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Longbourn village was where the Bennet family lived. It was some miles away from Meryton, the closest town the village could lay claim to but easily covered by horse or chaise.
Mr. Bennet, the father to all five girls- Jane, the oldest and most beautiful; Elizabeth, the wittiest and her father's favourite; Mary who was more concerned about books and music than about any other thing else; Kitty and Lydia, who were still so young as to care for any other thing but inspiring the attention of men. He was also the husband to Mrs. Bennet who he found after the effects of love had worn off to be something of a loudmouth with little understanding, and little ambition in life. The centre of her existence was her daughters and her principal affair was to see them married and married well.
The Bennets ladies came upon their father still up when they arrived home at Longbourn. It was nigh midnight but the man was still ensconced in a book as they made their way into the house. Expecting to be fed with the happenings at the assembly, he watched his family enter the house with great sense of forbearance for he was a man who sought not to be disturbed with the trivialities of the world. Alas, fate had decreed him a noisy wife and five daughters such that he was constantly plagued by that which he disliked the most.
On the occasion of this assembly and any for that matter, he took it upon himself to see to it that they arrived home safely before he turned in for the night. Sometimes, he wished that he wouldn't as he viewed the look of excitement upon the face of his wife, most especially.
In resignation at his fate, he set aside his book and looked upon them as they made a beeline for him.
"Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet," Mrs. Bennet addressed him as soon as she entered the room; "We have had a most delightful evening, a most excellent ball. I wish you had been there."
With that introduction, she proceeded to fill his ears with the events of the evening, barely taking a breath to fill her lungs with air. "Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with her twice! Only think of that, my dear; he actually danced with her twice! And she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time. First of all, he asked Miss Lucas. I was so vexed to see him stand up with her! But, however, he did not admire her at all; indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the dance. So he inquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next. Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger—"
Mr. Bennet hadn't attended the assembly for a purpose and he was in no mood to be apprised of all the dances as if he had been there.
"If he had had any compassion for me," cried her husband impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much! For God's sake, say no more of his partners. O that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!"
Mrs. Bennet was only just starting and she had plenty other things to say outside the confines of the dances of the man, Mr. Bingley and his admiration for her daughter. "Oh! My dear, I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! And his sisters are charming women. I never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses. I daresay the lace upon Mrs. Hurst's gown..."
Mr. Bennet heaved a great sigh. He was afraid that his wife would begin to sing a poem in dedication to Mrs. Hurst's dress if he did not interrupt her. This time however, he needed to be more firm in his protest. "Pray my dear woman, I am in no mood to listen to the description of finery or the people who wore them for that matter," he said with candour. "If there is naught to say about the assembly anymore, I would bid us all go to bed."
There was no liking for this short interruption of his in Mrs. Bennet. Her excited babble died a painful death but regrettably, she was no woman to give up; especially not in the event of such barefaced rebuttal. Her next obligation was to therefore speak about the most despicable of the Bingley party with exaggerated contempt which stemmed from bitterness at being cut short in her relation of the night's event.
"I do not know what that man, Mr. Darcy thinks of himself certainly!" she began.
Mr. Bennet's ears perked at this as he was well acquainted with his wife's ways. Whenever she found something wrong with a human, then it was most likely that the person under her dislike was an upright individual who would not take to her silly whims.
"Why, Lizzy heard him insult her person even though he knew that she was certainly within hearing distance of him!" continued his wife. "Lizzy, tell your dear father what you told us all that the dreadful Mr. Darcy said at the ball."
The girls had been seated huddled up together on the longest sofa in the living room and listening to the recount of the evening by their mother. In the process, they had gotten around to removing their mittens, socks and hats. All of which now either rested at their feet or on their bodies.
"Yes mother," Lizzy piped up, mischief in her very eyes. "You see, I deem the man the silliest of all men I have ever encountered- though the conversation I heard from could barely count as an encounter, I suppose. Mr. Bingley, the kind man took it upon himself to cheer his friend into a dance with me and I heard it all from where I sat. However, Mr. Darcy remarked rather unkindly that he could not be bothered by a slighted woman such as me who couldn't garner a dancing partner for herself."
If the incident hadn't been told from Lizzy's own mouth, Mr. Bennet was prone to discard the revelation as irrelevant as soon as it was told. However, he found that he agreed with Mrs. Bennet in her estimation of the man's character; how can there be a man who would not want to avail himself of Elizabeth's person?
"I do not know how you can recount the conversation with such calm," Lydia spoke up in an affronted manner, "Were it myself in those shoes, I would have walked up to him to demand an apology for the slight!"
Kitty was nodding in agreement with her twin along with Mrs. Bennet; Jane was looking concerned that the entire Bingley party would be declared unfit for future acquaintances while Mary appeared bored with them all.
"And a pity it really is that you weren't the one in such situation?" Mr. Bennet declared most sarcastically. It was common enough knowledge that the girl was the most like her mother and with a penchant to allow herself to be carried away by slights and irrelevances.
"I was in no way offended at his remark- and why should I?" Elizabeth announced with a dainty shrug. "The man barely knows of me as I, him. I have no contribution or care towards whatever opinion he forms of me; a reason I find him most ridiculous and unmanly. Such can only provoke mirth in me and nothing else."
It was speeches such as this from Elizabeth that duly compensated for being saddled with the responsibility of housing five girls along with his wife, Mr. Bennet thought proudly. He decided that the man Mr. Darcy could truly be unworthy of his ever so clever daughter.
"But I can assure you," Mrs. Bennet resumed, "that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man."
Since Mr. Bennet quite agreed with his wife's view and didn't want to tell her that he did, he kept his silence until the ladies decided that there was nothing left to say of the evening they just had. They each began to rise and seek their beds as did he and Mrs. Bennet when all was finally quiet.
Mr. Bennet hoped to sleep till noon; just enough and above to prepare him for another day with his family. He had no doubts that he had not heard the last of the Bingley-Darcy episode.