Vol 1, Chapter 5 #3
Jane’s estimation was accurate. “The pretensions of that woman! She is the daughter of a country solicitor’s daughter.
That awful tradesman, Mr. Phillips, the one that thought he could threaten us, is one uncle, and there is another one, also a tradesman who lives in Cheapside! ” Miss Bingley sneered.
“Do not forget, Caroline, that they will be without a home after their father passes, and also their pathetically small dowries,” Mrs. Hurst added spitefully.
“Why would they lose their home after Mr. Bennet dies?” Bingley asked in confusion.
“Did you not know that their pitiful little farm is entailed away from the female line and there are only three poor daughters?” Miss Bingley related triumphantly.
“You have been misinformed, Miss Bingley,” Darcy spoke up.
“About what, Mr. Darcy?” Miss Bingley was aghast that her Mr. Darcy had told her the intelligence she had taken pains to gather was not correct.
“The estate. First, your brother and I have ridden along the fence line, and from what I can see, Longbourn is as large, possibly larger, than Netherfield. Secondly, we met Mark Bennet this morning, Mr. Bennet’s second son.
The older son is at Oxford. There is an heir and a spare, so why would you think that the Bennets will lose their estate, even if it is entailed away from the female line? ” Darcy asked.
For a minute both Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst looked like perch pulled from the water and gasping for air. “Why would Jane Bennet mislead us so?” Miss Bingley was indignant at having been made to look the fool in front of Mr. Darcy.
“Did you ask the chit if she had brothers, or did you assume you knew all as you always do?” Hurst asked, surprising everyone as they all assumed he was asleep on the chaise.
“Well, I, for one, do not care if the angelic Miss Bennet has enough uncles to fill up all of Cheapside,” Bingley stated as firmly as he was able.
“I think your sisters are inferring that their lack of connections will materially reduce the chance of any of the Miss Bennets making a good match,” Darcy explained, almost to himself.
“Remind me again where the money for your and my wife’s dowry came from, sister?” Hurst asked pointedly.
Miss Bingley and her sister chose to retire rather than respond. If nothing else, Mr. Darcy had received the message the Bennets were far below them. “How can you allow your husband to remind Mr. Darcy of our roots?” Miss Bingley hissed as she and her sister walked up the stairs.
“You know I do not control what he says and does, Caro. Do not worry; Mr. Darcy will not focus on that when you bring twenty thousand pounds with you,” Mrs. Hurst said to placate her.
“It is time I give that man a nudge,” Miss Bingley said as she swept into her suite.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy asked Bingley if they could talk in the study. Once the door was firmly closed, Bingley poured a snifter of brandy for both. “You needed to talk to me, Darce?” he asked.
“It is about your sister,” Darcy informed his friend.
“Are you finally going to grant her heart’s desire and offer for her?” Bingley ribbed. No matter how much he hated confrontation with his sister, he knew that was one thing his friend would never do.
“Hell would have to freeze over first!” Darcy retorted.
“I know that you have been most magnanimous in putting up with Caroline, and Louisa as well. I have not had the heart to tell Caroline that you will never offer for her,” Bingley owned.
“Your heart is not the problem, Bingley; you just do not want to have to deal with the tantrum that will ensue.” Bingley had the decency to look chagrined. “There is nothing I can do that will force you to take her in hand, my friend, but I will say this for the last time.
“I will not offer for her, even if she engineers a compromise. She will be compromised, but I will not rescue her from her own machinations. I am tired of her intimating she has an intimacy between myself and my family that does not exist. She claims to be my sister’s dear friend, when in truth Georgiana cannot endure being in her company.
She talks as if she is known by my aunt and uncle.
The truth is they, and my cousin Andrew, the Viscount, refuse to be introduced to her.
If you do not check her soon, and she keeps behaving in the vulgar fashion she does, as both of your sisters do, my family and I will have no choice but to give them the cut direct.
” When Darcy completed what he wanted to say, there was silence.
Bingley was shocked to his core. He had always thought his friend had only been half serious with a mild aversion to his sisters, but this was far more.
If his sisters received the cut direct from some of the leading members of the Ton they, and he along with them, would be ruined in society.
He knew he needed to have an uncomfortable conversation with his brother-in-law, and then a most unpleasant one with his younger sister.
Bingley decided to procrastinate. “Darce, I will talk to her after the ball, I promise.”
Darcy had his doubts, but he was not about to call his friend a liar. They soon wished one another a goodnight and made for their suites.