Page 33 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
“I don’t fancy—”
“But if you do that,” said Bingley, “that will make everything strange. So, no, you can’t do that. However, what other explanation can you offer for the way you treat her?”
“I don’t treat her in any way that—”
“And, indeed, how can you stop?” said Bingley. He groaned, laying his head back against the back of the carriage.
“Look, here is what I said during the dance to her last night, nothing untoward, simply that she was not agoddess—”
“You cad!”
“No, I meant it—”
“Darcy.” Bingley glared at him. “Well, I think I shall give her up.”
“What?” Darcy straightened up. “Whatever do you mean? Why would you do that? You are practically in love with her.”
“I barely know her,” said Bingley. “She offers nothing to the family in terms of social advantages. If I marry her, there is this between the two of you, forever and ever.”
“There is nothing,” said Mr. Darcy, “between me and her.”
“I don’t mean to sound like a frightfully shallow person, Darcy, but the advantages of your friendship cannot be overstated.”
“I see,” said Darcy, chuckling. “So, you are using me.”
“Are we not all using each other?” said Bingley.
“What do I use you for?”
“You are terrible at talking to people,” said Bingley. “You and I both know it. I’m much cheerier than you, and if I talk a lot, you don’t have to.”
Darcy grimaced. “But Bingley, it’s not likethat.”
“No, it’s not,” said Bingley. “You’re my friend, and we have been through many things together, and I value you. Not because I wish to use you, simply because you’reyou. Fitzwilliam. My friend.”
“Good,” said Mr. Darcy, relieved to hear this, for it was true for him as well. He wouldn’t be gallivanting all over with new-money-from-trade if he didn’t enjoy Bingley’s company. Perhaps there were elements of the relationship that were transactional in various ways, he supposed. Maybe there were transactional elements in all relationships, he didn’t know. But that wasn’t what made people stay friends. Something deeper did.
“We have plans, do we not? I shall buy a house in the country. We each shall have hunting parties and invite the other. We shall teach our sons to shoot together. I shall giveyou advice on investments in trade and you will make sure I don’t buy the wrong sort of land. We shall be friends for a long, long time, until we are both gray and leaning on canes.”
Mr. Darcy chuckled again.
“And I think she might rather get in the way of those future plans of ours,” said Bingley. “I think I shall give her up.”
Darcy shook his head. “No, no. You will come to resent me for it, I think.”
“No, it’s my decision,” said Bingley. “And you’re right. I am in the first glow of it. All women have some flaw, many flaws. All women are just human. Perhaps she’s too much for me, anyway. She makes me feel dull in a certain way. As if she is perpetually telling a joke and I don’t comprehend it.”
That might be the thing Mr. Darcy liked the most about Elizabeth. He could not help but smile.
It was quiet again.
He spoke again. “She will be devastated.”
“Likely,” said Bingley. “For that matter, I think I shall be a bit dampened myself, for a while anyway.”
“No, Bingley, you mustn’t do this, then!”
“It’s done,” said Bingley with a shrug. “It’s best now. I shall send for Caroline and the Hursts and quit Netherfield. I would rather have a country house in the north nearer to you, anyway, I think.”
