Page 26 of Mr Darcy’s Quizzing Glass

She paused, and her expression shifted from perplexed to expectant. “I often walk to the small park around the corner from my aunt’s home. It provides me some feeling of the country but is close enough to Gracechurch Street that I may walk without a maid.”

They agreed to meet there at one o’clock the following day, and before Darcy could assure himself that all was well, thanks and goodbyes were exchanged, and he and his sister were alone at the window, watching the Gardiners’ carriage drive away.

Elizabeth slept poorly, her rest troubled by disturbing thoughts of the quizzing glass and the man who carried it. Then, after a morning spent masking her unease, she was frustratingly late for her appointment with Mr Darcy. Punctuality was something she valued; Mr Bingley’s untimely arrival at her aunt’s home and his happy volubility had delayed her, and her hurried walk to the park did little to alleviate her anxiety. Expecting that Mr Darcy was likely early, impatiently tapping his foot as he waited for her, she was not surprised to find him a few feet away, under an ancient oak, watching her as she stepped past the gate into the park. She met his small smile with a nod.

“Miss Elizabeth.”

“Mr Darcy.”

Giving her a searching look, he asked, “You are well?”

After explaining her delay was due to his friend’s arrival at Gracechurch Street, Elizabeth spoke with anxious energy as they began walking along the footpath.

“My aunt expects me to return within the hour, so if we might discuss the issue at hand.” If she spoke with more urgency than cordiality, she could not help it. “Your quizzing glass. I was neither drunk nor faint in the head when I peered through it, and it was—” Her eyes closed briefly as the disquieting feelings which had overcome her the previous evening returned. “Mysterious. It has frightening powers.”

“I am sorry for alarming you,” Mr Darcy replied quickly. “I, too, was made uneasy when I first peered through the glass. Despite having possessed it for some five years, I do not understand how it is that the glass sharpens my perception into a person’s fundamental nature. It is a sense, an insight—” He stopped and turned to her. “Forgive me, due to its um, unique abilities, I have never explained it to anyone.”

Of course he had not. Who would believe it?

“If it does as you say, it is akin to dark magic, seeing the worth of others.” Elizabeth struggled to comprehend what he was saying, even as she knew what she had sensed through the glass.

“Not their worth, their character.”

“Their character,” she repeated doubtfully. “With one peek, you understand their essential nature?”

“Each of us shows a face to the world, in good moments and bad, but our essential character is what the glass allows me to see, to protect myself and others.”

“It can be used ill.”

“I would never use it for nefarious purposes.”

She could not like that he sounded affronted—the man had relied on it for years, apparently, to ascertain the character of everyone he met. “I would not presume so, but I fail to understand why you, a gentleman esteemed by society, would carry such a device. Why do you have it?”

He lifted his hand, tugging at his hat, securing it, as a strong breeze blew past, before glancing down at her. “It was my father’s. I discovered it in his study after he died five years ago. It belonged to his father and grandfather before him,” he said quietly, and, she thought, reluctantly. “Although neither my housekeeper nor my steward is aware of its powers, each attest that my father at times relied on it to help manage his properties and fortune.”

“Relied on it to manage others, to judge them as you did last evening, with that man whom Mr Bingley tried to introduce?” Once again, the murky vision swam in her thoughts. “Does it affect those you gaze on with it?”

“Good god, no.” Mr Darcy spoke quickly, as if the speed of his reassurances would overcome the truth of his reliance on what seemed dark enchantment. “The quizzing glass, as you saw last evening, gives a sense of whether the character of a person is to be trusted.”

“And Mr⁠—?”

“Tremblay. Truly, I am sorry you had to see it. When Bingley said the name, I had a vague memory that he was attached to a fraudulent scheme some years prior and felt compelled to use the glass to confirm my recollections and protect Bingley’s interests.”

It was an admirable use of the quizzing glass, but Elizabeth was plagued by the question of fairness. “The gentleman was proved dishonest as a businessman, but what of him as a husband? A father? Did your glass discern the entirety of his character before you passed judgment and advised Mr Bingley?”

Mr Darcy looked at her sharply before turning his head from side to side as if ensuring they would not be overheard. Only an elderly man was within sight, distractedly scolding his dog to cease chasing a duck.

“I do not know the face he shows to his wife or children. The glass provides the understanding I require to protect myself and my interests. I am constantly besieged by those wishing to make my acquaintance, be it to dance with their daughters or to invest my fortune.”

Tucking away her incredulity as best she could, Elizabeth flashed a tight smile before turning towards him. “You allow, nay require, a magical quizzing glass to determine your way through life and avoid the tedium of making new acquaintances?”

He shrugged. “I am not intent on making friends everywhere I go, neither are many of those interested in me beyond whatever benefit I can bring them.”

Such as Miss Bingley! Does he tolerate her company because her covetousness is so openly read? Elizabeth could not understand the gentleman at all. Lauded by his friends at Netherfield, but such a sad, terrible life he must lead elsewhere! Although gentling her tone, she could not but admonish him.

“What genuine hand of friendship can be offered to a man who wields a charmed bauble and disregards those who do not meet his standards of behaviour and goodness?”

Mr Darcy stopped, then strode a few paces ahead before spinning round to face her. “Have you never seen a fault in anybody? Are all the world good and agreeable in your eyes?”