Page 44 of May I Have the Pleasure
Your loving sister,
Elizabeth Darcy
Epilogue
26 November 1823
Pemberley, Derbyshire
Dearest Jane,
Thank you so much for sending me the packet of my old letters from the year twelve. It was such a difficult year, but all our lives pivoted around it. Fitzwilliam and I shared the letters and were laughing so much the children came to check on us. I swear it was the most diversion we have had since Bennet invited the hounds to Kitty’s wedding breakfast.
My favourite was the one from when I saw him at Gunthers, and he gave me‘the most intense look of hatred I have ever seen.’Can you believe I wrote that?
Naturally, he said,“Was it like this?”and gave me the exact same look.
This time I could not misinterpret it, as his eyes practically caught my dress afire. What a silly goose I was back then! Maybe I tripped getting into the coach because my eyes were blinded by the smoke.
It took us quite some time to get back to the rest of the letters, but since they are a decade old, there was no rush. Today is exactly ten years since the Netherfield ball, and they seem to have gone by in a trice.
Mama is doing well enough at the dower house, and I recently heard from Charlotte that all is well at Longbourn. I am very happy that I finally repaired the relationship with Mama, as she is now quite the favourite of all the grandchildren. Who would have thought?
I find it extremely ironic, now that I can laugh at such things, that Mama set her stated goal in her life as having all five of her daughters well married, then proceeded to nearly destroy every chance of that happening. In the end, more through luck than anything else, we all ended up marrying quite well and all five are happy.
The world is certainly a strange place, and I think the goddess of fate must be off somewhere laughing her head off.
Your loving sister,
Elizabeth Darcy
~~ Finis ~~
The Bad Lot
[Third Person]
When Mr Collins takes a couple weeks to work up his nerve to propose, Lizzy hears Mr Collins’s proposal long after she knows the Netherfield party has decamped, Jane has gone to London leaving her alone, and Wickham has moved his attentions to Mary King. She therefore has a much more cynical view of the Netherfield party, her matrimonial prospects, and perhaps even…
I think Elizabeth’s inherent cynicism is often overlooked, so this story will explore that subject.
Reacting
"Nay," said Elizabeth, "this is not fair. You wish to think all the world respectable, and are hurt if I speak ill of anybody. I only want to think you perfect, and you set yourself against it. Do not be afraid of my running into any excess, of my encroaching on your privilege of universal good-will. You need not. There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense…
P&P Chapter 24
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“My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances(like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish…”
“…You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin, that your refusal of my addresses is merely words of course. My reasons for believing it are briefly these: It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy of your acceptance… … As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall choose to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females.”
P&P Chapter 19
~~~~~
Elizabeth Bennet sat preternaturally still after Mr Collins’s latest effusions, but they at least made her stop and think. She realised, just as a stopped clock was right twice a day, Mr Collins may have hit on a home truth, even if mostly by accident. The stark reality of her situation was coming into focus, and it was not auspicious. She need look no farther than Charlotte Lucas to see her likely future. Charlotte had been out for a full decade without the slightest whiff of a proposal.Even Jane, the universally acknowledged beauty of the county, was seven years into the hunt with nothing to show but some awful poetry and one rather nasty letter from a false friend. Her father was as indolent as ever, while her mother and younger sisters were just as ignorant, loud, and silly. Her portion was still small and unlikely to grow.
