Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 17
“I may thank you, Eliza, for this piece of civility. Mr. Darcy would never have come so soon to wait upon me,” she said.
Mr. Darcy, however, was as grave and silent as ever. Probably, Elizabeth conjectured, he was recalling her muddy paws when she came to visit the ailing Jane at Netherfield or obsessing about her inferior pedigree.
Colonel Fitzwilliam entered into conversation directly with the readiness and ease of a well-bred man, and talked very pleasantly; but his cousin, after having addressed a slight observation on the house and garden to Mrs. Collins, sat for some time without speaking to any body. At length, however, his civility was so far awakened as to enquire of Elizabeth after the health of her family. She answered him in the usual way, and after a moment’s pause, added,
“My eldest sister has been in town these three months. Have you never happened to see her there?”
She was perfectly sensible that he never had; but she wished to see whether he would betray any consciousness of what had passed between the Bingleys and Jane; and she thought he looked a little confused as he answered that he had never been so fortunate as to meet Miss Bennet. The subject was pursued no farther, and the gentlemen soon afterwards went away.
COLONEL FITZWILLIAM MADE himself most agreeable to all the party at the parsonage, but it was a full week before they received another invitation from Lady Cat to visit Rosings. And then, when they arrived, she greeted them coolly and mainly purred to her two nephews. Colonel Fitzwilliam, however, engaged Elizabeth in chasing a piece of fluff under a chair and the two frolicked with such spirit and flow that Lady Cat insisted on joining them, nearly spoiling their sport.
After catnip tea, Colonel Fitzwilliam reminded Elizabeth of her promise to pounce on the piano, and though Elizabeth acquitted herself with both grace and animation, Lady Cat scolded her for not practicing more and meowed loudly all through Elizabeth’s performance.
“How well Anne would have performed,” she proclaimed, “if only she had the strength to jump on the keys. I, too, would have been a great proficient,” she added, “if I’d made the slightest effort.”
While Elizabeth was performing, Mr. Darcy walked magisterially up to the piano, where he could command a full view of Elizabeth who, however, refused to be intimidated. Instead, she playfully exposed Mr. Darcy’s true character to Colonel Fitzwilliam by relating how, at a country gathering in Hertfordshire, Darcy refused to chase a feather, though there were many cats willing to romp with him.
I didn’t make a fuss when they threw me out of their bedroom for a minor indiscretion.
“I have not the talent,” replied Mr. Darcy, in his defense, “which some cats possess of frolicking easily with those I have never encountered before. I cannot catch their easy playfulness or appear interested in their favorite brand of cat food, napping routines, or method of enslaving their owners.”
“I, too,” replied Elizabeth, “have often fallen short in my ambition to enslave my owners, but then I have always supposed it to be my fault because I didn’t make a huge fuss when they threw me out of their bedroom for a minor indiscretion.”
“We, neither of us,” said Mr. Darcy, gazing deeply into Elizabeth’s eyes, “perform well to strangers.”
“You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me? I will not be alarmed though your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.”
“I shall not say that you are mistaken,” he replied, “because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know, that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own.”
Elizabeth laughed heartily at this picture of herself, and said to Colonel Fitzwilliam, “Your cousin will give you a very pretty notion of me, and teach you not to believe a word I say. I am particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so well able to expose my real character, in a part of the world where I had hoped to pass myself off with some degree of credit.”
. . .
Here they were interrupted by Lady Catherine, who called out to know what they were talking of. Elizabeth immediately began playing again. Lady Catherine approached, and, after listening for a few minutes, said to Darcy,
“Miss Bennet would not play at all amiss, if she practiced more, and could have the advantage of a London master. She has a very good notion of fingering, though her taste is not equal to Anne’s. Anne would have been a delightful performer, had her health allowed her to learn.”
Anne would have been a delightful performer, had her health allowed her to learn.
ELIZABETH WAS CLEANING herself in solitude one morning when she was startled by the entrance of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy, likewise, seemed surprised at finding her alone. However, he promptly sat down and commenced washing his face.
After a little conversation and many long silences, Mr. Darcy commented that Mr. Collins appeared fortunate in his choice of a mate. Elizabeth agreed that, in general, Charlotte was a wise and sensible cat.
“And she is but fifty miles from her home,” observed Mr. Darcy. And then, moving closer to Elizabeth, he began to purr. “I think you would not want to be so close to Longbourn always?”
Elizabeth looked surprised. Mr. Darcy seemed to recollect himself and promptly sat down on a newspaper and stared steadfastly into a corner of the room until Charlotte and Maria appeared.
“What can be the meaning of this?” asked Charlotte, as