Janet Aylmer - Darcy’s Story

Three sides of paper conveyed the happy news that he had finally found an opportunity to convey his affections to Miss Bennet, and that she had accepted him. There then followed a detailed account of the kind reception that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, not to mention their three other daughters at home, had given to this news.

Bingley went on to give details of the early plans for the wedding, and the need to make various other arrangements. He had heard from his sisters in Scarborough that they would be leaving for the south shortly, so that Darcy might like to call on them before he returned to Hertfordshire.

The letter ended by regretting Darcy’s continuing absence, and hoping that his friend might soon rejoin him in Hertfordshire to share in his happiness. A postscript added how the pleasant company of Miss Elizabeth Bennet was consoling his friend when her elder sister was occupied elsewhere.

This news left Darcy with mixed reactions.

He had no intention of making his presence in town known to Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst. Their lack of courtesy to Miss Elizabeth Bennet in Derbyshire was still fresh in his mind. Any joy that those ladies might express about their brother’s news would be insincere at best, bearing in mind their actions last winter.

Whilst on the one hand he rejoiced in his friend’s happiness, he also reflected that the forthcoming marriage of Bingley with the eldest Miss Bennet would inevitably bring him into more frequent contact with her sister.

He could not come to a view of what would be more painful to him; not to see Miss Elizabeth at all, or to encounter her where she might find more pleasure in the company of other eligible gentlemen.

At least he had the comfort, from their last conversation in Lambton, of knowing that she had come to accept the true nature of Mr. Wickham, even if it had since been necessary for that gentleman to become her brother-in-law so that her concerns about her youngest sister should be met.

On the Wednesday, Darcy found Fitzwilliam waiting for him at the house in Brook Street.

“My brother and his family will join us shortly,” his cousin said. “How is Georgiana?”

“She is well,” Darcy replied, “and has Mrs. Annesley with her at Pemberley.”

“Tell me, Darcy, why you wanted to locate Mrs. Younge?” said Fitzwilliam, with a quizzical smile. “I would have thought that she was the last person in the world you would want to meet again after what happened at Ramsgate last year.”

Darcy recollected that Fitzwilliam had only just returned from the north, and might be unaware of the marriage between Wickham and the youngest Miss Bennet. However, his cousin was likely to hear the news by some means or other, so there seemed little point in dissembling too much about the matter.

“I wished to be of some assistance in discovering the whereabouts of George Wickham. He had taken advantage of another young lady, whose parents were anxious to discover her. But, I do not want my part in the matter to be broadcast abroad. So I hope that you are willing that yours also should not be commonly known.”

Fitzwilliam regarded his cousin with some amusement. “I have heard that Wickham has recently married the youngest sister of a lady whose company you seemed to enjoy in Kent some months ago. However, I will keep your secret, and have no need to publish my small part in the affair.”

Darcy would have welcomed the opportunity to hear his cousin reiterate his good opinion of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. However, he was not anxious to risk revealing his own current agony of mind. So he contented himself with saying, “It is true that he has now married Miss Lydia Bennet. It was a sorry business.”

At that moment, they heard voices in the hall, and the Viscount came into the room with his wife and small sons. Darcy was glad of the interruption. The subject was not revisited during the hours that followed, before he took leave of them.

Having visited his attorney the following day, Darcy returned to his own house in the afternoon. He was surprised to find a carriage with a familiar livery waiting outside.

On entering, he found his aunt standing in the drawing room. It was immediately clear that she was very angry indeed.

“Darcy,” she said imperiously, “I have come here direct from Hertfordshire to see you!”

He, startled, regarded her with a dawning apprehension.

He knew of no acquaintance of hers who might have taken his aunt to that county. He did, however, know some of his own, and one in particular...

His worst fears in that regard were soon realised.

“I went to Longbourn this morning, to see Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”

Lady Catherine looked at him for some reaction, but seeing none visible then continued, “A report of a most alarming nature had reached me, that not only is the eldest Miss Bennet on the point of being married to your friend, Mr. Bingley, but also that Miss Elizabeth Bennet would, in all likelihood, be soon afterwards united to you, my own nephew!

“Of course, I went to her father’s house to insist that she should have such a report universally contradicted.”

Lady Catherine paused, and looked at him for agreement. Darcy maintained his composure, and waited for his aunt, for she showed every sign of continuing.

“I was not surprised to find that Mrs. Bennet was in every respect as ill-favoured as I had been led to expect.”

Darcy still kept silent.

“I asked Miss Elizabeth whether you had made her an offer of marriage since, as almost your nearest relation, I am of course entitled to know all your dearest concerns.

“She replied that I was not entitled to know hers!

