Darcy stopped walking along the lane, and turned to face her, as he said vehemently,

“Hate you! I was angry perhaps at first, but my anger soon began to take a proper direction.”

Elizabeth replied, as if to quell his remorse and direct his thoughts away from what had happened between them in Kent, “I am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me when we met at Pemberley. You blamed me for coming?”

“No, indeed,” replied Darcy, “I felt nothing but surprise.”

“Your surprise could not be greater than mine in being noticed by you. My conscience told me that I deserved no extraordinary politeness, and I confess that I did not expect to receive more than my due.”

“My object then,” replied Darcy, “was to show you, by every civility in my power, that I was not so mean as to resent the past; and I hoped to obtain your forgiveness, to lessen your ill opinion, by letting you see that your reproofs had been attended to.”

A smile came to his lips as he went on,

“How soon any other wishes introduced themselves I can hardly tell, but I believe in about half an hour after I had seen you.”

Darcy then told her of Georgiana’s delight in her acquaintance, and of her disappointment at its sudden interruption. Elizabeth looked surprised as he went on to tell her that his intention of travelling to London to find Wickham and her sister had been formed before he had quitted the inn. His gravity and thoughtfulness there had arisen from no other struggles than what such a purpose must comprehend. She expressed her gratitude again, but neither of them wished to dwell on that subject.


After walking several miles in a leisurely manner, and too occupied to know anything of it, they found that it was time to return to Longbourn.

“What could have become of Mr. Bingley and Jane!” she exclaimed, and that brought on a discussion of their affairs.

Darcy said that he was delighted with their engagement, and that his friend had given him the earliest information of it.

“I must ask whether you were surprised?” said Elizabeth.

“Not at all. When I went away, I felt that it would soon happen.”

“That is to say, you had given your permission. I guessed as much.”

Darcy admitted that it had been pretty much the case, and told her that he had admitted his part in keeping Bingley and Jane Bennet separated when she had been staying with the Gardiners in London during the winter.

“His surprise was great. He had never had the slightest suspicion. I told him, moreover, that I believed myself mistaken in supposing, as I had done, that your sister was indifferent to him; and as I could easily perceive that his attachment to her was unabated, I felt no doubt of their happiness together.”

“Did you speak from your own observation,” said she, “when you told him that my sister loved him, or merely from my information last spring?”

“From the former,” replied Darcy. “I had narrowly observed her during the two visits which I had lately made her here; and I was convinced of her affection.”

“And your assurance of it, I suppose, carried immediate conviction to him.”

“It did. Bingley is most unaffectedly modest. His diffidence had prevented his depending on his own judgement in so anxious a case, but his reliance on mine, made every thing easy. I was obliged to confess one thing, which for a time, and not unjustly, offended him. I could not allow myself to conceal that your sister had been in town three months last winter, that I had known it, and purposely kept it from him. He was angry. But his anger, I am persuaded, lasted no longer than he remained in any doubt of your sister’s sentiments. He has heartily forgiven me now.”

Darcy saw Elizabeth smile a little at this but, in contemplating the happiness of Bingley and Jane, which of course was to be inferior only to their own, Darcy continued the conversation till they reached the house.

In the hall they parted.

“My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?” said her elder sister when she entered the room a short distance ahead of Darcy. The rest of the company made the same enquiry as they took the vacant seats at opposite sides of the dining table. Elizabeth replied that they had wandered about till she was beyond her own knowledge but, although she coloured as she spoke, neither that, nor anything else, caused suspicion.

After the meal, the evening passed quietly enough. He observed his friend and the elder Miss Bennet talking together and laughing. Elizabeth was quiet, only giving him an expressive smile when no one else was looking in her direction; but Darcy was more than content with that.

34

On the way back to Netherfield, Darcy told his friend of the day’s events.

Bingley was taken totally by surprise.

“Jane and I have talked of that,” he began, “but we had concluded that it was impossible.”

