Chapter 8
“Come, Darcy,” Mr Bingley said to his friend, “you must dance. It is an assembly after all, not a walk in Hyde Park.”
“I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment for me to stand up with. You know I despise conversing with people I am not properly acquainted with.”
Elizabeth overheard this proclamation with surprise.
Who was he to be so proud and above his company?
She did not care one wit if he had wealth to match that of his friend.
Or even should he have connections with the highest in the land, it was extremely ill-bred to think such a thing, never mind to say so.
She knew he did not mean his words to be overheard, but that was no fault of hers; she had been sitting here, resting her feet, before the gentlemen had come this way.
“You are missing out, dear chap,” Bingley replied.
“Let me introduce you to one of the Bennet ladies. They are all most handsome and witty. I have never enjoyed conversing with young ladies so much as I have with the Bennet ladies,” he said.
Elizabeth was most gratified by this fine compliment to their looks and their intelligence, but Mr Bingley was not finished.
“Here is one of the Bennet ladies sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say you will find her very agreeable.”
Mr Darcy turned round, and he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, and their eyes met.
Elizabeth felt a frisson of awareness, which was quickly transformed to pique when he immediately looked away.
Mr Darcy’s reply to Mr Bingley was momentarily lost in the noise of the room, but she did hear the end of it as he walked away, saying “You are wasting your time with me.”
She supposed she was not handsome enough to tempt him.
She had been sure he had not intended or been aware that she had heard the conversation.
But she remained with no very cordial feelings towards him.
However, she told the story to her parents and sisters in the carriage on the way home with great spirit and playfulness, going so far as to do such a good impression of the man that even Jane was unable to suppress a laugh.
The Bennet family, therefore, decided that Mr Darcy was proud, intolerable, and not worthy of the attention of any of them.
Though they would not go so far as to cut him, as they did not wish to make their new neighbour feel unwelcome.
After all, Mr Bingley had made quite a different impression, particularly on Jane.
“What do you make of our new neighbours?” Elizabeth asked her sister Jane as they readied themselves for bed.
“Mr Bingley is sensible, good-humoured, lively, and I never saw such happy manners,” she said, and added with a blush, “he is also good-looking.” “What did you think of his sisters?” Elizabeth asked her.
“Miss Bingley is to live with her brother and keep his house, and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her. Mrs Hurst spoke but a little, but she seemed a genteel lady.”
Elizabeth listened in silence. In truth, she thought them proud and conceited, and she disagreed with her sister that they would be charming neighbours, unlike their brother.
The details of Mr Bingley’s taking the lease of Netherfield had circulated through the assembly.
Mr Bingley inherited property from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate, but did not live to do so.
Mr Bingley now intended to fulfil that family ambition, and he had taken the lease of Netherfield to test how such a life would suit him.
His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate of his own.
Mr Darcy, his friend and the owner of an estate in Derbyshire, was to stay with him for some time to guide him as he learned to manage the land, as he had not been born to it.