Chapter 37
“Miss Bennet, welcome! Welcome!”
Elizabeth made her own bouncy little curtsey to put the young lady at ease and they both giggled.
“I am happy to be here. I must own I have been curious about your home. Thank you for inviting me.”
Georgiana stepped across the several feet between them and lowered her voice beyond the servants’ hearing.
“I may have overestimated my skill. I do not know whether to treat you with the formality of a first tea with someone I barely know, or like a family friend.”
The young girl’s nervousness was plain enough, so Elizabeth set her at ease. “Let us walk before we run. What would you do if I were not someone you were dying to have a private discussion about your confusing brother with?”
“I would offer you refreshment, then try to chat about the usual subjects, and follow it with a tour of the house.”
Elizabeth took her arm and suggested they walk.
As they approached the parlour, Elizabeth said, “I am a little flighty myself on occasion. Let us follow the scheme you would use for an indifferent acquaintance, so you can practise the mindless inanities that make up much of our lives.”
The young lady gave an awkward laugh, as if uncertain whether she was being teased, criticised, or educated, until Elizabeth’s chuckle set the matter right.
“I must confess to being nervous about the entire arrangement.”
“Let us make it easier, or at least simpler. I find there are two strategies for approaching discussions.”
“Do tell.”
“The best is to think long, hard, and carefully about your objectives, then work out the best way to achieve them. If your objective is to look proper for your first visitor, that suggests one behaviour. Trying to form a friendship might require a different one, though it is more complicated than that, because the person you are trying to befriend might be put off if you are too energetic. And naturally, if you are trying to scare someone off, that requires an entirely different strategy. The very best technique is to think carefully about how to balance those different objectives, choose a path, and carefully navigate it while leaving room for improvisation.”
Georgiana nodded uncertainly. “That is certainly a sensible approach. It sounds complicated, but efficient. You said there are two strategies. Might you explain the second?”
“The second, which I use more often than not, is to say whatever pops into your head, hope it is not too terrible, then panic and say the next thing that follows, all while trying to mitigate the damage done by the previous statements, hoping you eventually arrive at your destination through dead reckoning and happenstance.”
Both young ladies laughed heartily, and Elizabeth at least, was far less nervous about the encounter. They entered the well-appointed parlour and rang for tea.
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet, may I introduce my companion, Mrs Annesley?”
Elizabeth smiled at the companion, and they exchanged the usual greetings. Mrs Annesley appeared a sensible woman of 40, and they sat to enjoy their tea. They talked in a general way about their families for half an hour as they finished their refreshments.
Elizabeth commented, “This is a very elegant room. I admit I like it much more than most of Rosings. It has an understated elegance I find very attractive.”
“Would you like a tour of the house?”
Mrs Annesley excused herself for a rest, leaving the two ladies to fend for themselves. An hour later, Elizabeth understood the general arrangement and had seen the principal rooms.
“I applaud the design and decoration. Pray never tell your aunt I said this, but I like this style much better. Rosings looks like it was made to impress and intimidate just about anybody, while this house looks like it was made to impress only people with a refined and subtle sense of taste.”
“I never thought about it, but it makes sense. To be honest, I always find Rosings frightening, but I suppose that has more to do with my aunt than the house itself.”
“The inhabitants set the character of a house as much as the furniture.”
Georgiana paused in a music room. “My brother suggested I devise a mathematical puzzle for you.”
“He did, did he? Well, I am ready for any challenge. Do your worst!”
“Since you like the furnishings and the general effect of this house, and seem particularly attentive to how such effects are achieved, can you make a reasonable estimate of the total number of decisions required to achieve it?”
Elizabeth smiled. “An interesting question. Let me see.”
She looked around the room for some time, examining everything from the moulding to the carpets to the drapes, muttering as she went along.
“I can see just in this room that there are 2-3 dozen elements that have to be done just right. Let us see. Shall I make an estimate of somewhere between 500-1,000 decisions?”
She looked over and noticed her acquaintance smirking in a most unladylike manner, much to her approval. “Oh dear, have I lost the thread?”
Georgiana laughed gaily. “I shall boast of having stumped you. My brother claimed it was an unlikely aspiration.”
“I am certain you have a very clever answer. Am I to be privileged to know what it is?”
“Exactly 1!”
Elizabeth stared at her for a moment, then smiled from ear to ear. “Why, yes—a classic framing error—ignoring cascading results. I quite forgot to dig down to root causes. Tell me this. Was the one decision your mother or grandmother?”
“Mother! I have been told my grandmother’s taste was hideous. Had you spent any time in her home, you would have described Rosings as understated elegance and travelled there just to rest your weary eyes.”
