Because he showed no consideration for the feelings of anyone.
He had again and again shown her consideration. He had allowed her to dress as she wished. He had not forced his way into her bed last night when she said she was ill.
Ha!
Why didn’t she think aboutthat?
But why should she ever let him into her bed? He had never asked her to be allowed.
Darcy started to cry.
There was a small forest wilderness nearby, and Darcy stopped there, pacing back and forth for several minutes in the cold until he recovered himself enough to proceed along the familiar road without making a spectacle of himself.
What was he to do now?
Obviously, he could not touch Elizabeth if she did not want him.
She did not want him.
And the next point followed from that.
He could not bear to stay at Pemberley at present. Watching her, seeing her. Seeing her being happy, smiling at Georgiana and everyone else, perhaps even smiling at him once the argument was a fading memory — all that, and not being able to touch her.
Where would he go instead?
The road was set before him. He already was upon it.
London.
He would go to London. Colonel Fitzwilliam was there, Bingley was there, and there always were matters of business tobe attended to in the capital.
Darcy rode onwards down the road, and when he saw an inn, he went in, and took private rooms upstairs for himself, and gave coin for his horse to be cared for.
He could not eat, so he refused the offer of food, but he asked for writing supplies to be sent up, along with a cup of tea.
When everything was set out on the stable wooden desk in the room, he sat down.
Dipped the quill in the ink. He lifted the pen, holding it at an angle so that the ink would not drip while he decided where to start.
Dear Elizabeth,
Was she “Dear Elizabeth”?
Yes, she was very dear to him.
Darcy replaced the quill in the inkpot and stood and paced around. What did she need to know?
First, not only Elizabeth, but the whole house needed to know that he was going to London.
That could be the first line.
But what were the matters that he needed to settle with Elizabeth? What did he wish her toknow?
He could not defend himself with regard to how he had kissed her. But he must apologize, even though that would do her no good.
Mr. Bingley. And Miss Bennet.
That… Elizabeth’s words suggested a deep confidence that Miss Bennet loved his friend, and that she was heartbroken to have lost him — and lost him with no explanation.
