not dare to inform her mother that none in the family was grieved by the engagement but she.
The days went by and things, it seemed, were at an utter standstill for the Bennet family. Mrs. Bennet was still unbelieving that two promises of wedding had knocked on her door for her two eldest daughters and none of the two had been realized. She never failed to bemoan her plight and her attack of failing nerves was ever on the increase. A lack of correspondence from the Netherfield party matched one from Mr. Collins who was so effusive in his appreciation to the family for his stay that Mr. Bennet skipped two long paragraphs entirely. In the next, Mr. Collins informed the family of his engagement, thus confirming to them all- particularly Mrs. Bennet who still voiced her doubt of the whole 'sordid' affair. To put it nicely, Mrs. Bennet's cordiality to Sir and Lady Lucas received a spiral decline downwards, and civility to the family was not to be patronized.
When Caroline Bingley's letter arrived, Jane saw in it a confirmation of her earlier fears- Mr. Bingley was to return no more to Netherfield. This was inferred from Miss Bingley's comment relaying her brother's regret that he was unable to pay his last respects to his friends in Hertfordshire before he took his departure. There could be no clearer message. Elizabeth despaired for her sister but with equal measure of anger directed mostly at Mr. Bingley, for in her opinion, only a weakness in character could ensure his persuasion not to make a return to Netherfield.
She consoled Jane as she could, trying still to convince her sister that Mr. Bingley loved her and might one day yet realize it. However, the news in Caroline's letter referred to his enraptures with Miss Darcy and Jane would not believe her. All in all, Jane's hope for love was dashed away and that of Mrs. Bennet for her daughter's settlement with such a man of high connections was gone. Her daughters were not permitted to rest on the matter.
A few weeks before Christmas, some rapid visits were witnessed at Longbourn.
That of Mr. Collins came first. His visit was little tolerated this time around by Mrs. Bennet (and nothing had scarce changed with Mr. Bennet for he still thought his cousin absolutely ridiculous) despite extending it upon his departure the first time around. However, the visit was short- to exact a date of his wedding with his intended and the chief of it was spent at Lucas Lodge. His departure was succeeded by the visit of Mrs. Bennet's brother and his wife. Mr. Gardiner, as opposed to his sister, had a good head on his shoulders that constantly engaged Mr. Bennet's thoughts upon any relation between them at all. His wife, younger to Mrs. Bennet by several years was also agreeable, sensible, pleasant and mature enough as to endear herself particularly to the two eldest daughters of the family.
In no time, Mrs. Bennet informed Mrs. Gardiner how she was ill used by her family, how Elizabeth refused a prosperous proposal, how her husband failed her in ordering an acceptance and how Jane was disappointed in the affairs of love.
Of all the accounts, Mrs. Gardiner could only reckon with the news about Jane's disappointment and sought immediately, to comfort her niece by talking first to Elizabeth whom she trusted to render to her the clear account. Elizabeth in turn revealed to her aunt that Jane's plight was none other brought by a connivance of Mr. Bingley's trusted friend and sisters and that she expected him to act on his love if it was ever true though it may be long.
"I never saw a more promising inclination," she informed Mrs. Gardiner, "he was growing quite inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her. Every time they met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own ball he offended two or three young ladies, by not asking them to dance; and I spoke to him twice myself, without receiving an answer. Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?"
On this, Mrs. Gardiner wholly agreed; "Oh, yes! Of that kind of love which I suppose him to have felt. Poor Jane! I am sorry for her, because, with her disposition, she may not get over it immediately. It had better have happened to you, Lizzy; you would have laughed yourself out of it sooner. But do you think she would be prevailed upon to go back with us? Change of scene might be of service- and perhaps a little relief from home may be as useful as anything."
The proposal was heartily agreed upon by Elizabeth on behalf of her sister, and told her aunt so who replied that she hoped that "no consideration with regard to this young man will influence her. We live in so different a part of town, all our connections are so different and, as you well know, we go out so little, that it is very improbable that they should meet at all, unless he really comes to see her."
In the end, Jane agreed and the fate was decided upon. In her imminent departure, however, Elizabeth mourned for she would lose her only sensible companion in the house besides her father who oftentimes got busy on the farm or in his library. The only activities to be looked forward to were Wickham's visit which were becoming increasingly regular in the Bennet's home, Mr. Collins return for the wedding, the wedding itself and Charlotte's departure with her husband to Kent. Of the activities, only the first was desirable and deserving of Elizabeth's pleasure such that her aunt noticed the preference between Wickham and herself a few days before she took her leave of the house with her husband and Jane. Of this, she purported to speak to Elizabeth in seclusion whither she spoke candidly of discouraging Elizabeth from falling in love with Wickham. Though she knew of Wickham and his connection with the late Mr. Darcy from her days in Derbyshire, it was by no ill knowledge of him that she did not recommend him to her niece. In her opinion, Mr. Bennet depended too much on Elizabeth for sensibility in his family and it would hurt him were she to choose Wickham for a spouse as he could have nothing to offer the family but his handsomeness and affability. Elizabeth had her family to consider, she emphasized on her niece.
