CHAPTER II.

After a week spent in professions of love and schemes of felicity, Mr.

Collins was called from his amiable Charlotte by the arrival of

Saturday. The pain of separation, however, might be alleviated on his

side, by preparations for the reception of his bride, as he had reason

to hope, that shortly after his next return into Hertfordshire, the day

would be fixed that was to make him the happiest of men. He took leave

of his relations at Longbourn with as much solemnity as before; wished

his fair cousins health and happiness again, and promised their father

another letter of thanks.

On the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of receiving her

brother and his wife, who came as usual to spend the Christmas at

Longbourn. Mr. Gardiner was a sensible, gentleman-like man, greatly

superior to his sister, as well by nature as education. The Netherfield

ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by

trade, and within view of his own warehouses, could have been so well

bred and agreeable. Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger than

Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips, was an amiable, intelligent, elegant

woman, and a great favourite with all her Longbourn nieces. Between the

two eldest and herself especially, there subsisted a very particular

regard. They had frequently been staying with her in town.

The first part of Mrs. Gardiner's business on her arrival, was to

distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions. When this was

done, she had a less active part to play. It became her turn to listen.

Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of. They

had all been very ill-used since she last saw her sister. Two of her

girls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothing

in it.

"I do not blame Jane," she continued, "for Jane would have got Mr.

Bingley, if she could. But, Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very hard to think

that she might have been Mr. Collins's wife by this time, had not it

been for her own perverseness. He made her an offer in this very room,

and she refused him. The consequence of it is, that Lady Lucas will have

a daughter married before I have, and that Longbourn estate is just as

much entailed as ever. The Lucases are very artful people indeed,

sister. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of

them, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted

so in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves

before anybody else. However, your coming just at this time is the

greatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us, of

long sleeves."

Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before, in

the course of Jane and Elizabeth's correspondence with her, made her

sister a slight answer, and in compassion to her nieces turned the

conversation.

When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more on the subject. "It

seems likely to have been a desirable match for Jane," said she. "I am

sorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man, such

as you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a pretty girl

for a few weeks, and when accident separates them, so easily forgets

her, that these sort of inconstancies are very frequent."

"An excellent consolation in its way," said Elizabeth, "but it will not

do for _us_. We do not suffer by _accident_. It does not often happen

that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of

independent fortune to think no more of a girl, whom he was violently in

love with only a few days before."

"But that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed, so

doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is as

often applied to feelings which arise from an half-hour's acquaintance,

as to a real, strong attachment. Pray, how _violent was_ Mr. Bingley's

love?"

"I never saw a more promising inclination. He was growing quite

inattentive to other people, and wholly engrossed by her. Every time

they met, it was more decided and remarkable. At his own ball he

offended two or three young ladies, by not asking them to dance, and I

spoke to him twice myself, without receiving an answer. Could there be

finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?"

"Oh, yes!--of that kind of love which I suppose him to have felt. Poor

Jane! I am sorry for her, because, with her disposition, she may not get

over it immediately. It had better have happened to _you_, Lizzy; you

would have laughed yourself out of it sooner. But do you think she

would be prevailed on to go back with us? Change of scene might be of

service--and perhaps a little relief from home, may be as useful as

anything."

Elizabeth was exceedingly pleased with this proposal, and felt persuaded

of her sister's ready acquiescence.

"I hope," added Mrs. Gardiner, "that no consideration with regard to

this young man will influence her. We live in so different a part of

town, all our connections are so different, and, as you well know, we go

out so little, that it is very improbable they should meet at all,

unless he really comes to see her."

"And _that_ is quite impossible; for he is now in the custody of his

friend, and Mr. Darcy would no more suffer him to call on Jane in such a

part of London! My dear aunt, how could you think of it? Mr. Darcy may

perhaps have _heard_ of such a place as Gracechurch Street, but he would

hardly think a month's ablution enough to cleanse him from its

impurities, were he once to enter it; and depend upon it, Mr. Bingley

never stirs without him."

"So much the better. I hope they will not meet at all. But does not Jane

correspond with the sister? _She_ will not be able to help calling."

"She will drop the acquaintance entirely."

But in spite of the certainty in which Elizabeth affected to place this

point, as well as the still more interesting one of Bingley's being

withheld from seeing Jane, she felt a solicitude on the subject which

convinced her, on examination, that she did not consider it entirely

hopeless. It was possible, and sometimes she thought it probable, that

his affection might be re-animated, and the influence of his friends

successfully combated by the more natural influence of Jane's

attractions.

Miss Bennet accepted her aunt's invitation with pleasure; and the

Bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the time, than as she

hoped that, by Caroline's not living in the same house with her brother,

she might occasionally spend a morning with her, without any danger of

seeing him.

The Gardiners staid a week at Longbourn; and what with the Philipses,

the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day without its

engagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainment

of her brother and sister, that they did not once sit down to a family

dinner. When the engagement was for home, some of the officers always

made part of it, of which officers Mr. Wickham was sure to be one; and

on these occasions, Mrs. Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth's

warm commendation of him, narrowly observed them both. Without supposing

them, from what she saw, to be very seriously in love, their preference

of each other was plain enough to make her a little uneasy; and she

resolved to speak to Elizabeth on the subject before she left

Hertfordshire, and represent to her the imprudence of encouraging such

an attachment.

To Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham had one means of affording pleasure,

unconnected with his general powers. About ten or a dozen years ago,

before her marriage, she had spent a considerable time in that very part

of Derbyshire, to which he belonged. They had, therefore, many

acquaintance in common; and, though Wickham had been little there since

the death of Darcy's father, five years before, it was yet in his power

to give her fresher intelligence of her former friends, than she had

been in the way of procuring.

Mrs. Gardiner had seen Pemberley, and known the late Mr. Darcy by

character perfectly well. Here consequently was an inexhaustible subject

of discourse. In comparing her recollection of Pemberley, with the

minute description which Wickham could give, and in bestowing her

tribute of praise on the character of its late possessor, she was

delighting both him and herself. On being made acquainted with the

present Mr. Darcy's treatment of him, she tried to remember something of

that gentleman's reputed disposition when quite a lad, which might agree

with it, and was confident at last, that she recollected having heard

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-natured

boy.