I remain, sir, your humble servant,

William Collins


Mr Darcy to Colonel Fitzwilliam

Netherfield Park, Hertfordshire,

October 5

Henry, direct your letters to Netherfield Park, as I am once again with Bingley. I have hope, hope at last! My aunt sought to interfere in my affairs and in so doing has done me an unexpectedly good turn.

Having heard a rumour that I was about to propose to Elizabeth—it seems that Mrs Collins’s mother suspected my feelings and guessed my reasons for going to Longbourn—Lady Catherine visited Longbourn herself to tell Elizabeth that she must not marry me. When Elizabeth refused to give her any undertaking that she would never marry me, my aunt bore down on me like a Fury and demanded that I give her an undertaking never to offer my hand to Elizabeth. I did not give it. I would not have given it anyway, as she has no right to interfere in my affairs, but I was in no mood to even contemplate it when I learnt that Elizabeth had refused to put paid to the rumours.

My spirits lifted, for I knew that Elizabeth would have been only too happy to declare her intention of never marrying me if she had decided definitely against me, and so I set out at once for Hertfordshire. And now here I am, with hope in my heart, and tomorrow I must put that hope to the test.

I mean to ask her to marry me again. One way or another, tomorrow my fate will be sealed.

Pray for me, Henry.

Your cousin,

Darcy


Miss Kitty Bennet to Miss Eleanor Sotherton

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 6

Dear Ellie,

Everything here is horrible. Lydia is having all the fun in the north and if I had only been allowed to go to Brighton, I could have married an officer and I could be having fun flirting up in the north, too, instead of stuck here in the middle of nowhere. There are not even any new bonnets in the milliners’. Jane is the only one enjoying herself. She is having fun with Mr Bingley, though it is no fun for the rest of us as she sits and talks to him all the time and the rest of us might as well be dying of the plague for all she cares about us.

That Mr Darcy is here all the time, too. I do not know why he keeps coming, he never says anything to anyone, and as Mama says, he is the most disagreeable man in existence.

Mama keeps making me and Lizzy entertain him so that Jane can have Mr Bingley all to herself. We had to go for a walk with him today so that Jane and Mr Bingley would not have the bother of talking to him, but I managed to run off to the Lucases’. Lizzy said she did not have anything particular to say to Maria Lucas and so she walked on with Mr Darcy, which I must say was very noble of her; there could have been no pleasure in it for her.

Poor Lizzy! I would not be her for a kingdom, having to walk about with Mr Darcy. They are still out walking, though Jane and Mr Bingley returned an hour ago. Mama thinks they must have got lost. How horrid for Lizzy, to be lost with that man, and to have to wander through the country lanes with him all afternoon!

I would rather be here, writing to you, though it would be better to go somewhere like Bath or Brighton and get a husband. But Papa says he will never let me go anywhere, and if he does not relent, I will turn into an old maid.

Kitty


Miss Elizabeth Bennet to Mrs Charlotte Collins

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 7

My dear Charlotte,

You were right! Mr Darcy is in love with me, he proposed to me yesterday and I have said yes! I am so happy that I cannot even be angry with you for being right where I was wrong, and for seeing what I could not. To think, you knew it all along, before I knew it myself, before even my dear Mr Darcy knew it; though he tells me now that he was struck with the beautiful expression in my eyes almost the first day he met me, as soon as he had roundly condemned my looks to everyone else! It seems that when Sir William Lucas begged a partner for me at Lucas Lodge last November, Mr Darcy was ready to oblige, although he liked me better for my spirit in refusing.

I am sure I cannot claim any virtue for it, as I was motivated by a wish to confound his expectations and remove any reason he might have for disdaining me rather than by any nobler instincts. He had slighted my charms and so I was determined never to like him, and I was certain that he would never like me. Such is the blindness that prejudice brings with it.

But I was wrong! Charlotte, we have been talking all day, and you may imagine how much we have to say. We have a year’s worth of conversation.

When I stayed with Jane at Netherfield to nurse her through her cold, he found himself so much in danger from me by the end of the visit that he withdrew into silence lest he should raise any expectations in my breast. And I thought he was simply being arrogant and disdainful; particularly after Mama’s visit, which I knew had disgusted him. And when he left the neighbourhood with Mr Bingley, my loss caused him a great deal of unhappiness; more unhappiness than his loss caused me, for by then I had heard Mr Wickham’s tale of woe and I was foolish enough to believe it.

When I think how Mr Wickham duped me, and how easy I was to dupe, I am ashamed. And when I think of how I treated my dear Mr Darcy at Easter, when I was still in the grip of all my blind prejudices, I blush with mortification.

But let me not dwell on such things. As soon as Mr Wickham’s villainy was revealed I began to think differently about everything, though I thought it too late, because by then I had lost my dearest Mr Darcy.

And now I must tell you of something which happened at Easter, when I was staying with you and Mr Collins, and which I did not tell you about at the time because of my confusion and my uncertainty as to my own feelings. It is this, Charlotte: that when I was staying at the parsonage, Mr Darcy proposed to me.

