“I freely admitthat.”
He smirked at her. There was a long pause as he tilted his head and studied her. Elizabeth felt something in the air between them, something that ignored the presence of his relatively young sister sitting between them. “Surely you acknowledge women do not have the same spark in their souls as a man. A very clever man will always bemorethan a very clever woman — the great poets, scientists, philosophers, statesmen — they are never women.”
Elizabeth growled. Infuriating man. To flirt with her andthenmake such a stupid argument. “Women are not given opportunity to grow and display our talents! You know that means nothing. We are expected to live dull lives of useless dullness and — Your premise is false. False! The Greeks agreed that Sappho was amongst the greatest of their poets.”
“One name.” His eyes were light. There was some spark in them. “Besides, she threw herself off a cliff over the love of a ferryman.”
“Spurious story, invention of those men who despise female poets because their fragile pride cannot survive if men are not superior in all areas.”
“Suicide and immorality. Her, Wollstonecraft, other women with too much learning. You will not convince me it is well for your sex.”
“Wollstonecraft: the first refuge of every gentleman with a desire to mock female learning.”
“She wrote proper education could overcome the passions, and then was driven entirely by her passions to two attempts at suicide and an illegitimate child. She had need of a firm hand from a gentleman who cared for her interests.” Darcy smirked. “You cannot accuse me of speaking of that which I have not studied — I readThe Rights of Women.”
“Bravo!” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Wollstonecraft’s advice to reject passion seems to be of a piece with your attitudes. Not of mine. You learned too well from her philosophy. A wise person will find a union of passion and reason.”
“Women cannot.”
“Men can? One day you too will find yourself victim of such imprudent passion, and with nothing but your reason to defend you, and your reason will fail.”
“When we talk in possibilities, anything is possible. But in actualities women are more easily driven by their passions than men.”
“I oppose to you Shakespeare. Othello, Macbeth, Romeo, and Bottom the rude mechanical —mendriven into error by their passions.”
“Bottom? The one turned into an ass?” Darcy quirked his mouth. “Unfair. Shakespeare is no historian.”
“Then I offer you that low creature beloved by history: The common politician. If all the great statesmen and philosophers are men, so are all petty politicians, dishonest lawyers, and gentlemen wastrels.”
“Fitzwilliam,” Georgiana asked, “are youattemptingto provoke Miss Bennet?”
Darcy’s mask broke and he blushed and looked down and rubbed his sleeve. He opened his mouth and closed it.
When he looked up, Elizabeth met his eyes steadily and in a twisting sensation that caused butterflies to flutter upwards from her stomach into her chest and throat, she realized hewasintentionally provoking her.He admired her, but had not learned that annoying a woman did not lead to her heart.
Or could it?
Averyhandsome man.
“Oh!” Georgiana exclaimed and blushed. Darcy and Elizabeth blushed as well.
Anne poked Georgiana, wanting more attention. Hoping to look maternal Elizabeth stretched out her arms in offer, and the girl let Elizabeth sit her on her lap. “What do you really think, Mr. Darcy? Are you convinced my mind is inferior to yours? Plato supports that notion, but we shall never be real friends if that is your considered belief.”
“No, no — not like in the Republic.” He glanced at Georgiana and said in a lecturer’s voice, “Plato had the notion that men and women were alike in all important respects, except women were at all points inferior. A woman could do anything a man could do, but not as well. He was wrong. A woman is a different sort of being than man, not an inferior variant of a man. Miss Bennet, you cannot believe men and women are the same. That we have the same pattern work of strengths and virtues.”
“No…” Elizabeth frowned thoughtfully and rocked Anne back and forth. “You claimed a clever man will always be more clever. That offends me.Thatis not where man’s superiority lies.”
“Where then is a man superior?”
Elizabeth laughed. “No, no, no! I will not reply to that.”
“You hope to deny male and female difference?”
“In mental points only — the physical differences are obvious; I celebratethem!” She boldly let her eyes admire his person. With a smile she looked back up to meet Mr. Darcy’s eyes. “Do you not celebrate them as well?”
He blushed, like a school boy. Darcy glanced at his sister. “Isthatyour considered belief? Males and females possess no differences in the mind.”
“Are not differences in the body enough? They explain other matters.” She wanted to leer at him again.
