CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When the ladies entered the dining room, Bingley immediately inquired after Jane’s condition. His expressions morphed from an expectant smile to a distressed grimace upon learning that she was still, indeed, quite infirm. He was adamant that she would continue to receive the highest levels of attention, and that Elizabeth should not hesitate to allow him the honour of every courtesy he might bestow, in the case that she, herself, might require anything at all. His sisters may have echoed their brother’s generosity several times over, at Miss Bennet’s unrelenting ill health. However, once they had, to their minds, discharged their duty of the barest civility, Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley were quickly onto other subjects, without any continued regard for Elizabeth, or her ailing sister.
Lizzy was sat next to Mr. Hurst and immediately became aware he had been drinking for several hours at least and was more than a trifle disguised. Several fine courses were served, and when she quietly declared that she preferred a more plain dish to the ragout that was served, he announced that he would have nothing more to say to her during the course of the meal. Miss Elizabeth, upon hearing his bellicose pronouncement, thought she might have won a small victory in having to endure Mr. Hurst’s conversation no longer. Between his stupor and impertinence, the pretentious declarations of the sisters on many a subject, and her concern for her own dear sister, Elizabeth also failed to notice the modest, but intentional, attentions Mr. Darcy paid her. Bingley, on the other hand, could not help but regard his friend’s absorption with the younger Miss Bennet. He began to consider that Darcy’s feelings toward Elizabeth might be also growing, in spite of his friend’s ambition to temper them.
After dinner, Elizabeth immediately returned to her sister, and directly the well-documented abuse of her by Louisa and Caroline commenced. Somewhere between playing the part of starry-eyed lover and his actual feelings, Bingley heard himself, to his own astonishment declare, “If they had uncles to fill all Cheapside, it would not make them one jot less agreeable.” Given his belief about Darcy’s own growing infatuation with Elizabeth, and after hearing him so compliment her “fine eyes” having been “brightened by the exercise” of her long walk to Netherfield, Bingley was equally shocked to hear him declare so callously in reply: “But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world.” Bingley was aghast enough at the fervour of Darcy’s proclamation as to make no reply himself. His sisters took the opportunity to heap praise upon Darcy for his steadfast temperament and affirmed his statement with verve. They then made it their sport to make levity in mocking the relations of the Bennet sisters, one of whom was, by their own admission, a dear friend to them both. Bingley could not make out how much was an act on their part—an attempt to dissuade him from any earnest pursuit in the direction of Jane—and how much was the ugly flaw of their own conceited vanity.
When Elizabeth returned to the room, the entire party was at loo. Although it vexed him to learn of Jane’s continued discomfort, Bingley was relieved to hear that she was finally sleeping peacefully. The night continued with conversation back and forth—his own sisters attempting to assert their superiority over the Bennet sisters under the cloak of breeding and manners, while simultaneously tossing themselves embarrassingly in Mr. Darcy’s path. Then there were Darcy’s backhanded compliments of Elizabeth, particularly after she quit the room to attend once more to Jane. By all this Bingley was agitated, and only more so to learn as the evening went on that the eldest Miss Bennet’s condition had continued to deteriorate. It was decided that an express would be sent to town to fetch a renowned doctor, and that Mr. Jones, the apothecary, would be sent for at first light if Jane’s illness had not markedly improved. At this moment, Mr. Bingley experienced a sudden disquietude—he had not considered the possibility that Jane might actually be in some danger. His sisters sang duets to pass the time while he added order upon order to his housekeeper that every possible attention be paid to the sick lady and her sister.
The next days passed in a famous manner. The household welcomed Mrs. Bennet and the remainder of her daughters, of which many remarks were made once they had departed. Bingley could not fathom the genteel and polite manners of the eldest Miss Bennet, in comparison with her mother and younger siblings, save Elizabeth, who due to her devotion to Jane and her lively disposition, he had come to greatly admire. He admitted to her mother that he felt quite settled at Netherfield presently but was plain in his admission that if he were to quit the place, he would most likely do so suddenly. He had particular business dealings in mind when he said this, having heard from his steward Mr. Wilshere, just that morning, that Lord Bertram St. John, the prime object of his work, was in the process of preparing a trip abroad. Bingley had in the meantime, however, promised a ball at Netherfield, much to the distaste of his sisters.
When Jane was finally well enough to join them in the drawing room, Bingley could scarce contain his delight. He had not laid eyes upon her in less than a fortnight, yet he found his remembrance sorely lacking in comparison to her beauty at present. He stoked the fire over and over and removed her to the side of it away from the door that she might be warm, and also, to some extent, out of earshot of his sisters. Her grace and her charm were not lost on him, and within but a few moments, he had ceased to remember that there was anyone else but her in the world, let alone the room. He slept that evening without anxiety, without thoughts of panic or guilt or the gravity of his mission in ending a barbaric crime against humanity. For the first night in many, he did not hear the screams of his victims or theirs in his dreams—he only felt the serene aura of Jane Bennet.