PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 33

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MORE than once did
Elizabeth in her ramble within the Park, unexpectedly meet Mr. Darcy.
-- She felt all the perverseness of the mischance that should bring him
where no one else was brought; and to prevent its ever happening again,
took care to inform him at first that it was a favourite haunt of hers.
-- How it could occur a second time, therefore, was very odd! -- Yet it
did, and even a third. It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary
penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal enquiries
and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary
to turn back and walk with her. He never said a great deal, nor did she
give herself the trouble of talking or of listening much; but it struck
her in the course of their third rencontre that he was asking some odd
unconnected questions -- about her pleasure in being at Hunsford, her
love of solitary walks, and her opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Collins's happiness;
and that in speaking of Rosings, and her not perfectly understanding the
house, he seemed to expect that whenever she came into Kent again she
would be staying there too. His words seemed to imply it. Could he have
Colonel Fitzwilliam in his thoughts? She supposed, if he meant any thing,
he must mean an allusion to what might arise in that quarter. It distressed
her a little, and she was quite glad to find herself at the gate in the
pales opposite the Parsonage.

She was engaged one day, as she walked, in re-perusing Jane's last letter,
and dwelling on some passages which proved that Jane had not written in
spirits, when, instead of being again surprised by Mr. Darcy, she saw
on looking up, that Colonel Fitzwilliam was meeting her. Putting away
the letter immediately and forcing a smile, she said,

"I did not know before that you ever walked this way."

"I have been making the tour of the Park," he replied, "as I generally
  do every year, and intend to close it with a call at the Parsonage.
  Are you going much farther?"

"No, I should have turned in a moment."

And accordingly she did turn, and they walked towards the Parsonage
  together.

"Do you certainly leave Kent on Saturday?" said she.

"Yes -- if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his disposal.
  He arranges the business just as he pleases."

"And if not able to please himself in the arrangement, he has at
  least great pleasure in the power of choice. I do not know any body
  who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy."

"He likes to have his own way very well," replied Colonel Fitzwilliam.
  "But so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it
  than many others, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I speak
  feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and
  dependence."

"In my opinion, the younger son of an Earl can know very little of
  either. Now, seriously, what have you ever known of self-denial and
  dependence? When have you been prevented by want of money from going
  wherever you chose, or procuring any thing you had a fancy for?"

"These are home questions -- and perhaps I cannot say that I have
  experienced many hardships of that nature. But in matters of greater
  weight, I may suffer from the want of money. Younger sons cannot marry
  where they like."

"Unless where they like women of fortune, which I think they very
  often do."

"Our habits of expence make us too dependant, and there are not many
  in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to
  money."

"Is this," thought Elizabeth, "meant for me?" and she coloured
  at the idea; but, recovering herself, said in a lively tone, "And pray,
  what is the usual price of an Earl's younger son? Unless the elder brother
  is very sickly, I suppose you would not ask above fifty thousand pounds."

He answered her in the same style, and the subject dropped. To interrupt
  a silence which might make him fancy her affected with what had passed,
  she soon afterwards said,

"I imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for the
  sake of having somebody at his disposal. I wonder he does not marry,
  to secure a lasting convenience of that kind. But, perhaps his sister
  does as well for the present, and, as she is under his sole care, he
  may do what he likes with her."

"No," said Colonel Fitzwilliam, "that is an advantage which he
  must divide with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship of Miss
  Darcy."

"Are you, indeed? And pray what sort of guardians do you make? Does
  your charge give you much trouble? Young ladies of her age are sometimes
  a little difficult to manage, and if she has the true Darcy spirit,
  she may like to have her own way."

As she spoke, she observed him looking at her earnestly, and the manner
  in which he immediately asked her why she supposed Miss Darcy likely
  to give them any uneasiness, convinced her that she had somehow or other
  got pretty near the truth. She directly replied,

"You need not be frightened. I never heard any harm of her; and I
  dare say she is one of the most tractable creatures in the world. She
  is a very great favourite with some ladies of my acquaintance, Mrs.
  Hurst and Miss Bingley. I think I have heard you say that you know them."

"I know them a little. Their brother is a pleasant gentleman-like
  man -- he is a great friend of Darcy's."

"Oh! yes," said Elizabeth drily -- "Mr. Darcy is uncommonly kind
  to Mr. Bingley, and takes a prodigious deal of care of him."

