Chapter 31 In Which All Is Well
In Which All Is Well
Almost three weeks since G left. All is well. Exceedingly well. Could not be better.
Pike is a perfect gentleman and no longer seems to require regular serums at all. I have cured him, it seems, permanently. All Meryton speaks of him as my beau, and why should they not? In the last few weeks:
– Pike and I danced three times at a public ball.
– We have gone for walks every day that the weather is fine.
– Mamma took me into town to have a dress made—the first new dress from town I had ever had. I heard her murmur the word wedding to the dressmaker.
– Old Reverend Halcombe, our retired rector, complained to me of the factory plans.
“Not right for a genteel town like this to be stuffed with dirty, vulgar factories,” he said to me the other day, after accosting me in the street.
“Keep that business to London and the North.” Of course, he will not stop the plans going forward, but can there be any greater proof of how Meryton views us than the fact that even a bad-tempered old man considers Pike my responsibility?
One moment. I hear a horse approaching.
(Later)
It was Pike. He brought a bit of sad news. “The old rector was found dead in his bed by his housekeeper,” he said.
“No great surprise there,” said Mamma. “He was eighty if he was a day.”
“Quite. I wonder… Mr. Bennet, may I speak with you?”
My father gave me a long look, then led Pike into his library. After fifteen minutes’ conference, they emerged, and Pike asked if he might speak with me alone. Five minutes after that, we were engaged.