Chapter III #2
Miss Bingley sniffed her disdain. “The term is only a year. The more salient point is that we must keep my brother from Netherfield, for his infatuation may return more strongly than before if he returns to her company. I am surprised at you for suggesting such a thing, for surely you do not wish my brother to fall into the clutches of those artful Bennets.”
Darcy gave her a noncommittal and indecipherable murmur that she accepted as his agreement. Her conversation thereafter was no more palatable than it had been before.
“Avoiding the Bennets is the paramount concern. Whether my brother ever realizes the good fortune of his escape is irrelevant. I have never seen such a collection of ignorant and improper nobodies as the Bennets.”.
“It was my understanding you liked Miss Bennet.”
Darcy could not avoid seeing the rolling of the woman’s eyes. “Jane Bennet is tolerable, I suppose, but she is not good enough to earn my approbation.”
The turn of phrase filled Darcy with a sense of dark amusement, for it was like what he had said of Miss Elizabeth. Looking back on it now, Darcy could not help but wonder if that churlish comment had been the genesis of her antipathy for him. There was much for which he needed to apologize.
“There is little of her situation to approve,” continued Miss Bingley.
“She is pretty, in a countrified sort of way, but she has no accomplishments, little dowry, a reprehensible family, and connections to trade and a ridiculous parson. As for her sister, whose eyes I have sometimes heard described as fine, Miss Elizabeth is perhaps the worst of the lot. She is conceited and vulgar, brash and indelicate, and the most obvious bluestocking and spinster in the making that I have ever had the misfortune to meet.”
Far from her intended objective, Miss Bingley succeeded only in stoking the flames of Darcy’s ire; what man could withstand hearing a woman for whom he had no liking or respect speak of the object of his affections in such terms? Miss Bingley did not stop there, further provoking his indignation.
“Look at my brother!” exclaimed she, the contempt in her voice revealing her utter disdain for Bingley’s feelings.
“He is still yearning for Miss Bennet now, more than six months after he last saw her. I might have expected him to fix his focus on the next pretty thing to cross his path. It is difficult to credit, but it appears his fascination for her was far more than anything else I have ever seen!”
“That appears to be a sign that his attachment was true.”
Miss Bingley looked on Darcy with far more asperity than he had ever seen her direct at him.
“That is nonsense, Mr. Darcy. It is only proof of his silliness. My father charged him with raising the family’s position in society, and I shall not allow him to waver, nor shall I allow this insipid infatuation with Miss Bennet to lead him to forget everything he owes us all. ”
While Miss Bingley could not know it, her selfish assertion was when Darcy decided against inviting his friend to Pemberley for the summer.
While he wished to remain in Bingley’s company, he would not tolerate Miss Bingley any longer and would not associate with her.
Hopefully, Darcy would succeed with Miss Elizabeth, after which Miss Bingley’s wishes would die an ignominious death.
Regardless, he would never offer for her, and with this latest evidence of her poor behavior, he did not wish to subject himself or his sister to her disagreeable person.
“I cannot say I am disappointed, Brother,” said Georgiana when Darcy informed her of his decision.
“Hosting Mr. Bingley this summer would have been agreeable, but I have little affinity for his sister, and little wish to listen to her pontificate on how wonderful it would be if I married her brother.”
Darcy looked at her with interest, wondering that the woman had been so blatant as she suggested. Georgiana noticed this, for she was quick to reassure him.
“No, William, she has not spoken so openly to me about her desires. It is obvious in every word she says to me, regardless of the terms in which she speaks.”
“What are your feelings on the subject?”
With a frown, Georgiana regarded him. “I am sure I have no objection to Mr. Bingley, but last summer’s events convinced me that I am not ready for matrimony. Might I consider Mr. Bingley when I am ready? Perhaps I might if it were not for his sister.”
“You would refuse Bingley because of his sister?”
“If my regard was enough to wish for a proposal, I cannot imagine I would refuse for no other reason than she is his sister. At the same time, is it not human nature to act in a manner contrary when pushed beyond endurance?”
