Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 31
On the third morning after his arrival in Hertfordshire, Mr. Bingley arrived at Longbourn, bringing with him Mr. Darcy! Elizabeth was agitated, surprised, and gratified by Darcy accompanying his friend. Her fur fluffed up and her eyes brightened at the thought that he still loved her. But she would not be secure; Let me see how he behaves, thought she.
She sat intently chewing on a bit of lace and did not dare to lift her eyes at first. When she did, she thought he looked grave and serious—more like the cat she had first known in Hertfordshire than the unreserved creature who welcomed them so warmly to Pemberley.
Mrs. Bennet bragged of her youngest daughter’s match with Mr. Wickham.
“It is a delightful thing, to be sure,” said Mrs. Bennet, “to have a daughter well married. They are gone down to Newcastle, to a kennel quite northward, it seems, and there they are to stay—I do not know how long. A very fine kennel it is, too.” Mrs. Bennet fixed Mr. Darcy with an icy stare. “Thank Heaven! He has some friends, though perhaps not so many as he deserves,” she said.
Elizabeth, who knew this to be leveled at Mr. Darcy, was in such misery of shame that she chewed her lace even more energetically. Mr. Darcy, to whom all her family were indebted!
Mrs. Bennet meanwhile drooled all over Mr. Bingley.
“When you have killed all your own birds, Mr. Bingley,” she said, “I beg you will come here and kill as many as you please on Mr. Bennet’s manor.”
Before they went away, Mrs. Bennet secured both toms for an invitation to dinner. She had thought of asking them to dine that day but she did not think anything less than two whole fish would satisfy the appetite of such a stately cat as Mr. Darcy.
“Oh! my dear Lydia,” [Mrs. Bennet] cried, “when shall we meet again?”
“Oh, lord! I don’t know. Not these two or three years, perhaps.”
“Write to me very often, my dear.”
“As often as I can. But you know married women have never much time for writing. My sisters may write to me. They will have nothing else to do.”
I can’t believe my own daughter unfriended me.
Mr. Wickham’s adieus were much more affectionate than his wife’s. He smiled, looked handsome, and said many pretty things.
“He is as fine a fellow,” said Mr. Bennet, as soon as they were out of the house, “as ever I saw. He simpers, and smirks, and makes love to us all. I am prodigiously proud of him. I defy even Sir William Lucas himself, to produce a more valuable son-in-law.”
The loss of her daughter made Mrs. Bennet very dull for several days.
“I often think,” said she, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one’s friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”
“This is the consequence you see, Madam, of marrying a daughter,” said Elizabeth. “It must make you better satisfied that your other four are single.”
ELIZABETH DID NOT know how to interpret Mr. Darcy’s silence and reserve. And yet, though he had not spoken, he had taunted her with a toy mouse by batting it her way and then recovering it himself. Elizabeth could not fathom his feelings.
“Teasing, teasing cat! I will think no more about him!”
On Tuesday the two toms came to dinner at Longbourn. To her satisfaction, Elizabeth saw that Mr. Bingley seated himself by her sister Jane at dinner, as he used to. Mrs. Bennet, meanwhile, continued her uncivil behavior to Mr. Darcy who, though rather grave, devoured a whole fish and two partridges.
After dinner, everyone repaired to the drawing room where Mrs. Bennet pressed her guests to catch goldfish, chase string, or play with cards. Mr. Darcy was not inclined to join in the latter, even when Kitty batted the Ace of Spades right under his nose. Soon afterwards the guests departed.
Anticipating the renewal of Mr. Bingley’s addresses to Jane, Mrs. Bennet was in high spirits, while Jane endeavored to compose herself and persuade Lizzy that she was content to remain only his friend and companion.
Mr. Darcy was not inclined to join the game, even when Kitty batted the Ace of Spades right under his nose.
Darcy had walked away to another part of the room. She followed him with her eyes, envied everyone to whom he spoke, had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee; and then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
“A man who has once been refused! How could I ever be foolish enough to expect a renewal of his love? Is there one among the sex, who would not protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman? There is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings!”
A FEW DAYS after this, Mr. Darcy left for town and Mr. Bingley trotted over the fields to call on the Bennets again. In fact, he came so early that none of the Bennet cats were fully awake. He stayed until after supper and came again the next morning to kill birds with Mr. Bennet. The two toms set off together to hide and pounce in the shrubbery, and had a fine sport of it. After this, Jane did not try to persuade Elizabeth that she and Mr. Bingley were merely friendly acquaintances.
The next evening after dinner, Elizabeth accidentally interrupted her sister and Mr. Bingley murmuring together near the hearth. Mr. Bingley quickly darted off towards Mr. Bennet’s library. Purring ecstatically, Jane then confided her overflowing happiness and delight to Elizabeth: She and Mr. Bingley were to be united! They would not hide in London or run off to Gretna Green, but would form a union all their family could rejoice in and settle together at Netherfield.
Jane scampered away to tell her mother the good news. Elizabeth, left to herself, reflected that after all the Bingley sisters’