Elizabeth, observing this almost immediately, found herself divided between amusement and relief.
Meanwhile Darcy, after paying his compliments with proper gravity to the ladies generally, allowed his gaze to rest for one brief moment upon Elizabeth with an expression more thoughtful than she remembered having seen at Rosings. The look vanished almost instantly beneath habitual composure; yet she felt nevertheless that his presence at Longbourn differed materially from his former appearances in Rosings.
Mrs. Bennet, recovering gradually from the first disorder of satisfaction, now directed her energies toward securing the comfort and prolonged residence of her guests.
“And how did Netherfield appear to you, Mr. Bingley?” she inquired with animated interest. “I hope you found nothing seriously amiss with the house.”
“Nothing which could diminish my admiration of it,” Bingley answered readily. “Indeed, I consider myself extremely fortunate. Mr. Morris has represented the estate very fairly; and after concluding matters this morning at Mr. Phillips’s office, I hardly know whether I ought to think more highly of the house itself or of the neighbourhood surrounding it.”
“My brother Phillips will be gratified to hear himself so favourably connected with Netherfield,” Mrs. Bennet declared.
“He has conducted the business with great exactness,” Mr. Darcy observed quietly.
Mr. Bennet meanwhile seated himself with an air of settled satisfaction.
“I daresay, my dear, Mr. Bingley has now committed himself too thoroughly to escape us,” he said. “The contracts are signed, the keys delivered, and Netherfield surrendered entirely into his possession.”
“At least for the present,” Bingley replied with cheerful good humour. “Though I confess the place already pleases me enough to make longer residence exceedingly probable.”
Mrs. Bennet’s delight at this declaration became so visible that even Kitty began smiling toward Jane with undisguised triumph.
“There remain only a few small improvements,” Mr. Bennet continued. “Some repairs in the eastern wing, a little new furnishing, and the ordinary confusion inseparable from a gentleman establishing himself in a previously neglected house.”
“Precisely the sort of confusion I am least qualified to govern,” Bingley admitted laughing. “I already begin to suspect that taking possession of an estate is considerably easier than managing one properly afterward.”
“In that case,” Mr. Bennet returned, “you must permit Hertfordshire to assist you. My advice would be to remain in Meryton another fortnight before withdrawing entirely to Netherfield, and I shall undertake to help you procure respectable workmen, suitable servants, and any local knowledge necessary to preserve you from nonsensical expenditures.”
“You are exceedingly obliging, sir,” Bingley said, smiling with sincere gratitude.
“The arrangement would also carry another advantage,” Mr. Bennet continued. “A Meryton assembly is expected about the middle of October. No gentleman newly arrived in the county can pretend to understand Hertfordshire society until he has survived at least one public ball within it.”
“Then I should be sorry indeed to remain ignorant of the county. Will you join me, Darcy?”
His friend nodded in agreement, partially surprised by such a proposal.
Mrs. Bennet could scarcely contain her satisfaction.
“A ball at Meryton is always vastly pleasant,” she declared. “And I am persuaded the neighbourhood will receive Mr. Bingley with the greatest enthusiasm.”
“To which,” Mr. Bennet observed dryly, “Mr. Bingley will no doubt endeavour to survive with becoming fortitude.”
The approach of dinner soon interrupted further discussion; yet before the party moved toward the dining-room, Elizabeth could not help observing once more the easy direction in which Bingley’s attention continually returned toward Jane, nor the quieter but no less deliberate manner in which Darcy seemed conscious of nearly everything she herself either said or avoided saying.
She smiled again, feeling a sudden playful spark of her old courage return as she looked up at him.
***
Dinner at Longbourn possessed little of the stately regulation to which either Mr. Darcy or Mr. Bingley had lately been accustomed at Pemberley, London or Rosings; yet what it lacked in grandeur it compensated for in warmth, movement, and a species of domestic ease which imposed itself almost immediately upon every member of the party.
Mrs. Bennet, once the first anxieties of reception had subsided into the more manageable triumph of successful hospitality, presided over the table with increasing satisfaction. The servants, stimulated equally by Hill’s vigilance and their mistress’s excitement, moved with unusual rapidity; Lydia spoke whenever silence threatened to establish itself too firmly; Kitty alternated between laughter and attempts at elegance; Mary endeavoured periodically to improve the conversation; while Mr. Bennet observed the whole with the composed amusement of a man who considered family disorder among the most reliable forms of entertainment.
Mr. Bingley accommodated himself to the scene with such unaffected readiness that within half an hour he appeared less a visitor than a cheerful acquaintance already half domesticated by Longbourn. Whatever Jane said seemed immediately worthy of his attention; whatever she admired acquired, for the moment, additional merit in his eyes; and when she spoke, even briefly, he listened with a degree of earnest pleasure too natural to appear intentionally flattering.
“You have been fortunate in the day for your first inspection of Netherfield, Mr. Bingley,” Jane observed during the first course. “The grounds are always at their best when the weather remains mild so late in the season.”
“I thought them beautiful, Miss Bennet,” Bingley replied readily. “Though I confess I scarcely know whether the house itself or the surrounding country pleased me more.”
“The country improves upon acquaintance,” Mr. Bennet observed. “At first sight Hertfordshire appears merely agreeable. We reserve our real advantages for those willing to remain at least a fortnight.”
