Page 5 of Elizabeth and Caroline
Elizabeth was not entirely fond of her name being shortened in such a way, but Caroline had never done it before, so she didn’t say anything about that. “Wearealmost sisters. But don’t you have anyone in mind who is a man you simply enjoy being around? Someone you think you have something in common with?”
Caroline looked at her, blinking in thought. “This is why I need you. You always bring up things I hadn’t thought of.”
How was it that she could have not thought of how shewouldget alongwith her own husband? But Elizabeth didn’t say that out loud either.
“Well,” said Caroline with a little smile, “there is one man.”
“Yes?” said Elizabeth.
“He’s a friend of Charles’s, actually, or they have spent time in each other’s company, at any rate. His grandfather was an earl, and his uncle is the earl now, the Earl of Matlock. So, he has quite good connections. He owns an estate called Pemberley. His income is quite good, upwards of ten thousand a year—”
“Caroline, this is all well and good but—”
“No, I’m getting to it, to what you said,” said Caroline, chuckling a little. “He’s proper, you know?” She shrugged.
“Proper?” said Elizabeth, shaking her head at Caroline. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think we have that in common, a concern with doing things the right way, with propriety.”
Oh, lovely. So, he’s a snob and you’re a snob,thought Elizabeth.
“His name is Mr. Darcy,” said Caroline. “You know, he was in town when I left, and I have the impression he wasn’t doing anything. I wonder if I could convince Charles to invite him here.”
“Here?” said Elizabeth. “Now? Isn’t there anyone else you have something else in common with, something more, I don’t know, warm, such as both liking puppies or a certain kind of flower or—”
“Don’t be ridiculous, everyone likes puppies and flowers,” said Caroline. “Mr. Darcy is really perfect. You meet him, figure him out, and then we can make a plan.”
“Right,” said Elizabeth faintly.
“You’ll be quite able to figure him out,” said Caroline, nodding. “You always figure everyone out.”
It was sort of true, Elizabeth supposed. She had figured out all the servants in the matches they’d made, after all, and she now noticed it about herself, that she was able to understand people so well.
This matchmaking endeavor between herself and Caroline, it had changed her in some way, made her more aware of her own abilities and observations.
“Yes, I suppose I could figure him out,” said Elizabeth. “But he likely won’t comehere, will he?”
IT TURNED OUTthat Caroline could not get Mr. Darcy there through her own abilities.
She sent a letter from Netherfield, begging Elizabeth to find some way to convince her brother to write to Mr. Darcy.You must contrive to sit next to him at dinner on Thursday, for we are engaged to come and eat at Longbourn. If anyone can do it, Eliza, I know it’s you.
There it was, the shortened name again. But it was in a letter. Elizabeth didn’t think that it was the right time to mention she wasn’t entirely fond of being called Eliza.
She wrote back that she would need more than this if she were to convince her brother-in-law of anything.You must tell me why he refused, after all.
I have no notion,Caroline wrote back.You are the only one who can puzzle out such things. You’re practically a mind reader.
Elizabeth was no mind reader. Caroline, however, happened to be rather unintelligent about people. She was quite concerned with rules and propriety and getting everything correct, but she wasn’t good at people, per se, not if they didn’t stick to the rules.
So, this was how Elizabeth found herself sitting next to Mr. Bingley after swapping places with her younger sister Lydia, not without drawing some attention to it, either, because Lydia, not exactly known for being quiet in the best of times, had cried, quite at the top of her lungs, “But why do you want to sit next to Jane’s husband, Lizzy?”
Elizabeth almost abandoned the entire enterprise at that point, but Caroline would not hear of it.
“Eliza, I need you,” said Caroline. “I shall never getmarried with you.”
“About ‘Eliza,’” said Elizabeth carefully.
“Furthermore, neither will you, not without my help,” said Caroline. “Talk to my brother. Get him to write a letter. You can do this easily. I know you can. You are a wonder.”
