Page 57 of The Sole Love

“Well, my dear, you may change your mind after this. Mr Bingley has asked for your hand, and I have agreed. You shall marry the gentleman.”

Jane stared at him in disbelief. As she had grown into a young lady, she had understood that her parents would give their daughters the freedom to choose their husbands.

“No. You cannot do that!”

“Well, it seems I can. It is a father’s right to select his daughter’s husband.”

“That is not true,” Jane said again.

“For you, it is. As soon as I discuss the marriage settlement with Mr Bingley, you will be engaged and then married within the month.”

“No, I will not marry him. I would rather die.”

She was not playing any game; she was as honest as she had ever been. She simply did not want to marry Mr Bingley.

“I am sorry for you, but you have no choice.”

“I love David…” she whispered.

“Mr Haskett…”

“Yes, Mr Haskett.”

“But only a few months ago, you loved Mr Bingley. Am I right?” He did not wait for her answer. “You cried over him for six months and declared him to be the only man for you, the love of your life, and so on…”

Jane nodded, incapable of replying.

“And as soon as this Mr Haskett arrives, he becomes the love of your life. Jane, what is happening with you? I have never met anyone more truthful than you are, so how can you change gentlemen as if they were summer gowns?”

“Oh, Papa, please do not say that. It is not that I am inconstant. I simply decided to forget Mr Bingley and live again. It is what you told me so often…and I did.”

“But you cannot exchange one gentleman for another in a matter of days. Either you did not love Mr Bingley and suffered in vain for six months, or you did love Mr Bingley and this new feeling is only friendship, care…affection even, but not love. What is the truth?”

“I did love Mr Bingley,” Jane finally whispered. “But why cannot this new feeling also be love?”

“Because, my dear, I know it is not in your nature to be fickle. Listen to me, please. Your David is a special friend, but he is younger than you are, not yet one and twenty. At that age, a man is still very young. He has much to learn. But you do not have time to wait for that to happen. He would become a man during your marriage, perhaps hurting you along the way. He would still want a young man’s pursuits: shooting with his friends in the morning, returning after midnight from his club, spending days on end with little time for his wife.”

“And Mr Bingley, who listened to everybody around him, is he any better? Is he a man?”

“Yes, he made a mistake, but he has learned his lesson. He is a man, master of his own house. He has his own fortune, and he can build a wonderful life for a wife because that is what he dreams of doing. Not shooting parties, clubs, or other such entertainments. He has had all of that, and now he is ready to be a husband.”

“No! David…Mr Haskett is also rich.”

“No, my dear. His father is rich, and you would live in his father’s house…”

“I hate Mr Bingley,” Jane whispered. “He made me suffer.”

“Then punish him for it. But the fact that you suffered is the best proof of how deeply you loved him.”

“You cannot force me to marry him,” she finally said.

“No. But I can advise you to marry a man who loves you and who will be devoted to you and your children.”

“You cannot know that for certain.”

“I can. I am an old man with a lifetime of experience, and I believe you will be happy with this man, even if it seems now that you will not.”

“I do not love him.”