Page 3 of Hard Home

"Hertfordshire," he said.

"Sir. It must be an error. The regiment is a warding regiment. There is no line in Hertfordshire — there has never been a line north of the Thames, the courts never—"

"Yes."

"Then why are we—"

"Because," said Captain Harding, folding the paper along its old creases with great care, "there has never been a line in Hertfordshire, and something in Hertfordshire has begun to require one."

He looked up. Whatever was in his face, Denny had not seen it at the ninth stake, nor in the brook, nor at any hour of eleven months.

"We are quartered at Meryton through the winter. It is a small town, and I am told it is a merry one, and the families thereabouts will be very glad of us." Harding put the orders in his coat. "They keep a great many balls, I understand. See that the men have decent coats. It will matter to them more than it ought."

Chapter Two

Netherfield Park was let at last, and Mrs. Bennet had the whole of it before her husband had finished his egg.

"My dear Mr. Bennet," said she, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

"But it is. Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

"Do not you want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.

"Youwant to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."

This was invitation enough.

"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week." She paused, and then delivered the material fact, which was not the fortune. "And his line isBingley. Of the Yorkshire Bingleys. Three generations landed, and Mrs. Long says the Accord is sound in him — sound and easy, she says, the sort that answers before it is asked."

"What is his name?"

"Bingley. Are you not attending?"

"Is he married or single?"

"Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year, and an Accord not thirty years old, and no sisters' claim upon it that anybody knows of. What a fine thing for our girls!"

"How so? How can it affect them?"

"My dear Mr. Bennet," replied his wife, "how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his braiding with one of them."

"Is that his design in settling here?"

"Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that hemaybraid with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes."

"I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better; for as you are as handsome as any of them, and your line ran as strong at your marriage as ever a Gardiner's did, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party."

"My dear, you flatter me. I certainlyhavehad my share of line, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown daughters she ought to give over thinking of her own."

"In such cases, a woman has not often much left to think of."

It was said lightly, as he said everything, and Mrs. Bennet did not hear it as it might have been heard, and Elizabeth, sitting in the window with a book she had stopped reading four minutes previously, did.

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