"At present I am not in love with Mr. Wickham," Elizabeth informed her aunt. "I certainly am not. But he is, beyond all comparison, the most agreeable man I ever saw- and if he becomes really attached to me- I believe it will be better that he should not. I see the imprudence of it. Oh! That abominable Mr. Darcy! My father's opinion of me does me the greatest honour, and I should be miserable to forfeit it. When I am in company with him, I will not be wishing. In short, I will do my best."
In her speech, her aunt saw her sincerity but not an effort so she suggested, "Perhaps it will be as well if you discourage his coming here so very often. At least, you should not remind your mother of inviting him."
"As I did the other day. Very true, it will be wise in me to refrain from that," admitted Elizabeth with some ruefulness of spirit. "But do not imagine that he is always here so often. It is on your account that he has been so frequently invited this week. You know my mother's ideas as to the necessity of constant company for her friends. But really, and upon my honour, I will try to do what I think to be the wisest; and now I hope you are satisfied."
Mrs. Gardiner saw at last her niece's seriousness and contended herself with that. She was a woman who wanted the best for her nieces irrespective of their own dispositions but Elizabeth was her personal favourite and she still held the wish for her yet that she might find a suitable match better suited to her character and want in life.
Elizabeth took this candid advice to heart and admitted that she was in no danger of falling in love with him, or he with her, for while he couldn't be recommended to her because he had no fortune to offer her, she couldn't also be recommended to him for the same reason. She was also sensible to know that there was no fault in both their thinking- such was the way of the world and she held no bitterness in her heart at it.
Her sister soon left with the Gardiners, Mr. Collins returned but lodged with the Lucases, and on the morrow after the wedding, Charlotte was to leave. It really was a chain of events that did nothing to comfort Elizabeth in the least. Her friend came over to Longbourn to pay her farewell visit and in so doing charged Elizabeth to come visit her in Hunsford.
"My father and Maria are coming to me in March, and I hope you will consent to be of the party. Indeed, Eliza, you will be as welcome as either of them."
To this entreaty, Elizabeth could make no decline lest she appeared distressed by her friend's happiness. Also, the Lawrences had finally quitted Garywood and indeed, all seemed to be going well for her friend. Elizabeth would only have found it easy to be happy were the spouse any other than her cousin. His insipidity left a bad impression in her and she could only hope for Charlotte's happiness in face of this.
After the departure of the bride and bridegroom, nothing was ever so interesting in Hertfordshire. But for Jane's letters that frequently arrived for her (wherein her sister revealed that she had waited upon Caroline Bingley in their part of the town but hadn't seen the brother; and that when she did return the visit a long while after, she was a changed personality from what Jane knew of her and therefore, Jane admitted that Elizabeth had been right in her opinions that only pretence had fuelled Caroline's preference for her), nothing would have so much interested Elizabeth in the dawning of a new day.
Wickham's attention to her weakened and was renewed in another neighbour who newly came into a fortune upon the occasion of the death of her grandfather; who bequeathed to her a ten thousand pounds dowry. Elizabeth could not find it in herself to fault his deviation and comforted her unhurt pride- for she was never in love with him- that but for a lack of fortune on both their sides, she was his first and would have remained his only choice. In her letter to her aunt, she told Mrs. Gardiner all this not forgetting to include that "Kitty and Lydia take his defection much more to heart than I do. They are young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome young men must have something to live on, as well as the plain."
And after that, so boring did life in Hertfordshire grow that come January, Elizabeth began to look forward to a visit to Hunsford as she promised her friend Charlotte whose letters, along with Jane's, gave her some semblance of companionship outside her father's. The thought of Mr. Darcy was very soon relegated to a side of her mind where blame was duly apportioned to him for thwarting her sister's chance at happiness, wronging Mr. Wickham and judging herself in the most abominable manner. As far as she was concerned, he was as good as forgotten.
The only disturbance to this decision however was the tiny flutter that arose in her heart at the few times that his remembrance was called upon. Since she could hold nothing in account for this irrational feeling, she fancied that it could be nothing more than extreme dislike at the mention of the man.