Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 25
There was certainly at this moment, in Elizabeth’s mind, a more gentle sensation towards the original, than she had ever felt in the height of their acquaintance. The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs. Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—How much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow!—how much of good or evil must be done by him!
Mr. Darcy, with such a smile as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her.
MR. DARCY AND his sister, Georgiana, visited Elizabeth at the inn the very next day. Elizabeth was at first so discomposed by the sound of the curricle driving up the street that she began energetically scratching a table leg. But immediately recollecting herself, she arranged herself with her front paws neatly together and greeted their visitors with composure.
Mr. Darcy and his sister calling so promptly after Georgiana’s arrival at Pemberley, and Elizabeth’s initial discomfiture, gave rise in Mr. and Mrs. Gardiners’ minds to very new ideas. There was no other explanation for such attentions but that Mr. Darcy was attached to their niece.
Introductions were made. To Elizabeth’s surprise, Miss Darcy was not proud as she had heard, but merely shy, for she hid under the sofa almost immediately and peeked out only when she was sure that no one was looking. When her brother did finally coax her out, Elizabeth found her to be of a very sweet and gentle disposition.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Bingley entered the room. He appeared overjoyed at meeting Elizabeth again and scarcely seemed able to refrain from leaping straight up into the air. He asked eagerly after her family, and recalled with real regret how long it had been since he had procured the splendid ball at Netherfield, and watching him, Elizabeth fancied he was remembering the happy times he had spent rolling it around the room with Jane.
Miss Darcy peeked out only when she saw that no one was looking.
Mr. Darcy looked highly gratified while all this was going on, and Elizabeth was newly astonished by his chirrups and soft blinks in contrast to his haughty demeanor at Netherfield and Rosings. When Elizabeth accepted his sister’s invitation to dine at Pemberley, he actually rubbed up against a table leg, purring.
That night, Elizabeth paced around her bedroom trying to understand her feelings for Mr. Darcy. That, after she had rejected his proposal so disdainfully, he was now bent on making himself gracious and agreeable, must be attributed to love, ardent love! Every female cat in the kingdom was scratching at his door (with the exception of Anne de Bourgh, who would have scratched better than anyone if she had not been so sickly), and yet he was bent on pleasing her. These conjectures chased sleep—and a few frightened mice—entirely away.
He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and bent on making her known to his sister. Such a change in a man of so much pride, excited not only astonishment but gratitude—for to love, ardent love, it must be attributed; and as such its impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged, as by no means unpleasing, though it could not be exactly defined. She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing on the renewal of his addresses.
What do you mean, there’s no such book as Purr and Petulance? I heard it was a classic.
ELIZABETH AND HER aunt and uncle had formed a plan of calling on Miss Darcy the following morning. Upon scampering out of the carriage, Elizabeth could not help wondering how her appearance at Pemberley would be received by Caroline Bingley, whose dislike of her was surely founded on jealousy.
But even Elizabeth could not have anticipated the reaction of the female cats sitting in the saloon, with its magnificent views of woods and hills. Miss Darcy immediately disappeared behind a chair, while Caroline arched her back and actually spit at Elizabeth. With some prompting from Mrs. Annesley, the cat who Georgiana had lived with when in town, she ventured out and offered her guests wet and dry food in a gracious, though retiring, manner.
Caroline Bingley continued to glare at Elizabeth and hissed at her if she happened to draw too close. After Mr. Darcy joined them, she actually took a swipe at her rival by venturing a snide comment regarding Wickham’s militia leaving Meryton.
“That must have been a great loss to your family,” snarled Miss Bingley, hoping to discompose Elizabeth. The maneuver did not succeed, however, and Elizabeth’s composure in repelling the attack seemed to give Mr. Darcy fresh satisfaction, for he gazed at her deeply and blinked softly as if they were the only two cats in the room. This provoked Caroline sorely. As soon as the guests had departed, she began abusing Elizabeth behind her back.
Miss Bingley took a swipe at her rival.
“How thin and sickly Eliza Bennet looked this morning,” she said. “Her fur was all matted and did you see her paw pads when she leapt on the couch? So rough and coarse!”
“Not surprising,” commented Mr. Darcy, “considering she’s a great walker.”
“For my own part,” continued