Darcy could not hold in his mirth at his sister’s observation. “I cannot say you are incorrect. I shall own that I wondered if Bingley would suit you, but I too recognize it will be some time before you will be ready to marry.”
“Then we agree.”
The larger question in Darcy’s mind was what to do about his friend and his new knowledge of Miss Bennet’s feelings.
One did not simply blurt such information when in company, and Darcy had no intention of allowing Miss Bingley to learn of his change of heart an instant before she must. Thus, it was incumbent upon Darcy to ensure he told his friend when he could both control the conversation and determine whether the information would help or do more harm.
Of this last, Darcy had little enough reason to concern himself.
Bingley’s demeanor was such that Darcy was certain the news he possessed would reignite his friend’s interest the moment he heard it.
It would not do to send him careening to Netherfield without due consideration, for he was uncertain of Miss Bennet’s feelings on the subject.
Having hurt her once with his mistaken advice to his friend, he did not wish to add to her suffering.
Even when he believed her heart not easily touched, Darcy had espoused no notion that she was fickle.
If he judged it inappropriate to reveal his knowledge now, he did not think she would immediately move to the next man.
This was the dilemma that faced Darcy the last time he was in his friend’s company that season. The news Bingley brought was not exactly a surprise, though Bingley quitting London’s sitting-rooms an instant before he must was not something Darcy had seen before.
“When do you mean to go to Pemberley?” asked Bingley as he toyed with his glass.
The club, where they met, provided them the opportunity to enjoy a drink and some conversation together away from objectionable sisters.
Bingley was distracted as if the weight of the world were pressing on his shoulders.
“I have not spoken to Georgiana yet,” replied Darcy, unwilling to say anything of his aborted intention of inviting Bingley to Pemberley. Darcy knew his friend would not fault him for his desire to avoid Miss Bingley, but it would not be good manners to speak so openly.
Bingley turned and grinned at him. “I have never known you to stay in London for a single moment longer than you must.”
“It is not even the end of May yet,” said Darcy, unconcerned with his friend’s teasing. “I will own that I am always pleased to return to my home, but I am not unhappy in London at present.”
“Your contentment does not agree with my sister.” Bingley’s words might almost suggest he was censuring his sister, but given what the woman had said about him, there was no reason to call him on it.
“Caroline has lamented your absence from society since your return from Kent. Given your astuteness, you might have an inkling, but she was certain you would propose when you joined us in Hertfordshire in October. That you did not has sent her into a tizzy.”
Bingley paused and considered, a moroseness settling over him. “Then again, she had other matters to consider then and did not mention it much when we returned to town. It is only these last weeks as you have shunned society that has brought her fretting to a fever pitch.”
“I have not shunned society,” replied Darcy, not wishing to speak of Miss Bingley. “Rather, I am enjoying Georgiana’s company.”
“Aye, I have observed as much. But you cannot scruple to suggest that avoidance of what you find distasteful is at least as much of an inducement as the desire to be with your sister.”
“I do not deny it at all.” Darcy sipped his drink and regarded his friend. “The season little interests me, and I have no desire to endure all the simpering debutantes.”
“At some time or another, you must choose one of them for a wife.”
“Remaining a bachelor is an option,” replied Darcy with a shrug. “If Georgiana marries a man willing to take the Darcy name, I can leave my property to her. Or she can give a second son my name and I can leave it to him.”
All pretense at banter fled and Bingley looked at him with no trace of anything other than seriousness. “I understand you better than that, my friend. You speak of your disinclination for the company of young ladies, but you do not wish to remain single all your life.”
“I do not,” acknowledged Darcy. “But it is an option should I never find a woman who interests me. Do not suppose I shall find a wife in London, Bingley, for I have become certain that I shall not.”
The way Bingley regarded him, Darcy wondered if his friend saw something in his manner or recalled something of his behavior in Hertfordshire to suspect more than Darcy had revealed.
Bingley was not the most observant man; he had fixed his attention on Miss Bennet when they had been at Netherfield.
While Darcy could not say for certain, he thought that any hint of his interest in Miss Elizabeth had completely escaped his friend’s notice.
With that one statement, Darcy might have provoked his friend to wonder.