Page 14 of A Question of Character

Dinner was announced soon after, and Darcy offered his arm to Mrs. Gardiner while Mr. Gardiner escorted Georgiana. Elizabeth walked beside Mrs. Younge, who made one remark on the weather and another upon the inconvenience of London smoke before giving herself over to silence.

The dining room was smaller than Elizabeth had expected, or perhaps arranged to feel so. Candlelight warmed the table, silver gleamed among the glass and porcelain, and the meal proceeded with an elegance that never crossed into display. Soup was followed by fish, then roast fowl, lamb, vegetables, creams, and dishes Elizabeth could admire without knowing how they had been prepared.

Mr. Gardiner and Darcy soon fell into conversation concerning Derbyshire. Mrs. Gardiner asked after several Lambton families, and Georgiana, seated beside Elizabeth, gradually lost some of her timidity.

“My aunt tells me you play very well,” Elizabeth said, when there came a convenient opening.

Georgiana lowered her eyes to her plate. “I enjoy it very much.”

“That is not quite the same answer.”

“No,” Georgiana admitted, gaining courage enough to look up. “But it is safer.”

Elizabeth laughed. “I see we shall do very well together. I enjoy walking, which is also safer than claiming to walk beautifully.”

“You walk beautifully?” Darcy asked from across the table.

“I believe the claim was that I do not.”

“Ah. I stand corrected.”

Georgiana hid another smile behind her glass.

“Miss Bennet is an excellent walker,” Mrs. Gardiner said. “She considers three miles before breakfast a moderate beginning to the day.”

“That is a calumny,” Elizabeth protested. “I would never impose three miles upon anyone before breakfast unless the weather particularly recommended it.”

Darcy carved a piece of fowl with great attention. “And if the weather did recommend it?”

“Then any reasonable person would agree with me.”

“I have known very few reasonable persons so early in the day.”

“Perhaps Derbyshire has been unfortunate in its inhabitants.”

“My tenants would object to that.”

“Then I shall amend the statement. Perhaps Mr. Darcy has been unfortunate in his early-morning companions.”

Mr. Gardiner chuckled. “I have long suspected that Elizabeth would reform the habits of any household she entered.”

“Just the inferior habits, Uncle.”

“And who determines which habits are inferior?” Darcy asked.

Elizabeth accepted a dish from the footman before answering. “That is the difficulty. I have found people very reluctant to submit the question to my judgment.”

Mrs. Gardiner gave Darcy a look across the table, amused and faintly apologetic, but he did not appear in need of rescue. Indeed, he appeared to enjoy himself far more than a gentleman of such consequence had any obligation to do.

After the second course, the conversation moved to travel. Mr. Gardiner spoke of a journey he and his wife hoped one day to make into the North, perhaps to the Lakes if business and children permitted. Elizabeth declared herself shamefully eager to accompany them, and Georgiana asked what places she had already seen.

“Very few,” Elizabeth replied. “Hertfordshire, London, a little of Kent when visiting relations, and Bath many years ago, though I was too young to appreciate it properly. I have never seen the sea.”

“You have never seen the sea?” Georgiana’s astonishment overcame her reserve. “Oh, you must. It is quite different from any description.”

“I am prepared to believe every traveler has failed me, then.”

“Ramsgate is very pleasant,” Georgiana said. “At least, I thought it so when first we went.”