I said nothing, which he took to be an assent.
‘Caroline has been plaguing me these last three months, but now that I have found an estate I hope she will be satisfied.’
Bingley was, of course, delighted with everything he saw. He said how splendid it was and asked no sensible questions, but instead walked around with his hands behind his back as though he had lived there for the last twenty years. He was pleased with the situation and the principal rooms, and satisfied with what the agent, Mr Morris, said in its praise. He asked nothing about the chimneys, or the game, or the lake, or indeed anything at all.
‘Is it sound?’ I asked Mr Morris.
He assured me it was, but I inspected it carefully all the same.
‘Will it be easy to find servants in the neighbourhood?
My friend will be bringing some of his own, but he will need maids, gardeners and stable-hands from the local area.’
‘He will not find any difficulty in procuring them from Meryton.’
‘What do you think, Darcy?’ asked Bingley, when we had completed our tour.
‘The price is far too high.’
Mr Morris insisted it was fair, but he was soon brought to realize that it was excessive, and a far lower sum was settled on.
‘Upon my honour, Darcy, I would not like to try and stand against you when your mind is made up. Poor Mr Morris might as well have agreed with you straight away, and saved himself the effort of trying to argue with you!’ said Bingley, when he had closed with the agent.
He might laugh, but he will thank me for my care when he is well settled.
‘When do you mean to take possession?’ I asked him.
‘As soon as possible. Before Michaelmas, certainly.’
‘You should send some of your servants down before you, then they can make sure that the house is ready for your arrival.’
‘You think of everything! I will have them here by the end of next week.’
I was glad he had taken my advice. If not, he would have arrived at the same time as his servants, and then wondered why there was no dinner waiting for him.
‘Darcy, welcome to my estate!’ said Bingley when I joined him at Netherfield Park this afternoon. His sisters, Caroline and Louisa, were with him, as was Louisa’s husband, Mr Hurst. ‘The house, the neighbourhood, everything is exactly as I would wish it to be.’
‘The estate is well enough, but the neighbourhood is small, with very few families,’ I pointed out. ‘I warned you of it at the time.’
‘There are plenty of families,’ he said. ‘Enough for us to dine with, and what more do we want?’
‘Superior company?’ asked Caroline satirically. ‘Entertaining conversation?’
‘I am sure we will find plenty of it,’ said Bingley.
‘You should have let me help you choose the house,’ said Caroline.
‘I did not need your help, I had Darcy’s,’ said Bingley.
‘And a good thing, too. I was only saying to Louisa this morning that you could not have found a better one,’ said Caroline, smiling at me.
‘Upon my honour, I can think of no finer country than Hertfordshire,’ said Bingley.
He is delighted with the neighbourhood at the moment, but I think he will find it dull if he settles here for any length of time. It is unlikely, however. He is so capricious he will probably be off again in a month. I said as much to Caroline after dinner.
‘Very likely,’ she said. ‘Until then, we must be thankful we have each other’s company.’
This has been our first full day at Netherfield Park. Caroline has managed things well, and she was particularly pleased when I commented that no one would guess it was a rented house. She has had some trouble with the servants hired from the surrounding neighbourhood, but it is to her credit that the household is running smoothly.
The neighbourhood visits have begun. It is a bore, but it was only to be expected. Sir William and Lady Lucas called this morning. Bingley thought them very civil, on account of Sir William bowing every two minutes and mentioning that he had been presented at St James’s.
Caroline suspected that their haste in calling marked them out as the parents of an elderly, unattractive spinster whom they wished to see married, and she told Bingley so as soon as they had departed.
‘Depend upon it, they have a daughter nearing thirty and intend to pass her off as one-and-twenty!’ she warned him.
Bingley laughed.
‘I am sure they do not have a daughter at all, and if they do, I am sure she is positively charming!’
‘Caroline is right,’ said Louisa. ‘One of the housemaids told me the Lucases have a daughter named Charlotte.
Charlotte is unmarried, and is seven-and-twenty.’
‘That does not stop her being charming. I am sure she is a delightful young lady,’ protested Bingley.
‘And I am sure she is a homely body who is always helping her mother about the pies,’ said Caroline in a droll voice.
‘Well, I think it was very good of the Lucases to call, and even better of them to invite us to the Meryton assembly,’ said Bingley stoutly.
‘The Meryton assembly! God save me from country assemblies!’ I remarked.
‘You have been spoilt by superior company,’ said Caroline.
‘I have indeed. The London assemblies are full of the most elegant people in the country.’
For some reason she did not smile at this remark. I cannot think why. She smiles at everything else I say, and she must surely have been thinking of my London acquaintance, for whom else could she have meant?
Sir William and Lady Lucas were not our only callers today. They were followed by a Mr Bennet. He seems to be a gentlemanlike man.
‘He has five daughters,’ said Caroline, when he had gone.
‘Pretty girls,’ said Mr Hurst, rousing himself from his stupor. ‘Saw ’em in Meryton. Handsome, the lot of ’em.’
‘There you are!’ said Bingley. ‘I knew I had chosen well in settling at Netherfield. There will be plenty of pretty girls to dance with.’
