––––––––
The dinner came to be and Elizabeth had the fortune of gathering the attentions of Mr. Wickham to herself during a game of whist. Other men in the room, including of their uncle Mr. Philips, were at the card table while the ladies observed but the man did not play and as he sat by her, they engaged in conversation. Elizabeth was dwelling upon a manner best suited to approach the subject when the man broached it himself.
"Pray tell, if you don't mind me asking, how long have Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy been living in the country?" he suddenly asked though Elizabeth noted his hesitation in rendering voice to the question.
Elizabeth did not mind in the least.
"About a month," said she and added to encourage more talk on the subject; "He is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I understand."
"Yes, his estate there is a noble one; a clear ten thousand per annum. You could not have met with a person more capable of giving you certain information on that head than myself, for I have been connected with his family in a particular manner from my infancy."
Her surprise was evident and Mr. Wickham asserted his statement positively. She replied to his inquiry about her acquaintance with him that she thought "him very disagreeable."
"I have no right to give my opinion, as to his being agreeable or otherwise," Wickham supplied. "I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for me to be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish, and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else. Here you are in your own family."
Elizabeth encouraged him by affirming that Mr. Darcy was, indeed, not well liked by all in the country. They thus, both agreed that Mr. Darcy was ill tempered and disdainful of the common people. Elizabeth still longed to hear of the cause of the rift between the two men and she bid herself patience. After a while, Wickham asked if she knew the duration of stay of the man and she replied in the negative, asking if the intelligence affected Mr. Wickham's stay in one way or the other.
"Oh, no!" he cried. "It is not for me to be driven away by Mr. Darcy. If he wishes to avoid seeing me, he must go. We are not on friendly terms, and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I have no reason for avoiding him but what I might proclaim before the entire world, a sense of very great ill-usage, and most painful regrets at his being what he is. His father, Miss Bennet, the late Mr. Darcy, was one of the best men that ever breathed, and the truest friend I ever had; and I can never be in company with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections. His behaviour to myself has been scandalous; but I verily believe I could forgive him anything and everything, rather than his disappointing the hopes and disgracing the memory of his father."
At last, the subject of her fascination was introduced and she listened raptly though in a manner, she hoped that was not too obvious. Their conversation suffered some interruptions but she was sufficiently able to gather the intelligence she sought.
"The late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift. He was my godfather, and excessively attached to me. I cannot do justice to his kindness. He meant to provide for me amply, and thought he had done it; but when the living fell, it was given elsewhere."
"But how could that be? How could his will be disregarded? Why did you not seek legal redress?"
"There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law. A man of honour could not have doubted the intention, but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it, or to treat it as a merely conditional recommendation, and to assert that I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance, imprudence, in short anything or nothing. Certain it is, that the living became vacant two years ago, exactly as I was of an age to hold it, and that it was given to another man; and no less certain is it, that I cannot accuse myself of having really done anything to deserve to lose it. I have a warm, unguarded temper, and I may have spoken my opinion of him, and to him, too freely. I can recall nothing worse. But the fact is, that we are very different sort of men, and that he hates me."
Elizabeth expressed her sincere shock at the revelation. It was abominably beyond her expectations of the man; low as he was already in her opinions.
"I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this, though I have never liked him. I had not thought so very ill of him. I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as this."
She thus remembered his speech at Netherfield about his unforgiving temper and commented on it.
"Can such abominable pride as his have ever done him good?" she wondered out loud after she and Wickham had sufficiently abused Darcy, most deservingly of course.
"Yes. It has often led him to be liberal and generous, to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and to relieve the poor. Family pride, and filial pride—for he is very proud of what his father was—have done this. Not to appear to disgrace his family, to degenerate from the popular qualities, or lose the influence of the Pemberley House, is a powerful motive. He has also brotherly pride, which with some brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his sister, and you will hear him generally cried up as the most attentive and best of brothers."
The last, Elizabeth could attest to, owning to the manner in which he wrote his sister while she was at Netherfield. Her curiosity, thus for the moment, shifted to the sister, hoping for at least some sensibility therein.
