Page 33 of Hard Home

Kitty had her dinner. She was quiet through most of it, and cross afterwards, and Lydia told her that she was a great deal too much given to sulking, and Kitty said something unkind about the ribbon, and the two of them quarreled all the way home in the dark, in the ordinary manner of fifteen and seventeen, and nobody in the family thought about it again.

Kitty had a cough by Christmas. She had it, on and off, for the next four months, and Mr. Jones was of the opinion that she should not sit in drafts.

Chapter Sixteen

As no objection was made to the young people's engagement with their aunt, and all Mr. Collins's scruples of leaving Mr. and Mrs. Bennet for a single evening during his visit were most steadily resisted, the coach conveyed him and his five cousins at a suitable hour to Meryton; and the girls had the pleasure of hearing, as they entered the drawing-room, that Mr. Wickham had accepted their uncle's invitation, and was then in the house.

When this information was given, and they had all taken their seats, Mr. Collins was at leisure to look around him and admire, and he was so much struck with the size and furniture of the apartment, that he declared he might almost have supposed himself in the small summer breakfast parlor at Rosings; a comparison that did not at first convey much gratification; but when Mrs. Philips understood from him what Rosings was, and who was its proprietor, when she had listened to the description of only one of Lady Catherine's drawing-rooms, and found that the chimney-piece alone had cost eight hundred pounds, she felt all the force of the compliment, and would hardly have resented a comparison with the housekeeper's room.

Mr. Wickham was the happy man toward whom almost every female eye was turned, and Elizabeth was the happy woman by whom he finally seated himself; and the agreeable manner in which he immediately fell into conversation, though it was only on its being a wet night, and on the probability of a rainy season, made her feel that the commonest, dullest, most threadbare topic might be rendered interesting by the skill of the speaker.

The card tables were placed, and Mr. Collins sat down to whist with a good grace, and lost his money with a better one, and was informed by Mrs. Philips that it did not signify in the least.

Elizabeth did not play. She took the fish-counters and the ivory box and kept the reckoning at the round table, which was thought a great service to everybody, and Mr. Wickham drew his chair a little toward her and said that he thought her employment infinitely the pleasantest in the room.

She had taken off her gloves for it, because one cannot count fish in gloves.

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He did not begin upon the subject at once. He began upon Meryton, and the regiment, and the ball at Netherfield, and he asked how long Mr. Darcy had been staying there.

"About a month," said Elizabeth; and then, unwilling to let the subject drop, added, "He is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I understand."

"Yes," replied Wickham; — "his estate there is a noble one. A clear ten thousand per annum. You could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself — for I have been connected with his family in a particular manner from my infancy."

Elizabeth could not but look surprised.

"You may well be surprised, Miss Bennet, at such an assertion, after seeing, as you probably might, the very cold manner of our meeting yesterday. — Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?"

"As much as I ever wish to be," cried Elizabeth warmly. — "I have spent four days in the same house with him, and I think him very disagreeable."

"I have no right to givemyopinion," said Wickham, "as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible formeto be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish — and perhaps you would notexpress it quite so strongly anywhere else. — Here you are in your own family."

"Upon my word I say no moreherethan I might say in any house in the neighborhood, except Netherfield. He is not at all liked in Hertfordshire. Every body is disgusted with his pride."

"I cannot pretend to be sorry," said Wickham, after a short interruption, "that he or that any man should not be estimated beyond their deserts; but withhimI believe it does not often happen. The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened by his high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chooses to be seen."

"I should take him, even onmyslight acquaintance, to be an ill-tempered man."

Wickham only shook his head.

"I wonder," said he, at the next opportunity of speaking, "whether he is likely to be in this country much longer."

"I do not at all know; but Iheardnothing of his going away when I was at Netherfield. I hope your plans in favor of the ——shire will not be affected by his being in the neighborhood."

"Oh! no — it is not formeto be driven away by Mr. Darcy. Ifhewishes to avoid seeingme, he must go. We are not on friendly terms, and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I have no reason for avoidinghimbut what I might proclaim to all the world; a sense of very great ill usage, and most painful regrets at his being what he is. His father, Miss Bennet, the late Mr. Darcy, was one of the best men that ever breathed, and the truest friend I ever had; and I can never be in company with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections. His behavior to myself has been scandalous; but I verily believe I could forgive him any thing and every thing, rather than his disappointing the hopes and disgracing the memory of his father."

Elizabeth found the interest of the subject increase, and listened with all her heart; but the delicacy of it prevented farther inquiry.

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Mr. Wickham began to speak on more general topics, Meryton, the neighborhood, the society, appearing highly pleased with all that he had yet seen, and speaking of the latter especially with gentle but very intelligible gallantry.

"It was the prospect of constant society, and good society," he added, "which was my chief inducement to enter the ——shire. I knew it to be a most respectable, agreeable corps, and my friend Denny tempted me farther by his account of their present quarters, and the very great attentions and excellent acquaintance Meryton had procured them. Society, I own, is necessary to me. I have been a disappointed man, and my spirits will not bear solitude. Imusthave employment and society. A military life is not what I was intended for, but circumstances have now made it eligible. The churchoughtto have been my profession — I was brought up for the church, and I should at this time have been in possession of a most valuable living, had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now."

"Indeed!"

"Yes — the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift. He was my godfather, and excessively attached to me. I cannot do justice to his kindness. He meant to provide for me amply, and thought he had done it; but when the living fell, it was given elsewhere."