Page 39 of The Cheapside Runners
Bingley said, “Even if you did not knowspecificallythat he was a seducer of the worst order, you must have suspected it.”
“I had the mistaken belief that since his father and brother were honourable, he would at least keep himself within reasonable limits. It turns out I was misinformed.”
The colonel asked the operative question. “Had you known,would you have done anything different? You have known Wickham’s proclivities for years, and you not only allowed him to continue, but even cleaned up his messes.”
Darcy sighed. “I suppose I did. I wonder how much responsibility I hold for the damage he did to the world.”
“Did he ever force anyone?”
“If I knew he had, he would have been in debtor’s prison years ago. He is a seducer, but he never had to stoop quite so low.”
Fitzwilliam said, “We all know dozens of such men, but I do not know what we are supposed to do about it. We cannot fix the entire race of mankind.”
“No, but I suppose we have some responsibility for those close to us. I admit that I have probably done more than many men of our class to help the victims, but less than is possible… perhaps, even less than is reasonable.”
“You could beggar your estate, and it would be a drop in the ocean,” Fitzwilliam asserted.
While Darcy thought about that a minute, Bingley made a surprising observation.
“I wonder if that applies to the women in our lives.”
“What do you mean?” Darcy asked. Like most, he assumed most evil in the world was perpetuated by men, a not unnatural surmise.
“Caroline likes to gossip, and I know she has made life miserable for more than one woman she considered her rival. Should I be calling her to account, or trying to undo her damage?”
They thought about it a minute, and finally Darcy said, “I suppose you should call her to account, though how you might go about it is a mystery to me. I cannot even control my sister who is not yet out.”
“I control her purse strings.”
“Keep in mind that she can just as easily aim her sharp tongue at you, or someone important to you,” Darcy warned.
Fitzwilliam said, “Who is to say she has not already done so? It would be the work of a moment to shatter Miss Bennet’s hopes and dreams… if she had any in the first place.”
Bingley looked startled.
Darcy said, “If she did, it is probably correctable if you are still interested in her. If so, just follow one of my earlier suggestions.”
“Either one would raise expectations. If I am not prepared to satisfy them, I could do more harm than good.”
“If you want to live a risk-free life, you could sit around this room until the end of time—or until Soams gets tired of your stink,” the colonel bellowed with great laughter.
They all went along with it and decided to defer the discussion of what they owed to the world in reparations for the evils of their sex until another time.
The colonel moved back to a topic theycouldproductively discuss.
“You were telling me about Miss Elizabeth and my brother.”
“Oh yes,” Bingley said enthusiastically. “Talk about confronting the tiger. When she was introduced to the viscount, she got over her Darcy-shunning policy in a trice.”
“Tell me about it?”
Darcy said, “Keeping in mind she had yet to say a word to me, when she was introduced to Andrew, she made the barest greeting then made herself scarce. Then she accosted Bingley and I in the dining room during the separation and told us without preamble she and her sister would leave at dawn, with or without our help.”
Bingley laughed, “Darcy challenged her about the practicality of that plan, and she basically said that getting up at five to walk three miles home in the dark to get her father’s coach was wellwithin her capabilities and would be preferable to staying in my house. You could have knocked me over with a feather.”
Darcy laughed. “This is a bit out of sequence, but the next morning I asked her why she had taken such a dislike to me, and she said she never had.She was entirely indifferent!”
“Zooks, I bet that hurt!” The colonel laughed.
