Chapter 3
That moment, Elizabeth realised, was not the time for examination or recrimination.
“I am certain that would be an enchanting alteration,” she made herself say.
“However, it would not be possible to execute by the twenty-fourth of December. Therefore, I wonder whether we might speak to your father about borrowing his tents, just as we lent ours to Lucas Lodge the year before last. And also…well, I am hoping he will speak to each of our neighbours. Use his influence to persuade everyone to attend the fair, just as usual.”
Despite Charlotte’s preoccupation with her embroidery, Elizabeth had expected immediate rapprochement on both her requests. She did not get it.
“Oh! Hmm,” Charlotte hesitated. “The date is approaching rather quickly, is it not?”
“That is what I have been saying.”
“My husband-to-be is arriving the day after tomorrow. Papa will want to be here for his Christmas visit, rather than gadding about the neighbourhood.”
“As Mr Collins will be staying for more than a week, I should think he will have plenty of opportunity to call,” Elizabeth replied with barely concealed impatience. “And further, you will have the rest of your lives to nurture the relationship.”
Charlotte looked as though she wished to protest more, but perhaps Elizabeth had not hidden her exasperation quite so well as she had hoped.
She gave a slight shrug and set aside the napkin upon which the outline of another letter ‘C’ was rapidly appearing.
“Very well,” she said. “I do not know what Papa will say, however.”
“Why should he say anything except ‘yes’?” Elizabeth demanded.
“Have you considered that Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley might have something of a point? Not everyone is delighted about using the annual Christmas fair to educate women. What is wrong with making baskets for the poor house in Hertford?”
“The people of Hertford can provide for their own this year. Charlotte, this is about educating our neighbourhood’s children, boys and girls,” Elizabeth retorted, her fists clenching, temper building.
“Just the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. You know we ought to do better for the children in this town than a twopenny Dame’s School in the next village over.
Mr Palmer can only do so much without a convenient place to gather and hold regular classes.
The old church building would be perfect, if only it were not so dilapidated.
It would not take a great deal, I reckon, to refurbish it.
Besides, it has grown into an eyesore that will fall down if we do not save it—and it has so much character. Its ruin would be such a shame.”
“Oh, you and your enthusiasms, Eliza!” Charlotte’s tone was more patronising than Elizabeth had ever before heard it, as she stood to make her way to her father’s study.
“I suppose, now that I am to be married, I can simply no longer find time to wallow in the tiny, nonessential causes of life that once seemed so very important. You may criticise me now, but someday, you will discover the same—or at least, it is to be hoped.”
These disdainful conclusions were so outrageous that, briefly, wrath choked Elizabeth into silence.
It was probably for the best, as any words that might have emerged would doubtless have worsened the situation.
She followed Charlotte down the dark hall, watching as she tapped upon a stately mahogany door, then poked her head in.
“Papa, Eliza is here to see you—do you have a moment?”
Sir William, a portly man with amiable features, stood at once. “Come in, come in!” he invited.
“I have work to do that will not do itself,” Charlotte explained cheerfully, “so I shall leave you now. Eliza, come and see me before you go, if you have a few more minutes. I entirely forgot to show you the table cover I have been tatting. It will be ever so elegant once completed.”
“It is so very good to see you, Miss Elizabeth. Your presence shines the light of beauty into our humble abode, brighter than the brightest lamplight,” Sir William welcomed in his genial manner, seating her in a chair placed across from his massive desk.
Fleetingly, Elizabeth wondered what he had been doing before her interruption.
Unlike her father’s own desk in his book-room, which was forever cluttered with newspapers, journals, and the books he had been reading, this room was neat as a new pin, the desk shining and spotless.
“Thank you for receiving me,” Elizabeth replied politely. “I do not want to take up much of your time, sir. Firstly, I wonder whether I might trouble you for permission to borrow the Lodge’s tents, as we certainly cannot predict the weather on Christmas Eve.”
“Ah, well, dear girl, let us speak a little of this fair,” Sir William said, folding his hands across his rotund belly and leaning back on his chair. “Since I heard of its arrangements, I have wanted to have a word with its organisers.”
“You have?” she asked with a frisson of nerves. It seemed that Charlotte was, perhaps, not the only Lucas who had been listening to the Bingley sisters’ poison.
“Yes, yes, certainly. It will not do to alienate our newest neighbours. Why, much of Meryton’s prosperity depends upon Netherfield remaining open!
What is it you hope to accomplish by herding a crowd of children into a stuffy classroom, instead of allowing them to spend their time more usefully, helping their parents in the open air?
Worse, as I understand it, you mean to capture the girls as well as the boys in your little enterprise. ”
“We shall not be teaching Greek or Latin, sir.” She leant forwards in her chair, hoping to explain.
“Only ensuring that each child is able to read, write, and do basic sums, that all might have this small bit of assistance in life. Should not every girl properly manage her household accounts? Do not men use arithmetic in building, in planting, in purchasing? Would it not be ideal if each child could read from the Bible and feel its influence in their daily lives, as they are helping their parents in the fields or at their hearth-sides?”
He smiled with the same supercilious smirk that Charlotte had so recently displayed.
“You do not understand very much about life, dear girl. Reading can only put ideas in these children’s heads—ideas that have the potential to take them away from those fields and hearth-sides upon which this country relies. ”
“Would you have them be at the mercy of anyone who is better educated, unable to properly discover for themselves which ideas are fitting and right, and which might lead to distress and despair?”
His smile remained implacable. “’Tis but throwing time away,” he chided.
“Our boys ought only to learn what their fathers see fit to instruct them. As for the girls, you do them no favours filling their heads with words they will squander upon poetry and politics. As Mrs Hurst advised, ‘imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, and ignorance is to be desired rather than degraded’. That is why we shall be attending something different from the fair this year. Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst will be throwing a little party for our friends and neighbours, at which we shall all be helping to fill charity baskets for the poorhouse in Hertford. I believe it is time for a new tradition, one not quite so muddy.”
Contempt for this man, for his betrayal, and for his ill-informed opinions filled her.
Not only would he not lend his tents, he would bring the neighbourhood into the pristine bosom of Miss Bingley.
She stood. “I can see that any further urging is futile. I apologise for wasting your time this morning with a fruitless request.”
Sir William stood as well. “Now, now, I understand that you are discouraged, dear girl. But can you not see, Miss Elizabeth, how pursuits such as this one have injured you personally? Only think of it—you had the opportunity to marry a fine man and save your family’s estate and future, but you refused it in favour of…
what? Absolutely nothing. Even though it is my own family who has principally profited from your inexplicable rejection, I can only decry the exposure to those ideas you strangely found ‘fitting and right’, and which I fear will lead to nothing except ‘distress and despair’.
It is not your fault, of course,” he added, shaking his head.
“Your father ought to have curtailed your studies long ago, and for your own good barred you from a peculiar education inciting such outlandish impulses.”
For the second time in an hour, Elizabeth found herself choked by fury into silence—and only her sense of personal dignity allowed her to take her leave without communicating a few of her more ‘outlandish impulses’.
She departed hastily and without pausing to admire Charlotte’s tatting, saving herself from the possibility of a third.