“How very curious! It is a short note, for it is only one page thick and folded in half. It does not quite have the look of an invitation, nor yet a letter of business. An introduction would require two pages, at the least.”
“Perhaps it is someone of Uncle’s acquaintance. Has he not friends who would write a short note? Perhaps a gathering at one of the gentlemen’s clubs?”
“Perhaps,” Mrs Gardiner conceded. “Though he is not a member of any, it might be some business friend or other. I shall lay it aside for when he returns home, though I do not know when that shall be today.”
“I do hope he hurries because I do not think I can bear another hour entertaining Mr Collins. At least Lizzy was able to stay away, for it would have been far worse for her here. Even if she is sorting books in the warehouse, I am quite jealous of her. How angry she will be when she learns about Mr Collins shouting her name upon the streets earlier!”
Mrs Gardiner opened her mouth to reply, but the door to their sitting room burst open, and Mr Collins himself was panting his excuses. “Forgive me, Mrs Gardiner, but I am afraid I must leave your most amiable company. My presence is required by my patroness, and I dare not displease her by careless delay!” He turned and lumbered away, calling for a footman to help him on with his coat and to summon a carriage.
Kitty sighed and fell back into her chair, all pretence at drinking tea and reading Fordyce happily forgotten. “Good riddance!”
Chapter twenty-three
“That went rather badly,” Elizabeth confessed as they hurried away from the supper boxes. She glanced back, only once, and saw to her relief that good Mrs Jennings had already turned her attention to a very small roast chicken which was closer in size to a pigeon.
“It could not be helped,” he answered in a strained voice. “It appeared to be a perfectly agreeable situation. I had no notion that I might be recognised by one not already known to me.”
Elizabeth kept silent as they walked a little farther. His admission was as good as a proclamation, that he was indeed fabulously wealthy and considered a fine catch by many. To speak now of what he had tacitly confessed seemed to her to drip of manipulative intent, a desire to work upon her strange intimacy with him and his delicate position to salvage her own situation. Her mother would have commended it, and even her father would have merely laughed at her good luck. She glanced up at his face, and her heart stirred with conviction. No, even should she wish it—and she could no longer say that she did not—she would not do unto him as others had done. He deserved better.
“Miss Elizabeth, you have grown strangely quiet. Are you distressed?”
“Not at all,” she forced a bit of cheer. “I was only thinking what a useful woman Mrs Jennings is.”
His cheek seemed to darken, and she heard him catch his breath. “Indeed?”
“Why, of course. She clearly enjoys making herself useful, and she has such a pleasant way of going about it that none could be offended by her ordering of their affairs. Do you not know of others who enjoy giving themselves some purpose, to the point of becoming more of a burden than a help to the beneficiaries of their goodwill?”
“My aunt,” he retorted. “Although I believe Mrs Jennings might have sought the benefit ofyourinterests as much as her own gratification. I cannot say that for my relation.”
“I believe she did,” Elizabeth lightly directed him back to the less serious matter of Mrs Jennings and her follies. “And perhaps I would be wise to accept her advice. You can see how well-matched the lady’s daughter and her husband are, which cannot help but proclaim all the evidence that is necessary of Mrs Jennings’ abilities.”
He stopped walking and was staring at her in astonishment. “You cannot be serious. I never saw a more mismatched couple in all my acquaintance than Mr and Mrs Palmer.”
“Why so, sir? One has all the gaiety, and the other has all the seriousness. Perhaps the scales are weighted evenly.”
He narrowed his eyes, tipping his head slightly as he tried to determine if she were in earnest. “Mrs Palmer is, I grant you, a kindly and sincere enough woman, but you could not wish such a silly-natured wife on a man of intellect.”
“What makes you believe he is such? Reading the paper and avoiding conversation does not indicate that the person is intelligent, nor even particularly dignified.”
“He refused to engage in a conversation which could only be termed as degrading.”
“Do you think that was out of an offended sense of decorum or, rather, a prideful inattentiveness? Do you not rather think he wished to impress us with his disdain?”
“I think perhaps he wished to impress his wife, but she is insensible to correction and wilfully ignorant of her husband’s preferences.”
“You claim that his pride is under good regulation?”
He glanced away, seemed to contemplate the trees rather seriously, and made a careful reply. “I think it possible in theory, but perhaps his has been carried to extremes. He is more likely to give offence and make himself look the pretentious buffoon than to improve the mind of his wife.” He turned slowly back to her. “I do not condemn another man, Miss Elizabeth. Indeed, I speak without any malice whatsoever, for I can easily imagine the circumstances which could drive a man to behave so.”
Elizabeth pursed her lips in thought and began to walk on. “You do not consider his character flawed?”
“We are each of us flawed, Miss Elizabeth. It is how we prune our flaws, as well as cultivate our strengths, which determines our character. I would imagine Mr Palmer was never truly amiable, but had he chosen his bride differently, he might have become a tolerably civil sort of man.”
“Or,” she mused, “perhaps he is already matched to just the right sort of woman, but he will not trouble himself to mend his approach to her. My parents are not dissimilar, though rather than rudely dismissing my mother, my father makes a jest of her in the presence of her daughters. He is a clever sort of man who wants gaiety and liveliness to make him a perfectly agreeable companion. My mother’s mind might have been improved, and her energies given proper direction, had either of them in their youth attended to what was fitting between man and wife.”
He was looking at her strangely as they walked, his brow knit, and his mouth open as if to speak, but he said nothing. The idea appeared so shockingly novel to him that he was at a loss.
“Forgive my ramblings,” she apologised. “You can have no interest in my family’s affairs.”