And now you are shocked, I suppose—or perhaps not, as you always suspected he had a partiality for me. It was on the night of Tuesday, the twenty-second of April that he offered me his hand. The date is ingrained in my memory. You and Mr Collins and Maria had gone to dine at Rosings Park, but I had stayed behind pleading a headache. And indeed I did have a headache, for I had just discovered that Mr Darcy had separated Mr Bingley and Jane. You may guess at my feelings towards Mr Darcy then, and my unwillingness to meet him at dinner.

But what should happen, when I was sitting alone in the parsonage, but that Mr Darcy should walk in! Oh, Charlotte, the things I said to him! And the things he said to me! He criticised my family, my person, my station in life, and then had the temerity to propose to me. You may imagine my reply. I not only condemned him for separating Mr Bingley and Jane, but for ruining Mr Wickham’s hopes as well.

In reply, he wrote me a letter. He told me the truth about Mr Wickham: that Mr Wickham was a wastrel and other, less savoury, things; and I realised how wrong I had been about everything. But it was too late to put matters right.

And there matters would have ended, had I not met Mr Darcy again in Derbyshire. How changed he was, how polite and attentive to my aunt and uncle, how unfailingly courteous to me. And then came Lydia’s elopement and I thought all hope had gone forever. But I was wrong!

Oh, Charlotte, I cannot tell you how happy I am! What does it matter what happened in the past, when everything in the present is so right? My dearest Mr Darcy smiling at me, my darling Jane happily betrothed, Susan blissfully married, and you, dear Charlotte, with your olive branch on the way.

I have time for no more. I must go. Give my love to Mr Collins, though I fear he will be horrified at my news! And perhaps it would be better to stay away from Lady Catherine for the next few days. My dear Mr Darcy intends to write to her and apprise her of our betrothal, and you know her feelings towards me. She liked me well enough as a friend of her rector’s wife, but not as the mistress of Pemberley. I fear the shades will be polluted after all.

Your friend,

Lizzy


Mr Darcy to Mr Philip Darcy

Netherfield Park, Hertfordshire,

October 7

Philip, you must forgive me, but I have offered my hand to Elizabeth Bennet and she has accepted. I know you wanted me to make a great match, one which would enhance the standing of Pemberley and the Darcy name, but believe me, I have made the right choice. Elizabeth is the only woman I could ever take to Pemberley and the only woman I could ever make my wife. I am persuaded my father would be pleased. How well I remember his letter, telling me what I must look for in a wife, and I have found it and more besides. I have found something my parents had, something better than rank or wealth; I have found love. You must come to the wedding. When you meet her, you will understand.

Darcy


Mr Bennet to Mr Collins

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 8

Dear Sir,

I must trouble you once more for congratulations. Elizabeth will soon be the wife of Mr Darcy. Console Lady Catherine as well as you can. But, if I were you, I would stand by the nephew. He has more to give.

Yours sincerely,

John Bennet


Mrs Bennet to Mrs Gardiner

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 8

Sister, Lizzy is too busy to write herself, but I wanted to tell you the wonderful news: she is to marry Mr Darcy.

I knew how it would be as soon as I saw them together at the assembly. I said to Mr Bennet, ‘You mark my words, we’ll have Lizzy at Pemberley before the year is out.’ Such a charming man! So handsome, so tall! A house in town, ten thousand a year! How rich and great Elizabeth will be! What pin money, what jewels and carriages she will have!

But I must go. The gentlemen are coming to luncheon and I must speak to Cook. We are having venison and fish and six sauces. A man like Mr Darcy will have French chefs, I am sure, and I am not about to let him think that we cannot cook in Hertfordshire. I intend to give him a luncheon the like of which he has never eaten before.

Your sister,

Janet


Miss Mary Bennet to Miss Lucy Sotherton

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 9

Most noble Friend,

It has been a week of proposals. Mr Bingley has proposed to Jane, Mr Darcy has proposed to Elizabeth and Mama has proposed to move to Pemberley after the wedding.

I was surprised that Mr Bingley offered for Jane because he seemed eager to leave Netherfield last year, and as for Mr Darcy, he has never looked twice at Elizabeth in his life, except to find fault with her and to say that she was only tolerable. I have read much about the fickleness of women, and indeed I have made many extracts on the subject, but it has become clear to me that men are the fickle sex.

I am beginning to lose my faith in extracts.

Your dolorous sister of the bosom,

Mary


Miss Elizabeth Bennet to Mrs Gardiner

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 10

I would have thanked you before, my dear aunt, as I ought to have done, for your long, kind, satisfactory detail of particulars; but to say the truth, I was too cross to write. You supposed more than really existed. But now suppose as much as you choose; give loose to your fancy, indulge your imagination in every possible flight which the subject will afford, and unless you believe me actually married, you cannot greatly err. You must write again very soon, and praise him a great deal more than you did in your last. I thank you, again and again, for not going to the Lakes. How could I be so silly as to wish it! Your idea of the ponies is delightful. We will go round the Park every day. I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.