Chapter 33
More than once did Elizabeth, in
her ramble within the park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy. She felt
all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him where
no one else was brought, and, to prevent its ever happening again,
took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of
hers. How it could occur a second time, therefore, was very odd!
Yet it did, and even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or
a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few
formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he
actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her. He
never said a great deal, nor did she give herself the trouble of
talking or of listening much; but it struck her in the course of
their third rencontre that he was asking some odd unconnected
questions—about her pleasure in being at Hunsford, her love of
solitary walks, and her opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Collins's
happiness; and that in speaking of Rosings and her not perfectly
understanding the house, he seemed to expect that whenever she came
into Kent again she would be staying there
too. His words seemed to imply it. Could he have Colonel
Fitzwilliam in his thoughts? She supposed, if he meant anything, he
must mean and allusion to what might arise in that quarter. It
distressed her a little, and she was quite glad to find herself at
the gate in the pales opposite the Parsonage.
She was engaged one day as she walked in perusing Jane's last
letter, and dwelling on some passages which proved that Jane had
not written in spirits, when, instead of being again surprised by
Mr. Darcy, she saw on looking up that Colonel Fitzwilliam was
meeting her. Putting away the letter immediately and forcing a
smile, she said: "I did not know before that you ever walked this
way." "I have been making the tour of the park," he replied, "as I
generally do every year, and intend to close it with a call at the
Parsonage. Are you going much farther?" "No, I should have turned
in a moment." And accordingly she did turn, and they walked towards
the Parsonage together. "Do you certainly leave Kent on Saturday?"
said she. "Yes— if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his
disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases." "And if not
able to please himself in the arrangement, he has at least pleasure
in the great power of choice. I do not know anybody who seems more
to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy." "He
likes to have his own way very well," replied Colonel Fitzwilliam.
"But so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it
than many others, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I
speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to
self-denial and dependence." "In my opinion, the younger son of an
earl can know very little of either. Now seriously, what have you
ever known of self-denial and dependence? When have you been
prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose, or
procuring anything you had a fancy for?" "These are home questions—
and perhaps I cannot say that I have experienced many hardships of
that nature. But in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from
want of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like." "Unless
where they like women of fortune, which I think they very often
do." Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are too
many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some
attention to money." "Is this," thought Elizabeth, "meant for me?"
and she coloured at the idea; but, recovering herself, said in a
lively tone, "And pray, what is the usual price of an earl's
younger son? Unless the elder brother is very sickly, I suppose you
would not ask above fifty thousand pounds." He answered her in the
same style, and the subject dropped. To interrupt a silence which
might make him fancy her affected with what had passed, she soon
afterwards said: "I imagine your cousin brought you down with him
chiefly for the sake of having someone at his disposal. I wonder he
does not marry, to secure a lasting convenience of that kind. But,
perhaps, his sister does as well for the present, and, as she is
under his sole care, he may do what he likes with her." "No," said
Colonel Fitzwilliam, "that is an advantage which he must divide
with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship of Miss Darcy."
"Are you indeed? And pray what sort of guardians do you make? Does
your charge give you much trouble? Young ladies of her age are
sometimes a little difficult to manage, and if she has the true
Darcy spirit, she may like to have her own way." As she spoke she
observed him looking at her earnestly; and the manner in which he
immediately asked her why she supposed Miss Darcy likely to give
them any uneasiness, convinced her that she had somehow or other
got pretty near the truth. She directly replied: "You need not be
frightened. I never heard any harm of her; and I dare say she is
one of the most tractable creatures in the world. She is a very
great favourite with some ladies of my acquaintance, Mrs. Hurst and
Miss Bingley. I think I have heard you say that you know them." "I
know them a little. Their brother is a pleasant gentlemanlike man—
he is a great friend of Darcy's." "Oh! yes," said Elizabeth drily;
"Mr. Darcy is uncommonly kind to Mr. Bingley, and takes a
prodigious deal of care of him."
"Care of him! Yes, I really believe
Darcy does take care of him in those points
where he most wants care. From something that he told me in our
journey hither, I have reason to think Bingley very much indebted
to him. But I ought to beg his pardon, for I have no right to
suppose that Bingley was the person meant. It was all
conjecture."
"What is it you mean?" "It is a circumstance which Darcy could not
wish to be generally known, because if it were to get round to the
lady's family, it would be an unpleasant thing." "You may depend
upon my not mentioning it." "And remember that I have not much
reason for supposing it to be Bingley. What he told me was merely
this: that he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend
from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without
mentioning names or any other particulars, and I only suspected it
to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into
a scrape of that sort, and from knowing them to have been together
the whole of last summer." "Did Mr. Darcy give you reasons for this
interference?" "I understood that there were some very strong
objections against the lady." "And what arts did he use to separate
them?" "He did not talk to me of his own arts," said Fitzwilliam,
smiling. "He only told me what I have now told you." Elizabeth made
no answer, and walked on, her heart swelling with indignation.
After watching her a little, Fitzwilliam asked her why she was so
thoughtful. "I am thinking of what you have been telling me," said
she. "Your cousin's conduct does not suit my feelings. Why was he
to be the judge?" "You are rather disposed to call his interference
officious?" "I do not see what right Mr. Darcy had to decide on the
propriety of his friend's inclination, or why, upon his own
judgement alone, he was to determine and direct in what manner his
friend was to be happy. But," she continued, recollecting herself,
"as we know none of the particulars, it is not fair to condemn him.
It is not to be supposed that there was much affection in the
case." "That is not an unnatural surmise," said Fitzwilliam, "but
it is a lessening of the honour of my cousin's triumph very sadly."
This was spoken jestingly; but it
appeared to her so just a picture of Mr. Darcy, that she would not
trust herself with an answer, and therefore, abruptly changing the
conversation talked on indifferent matters until they reached the
Parson age. There, shut into her own room, as soon as their visitor
left them, she could think without interruption of all that she had
heard. It was not to be supposed that any other people could be
meant than those with whom she was connected. There could not exist
in the world two men over whom Mr. Darcy
could have such boundless influence. That he had been concerned in
the measures taken to separate Bingley and Jane she had never
doubted; but she had always attributed to Miss Bingley the
principal design and arrangement of them. If his own vanity,
however, did not mislead him, HE was the cause, his pride and
caprice were the cause, of all that Jane had suffered, and still
continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of
happiness for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world;
and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have
inflicted.
"There were some very strong objections against the lady," were
Colonel Fitzwilliam's words; and those strong objections probably
were, her having one uncle who was a country attorney, and another
who was in business in London.
"To Jane herself," she exclaimed,
"there could be no possibility of objection; all loveliness and
goodness as she is!— her understanding excellent, her mind
improved, and her manners captivating. Neither could anything be
urged against my father, who, though with some peculiarities, has
abilities Mr. Darcy himself need not disdain, and respectability
which he will probably never each." When she thought of her mother,
her confidence gave way a little; but she would not allow that any
objections there had material weight with
Mr. Darcy, whose pride, she was convinced, would receive a deeper
wound from the want of importance in his friend's connections, than
from their want of sense; and she was quite decided, at last, that
he had been partly governed by this worst kind of pride, and partly
by the wish of retaining Mr. Bingley for his sister.
The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned, brought on a
headache; and it grew so much worse towards the evening, that,
added to her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, it determined her not
to attend her cousins to Rosings, where they were engaged to drink
tea. Mrs. Collins, seeing that she was really unwell, did not press
her to go and as much as possible prevented her husband from
pressing her; but Mr. Collins could not conceal his apprehension of
Lady Catherine's being rather displeased by her staying at home.