Page 77 of A Most Favourable Match

“Mr Bingley,” Elizabeth greeted him with careful warmth after Hill had taken hat and coat and gone to prepare the tea. “Do come in. Are you alone?”

Elizabeth regretted the question almost as soon as she had asked it, and yet she could not stop herself from looking foolishly behind Mr Bingley for some absent companion. There was no need to complicate matters when he had likely had a difficult enough day already.

Their neighbour’s usually cheerful face was verygrave and his whole body held very tightly as he bowed to Elizabeth. Mr Bingley’s expression gave her no clue whether Lord Grantchester’s approach had yielded results yet, and it was too delicate a matter to ask outright, especially here at Longbourn.

“I am come alone,” he confirmed, bowing his greeting to her. “Mr Darcy is in Meryton…on business, and my sister is indisposed. I trust I am not disturbing you?”

“Not in the slightest. We are all in the parlour and everyone will be pleased to see you.”

Following Elizabeth through the house, Mr Bingley halted as soon as they were inside the doorway and scanned the room. His tense face softened a little when his eyes lighted on Jane, but he addressed her parents.

“Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet, might I have the privilege of speaking to Miss Bennet alone?” he requested, to general confusion in the room.

“I don’t see why not,” responded Mr Bennet with seeming unconcern. “Jane is a sensible girl, and her conversation is well worth the effort, as is Lizzy’s. I could not recommend any sensible man speaking alone with Lydia or Kitty, however, and Mary only under certain circumstances.”

Mrs Bennet glared at her husband while Mr Bingley listened to this eccentric monologue, a bewildered look coming into his previously determined eyes and rousing Elizabeth’s sympathy.

“Of course, Mr Bingley,” Mrs Bennet told him. “My younger girls and I were just going to the drawing roomand Mr Bennet to his library. Lydia, Kitty, Mary, come along.”

“If you insist,” said Mr Bennet mildly, removing himself happily to his favourite place, while the youngest Bennets trooped after their mother.

“Elizabeth, you had better stay,” Mrs Bennet added with a meaningful look, and then bent down to whisper to her two eldest daughters. “I suppose Mr Bingley wants to ask your advice about Miss Bingley, Jane, for you are most her friend. Tell him not to duel with Wickham, for he is bound to lose. Be sure to ask after Lord Grantchester too, and then leave him with Lizzy.”

If Jane had been listening to her mother’s instructions, she could not have made much sense of them. As it was, Elizabeth saw that her sister’s entire attention was already on Mr Bingley. Their smiles to one another were tentative but heartfelt, and they seemed to have already forgotten the existence of any other persons but each other.

Elizabeth too paid little heed to Mrs Bennet’s wishes, leaving the parlour after her sisters and closing the doors firmly behind her, despite her mother’s remonstrations in the passage outside.

“What are you doing?” railed Mrs Bennet. “Mr Bingley rides over here to see you, at a time of crisis in his family, and you walk away? This is your great opportunity to catch him. Even if Miss Bingley does have to lower herself to marry a mere soldier, they are still very rich.”

“Mr Bingley has not come to seeme, Mother,” Elizabeth said firmly. “He might well want Jane’s advice, but he might also have other reasons for his call. Let it be for a few minutes and we shall see.”

“What shall we see?” Mrs Bennet continued her complaints all the way into the drawing room. “Oh, you will all be old maids, and when your father dies, we shall all be thrown into the streets to starve!”

Elizabeth suspected she felt the ticking of the clock in the drawing room more loudly than the other ladies of the house, since she was the only one aware of all that was at stake that day. Jane’s happiness might be settled in that parlour with Mr Bingley, or not. Miss Bingley’s fate might already have been sealed, one way or another, or still hanging in the balance.

Five minutes passed amidst the ticking and the grumbling from Mrs Bennet. Just when Elizabeth felt she could take no more, the drawing room door opened and Jane stood there with Mr Bingley, their fair-headed faces radiant with happiness and looking as well-matched as two china figures on a mantelpiece.

“Mother, we are to be married,” Jane announced, to Elizabeth’s delight and Lydia and Kitty’s excitement.

Even now, Mrs Bennet was slow to grasp the situation. “Who is to be married? Did Mr Bingley bring word from Lord Grantchester?”

Elizabeth stood and came to her sister’s side, kissing Jane and smiling at Mr Bingley. “I wish you both joy,” she said simply, hoping that this would be clarity enough for her determinedly wrong-headed mother. “You are very suited to one another.”

“Mr Bingley is marrying Jane?” their mother finally realised, suddenly laughing and joining her younger daughters in their embraces and congratulations of the happy couple. “Dear me, how coy you have been, Jane! How secretly you young people go about your courting nowadays. What a surprise!”

“I should go and speak to your father,” Mr Bingley said to Jane, when he had managed to break away from his many excitable in-laws to be.

“Yes, yes, go and tell Mr Bennet, and we shall have the wedding as soon as you like, Mr Bingley. Tell him that five thousand pounds a year is not to be sniffed at, even with a scandal hanging over Netherfield.”

“Mother!” Jane objected, looking shocked at such a manner of referring to Caroline Bingley’s troubles. “Please!”

Elizabeth too felt her mother’s want of propriety and glanced towards Mr Bingley to see his reaction. To her surprise, his smile had only broadened at the mention of scandal.

“There is no scandal, Mrs Bennet, you will be glad to hear. My sister is to be married soon, however. You must all come to the wedding.”

“Ah, of course,” Mrs Bennet told him with a sympathetic nod. “You have sorted matters out quickly, Mr Bingley. Well, that is just as well in these circumstances. Miss Bingley must make the best of it with Mr Wickham. When all is said and done, he is a fine figure of a man and matters might be worse if he were uglier.”

While Elizabeth despaired of her mother’s vulgar insensitivity, Jane and Mr Bingley only looked at one another and burst out laughing.