Elizabeth started up the stairs but was stopped by Mrs. Hill. “Your father wants you,” she said. Sighing, Elizabeth went back downstairs and knocked on the study door.
“Come in, Lizzy.”
“You asked to see me, Papa?”
“Lizzy, what was all that noise in the parlour earlier?”
“Oh! I wish you had been there to give her one of your set-downs, Papa, I truly do!”
“Give who a set-down?”
“Caroline Bingley!”
“I could hardly give a set-down to a lady, Lizzy,” Mr. Bennet said, reprovingly.
“You have not yet heard what she said. Let me see; she started by telling Jane that she could never have gotten over her cold at Longbourn, because the house is so small that the noise must be terrible.”
“She is not wrong there,” Mr. Bennet said, wryly.
“Then she went on to say that the furniture is out of fashion, the butler old, the exterior of the house ill-kept, and that the overall impression was one of chaos.”
“All true, you know, Lizzy.”
“That is not the point, is it?”
“No, of course not. And what did Jane’s beau, the estimable Mr. Bingley, do then?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Nothing? He allowed his sister to say all that?”
“He did.”
“And then?”
“Jane burst into tears and ran off, Mr. Darcy scolded Miss Bingley, and I ordered both Bingleys out of the house.”
“Did you, indeed!”
“Someone had to, you know, and Jane certainly could not.”
“Though your mother could have, I think.”
“She could not; she sat in silence. Perhaps she was in shock. Or perhaps she still has hopes of Mr. Bingley for Jane.”
Mr. Bennet shook his head. “I will never consent to such a match.” His voice was firm.
“Good; Jane deserves better.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam, for example?”
“He is a good man, Papa. He would take care of Jane. He is like the Knight in our story!” And she quoted, “A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man, That from the tyme that he first bigan, To ryden out, he loved chivalrye, Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye.”
“You remembered that whole thing? Very nice; but can he afford a wife? He is a Colonel; would Jane be willing to follow the drum?”
“I do not think that would be necessary. Mr. Darcy would gift him an estate so that he might resign his commission.”
“Gifthim an estate? How many estates does he have, for heaven’s sake?”