“Well played, young lady. Well played indeed. I presume you will be insufferable with your brother?”
“Of course, I—”
Georgiana grew shy at the mention of Mr Darcy. “Be easy. Your brother and I have a complicated acquaintance, but I am not bothered by mention of him. Shall we sit?”
The ladies retired to a sofa as beautiful as it was elegant. Georgiana offered refreshment, and Elizabeth declined. They sat, and it was time for the conversation.
“Now then. Do you remember the first question you asked upon my arrival this morning?”
“Whether I should treat you like an acquaintance or someone I want for a friend?”
“Exactly! We shall simplify. Let us decide here and now that we are friends. After that, everything becomes ever so much simpler.”
“But you hardly know me. I can esteem you because I learnt much about you from my brother, but you do not have such an advantage.”
“I often rely on first impressions, and my first impression of you was good, so we are to be friends. That is just the way of it, so there is little point arguing.”
“Are your first impressions usually right?”
“Good heavens, no! In fact, my success rate is nothing to boast of. I must refine them over time, and failure to do so has caused me grief from time to time—sometimes more than others. For example, do you know what my first impression of your brother was?”
“I would dearly like to know.”
Elizabeth smiled and winked. “Let us just say his first impression was not auspicious. I spent weeks searching for the perfect term to describe him; advancing through all the customary expressions such as haughty, rude, proud, ill-mannered, stiff, awkward, numskull—you understand?”
Georgiana’s mouth hung open. “What did he do?”
“Oh, a capital offence! We were at an assembly on his first night in the county. I sat out a dance because we were short of male partners and I wanted to give others a chance on the floor. His friend, whose name is no longer spoken, tried to persuade him to dance with me. He spoke the immortal words, and I quote, ‘She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.’”
Georgiana gasped in horror, but Elizabeth laughed. “Pray, do not take it too badly. I was not slighted but rationally evaluated. I am aware I am merely tolerable. I do not mind.”
“Perhaps you do not mind, but if he were present, he would feel the sharp end of my tongue. Even Lady Catherine would not dare something so outrageous.”
“It is past. Pray, do not mention it to him. The incident is long forgiven and forgotten.”
Georgiana smiled shyly. “His first impression seems to have been amended, as he can hardly speak of you without a faraway look in his eye. I can assure you he is very tempted.”
“I suppose that might be why you wanted to know what I did to him?”
“Among other things.”
“That was my first impression, and it did not improve in the slightest for some time. In fact, I honestly believed we shared a mutual antipathy right up until… well, we shall not discuss that. Let us just say it was recent.”
“But your first impression has changed?”
“It has. I will not reveal exactly how or why, or how it might change again… but rest assured I hold him in some esteem now.”
“I hoped there might be… more,” Georgiana sighed.
“I will not speculate on what the future may bring. I hold him in higher esteem than I did, and we have had… some… some conflicts and misunderstandings… that have been… ah… partly resolved. Beyond that, I cannot say.”
Georgiana stared at her slippers. “There is something you should know. Well, two things… past and present. They may help you… to… well… to decide. You recall that when I met you, I wondered what you did to my brother?”
“Of course. I would have been shocked at the question, had your cousin Anne not asked it first. That his behaviour changed is readily apparent.”
“His behaviour?”
“Yes. I doubt his true nature has changed, but his behaviour certainly has, and… well… I may understand him better than I once did.”
“Perhaps I should tell you what I noticed that led me to ask the question?”
“That might be helpful. You could start with the seemingly absurd amount of time devoted to discussing me. Does he make a habit of discussing young ladies, as men are wont to do?”
Georgiana smiled slyly. “Never, in fact. He occasionally writes about the ladies in his company when he goes to house parties or balls, but to be honest, he put far more feeling into discussing the drainage at Netherfield than his interactions with ladies. You were the first and only woman he ever mentioned with anything approaching esteem. He started writing about you when you came to tend your sister.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“He said you are absurdly brilliant, but you hide it well when you want to. He said you are extremely good at mathematics, and that I should not be afraid to use analogies or stories with you. It seems best to avoid the more tedious rituals of society.”
“I agree. You and I need to know how to navigate the rituals of society with grace and aplomb, but most of them are tedious and uncomplicated.”
Georgiana ducked her head. “Complicated or not, I need to… well… I do not excel at them.”
Elizabeth leaned forward and took the young lady’s hand, as she would one of her sisters. “You have time. You must be around 16?”
“Yes.”
“Your brother must be 27 or more. You have 11 years to bring your manners to equal his, and I think you shall succeed.”
Georgiana stared in shock, but Elizabeth winked, and they laughed together.
“His manners did not… impress?” Georgiana asked.
“No, but… well, they do not appear immutable. Time will tell.”