‘I know what you are thinking,’ Caroline remarked, on seeing my expression. ‘You are thinking it would be a bore to be forced to stand up with a country wench. But you need not do so. Charles will make a spectacle of himself, no doubt, but you need not. No one will expect you to dance.’
‘I hope not,’ I said. ‘The idea of standing up with people I do not know is insupportable to me.’
Bingley laughed.
‘Come now, Darcy, this is not like you. You are not usually so stiff-necked. It is the weather. Only let the rain stop and you will be as eager to dance as I am.’
Bingley is an optimist.
Bingley and I rode round part of the estate this morning.
It has been kept in good order, and if he means to buy it, I think it might be suitable. But I will wait to see if he settles. He is just as likely to decide he wants to buy an estate in Kent, or Cheshire, or Suffolk next week.
He soon suggested we turn back.
‘I thought I might pay the Bennets a visit,’ he said nonchalantly, as we trotted back to the house.
‘Eager to see the Misses Bennet?’ I asked him.
He took it in good part.
‘I know you think I fall in and out of love every few weeks, but it is simply that I feel it would be polite to return Mr Bennet’s call.’
We parted company, he to ride to Longbourn, and I to return to Netherfield. He was not gone long.
‘Well, did you see the five beautiful daughters you have heard so much about?’ I asked when he returned.
‘No,’ he said gloomily. ‘I sat in Mr Bennet’s library for about ten minutes but never had a glimpse of the girls.’
October
Bingley’s spirits were restored by an invitation from Mrs Bennet, asking him to join the family for dinner.
‘But I cannot go!’ he said, crestfallen. ‘They ask me for tomorrow, and I have to be in town.’
‘My dear Bingley, both they and you will survive.
Besides, you will see them at the Meryton assembly.’
He brightened at this. ‘Yes, I will.’
Bingley went to town today. It is as I thought. He will never settle in the country. Already he is growing restless.
I will not be surprised if he quits Netherfield before Christmas.
We have been to the Meryton assembly, and it was even worse than I had expected. We had not been there five minutes before I heard one woman – I hesitate to call her a lady – whispering to another that I had ten thousand a year. It is of all things the one I hate the most, to be courted for my wealth. The whisper ran round the room, and I found myself being looked at as though I was a pot of gold. It did nothing to improve my enjoyment of the evening. Luckily, I did not need to mix with the local people. Though we were a small party, Caroline, Mr and Mrs Hurst and I endeavoured to entertain each other.
Bingley threw himself into the affair as he always does. He, of course, was well liked. He always is. He has an ease of manner which recommends him everywhere he goes. I heard a number of comments on his fine person and his handsome face. I, too, was described as a handsome man, until I snubbed Mrs Carlisle. She made a presumptuous remark and I was irritated into giving her a set-down: not two minutes before, she had been whispering to her neighbour that she meant to get my ten thousand a year for her daughter, and then, when she introduced her daughter, she had the audacity to say to my face that she thought wealth was immaterial in marriage, and that what mattered was mutual affection.
Bingley danced every dance, much to Caroline’s amusement.
‘He will be in love again before the evening is out,’ she said.
I agreed. I have never known a man fall in and out of love so easily. Let him see a pretty face and pretty manners, and he looks no further.
I danced once with Mrs Hurst, but the musicians were so poor that once was enough. I declined to be introduced to any other young ladies and contented myself with walking around the room until Bingley should have danced himself to a standstill. Not that it was easy to avoid partners. There were several young ladies sitting around the sides of the room. One of them was a sister of the lady who had taken Bingley’s fancy, and Bingley decided he wanted to see me dance with her.
‘Come, Darcy,’ said he, ‘I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance.’
‘I certainly shall not. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with,’ I said, not in a mood to be pleased with anything.
‘I would not be as fastidious as you are for a kingdom!
Upon my honour, I never met with so many pretty girls in my life.’
‘You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,’ I reminded him, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.
‘Oh! she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!
But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say, very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you.’
‘Which do you mean?’ I asked him, looking round. I noticed Miss Elizabeth Bennet, then, catching her eye, I was forced to look away. ‘She is tolerable,’ I admitted,‘but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.’
Caroline understood my feelings very well.
‘These people!’ she said to me. ‘They have no style and no fashion, and yet they are all so pleased with themselves! Do you know I was forced to smile politely whilst Mary Bennet was described to me as the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood? If she was half, nay one tenth, as accomplished as Georgiana I should be very surprised.’
‘But then that would be difficult,’ I said. ‘Georgiana is unusually gifted.’
‘Indeed she is. I dote on her,’ said Caroline. ‘I declare, she is quite like a sister to me.’
Perhaps in time she will really be a sister to Caroline.
Not that I said anything of this to her, but Bingley is a good-natured man with an adequate fortune, and will make a good husband. I had not thought to arrange a marriage for Georgiana before she was one-and-twenty, but after the affair with George Wickham, I have begun to think that it would not be a bad thing to marry her sooner. Once wed to Bingley, she would be safe from scoundrels of Wickham’s stamp. I am not sure that Meryton would suit her, though. If Bingley shows any inclination to leave, I will encourage it. I would like to have her closer to me, in Derbyshire, or in Cheshire, perhaps. Then she could visit me in a few hours if she had a mind to.
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