“Ah — you are wrong, for in my experience, clever women like money more than the rest.”
Miss Bennet arched one eyebrow and gave him a skeptical look. “You have met a clever woman? I fear you may have been deceived.”
“You are spinsterish in your personality. Insulting those happier women who have found a husband.”
Darcy saw in Mr. Lucas’s expression that he had again stepped over some line. However he didn’t care. He felt again every annoyance of the entirety of the ball, and he imagined Georgiana lonely at home, playing with Anne and wishing that sheoncecould be allowed, for only a few hours, to act as every other girl. And this lady had the temerity to insult him and refuse his apologies. His normal politeness was gone, and he had this desire to find some insult which would stick and make her flinch.
“That would be an excellent analysis of my character,” she spat, “if I wished to marry. You, sir, are an exemplar of why I do not.”
“You truly possess the mind of a spinster. Astonishing. Shouting to everyone that it is your own choice not to marry. Not only is that a lie to protect your dignity, but also a stratagem born of desperation; you hope gentlemen will slacken their vigilance near you if you claim to have no interest in them. And then once they have wandered too close, like a bear trap you will clamp upon them.”
“Does it astonish youso muchto imagine a woman might not have any interest in you?”
Darcy shrugged easily and said in a mild tone, “It does. I do find it unbelievable.”
Miss Bennet looked skyward, her pretty eyelashes fluttering up, and bringing Darcy’s eye to the clear thin line of her eyebrows. “Heavens!” She said, “You are the perfect gentleman. Vain, overconfident, and with the most horrid beliefs about women.”
“Vain? I do not have vanity — I confess that I am proud. But where there is real superiority of character, pride will be under good regulation. You though, you are a bitter old maid, snapping at everyone about you, and disliking other women, and making a pretense of disliking men.”
“Under good regulation? I assure you, Mr. Darcy, this conversation proves you are not under good regulation.”
The moment snapped into clarity, and Darcy flushed feeling more embarrassed than he ever could recall. Had he just spent the past minutes insulting a young lady? He had seldom been in polite company since Anne’s birth, but his good breeding should not have deserted him.
It was no excuse, but there was something incredibly provoking about Elizabeth Bennet.
Seeing that her words had struck him, Miss Bennet gave him a triumphant grin and said, “I, of course, accept your apology, Mr. Darcy.” She turned to a gentleman who had approached them as they spoke. “Mr. Goulding, I believe my next dance is yours?”
For the second time that evening Darcy watched the sway of Elizabeth’s yellow clad hips as she walked away and he thought to himself,that is a damned fine woman. The thought was joined with an absolute certainty that he was an idiot.
===
A few hours after midnight the clatter of the returning carriage and the doors being opened by his wife and Lizzy woke Mr. Bennet from his nap. When Lizzy burst into the drawing room and kissed his cheek, he could see from her delighted air thatshehad enjoyed the assembly.
“How was your evening, dears?”
Following his usual practice, Mr. Bennet avoided the crush at the assembly hall and spent the night with a book in a comfortable chair next to the piled fire in the drawing room.
“Oh! That horrible man!” Mrs. Bennet shouted. “That man may be Mr. Bingley’s friend, but Mr. Darcy is the most odious disagreeable man I have ever had the misfortune to be introduced to.”
Mr. Bennet raised his eyebrows and shared a smirk with Elizabeth. “The very most disagreeable? How remarkable.”
Elizabeth plopped herself inelegantly onto a sofa and said with a laugh, “On the contrary, I found him most insightful.”
Mrs. Bennet cried out again, “Heavens! Awful, what he said aboutourLizzy! Bingley and Lizzy tried to hide it from me, but Mrs. Long overheard! She — the scheming woman rejoiced in the knowledge, I dare say — rushed to tell me. He called our Lizzy a spinster. Aspinster. Our Lizzy! She is very old now — I’ve always said she is very old — she must be losing her beauty at a rapid pace for her to be remarked on so harshly.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
Seeing that Elizabeth was uninjured by whatever had been said, Mr. Bennet placed his book to the side and reached over to pat Elizabeth on the arm. “Now, dear, that hardly shows any great insight on his part. For though, contrary to your mother’s claim, your beauty is undiminished, he must have heard from Jane or Bingley that you are twenty and four. An age where some might begin to consider you, ah, what is the term — on the shelf.”
Elizabeth laughed. “No — identifying me as a spinster showed merely an ordinary level of observation, though to say it as I walked up to join him and Bingley required anextraordinarylevel of frankness. The insight came from realizing that I am both desperate and simpering from a single glance.”
“Simpering you say? Great insight into your character. You do seek to ingratiate yourself with all you meet. I shall exert myself to make a better acquaintance with such a Pericles.”
"You must! You must! Papa, you shall find him delightful. He was of course ordered by Bingley to apologize, but when he did…it was wonderful! While heapologized,he made it clear he yet stood by his view thatof courseI was desperate to marry him,andhe added he could not believe that a woman wouldnotwish to marry such a man as him."
"You liked him very much indeed."
"Such arrogance, such conviction of every woman's admiration — that cannot help but appeal." Elizabeth laughed and yawned. "I am to bed now."