"What sort of girl is Miss Darcy?" she asked.
Wickham did not answer positively: "I wish I could call her amiable. It gives me pain to speak ill of a Darcy. But she is too much like her brother- very, very proud. As a child, she was affectionate and pleasing, and extremely fond of me; and I have devoted hours and hours to her amusement. But she is nothing to me now. She is a handsome girl, about fifteen or sixteen, and, I understand, highly accomplished. Since her father's death, her home has been London, where a lady lives with her, and superintends her education."
"I am astonished at his intimacy with Mr. Bingley! How can Mr. Bingley, who seems good humour itself, and is, I really believe, truly amiable, be in friendship with such a man? How can they suit each other?" On this, she was truly baffled because she fancied that her high opinion of Mr. Bingley could not be wrong. "Do you know Mr. Bingley?" she asked Wickham.
Wickham answered that he did not and Elizabeth proceeded to apprise him of how charming Mr. Bingley was in comparison to his friend. She owned that "he cannot know what Mr. Darcy is."
To this, Wickham agreed, allowing that Darcy could be condescending without his pride to be affable with the rich who he thought was near his own station in life.
It was at that moment that the whist party broke up and their conversation came to a standstill, though Elizabeth allowed that she had gained the exact intelligence she sought- and more. She gave her attention to the players as they gathered round the other table and Mr. Collins took his station, happened to position himself beside Elizabeth on her right and next to Mrs. Phillips who inquired of his success at the table.
The question led her cousin into bemoaning his loss but he was quick to assure her that the loss was not thoroughly felt. "There are undoubtedly many who could not say the same, but thanks to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I am removed far beyond the necessity of regarding little matters," he consoled his hostess.
His mention of the lady aroused in Wickham a curious interest and he addressed his curiosity to Elizabeth in a whisper.
"Lady Catherine de Bourgh," she whispered back, "has very lately given him a living. I hardly know how Mr. Collins was first introduced to her notice, but he certainly has not known her long."
"You know of course, that Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy were sisters; consequently that she is aunt to the present Mr. Darcy."
Elizabeth answered that she did not- she knew nothing of the lady's existence till her cousin came to wait on them. She also thought it befitting that such a man should have such connections hence an inflation of his pride.
"Her daughter, Miss de Bourgh, will have a very large fortune, and it is believed that she and her cousin will unite the two estates," Wickham thought it important to inform her.
Immediately, Miss Bingley came to Elizabeth's mind and she thought with absolutely no small amount of pleasure how her efforts towards ensnaring Mr. Darcy was all for naught. After this came the thought to her mind to ask about the character of the lady.
"Mr. Collins speaks highly of both of Lady Catherine and her daughter; but from some particulars that he has related of her ladyship, I suspect his gratitude misleads him, and that in spite of her being his patroness, she is an arrogant, conceited woman."
It was exactly as she supposed. Wickham was quick to inform her that she was indeed right and affirmed that he never liked her none too much either.
The supper party was noisy and their conversation discontinued. However, Elizabeth had learnt enough about Mr. Darcy and his history to sufficiently fuel her dislike for the man. All she had learnt were the most detestable of all characters and those buttressed by his hasty judgement about her, she decided that there was nothing to like about him. In an instant, all traces of lingering warmth that she might have gathered about him during her stay at Netherfield dissipated and was replaced by a judgement in the like of which he pronounced upon her.
As the evening dragged to an end, Elizabeth watched George Wickham and couldn't help but notice his extremely good looks, polite manners, splendid carriage and that he was the most popular of the guests with the ladies. He was also popular with the men too and as she could tell, he was a jolly good fellow who attended to all. She fancied herself the most acquainted with his attentions and he even came to her when the party disbanded near midnight to say his goodbyes and hoped that he would meet them all- the Bennet ladies soon enough again.
And so it was that Miss Elizabeth Bennet left her aunt's house with the thoughts of two different men in her head. Of one, she thought most unfavourably and if she never saw him till she died, it was just as well. Of the other, however, she hoped for further acquaintance- she liked him immensely and thought about him most favourably.