Chapter 15 #2
“Are you really considering it?” Mr Bennet asked, somewhat surprised.
“Yes. Are you, Mr Darcy?”
“Of course! I mean, if Miss Bennet agrees, and Bingley most certainly will, it would be perfectly agreeable to me.”
“Perfectly agreeable to me, too,” the host replied. “Lizzy dear, let us not give any news to your mother until after dinner, lest it would be ruined entirely.”
“Very well, Papa. It can wait until tomorrow morning. Except I wish to speak to Jane later tonight.”
“And I shall talk to Bingley tonight, at Netherfield,” Darcy added.
“Excellent. I am glad we had such a successful conversation. Now let us join the others — dinner should be ready.”
They walked together to the door, but just a moment before they left the library, Mr Bennet spoke.
“Mr Darcy, whenever you have the time and disposition, there is still something I am dying to understand. You met Lizzy last October and refused to dance with her since she was barely tolerable to you. Then you argued all the time — she told me. Then, in November you left and did not see her again until you travelled to Kent, where you argued again and then you proposed marriage to her. She refused you and accused you of a thousand sins, then you did not see her for several more months, and then you proposed to her the second time. How is it possible that Lizzy made you fall in love with her by being absent most of the time and acting impertinent the rest of it?”
Darcy stared at him in disbelief, while Elizabeth felt a pang of unease too. Her father’s sharp summary of their story, while not exactly comprehensive, was disturbingly accurate and difficult to explain. Mr Bennet did not even wait for an answer, continuing to walk until Darcy’s voice stopped him.
“Mr Bennet, although I suspect your enquiry was mostly meant to tease me and make sport at my expense, I shall not let it pass without a response. I fell in love with your daughter almost from the beginning of our acquaintance because of the liveliness of her mind, her wit, her sharp intellect, her kind heart, her unassuming manners, her bravery, and a lot of other reasons. I refused to admit my feelings because at the time I considered I could only choose a wife close to my circle, with a situation similar to mine. Then, although I left, I never stopped thinking of her. When we met again, I decided she was my perfect choice for a wife. However, my arrogance forbade me from seeing that I was far from her perfect choice for a husband!”
He paused a moment, looking at Elizabeth, who was gazing at him, mesmerised. Then he caught his breath and continued.
“Her refusal offended me, enraged me, made me resentful, but also forced me to look at myself in a mirror of truth and accept that most of her words were true. So I had to choose to either return to my old selfish ways or try to remedy my errors. When I met her again at Pemberley, the final decision was easily made.”
Saying that, he took Elizabeth’s hand and briefly brought it to his lips.
The expression of love in her bright eyes and the dazzling smile she bestowed on him made the embarrassment of his long speech completely worth the while.
Mr Bennet shook his head, obviously affected by emotions as well, cleared his throat, and replied, “Well then…I think there is not much more to say. I surely do not have any more questions, all is crystal clear. Should we go to dinner now?”
“Gladly, sir,” Darcy agreed, then, as Mr Bennet stepped forward, he placed another kiss on Elizabeth’s hand and released it only a moment before they entered the dining room.
∞∞∞
Dinner was most pleasant, and, because of the lively conversation, mostly from Mrs Bennet and Mr Bingley, nobody noticed that Elizabeth and Mr Bennet, preoccupied with their own thoughts, were less voluble than usual. Both sat on either side of Darcy, and there was not much direct conversation.
Darcy’s silence was not surprising, but his amiable manners and several compliments to Mrs Bennet had been so genuine that by the end of the evening, he had made a more favourable impression on Lydia, Kitty, and Mary.
The two gentlemen left Longbourn close to midnight.
As soon as the family retired, Elizabeth shared her happy news with Jane, whose reaction was everything she had hoped for.
Jane’s rapture at having Darcy as her brother was expressed with many tears of joy and embraces, and the agreement to a double wedding came immediately, leaving the two sisters’ happiness complete.
Elizabeth only needed to prepare for the conversation with her mother the next morning, and then she would have the liberty to enjoy her engagement with her betrothed, to whom she had still so much to confess of her own feelings.
At Netherfield, Darcy spoke to Bingley over several glasses of brandy that the latter needed in order to accept the story.
Bingley was surprised, even doubtful at first, although he admitted he had long noticed Darcy’s partiality for Elizabeth.
The notion that his friend — chased by so many young, and not so young, heiresses of the ton — had decided to marry his future sister-in-law, the daughter of an insignificant country squire, was something Bingley would not have contemplated only a month ago.
But since it had happened, Bingley declared he was thrilled to share his wedding with his friend.
The only worry, which needed another brandy or three, was the daunting task of imparting the news to his sister the next morning — something for which he demanded Darcy’s assistance and support.