“I told her that any such match that she had the presumption to aspire to could never take place, since your late mother and I were agreed, when you were both in your cradles, that you and your cousin Anne should be united in marriage. Miss Bennet should know that honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, would forbid such a match. She would be censured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with you.

“She had the impudence to reply that, whilst these would be heavy misfortunes, your wife must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.”

His aunt was totally unaware of the effect that her report of these last few words had on her nephew. The words ran through and through his mind, as Lady Catherine continued.

“I told her that I would not be dissuaded from my purpose by such remarks. I have not been used to submit to any person’s whims, or been in the habit of brooking disappointment. I told Miss Bennet that, if she were sensible of her own good, she should not seek to quit the sphere in which she had been brought up.”

Lady Catherine looked at Darcy again for his support. He gave none.

“Miss Bennet had the audacity to reply that, in marrying my nephew, she would not consider herself as quitting that sphere; that you are a gentleman; and that she is a gentleman’s daughter; so in that you would be equal.

“I made it quite clear that I knew how inferior are the connections of her mother’s family. But that appeared to be of no concern to her.

“Instead, she said that, whatever her connections might be, if you did not object to them, they could be nothing to me!

“She did admit to me that she is not engaged to you. I asked her to promise me never to enter into such an engagement.”

Darcy concealed his anxiety as best he could, as he waited to hear her next words. It seemed to him a very long moment before she spoke but, when she did, her report was everything that he could have hoped to hear. However, it was clearly contrary to what his aunt had intended.

“She had the effrontery to reply that she would make no promise of the kind.”

Darcy let out his breath silently, as his aunt went on, with mounting indignation.

“Indeed, she said that, in any case, her giving such a promise would not make a marriage between you and my dear Anne at all more probable.”

He certainly did not dissent from that view, but said nothing as his aunt continued.

“I told her that I am no stranger to the particulars of her youngest sister’s infamous elopement. I know it all; that the young man’s marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expense of her father and uncles. Such a girl is of course totally unsuitable to be your sister by marriage, as is the son of your late father’s steward to be your brother.”

Darcy reflected to himself that, if his aunt had really “known it all,” her words would have been much more extreme. Her reaction if she had been aware that Darcy himself had brought the whole matter about could only be imagined. He did not remind himself that he might have shared his aunt’s views not so many months ago.

“I charged her that she had no regard for your honour and credit, that a connection with her must disgrace you in the eyes of everybody.”

“She replied that she was resolved to act in that manner, which would, in her own opinion, constitute her own happiness, without reference to me, or to anyone so wholly unconnected to her.”

“When I told her that she appeared to be determined to ruin you in the opinion of all your friends, and make you the contempt of the world,

“She replied that neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude, had any possible claim on her, and that no principle of either would be violated by her marriage with you.”

His aunt paused and, getting no response from him, she then said, with every appearance of expecting a favourable reply, “Darcy, you will appreciate why I was most seriously displeased. You must give me the assurances which that ungrateful young woman has withheld.”

To reinforce her point, she went on to repeat sentiments that, although less explicitly, she had told him many times before.

“As my nephew, you and Anne are formed for each other. Both of you are descended on the maternal side from the same noble line; and, on the father’s, from respectable, honourable, and ancient, though untitled families. You have been destined for each other by the voice of every member of our respective houses. You are not to be divided by the upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune!”

There was a silence for a few moments and she awaited his reply.

Darcy found himself quite calm, now that the time had come for him to speak. He looked his aunt directly in the eye as he began.

“I have the greatest respect for my cousin Anne, and for you, and that will continue,” he said. “However, I would wish to achieve in my own marriage the happiness and affection which my mother and father shared. As to whom I should marry, that is a private matter which I do not intend to discuss with anyone. It is not my wish to offend, but the intervention of others is not calculated to assist me, or to influence my choice.”

Lady Catherine regarded him with alarm and dismay, and her voice rose to an angrier pitch as she said, “Are you refusing to give me the assurance I seek? She is a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family! Such a marriage would be against the wishes of all your friends! Your alliance would be a disgrace; her name would never even be mentioned by any of us.”

She looked again at Darcy for a response, but he remained silent.

“Are you refusing to honour the agreement between your dear mother and myself? Will you not promise me never to enter into such an engagement?”

“My mother told me of no such agreement. I know myself of none. I have no wish to upset you, and I have every respect for my mother’s memory,” Darcy replied, quietly. “But, as I have already said, there are other considerations to which I give priority.”

“I cannot believe,” said his aunt, “that you are willing to put aside the wishes of your nearest family in this matter!”

Darcy looked at her without expression, and said nothing.

And although Lady Catherine continued in the same vein for fully fifteen more minutes, he would not yield.

Eventually, his aunt left, in as angry a mood as he had ever seen her, without the assurances that she had sought.