Page 25 of The Cheapside Runners
Darcy looked like a boy getting a double dose of sweetmeats as he filled in the set, then with a bow, he said, “I had best get on with my other dances.”
A few minutes later, she saw him engage Janet Goulding, who had been his first partner in the neighbourhood. Janet was an excellent choice, as she had a good-sized inheritance, and she disdained the very idea of marriage. Elizabeth had no opinion why that was true, but it was a well-established fact. She was very active in a local orphanage and a school for the poor in nearby Hatfield. She, of course, had a companion for respectability, and the two of them seemed like the kind of ladies who could eschew matrimony until the end of time.
Elizabeth chose not to think about the fact that she could easily listallof his partners in order from that first assembly. She always kept her friends close and her enemies closer and wondered what Mr Darcy would become in the fullness of time.He would certainly never be a matrimonial partner, but he just might be able to be a friend. She was ambiguous about whether that was good, bad, or indifferent.
~~~~~
After the departure of Mr Darcy, and the end of Mary’s purgatory with Mr Collins, Elizabeth saw the opportunity to resolve one of her open problems. She pulled Mary rather bodily over to join Charlotte Lucas.
“Mary, have you noticed Mr Collins has been paying me an inordinate amount of attention?”
Mary laughed. “I could tell you that even without seeing or hearing the man, simply by observing your seething.”
“I told Mama I would not marry him.”
Charlotte asked, “Are you certain that is wise, Lizzy? I can tell you the life of a twenty-seven-year-old spinster is nothing to aspire to.”
Elizabeth had taken her secretive nature to such extremes that Charlotte had no idea of her status. She felt slightly guilty about that, but only a little.
“I have an adequate situation in town, Charlotte. I am in no way desperate.”
“I envy you, then Eliza.”
Elizabeth did not really want to spend more time on her own situation, so she simply nodded and continued.
“Mary, pay attention as this is important! I suggested Mama should redirect his attentions to you, since you seem much more the parson’s wife than I, but she has steadfastly refused. Now I ask you. You have known him a week, soare you interested?Mr Collins, to be sure, is neither sensible nor agreeable; his society is irksome, and his attachment to any of us after a week must be imaginary.That said, he does have a good living. I will not tell you how I know, but I am certain he does not drink or have any vicious propensities aside from his need to talk endlessly.His reverence to Lady Catherine de Bourgh is troublesome, and I believe she is an interfering busybody, but none of us have much room to criticise her, given our parents. He will eventually be master of Longbourn, which will make his wife a principal matron in the area. I assume begetting children with him will be unpleasant, but not much worse than other men. So, I ask you this!”
She looked back and forth between both ladies. “Are either of you interested in becoming Mrs Collins, with all that entails?”
She waited patiently for both companions to contemplate the question.
Mary was the first to speak. “I have heard you tell Mama we will not actually starve in the hedgerows when Papa dies. Is that true? If so, just how far from the hedgerows will we be? Should I consider Mr Collins just to secure a future for my sisters?”
Elizabeth was happy to see her sister thinking for herself for once. She wondered if perhaps there could betwointelligent women in the house, and she had just never noticed.
“I will not be so very explicit, but you would live at least as well as Aunt Philips, but not as well as Aunt Gardiner.”
Mary thought a while more and finally said, “I prefer to take my chances. I am only eighteen. I still have time, and I believe once we eventually beat Mama’s resistance down, Uncle Gardiner could find me a decent tradesman for a husband inside of a year.”
“A month, more likely,” Elizabeth grumbled, then turned to Charlotte.
That lady had been very politely giving Mary first choice but was ready to speak.
“I will take him, and I will do so gladly. I still have two younger sisters, so asking your uncle to find me a tradesman would nearly kill my father, since he has so recently become landed.I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask onlya comfortable home; and considering Mr Collins’ character, connexion, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”
Elizabeth had no real opinion about the proposed union. When she was younger, she had been quite stubborn and overly wed to her first impressions. She could imagine her younger self rejecting Mr Collins’ overtures, then thinking it impossible for anyone to choose differently. Life in Cheapside had taught her to be more reflective and more tolerant of other people’s characters and situations, which were often different, but not necessarily wrong.
With a laugh, Elizabeth asked, “Very well! Shall we accomplish it the easy way or the subtle way?”
“What is the easy way?” Mary asked with real enthusiasm, which quite surprised Elizabeth. She could see equal eagerness in Charlotte.
She pointed across the ballroom, and the other ladies joined her in watching Mr Collins introduce himself to Mr Darcy. Elizabeth noticed that gentleman’s face becoming sterner and sterner as time went on, but then he saw her observing him with a smirk on her face. He either decided he needed to behave more politely to gain her favour, or just found amusement in the situation, as he gradually became far friendlier to the clergyman than he really deserved.
“You seem to be a Darcy Charmer,” Mary said incongruously, which left both Charlotte and Elizabeth descending into a fit of giggles.
Elizabeth shrugged. “As you can see, Mr Collins has lately learnt that Mr Darcy is the nephew ofhis esteemed patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The easy way, though not the least bit subtle or decorous, would be to ask Mr Darcy to simply tell Mr Collins to move his affections to Charlotte. He would treat itas an order from Lady Catherine, and the deed would be done.”
Charlotte and Mary stared in confusion, wonder, or consternation, and Mary stated emphatically, “You cannot be serious.”
