Page 38 of Mr Darcy’s Quizzing Glass

“Miss Lydia is a child. The only criminal offence here was your goading her to steal the quizzing glass from me in hopes of lining your pockets by selling its jewels. The worth of the glass as a family heirloom and personal possession means nothing to you, nor does it shame you to persuade a young girl into abetting your scheme.”

Mr Darcy glanced at Mr Bennet and Mr Bingley, who now stood behind Mr Wickham. “Would that you sold the glass and used it to pay your debts to the merchants of Meryton and other villages, but there was no good intent in your actions or your accusations.”

“Hear, hear,” murmured the crowd.

Mr Wickham reared about, shouting, “Mr Bennet, take a look for yourself. There is something off about Darcy’s quizzing glass. Your own daughter⁠—”

“Lydia? She is a dear girl, but quite silly, and far too young and vulnerable to be in company with a man who put ideas of sorcery in her head.”

Taking no heart from the older man’s amused expression, he turned back to rage at Mr Darcy. “I know how you rely on it, how your expression changes when you peer through it at me and others. It is what Miss Lydia saw! You heard her words, saw her expression! Miss Elizabeth is lying⁠—”

Mr Bennet’s face darkened in fury, but it was Mr Darcy who stepped close to Mr Wickham, his hands fisted.

“How dare you slander Miss Elizabeth Bennet or her sister. You would be wise to refrain from speaking aloud their names or mine—or mentioning them in connexion with witchcraft, sorcery, or magic.”

Mr Wickham scowled. Elizabeth saw her father nod, his anger still evident. Mr Darcy glanced at her before addressing the gathered crowd.

“Like many gentlemen, including my father before me, I carry a quizzing glass. I have read books and papers by dimming candles for so long, I now rely on its lens to aid my vision. It allows me to read letters and maps more clearly, and sharpens my vision in dim light or at night. I am not afraid to be called a beau or a weak man who relies on assistance—rather, I am proud to be a man who is just and honourable.”

“As you are, Mr Darcy,” said Elizabeth, smiling at him. “As you are.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

After the excitement of seeing Mr Wickham hauled away from Longbourn, some time was spent in admiration of the quizzing glasses worn by Sir William and his son, the spectacles favoured by Mr Goulding and Mr Blake, and the lorgnettes carried, if rarely used, by various ladies in Meryton’s society.

Mr Bennet, the owner of a plain pair of spectacles he had required since before entering Oxford, was clearly amused by the preening and admiration displayed by his neighbours. He rolled his eyes more than once, and in the sardonic tone that Elizabeth knew he reserved for those who might understand he was mocking them, addressed Mr Darcy. “Sir, although your quizzing glass is quite impressive, I have yet to see you raise it to your eye. Is the impressive weight of so many jewels and ornaments a hindrance to its usefulness?”

“If jewels and ornaments were inconvenient, the Prince Regent would not wear them,” asserted Sir William to nods and gasps from his neighbours. His reddened nose showed he had indeed enjoyed Longbourn’s punch perhaps too much, else never would he have mentioned the Regent in the same breath as ‘inconvenient’.

Mr Darcy appeared somewhat surprised by both men’s comments, and turned to Mr Bennet. “I find the glass quite useful amongst certain company, sir, and it will not surprise you when I say country society differs from that of town. The people of Meryton are much like those with whom I converse every day in Lambton, the village near my estate in Derbyshire. Rather than ‘rustic’, as some have claimed,” he continued, smiling in Elizabeth’s direction as her eyes widened, “I find the manner here to be unassuming and more welcoming than the pretensions of the more elegant company of the ton, who often require deeper examination. Here, I have no need of it.”

If his speech had not won over the neighbours, the wide grin he gave to her father as he extended his hand certainly did. At least three ladies nearly swooned, Miss Bingley turned crimson, and Mrs Bennet fanned herself. Elizabeth was certain that was the moment she knew she was hopelessly in love with Mr Darcy.

Darcy took Elizabeth’s arm, drawing her away from the dwindling crowd and towards a quiet corner of Longbourn’s dining room. The shocked expression that had flashed across her face moments earlier, when he had meant to amuse her, had turned pensive, and he worried the evening’s events had overcome her.

“Are you well?”

“I am.”

“You looked at Wickham through the glass,” he said quietly.

Even in the room’s dim light, he could see her abashed expression; there was, after all, always a radiance around her. She laid her hand on his, which was still somehow resting on her arm. “There was no need, but I wished to see how a person whom I knew first-hand to be truly bad appeared. Mr Wickham has a frightening presence through the glass.”

Withdrawing her hand, she folded her arms and shook her head as if to chase away the vision before looking back at him and continuing. “Here, amongst my family and neighbours whom I have known all my life, I could not see anything but good. We all have our failings, our eccentricities, and I suppose even Mr Wickham has some virtue, however small, buried within the darkness pulsating around him.”

Darcy shrugged. “Perhaps. He played with my sister and once gave her a baby rabbit, though later I learnt he had ridden over the nest and left it an orphan.”

Elizabeth frowned. “Perhaps not, though there may be a glimmer of infrequent goodness⁠—”

“—occasioned by circumstance or a pretty face or a fat purse.” It was a cruel if truthful gibe, and Darcy was pleased to see her lips turn up in a smile.

She tapped his arm. “You, however, are golden. So says the glass, not only to my eyes, but to Lydia’s.”

“Then we know it must be true,” he said, biting back a grin and a thousand hopes.

“It is. I have been in company with you enough to understand your character, and peering through the glass merely confirmed your goodness and geniality and...”

Her shy expression set off a thrumming in his chest. “And?”