"Care of him! -- Yes, I really believe Darcy does take care of him
  in those points where he most wants care. From something that he told
  me in our journey hither, I have reason to think Bingley very much indebted
  to him. But I ought to beg his pardon, for I have no right to suppose
  that Bingley was the person meant. It was all conjecture."

"What is it you mean?"

"It is a circumstance which Darcy, of course, would not wish to be
  generally known, because if it were to get round to the lady's family,
  it would be an unpleasant thing."

"You may depend upon my not mentioning it."

"And remember that I have not much reason for supposing it to be
  Bingley. What he told me was merely this; that he congratulated himself
  on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent
  marriage, but without mentioning names or any other particulars, and
  I only suspected it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young
  man to get into a scrape of that sort, and from knowing them to have
  been together the whole of last summer."

"Did Mr. Darcy give you his reasons for this interference?"

"I understood that there were some very strong objections against
  the lady."

"And what arts did he use to separate them?"

"He did not talk to me of his own arts," said Fitzwilliam smiling.
  "He only told me what I have now told you."

Elizabeth made no answer, and walked on, her heart swelling with indignation.
  After watching her a little, Fitzwilliam asked her why she was so thoughtful.

"I am thinking of what you have been telling me," said she. "Your
  cousin's conduct does not suit my feelings. Why was he to be the judge?"

"You are rather disposed to call his interference officious?"

"I do not see what right Mr. Darcy had to decide on the propriety
  of his friend's inclination, or why, upon his own judgment alone, he
  was to determine and direct in what manner that friend was to be happy."
  "But," she continued, recollecting herself, "as we know none of the
  particulars, it is not fair to condemn him. It is not to be supposed
  that there was much affection in the case."

"That is not an unnatural surmise," said Fitzwilliam, "but it is
  lessening the honour of my cousin's triumph very sadly."

This was spoken jestingly, but it appeared to her so just a picture
  of Mr. Darcy that she would not trust herself with an answer; and, therefore,
  abruptly changing the conversation, talked on indifferent matters till
  they reached the parsonage. There, shut into her own room as soon as
  their visitor left them, she could think without interruption of all
  that she had heard. It was not to be supposed that any other people
  could be meant than those with whom she was connected. There could not
  exist in the world two men over whom Mr. Darcy could have such boundless
  influence. That he had been concerned in the measures taken to separate
  Mr. Bingley and Jane, she had never doubted; but she had always attributed
  to Miss Bingley the principal design and arrangement of them. If his
  own vanity, however, did not mislead him, he was the cause, his pride
  and caprice were the cause, of all that Jane had suffered, and still
  continued to suffer. He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness
  for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could
  say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted.

"There were some very strong objections against the lady," were
  Colonel Fitzwilliam's words, and these strong objections probably were,
  her having one uncle who was a country attorney, and another who was
  in business in London.

"To Jane herself," she exclaimed, "there could be no possibility
  of objection. All loveliness and goodness as she is! Her understanding
  excellent, her mind improved, and her manners captivating. Neither could
  any thing be urged against my father, who, though with some peculiarities,
  has abilities which Mr. Darcy himself need not disdain, and respectability
  which he will probably never reach." When she thought of her mother,
  indeed, her confidence gave way a little, but she would not allow that
  any objections there had material weight with Mr. Darcy, whose pride,
  she was convinced, would receive a deeper wound from the want of importance
  in his friend's connections, than from their want of sense; and she
  was quite decided at last, that he had been partly governed by this
  worst kind of pride, and partly by the wish of retaining Mr. Bingley
  for his sister.

The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned brought on a
  headache; and it grew so much worse towards the evening that, added
  to her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, it determined her not to attend
  her cousins to Rosings, where they were engaged to drink tea. Mrs. Collins,
  seeing that she was really unwell, did not press her to go, and as much
  as possible prevented her husband from pressing her, but Mr. Collins
  could not conceal his apprehension of Lady Catherine's being rather
  displeased by her staying at home.

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1. Ebooks list page : 81
2. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 58
3. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 44
4. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 42
5. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 41
6. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 40
7. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 39
8. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 38
9. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 11
10. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 12
11. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 45
12. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 46
13. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 49
14. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 57
15. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 56
16. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 55