“Lizzy,” Mrs. Bennet began. “Mr. Darcy is not to be teased!”
“Whyever not?” Mr. Darcy found himself asking. “I find it everything delightful.”
“Then I shall be happy to supply a good deal more of it,” Elizabeth told him. “Honestly, though, Mr. Darcy, I rather think you owe us all an apology,” she went on.
“Lizzy!” Mrs. Bennet was horrified.
“No, truly; he came here under false pretenses; no one is to blame if he feels mistreated in any way.”
He assured her at once that he felt he had been very well treated, and had nothing to complain of. Then a thought occurred to him. “Is this more teasing?”
“It might be,” she admitted, her eyes twinkling.
Mr. Darcy thought he had never seen eyes truly twinkle until this moment.
“Is it true that Mr. Bingley arrives in just two days?” Jane changed the subject.
“It is, yes. He will be accompanied by his elder sister and her husband, the Hursts, as well as his younger sister, Miss Bingley.”
“What can you tell us about them?” Mrs. Bennet asked him.
He hesitated. What could he say that would be both polite and truthful?
Elizabeth seemed to hear his thoughts, for she said, “We would just as soon know the worst, Mr. Darcy. Knowledge is power, or so Francis Bacon tells us, but it is also protection.”
“Mr. Bingley is a very amiable gentleman of large fortune,” he began. “He is very sociable, which seems to lead him to fall into and out of love rather easily.”
“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Bennet said at once, her face falling.
“Mrs. Bennet, I fear that I have made him sound like a scoundrel just now, but truly he is not. He simply pays a young lady a good deal of attention until circumstances change and he is no longer in her circle. Rather than seek her out, he simply finds another young lady to attend. To the best of my knowledge, he has broken no hearts and no promises.”
“Then he is not a bad person,” Jane said.
“Not at all; I suspect you and he will enjoy one another’s company, Miss Bennet.”
“And what of the sisters?” Lydia demanded.
Mr. Darcy took a deep breath and expelled it rather more forcefully than he had intended.
“Oh, like that, is it?” Elizabeth chuckled.
She is so perceptive, Mr. Darcy thought, all but lost in admiration. He managed to say, “I fear it is. The youngest, Miss Bingley, is a most – well, a mostdecidedperson.”
“Decided? That is an unusual adjective to apply to a young lady,” Mary observed.
“But it is accurate. She has decided that she is a very important person; she has decided that the fact that her father was in trade is no reason she should not belong to the first circles; she has decided that her fashion sense is superior to anyone’s;she has decided that I am to be –“ Utterly shocked at what he had been about to reveal, he stopped himself before finishing the sentence. He was simply not himself in Miss Elizabeth’s presence.
“That you are to be her husband,” Elizabeth finished for him.
“I have spoken too hastily; I apologise for my bad manners.”
“No, no,” Elizabeth said. “We would find all this out soon enough on our own; it is better that we are forewarned and thus forearmed. And the older sister?”
“Mrs. Hurst follows and supports the younger sister in all ways.”
“Mr. Bingley makes no effort to control his youngest sister?” Mary asked.
“His efforts are generally unsuccessful,” Mr. Darcy said.
