Page 230 of What Change Entails

Georgiana placed Bingley beside Jane at tea and then blushed so violently that Jane pretended not to notice. Lydia abandoned rooms with such theatrical suddenness that even Mrs. Bennet grew suspicious. Kitty volunteered to assist and was sent away twice for giggling. Mrs. Annesley, when informed of these efforts, observed that young ladies who plotted should at least learn to close doors.

Elizabeth found Lydia and Georgiana bent over a list one afternoon.

“Matchmaking again?”

Lydia covered the paper. “You are not permitted to criticize our skill. It succeeded with you.”

“I have not forgotten. Nor has Mr. Darcy.”

Georgiana smiled.

“Jane is not me,” Elizabeth said. “She must be allowed time.”

Lydia wrinkled her nose. “Time is very slow.”

“Yes.”

“It is inconvenient.”

“Frequently.”

Georgiana folded the list. “We shall be patient.”

Lydia looked personally wounded by the word.

Not all Darcy’s relations approved of the match, of course. Lady Catherine’s first letter required four pages to express her outrage and a fifth to insist she felt none. Darcy answered it once with perfect civility. Elizabeth answered none, a decision her betrothed privately believed the wiser of the two.

To his credit, Bingley proved more patient than anyone expected. He came often and he did not press. He spoke plainly to Mr. Bennet, apologized to Mrs. Bennet, endured Mary’s moral observations, and treated Lydia’s pointed remarks with such good humor that she eventually declared him redeemable. There had been a time when Bingley believed another opportunity impossible. He had mistaken persuasion for judgment once before and had nearly forfeited Jane forever because of it. He was determined that, if she chose him at last, it would be because she had seen him remain steadfast rather than because he had asked repeatedly.

Most importantly, there was no argument when Elizabeth did not invite Miss Bingley to their wedding even though Mrs. Hurst and Mr. Hurst were present.

Darcy and Elizabeth married in Hertfordshire with more happiness than grandeur, though Mrs. Bennet considered the two nearly indistinguishable.

Mrs. Hurst behaved with more civility than Elizabeth anticipated and more embarrassment than she could conceal. Mr. Hurst praised the wedding breakfast, the wine, and the road away afterward with equal feeling.

Miss Bingley stayed with other relations until after the wedding. She lived with the Hursts only after begging her sister to save her from their domineering aunt. Reports of her afterward were infrequent and rarely cheerful. Within two years she accepted the first gentleman who made an offer that preserved any appearance of consequence. He owned property in Ireland and disliked London. Miss Bingley, now Mrs. Ellison, discovered too late that being mistress of a distant house was not the same thing as triumph. She came to town rarely and to Derbyshire never.

Elizabeth did not rejoice in it.

Lydia did, but in private after being reminded twice that Christian charity applied even to Miss Bingley.

After a wedding tour that took them through Kent, Sussex, and briefly to the sea, Darcy surprised his wife by inviting the whole Bennet family to Pemberley for the tenant harvest party.

“All of them?” Elizabeth asked when she read the letter he had written to her father.

“All of them.”

“You are a brave man.”

“I have learned courage from your sisters.”

“You have learned recklessness.”

“Possibly.”

The harvest party had always been held before the hardest cutting began, when fields stood ready and men could still be spared by turns. Tenants and workers rotated through necessary duties so every family had some part of the day free. Long tables were set near the lower meadow. There were pies, cold meats, syllabubs, cider, games for children, contests for men who took them too seriously, and enough noise to satisfy even Lydia.

Mrs. Bennet arrived at Pemberley and nearly expired in the entrance hall.