Page 36 of May I Have the Pleasure
Uncle and Aunt Gardiner have seen these letters, as has Uncle Philips. Uncle and Aunt Gardiner have agreed to assist me in setting up an establishment in town, and I have already secured employment which will satisfy my meagre requirements for a good life. I am of age now, so am neither duty nor honour bound to notify you of anything, but so long as you allow correspondence with my sisters, I will promise to give you word of any significant events in my life through them.
I will also beg that you allow each of your other daughters except Lydia to have a few months in town to attempt to find husbands without the constant screeching of your wife, who isvery much more of a hindrance than a help in matrimonial matters.
I have saved enough to retain Uncle Philips services for a few hours, and he will present you with a legal, signed and witnessed document attesting to the above stipulations.
I also feel I may no longer bear the same name as that hateful woman, so I have taken steps, with Uncle’s permission to remove myself from it. Perhaps one day I will marry a worthy tradesman and change it again, but I am disinclined to wait.
I remain,
Miss Elizabeth Gardiner
Consolation
4 August 1812
Lambton, Derbyshire
Dearest Sisters,
Please prepare yourselves for either a raging conflagration or no reaction whatsoever to the missive I have just delivered to Mr Bennet. I cannot bear to write it again, so I have tasked Uncle Philips with showing you a copy I made of some of the choice phrases or giving you the broad outlines. I will stay at the inn when we pass through Meryton, and I would beg you to both visit me there and return to town with me for a time. Uncle and Aunt have agreed to the scheme. Should Mr Bennet survive his approaching thrashing that Uncle Gardiner has planned, you should be able to do so with his permission; although Jane is of age and does not require it.
I received the most horrid letter from my former mother right after I wrote you about Uncle’s setdown for Mr Darcy, and I finally, at long last, have had all I can take. I have no idea how the rest of you survive in that madhouse. It is far worse than either of you indicated in previous correspondence.
You will see the letter from Uncle Philips. I must see you when we go through Hertfordshire, although I will not step foot in Longbourn. Pray, say you will come visit me.
Your anxious sister,
Elizabeth Gardiner
P.S. Pray, forgive the tears. I have had two of the three most trying days of my life in rapid succession.
Elopement
7 August 1812
Lambton, Derbyshire
Dearest Sisters,
Stupid! Stupid!STUPID! Lydia! She has well and truly ruined what small chance we had to marry well—but she will not ruin our lives, of that I assure you. I warned Mr Bennet of this, and in perhaps my only accurate assessment of this entire year, I predicted this very outcome in the last horrible letter to him cutting off my relationship with Mrs Bennet.
As you well know, this letter follows on three of the worst days of my life, but I fear this is the very bottom, because if Mr Wickham is anything like his other Northman comrades, I truly fear for Lydia’s safety. While true that she has made her own bed, she is still my sister and I see no way this can end well, or even not end very-very badly.
I am afraid that this has just confirmed my belief that none of the Bennet sisters will marry well. Our chances were not at all good before, and are now nigh on impossible, but do not despair. I have been preparing myself this half-year. Other than having complete certainty of our general unsuitability to marry anyone of consequence, rather than my previous near certainty, my outlook has not changed very much. As you know, my recent experience leads me to prefer tradesmen anyway, but even that hope might be hampered with this scandal. There is very little hope it will not spread to town.
My first inclination was to panic and insist we leave posthaste so that our uncle could assist in any way possible—but that impulse soon passed. What purpose would be served by running around hither and yon with our hair afire, when there is really nothing to be done? The die has been cast, and nothing we do is likely to change the outcome. From what you say of the debts Mr Wickham left in Hertfordshire, and the number of women and girls he apparently tried to charm, it seems extremely unlikely a marriage is truly on offer. I only hope Lydia can be recovered from whatever rookery Mr Wickham probably has her secreted off to, but even that seems too much to hope for.
Uncle’s business here in Derbyshire has been concluded, and as you well know, we have not been enjoying our holiday or our business very much these last few days, so we shall leave at a decent hour on the morrow and arrive back in Meryton in two days’ time as expected. I shall continue to Cheapside with Aunt and Uncle as I have said, and resume my employment, which has become not just an amusement, but essential for our futures. Do not fret about this, as I shall not. After the loss of a mother and my own belief in my sensibility and discernment, what is my reputation? The scandal will eventually die down, tradesmen of real quality will eventually be found for us, and all will be well.
Uncle Gardiner already helped me work out the sums regarding how I may support myself in my own establishment, and while difficult, it is manageable; but it would be easier if two or three of us lived together and shared the burden. I believe both of you will need to join me sooner rather than later, but I will leave that to your discretion.
My only advice is not to let Mrs Bennet ruin your life. I can well imagine her taking to her bed and her salts, crying to all the gods that she is ill-used. In fact, I quite imagine she will try to lay this debacle at my door as well, but I very well know she is simply reaping what she has sown this last decade or more. It will only affect me insofar as it affects both of you,so I beg you not to allow her to make you miserable. Come back to Cheapside with me that we may begin anew. We will send for Kitty once we have an establishment, and I believe we will all be better off for having left Hertfordshire.
Your welcoming sister,
Lizzy Gardiner
Friends
