Page 60 of His Pride and His Prejudice

“Indeed, Mr. Bennet,” she said. “It is very hard to think that Charlie Lucas should ever be the master of this house, that I should be forced to make way for him and live to see him take my place in it!”

“My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts,” Mr. Bennet responded. “Let us hope for better things. Let us flatter ourselves that you may pass before I!”

This was not very consoling to Mrs. Bennet, and therefore, instead of making any answer, she went on as before. “I cannot bear to think that they should have all this estate. If it was not for the entail, I should not mind it.”

“What should not you mind?” he asked.

“I should not mind anything at all.”

Mr. Bennet shook his head. “Let us be thankful that you are preserved from a state of such insensibility!”

“I never can be thankful, Mr. Bennet, for anything about the entail. How anyone could have the conscience to entail away an estate from one’s own sons simply because they are omegas, I cannot understand and all for the sake of Mr. Collins too! Why should he have it more than anybody else?” She sighed. “If only Jack had managed to snare Mr. Bingley!”

“Indeed,” said Mr. Bennet as his emotions were much more tranquil on the subject. It gratified him to discover that Charlie Lucas, whom he had used to think tolerably sensible, was as foolish as his wife, and certainly more foolish than his favoured son!

Twenty-Nine

By an unspoken agreement Bingley’s name was no longer to be mentioned in the Bennet household and they all complied with that, even Louis. The exception of course was Mrs. Bennet who continued to be perplexed and annoyed by the whole situation. She had gone from the possibility of seeing two of her sons mated to none at all, and that was not a happy situation for her to be in! Especially as it also meant the entail remained. She said as much to Mr. and Mr. Gardiner as they arrived to spend Christmas with the Bennets.

The older Mr. Gardiner, Mrs. Bennet’s brother in fact, was a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, by nature as well as education. The Netherfield ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade, and within view of his own warehouses no less, could have been so well-bred and agreeable!

His husband, Mr. Robert Gardiner, who was several years younger than Mrs. Bennet, was an amiable, intelligent, elegant man, and a great favourite with all his Longbourn nephews. Between the two eldest and himself especially, there existed a particular regard which flourished in no small part due to a regular exchange of gossip and news. The first part of Mr. Gardiner’s business on his arrival was to distribute his presents, including a selection of the newest novels and most fashionable cravats and then to impart any London gossip he had gathered and not yet shared. When this was done, he had a less active part to play. It became his turn to listen to Mrs. Bennet’s many grievances and complaints.

“I do not blame Jack,” she said. “For he would have snared Mr. Bingley if he could, that much is obvious. But Elliot! Oh, brother! It is very hard to think that he might have been Mr. Collins’s mate by this time, had it not been for his own perverseness. Mr. Collins made the offer in this very room, I heard it all from the door where I was eavesdropping! And Elliot refused him. The consequence of it is that Sir William will now have a son mated before I have, and that the Longbourn estate is just as much entailed as ever.” She paused to gather an outraged breath. “The Lucases are very artful people indeed, brother. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of them, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted so in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves before anybody else. However, your visit at this time is the greatest of comforts.”

Mr. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before in the course of Jack and Elliot’s correspondence with him, gave his sister a pat on the shoulder and, in compassion to his nephews turned the conversation in other directions, most of which allowed Mrs. Bennet to share her other grievances, of which there were many.

When alone with Elliot afterwards, he broached the subject. “It seems likely to have been a desirable match for Jack,” he said. “I am sorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man, such as you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a handsome omega for a few weeks, and when accident separates them, so easily forgets them!”

“An excellent consolation in its way,” Elliot said. “But it will not do for us as the whole thing makes little sense! For a young man of independent fortune to think no more of a man whom he was violently in love with only a few days before? And then to leave the area where he was clearly settled without even a goodbye?”

“But that expression of ‘violently in love’ is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it means very little!” Mr. Gardiner said with a wave of his hands. “It is as often applied to feelings which arise from a half-hour’s acquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how violent was Mr. Bingley’s love?”

“I do not think I have ever seen a more promising inclination,” Elliot said. “He was growing quite inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by Jack. Every time they met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own ball he offended two or three young ladies and several young gentlemen by not asking them to dance.”

“And yet he offends Jack now,” Mr. Gardiner said with a sigh. “I am sorry for him, because, with his disposition, he may not get over it immediately. It had better have happened to you, Elliot, for you would have laughed yourself out of it sooner. But do you think Jack would be prevailed upon to go back with us? Change of scene might be of service—and perhaps a little relief from home may be as useful as anything?”

Elliot was exceedingly pleased with this proposal and was keen to ensure Jack accepted. London visits were rare and should always be taken advantage of was their view.

“I hope,” added Mr. Gardiner, “that no consideration with regard to this young man will influence Jack. We live in so different a part of town, all our connections are so different, and, as you well know, we go out so little, that it is very improbable that they should meet at all, unless he came to visit us.”

“Of this I doubt,” Elliot said. “Alphas visiting Gracechurch Street? Highly unlikely, uncle!”

“But does not Jack correspond with his sister? She will not be able to help calling. Good manners demand it.”

“Caroline Bingley gives little attention to good manners, uncle. I suspect she will drop the acquaintance entirely,” Elliot said.

“Then we may be easy with Jack’s visit,” Mr. Gardiner concluded.

They said no more on the subject of the Bingleys during the Gardiners’ stay at Longbourn, and what with the Phillipses, the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day without its engagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainment of her brothers, that they did not once sit down to a family dinner. When the engagement was for home, some of the officers always made part of it—of which Mr. Wickham was always invited.

Elliot often found himself sat next to the gentleman and was as friendly as ever, as it was impossible not to be given Wickham was all charm as usual. That it was an empty charm that Elliot saw very little value in was hardly relevant. They laughed and flirted, perhaps more so than they should have, as before he left Mr. Robert Gardiner gave a word of warning about a possible attachment.

“You are too sensible a young man, Elliot, to fall in love merely because you are warned against it and, therefore, I am not afraid of speaking openly. Seriously, I would have you be on your guard. I have nothing to say against him, he is a most interesting young man, and if he had the fortune he ought to have, I should think you could not do better. But as it is, you must not let your fancy run away with you. You have sense, and we all expect you to use it. Your father would depend on your resolution and good conduct, I am sure. You must not disappoint your father.”

“My dear uncle, this is being serious indeed,” Elliot said.

“Yes, and I hope to engage you to be serious likewise.”

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