Chapter 26
Lady Catherine
Rosings felt different these days. Lady Catherine could not quite put her finger on what was different, but it seemed to be a change for the good, so perhaps she need not figure it out.
One change was quite obvious: almost all of the house servants had been replaced.
Anne complained—quite uncharacteristically, by the way—that the servants who had been in service before Lady Catherine had run off to London and Cornwall had been extremely rude to her and thus she had needed to replace them.
That was startling, but Lady Catherine felt quite accepting of the changes, actually.
Everyone still jumped to serve her the moment she asked them to clean this, bring that, or do whatever it was she was ordering.
The proof that her daughter had chosen well was that the meals were always punctual and more tasty than before.
Also, their rooms were still clean and somehow looked more pleasing.
Lady Catherine had not worked out in what way they were more pleasing, but she could not help but enjoy the results.
The most important indicator of Anne’s wisdom was that there had been no difficulties with any servants. Disagreements between servants ceased to exist. The most vexatious part of the day had entirely disappeared.
Anne seemed happier, even though Lady Catherine had not been able to bring Darcy back to her.
Her daughter had made friends with the silly parson to whom Lady Catherine had granted the living, and Anne became even closer friends with his new bride.
Mrs Collins seemed to be practical, hard working, well mannered, respectful—someone who knew her place—everything that a parson’s wife should be!
Lady Catherine was satisfied that Mrs Collins was always thankful for her advice.
Proper gratitude showed proper breeding.
All in all, Lady Catherine felt proud about the effects she had been able to have on the family.
No one else had bothered to step in, but she had—and it had been a considerable amount of bother on her part!
—she still had not entirely recovered from that long, awful journey!
—but now, thanks to her, Darcy’s questionable choice for a bride had learnt about decorum and the family legacy.
So far, she was succeeding far better in society than Lady Catherine could have hoped.
Of course, the Darcys had not been in London since Lady Catherine had schooled Mrs Darcy, but there was gossip about their appearance at two house parties and a ball, and the reports were quite positive.
Lady Catherine promised herself that she need not make any more long journeys. She had done her duty, she had prevailed, and from now on, the family could come to her.