Page 17 of Elizabeth and Caroline
“Mr. Darcy is Caroline’s quarry,” said Elizabeth. “He seems interested in me, however.”
“Well, you are pretty and witty and interesting and you have that way about you,” said Caroline. “I suppose I must have always known that we might end up in competition together, and if so, you would come out ahead. You may be penniless, but you’re the daughter of a gentleman. I am… well, I am not good with conversations and the like. Obviously, he would want you.”
“He doesn’t know me,” said Elizabeth. “He hasn’t even spoken to me. And I am not so pretty that a man would…” Was she? “I suppose I’m not abundantly plain, but…” She let out a breath. “Why are we discussing this? It matters not, Caroline, because I would never do that to you.”
Caroline chewed on her lower lip. “Oh, come now, Eliza, if Mr. Darcy wanted you, you would be foolish to turn him down. And it might be… we could work with it, if necessary. You would still help me find a match, though, another match, a better match, but you would be his wife, and that would put you in a materially better situation.”
“No, I would never,” said Elizabeth. “Everything I hear of him is uncomplimentary, not least from you.”
Caroline laughed. “Yes, I suppose you would think so, but you have foolish ideas of what recommends a man. Charlotte, you know what I mean.”
“Do I?” said Charlotte. “Which one is Mr. Darcy again?”
“You do, Charlotte,” said Caroline. “You understand it’s much better to get out of one’s family’s house and have one’s own household, even if the man you marry is not a man you can summon much of anything in the way of affection for.”
“Marriage is about more than affection, true,” said Charlotte. “You really don’t want Mr. Collins, Lizzy?”
Elizabeth wrung out her hands.
The music was starting.
She turned to look around the room and caught sight of Mr. Collins, beckoning to her, smiling widely.
“I must go,” said Elizabeth. “After my second dance withMr. Collins, I shall bring him straightaway here, so that I may introduce the two of you, Charlotte. With any luck, he will ask you to dance. You can take your measure of him then.” She looked to Caroline. “You wouldn’t simply give up on Mr. Darcy that easily.”
Caroline hesitated, licking her lips.
“Oh, I have to go,” said Elizabeth, and she hurried off for Mr. Collins.
The two first dances with the man did little to ease any of her distress. They were dances of mortification. Mr. Collins, awkward and solemn, apologizing instead of attending, and often moving wrong without being aware of it, gave her all the shame and misery which a disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give. The moment of her release from him was ecstasy.
She did as she had intended, and took him over to introduce him to Charlotte.
Charlotte was all winsome smiles, inquiring immediately about Mr. Collins in such a way that was sure to prop up the man’s self-importance. “I hear you are a rector in Kent. What a difficult job that must be!”
Oh, Lord in heaven.
Elizabeth would not have stayed to watch the travesty of that conversation even if she were not already engaged to dance with Mr. Darcy, who was just there when she looked up, his stormy gray eyes and solemn countenance making him stand out in the crowd of others. He was coming for her.
She swallowed, waiting. What sort of man was he?
He held out his hand to her, all solicitude. “I believe it is the appointed time for our dances, madam.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, placing her gloved hand in his.
“I wished to speak to you when we saw each other on the street nearly a week ago,” he said. “I was distracted and by the time I looked up to find you, you were gone from my sight. I don’t mean to be that sort of ridiculous man who says something so trite that it loses any real meaning, but in this case it is accurate. I have thought of you nearlyconstantly since.”
She met his gaze with something like horror. “Why?” she burst out with.
He was startled and then he laughed, a burst of a surprised chortle. “Well, no woman has ever responded to such a statement that way in all of the history of humanity, I think. You are the opposite of trite, I see, madam.” He led her to the dance floor.
She was embarrassed, and she could feel her face getting quite heated. She tried to gather herself, to remember that she must be taking this man’s measure, engaging him, finding out what he wanted, what he despised, how to craft Caroline into the sort of bride he could not resist, but she was badly shaken by the idea that Mr. Darcy was so taken with her. So, what she came out with instead was, “I only mean, you had but a short look at me, sir, and that is little to recommend a person, I should think.”
“Perhaps,” he said, taking his spot in the line of male dancers.
She looked to each side at the women beside her, wishing she would have shut her stupid mouth.You have chastised him, you dolt!
“But I have spoken at length with your sister Mrs. Bingley and with her husband about you, and I feel as if I know you. Of course, I don’t. You are not as they presented you, not entirely, but I like the truth of you better, I may say.”
