Page 47 of Hard Home

At Netherfield the shutters were up by the following Tuesday.

Mrs. Nicholls kept two maids and a boy, and the plate went to London, and the great door was locked, and the ballroom atthe west end stood empty with the carpets rolled against the wall and the marks of a man's knees still in the dust at the window bay, where nobody swept.

On the Thursday Lieutenant Denny walked the whole ground floor of the empty house at Captain Harding's order, in his own time, with his right glove off and his hat in his hand like a man at a funeral.

He was a long while about the ballroom.

"Well?" said Harding, in the road.

"Somebody laid a very great ward on that room, sir. Within the last three weeks. It is the best work I have ever had my hand on, and I include Selsey." Denny was rather pale. "And then he took it up again."

"Took it up."

"Not broken. Not failed.Taken up, sir, deliberate, and quick — you can feel where it was done, it is like the end of a rope that has been cut instead of frayed — and then, so far as I can make out, the man who did it stood in that room for four or five hours afterwards holding the place together out of his own line, because there is a — " he stopped, looking for the word, and did not find a good one — "there is a stain of somebody in the floor by that window, sir. All down that side. Like a man's weight in a chair he has sat in for twenty years."

Captain Harding looked up at the shuttered front of Netherfield House for a while.

"Do we know who?"

"The gentleman from Derbyshire, sir. It could not be anybody else in this county. There is nobody else in this county at all."

"And where is the gentleman from Derbyshire now?"

"Gone to London on Tuesday," said Denny. "With the whole party. The house is shut up till Lady day at least, and they say the lease is to be given back."

Harding said nothing for a moment. Behind them, a mile off across the fields, the pale strip in Barrett's ground lay quiet in the winter light, a hundred and ninety yards of it now, uphill, three fields from the Meryton road.

"Write it out," he said. "Every word of that, and the measurements, and send it under seal to Horse Guards to-night. And Denny — put in at the end, in your own hand, that in the judgment of the officer commanding this detachment the only competent line in the county has this week left it, and that we are eleven officers with about two whole gifts between us, and that there is going to be a review and a Christmas and a great many balls."

"Sir. Will they send anybody?"

"No," said Captain Harding.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Bennets were engaged to dine with the Lucases, and again during the chief of the day, was Miss Lucas so kind as to listen to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth took an opportunity of thanking her. "It keeps him in good humor," said she, "and I am more obliged to you than I can express." Charlotte assured her friend of her satisfaction in being useful, and that it amply repaid her for the little sacrifice of her time.

This was very amiable, but Charlotte's kindness extended farther than Elizabeth had any conception of; — its object was nothing less than to secure her from any return of Mr. Collins's addresses, by engaging them toward herself.

Such was Miss Lucas's scheme; and appearances were so favorable that when they parted at night, she would have felt almost sure of success if he had not been to leave Hertfordshire so very soon. But here, she did injustice to the fire and independence of his character, for it led him to escape out of Longbourn House the next morning with admirable slyness, and hasten to Lucas Lodge to throw himself at her feet. He was anxious to avoid the notice of his cousins, from a conviction that if they saw him depart, they could not fail to conjecture his design, and he was not willing to have the attempt known till its success could be known likewise.

The business was quickly settled. Miss Lucas perceived him from an upper window as he walked toward the house, and instantly set out to meet him accidentally in the lane. But little had she dared to hope that so much love and eloquence awaited her there.

In as short a time as Mr. Collins's long speeches would allow, every thing was settled between them to the satisfaction of both; and as they entered the house, he earnestly entreated her toname the day that was to make him the happiest of men; and though such a solicitation must be waved for the present, the lady felt no inclination to trifle with his happiness.

The stupidity with which he was favored by nature, must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were gained.

Sir William and Lady Lucas were speedily applied to for their consent; and it was bestowed with a most joyful alacrity. Mr. Collins's present circumstances made it a most eligible match for their daughter, to whom they could give little fortune; and his prospects of future wealth were exceedingly fair. Lady Lucas began directly to calculate with more interest than the matter had ever excited before, how many years longer Mr. Bennet was likely to live; and Sir William gave it as his decided opinion, that whenever Mr. Collins should be in possession of the Longbourn estate, it would be highly expedient that both he and his wife should make their appearance at St. James's.

The whole family in short were properly overjoyed on the occasion. The younger girls formed hopes ofcoming outa year or two sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte's dying an old maid.

Charlotte herself was tolerably composed. She had gained her point, and had time to consider of it. Her reflections were in general satisfactory. Mr. Collins to be sure was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary. But still he would be her husband. — Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune,and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it.

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She thought also, for perhaps a quarter of an hour, about the braiding.

There was nothing much to think about, and that was the whole of her advantage, and she had known it since she was about fifteen.