Page 9 of Hard Home

"No," said Mr. Darcy. "I do not think you did."

He wished them good night and went up.

And Miss Bingley sat some while with her bracelet in her fingers, being, though she would not have used the word about herself and could not have borne to hear it used, frightened — for she was six-and-twenty, and her fortune was twenty thousand pounds, and her line was one-and-thirty years old, and there is no amount of contempt for a Cheapside warehouse that will make a line older than it is, though she had spent eleven years trying it.

Chapter Five

Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the Bennets were particularly intimate. Sir William Lucas had been formerly in trade in Meryton, where he had made a tolerable fortune and risen to the honor of knighthood by an address to the King during his mayoralty.

The distinction had perhaps been felt too strongly. It had given him a disgust to his business and to his residence in a small market town; and quitting them both, he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge, where he could think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world.

What he had received at St. James's was a Warrant.

It is necessary to be clear about this, because Sir William never was. A Warrant of the Crown is a fine thing and a real one: it confers precedence, and the right to certain forms of address, and a seal, and it may be inherited. What it does not confer is an Accord. No land bargains with a man because his sovereign has touched him with a sword. The old courts made their agreements with the ground itself, and the ground has never taken the least interest in what happens at St. James's.

Sir William knew this. Every person in England knows this. But he had knelt on a floor at eight-and-forty and stood up different, and something in him had never afterwards been able to hold the distinction steady; and so he spoke oflinesandprecedenceandthe honor of the thingin one continuous breath, and his neighbors, who were fond of him, let it alone.

Lady Lucas knew the difference exactly, which was why she was the finest genealogist in three parishes, and why she had four daughters and no expectation whatever for any of them butCharlotte, who was sensible, and seven-and-twenty, and plain, and worth the other three together.

---

The ladies of Longbourn soon waited on those of Netherfield. The visit was returned in due form. But it was the morning after the assembly, before any of that, that the two families sat down together at Longbourn to take the evening to pieces, which is the true business of a neighborhood and the only one it never neglects.

"Youbegan the evening well, Charlotte," said Mrs. Bennet with civil self-command to Miss Lucas. "Youwere Mr. Bingley's first choice."

"Yes; but he seemed to like his second better."

"Oh! — you mean Jane, I suppose — because he danced with her twice. To be sure thatdidseem as if he admired her — indeed I rather believe hedid— I heard something about it — but I hardly know what — something about Mr. Robinson."

"Perhaps you mean what I overheard between him and Mr. Robinson; did not I mention it to you? Mr. Robinson's asking him how he liked our Meryton assemblies, and whether he did not think there were a great many pretty women in the room, andwhichhe thought the prettiest? and his answering immediately to the last question — Oh! the eldest Miss Bennet beyond a doubt, there cannot be two opinions on that point."

"Upon my word! — Well, that was very decided indeed — that does seem as if — but however, it may all come to nothing, you know."

"Myoverhearings were more to the purpose thanyours, Eliza," said Charlotte. "Mr. Darcy is not so well worth listening to as his friend, is he? — Poor Eliza! — to be only justtolerable."

"I beg you would not put it into Lizzy's head to be vexed by his ill-treatment; for he is such a disagreeable man that it would be quite a misfortune to be liked by him. Mrs. Long told melast night that he sat close to her for half an hour without once opening his lips."

"Are you quite sure, ma'am? — is not there a little mistake?" said Jane. "I certainly saw Mr. Darcy speaking to her."

"Aye — because she asked him at last how he liked Netherfield, and he could not help answering her; but she said he seemed very angry at being spoke to."

"Miss Bingley told me," said Jane, "that he never speaks much unless among his intimate acquaintance. Withthemhe is remarkably agreeable."

"I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very agreeable he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; every body says that he is ate up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise."

"I do not mind his not talking to Mrs. Long," said Miss Lucas, "but I wish he had danced with Eliza."

"Another time, Lizzy," said her mother, "I would not dance withhim, if I were you."

"I believe, ma'am, I may safely promise youneverto dance with him."

---

"His pride," said Miss Lucas, "does not offendmeso much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favor, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has arightto be proud."

"That is very true," replied Elizabeth, "and I could easily forgivehispride, if he had not mortifiedmine."

"Pride," observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, "is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there arevery few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."