He went on, “I must say that I had thought, when we met Elizabeth in Derbyshire, at Lambton and Pemberley, that you might have some susceptibility in that direction, despite my sisters’ efforts to decry it. But, since then, nothing confirmed to me that you had any such intentions.”

Bingley paused and then, as though suddenly struck by a new idea, went on,

“I knew that Lady Catherine had called to see Elizabeth at Longbourn, for Jane told me about the visit. Was that on your behalf?”

“No! It was not,” said Darcy, more sharply than he intended.

He reflected immediately to himself that it was not wise, at least not yet, to broadcast his aunt’s strong opposition to the marriage, even to as close a friend as Bingley, until he had written to her and received a reply to the letter. There was, after all, the possibility, however small and remote, that Lady Catherine might change her mind about the match.

Instead, he said to Bingley, “Will you now wish me joy?”

His friend replied emphatically, “With all my heart. I can think of nothing that would please Jane and I more. Are you to speak to Mr. Bennet tomorrow?”

“Probably, yes,” Darcy replied, “when I have had the opportunity for some further private conversation with Elizabeth. Are you willing to propose another walk tomorrow? I must confess that there seems little likelihood of talking with her at Longbourn without being overheard.”

“Of course!” said his friend, “for clearly such exercise is to your advantage!”


On the following day, Darcy followed his friend into the drawing-room at Longbourn.

As soon as they entered, Bingley looked at Elizabeth so expressively, and shook her hand with such warmth, as left no doubt of his good information. Soon afterwards, he said aloud, “Mrs. Bennet, have you no more lanes hereabouts in which Lizzy may lose her way again to-day?”

Darcy saw Elizabeth look at him with some alarm, but her mother intervened before she could say anything.

“I advise Mr. Darcy, and Lizzy, and Kitty,” said Mrs. Bennet, “to walk to Oakham Mount this morning. It is a nice long walk, and Mr. Darcy has never seen the view.”

“It may do very well for the others,” replied Mr. Bingley, “but I am sure it will be too much for Kitty. Won’t it, Kitty?”

Kitty owned that she had rather stay at home.

Darcy confirmed to Mrs. Bennet that he had a great curiosity to see the view from the Mount. Elizabeth said nothing, but went to get her wrap before joining him outside. After they had walked out of earshot of the house, Darcy began.

“I wish to speak to your father tonight, to ask his consent, before anyone else has any knowledge of it. Do you know what his reaction will be?”

Elizabeth replied, “My father is likely to be very surprised at your application. He knows nothing of what passed between us in Kent, or at Pemberley.”

She blushed as she went on, “His opinion of you may be coloured by the views of others, formed when you first came into Hertfordshire.”

“You mean, I suppose, by views similar to your own at Rosings?”

She acknowledged that she had in mind something of the sort.

“Also, it is only a few days ago, just after Lady Catherine called, that my father received a letter from Mr. Collins. He wrote that word had reached Kent of my sister’s forthcoming marriage. That must have led on to the idea of an alliance between us, passed on, I assume, from Sir William and Lady Lucas to Charlotte, and warned my father that your aunt was opposed to it. He called me into the library, as he was so surprised at such a possibility.”

“And what did you say?” said Darcy with a half smile.

“I said as little as I could, without telling him an untruth.”

Darcy looked concerned. He knew that Elizabeth was her father’s favourite child. “You are not saying that he will refuse me consent to marry you!”

“No, I do not believe so. But he may say that he has had no inkling that I have any attachment to you.”

“And your mother, what of her,” Darcy inquired, remembering very well Mrs. Bennet triumphantly relating to him only two weeks ago the news of her youngest daughter’s nuptials.

Elizabeth told him that she would speak to Mrs. Bennet only when she was certain that Darcy had her father’s consent. She went on to ask him, in relation to the events which had led to her sister’s marriage with Wickham, what, if anything, should be disclosed.

“As I told you before, Sir, my mother and father have no inkling of how indebted they are to you in that unhappy business. They believe that it was my uncle Gardiner’s doing. You do not wish me to inform either of them?”