Chapter 44

Elizabeth had decided that Mr. Darcy would bring his sister to visit on the very day after Miss Darcy reached Pemberley. So she made up her mind to stay near the inn all that morning. But her guess was wrong. The visitors came on the morning right after the party arrived at Lambton. The Gardiners had just returned to the inn after walking about the town with a few new acquaintances. They were to dine with those people that evening, and they were about to change their clothes. Just then the sound of a carriage was heard. She went to the window and saw a gentleman and a lady coming up the street in a light two-wheeled carriage. Elizabeth knew the carriage and the horses' harness at once. She guessed too what it meant. She told her relatives what honor they might expect, and the two of them were much surprised. Her uncle and aunt were almost astonished. The confusion Elizabeth showed while she spoke, the visit itself, and many things from the day before put a new thought into their minds. Nothing before had ever given them reason for such a thought. But now there was no way to explain this unexpected attention except by supposing that Darcy cared for their niece. While these thoughts passed through the minds of her uncle and aunt, Elizabeth's own mind grew more troubled by the moment. She was surprised at herself for losing her calm so completely. One cause of her uneasiness was the fear that Miss Darcy's brother had praised her too warmly. She wished to make a better impression than usual. And so it seemed that all her power to please had left her.

Elizabeth drew back from the window, afraid of being seen there. She walked up and down the room to calm herself. But her uncle and aunt looked at her with surprise and curiosity, and that made everything harder.

Miss Darcy and her brother came in, and the dreaded introduction was made. Elizabeth was surprised to find that her new acquaintance was at least as embarrassed as she was herself. Since coming to Lambton she had heard that Miss Darcy was extremely proud. But a few minutes of watching convinced her that the girl was only extremely shy. It was hard to get a word from her longer than one syllable.

Miss Darcy was tall, and of a larger build than Elizabeth. Though she was little more than sixteen, her figure was fully formed, and her look was mature and graceful. She was not as handsome as her brother. But her face showed good sense and a kind nature, and her manners were perfectly modest and gentle. Elizabeth had expected to meet someone as sharp and as unembarrassed as Mr. Darcy himself. So she was greatly relieved to find a young lady with a very different mind.

They had not been together long when Darcy said that Bingley was coming to visit her too. Elizabeth had barely time to show her pleasure and to prepare herself for that guest. Then Bingley's quick steps were heard on the stairs, and in a moment he entered the room. All Elizabeth's anger at him had disappeared long before. Even if any had been left, it could not have survived the plain and warm delight he showed at meeting her again. He asked after her family in a friendly but general way. He looked and spoke with the same easy good nature as always.

To the Gardiners he was as interesting a person as he was to Elizabeth. They had wished to see him for a long time. In truth, the whole party before them raised a lively interest. Because of the suspicion they had just formed about Mr. Darcy and their niece, they watched the two of them earnestly and carefully. Before long they were sure that at least one of the two knew what love was. About the lady's feelings some doubt remained. But that the gentleman was full of admiration was very plain.

Elizabeth had much to do as well. She wanted to know the feelings of each of her visitors. She wanted to calm her own mind, and she wanted to please everybody. She feared failing most in the last of these. But there she was most likely to succeed. This was because the people she wished to please had already decided to think well of her. Bingley was ready, Georgiana was eager, and Darcy was determined to like her.

The sight of Bingley turned her thoughts to her sister at once. Oh, how she longed to know whether his thoughts had turned the same way! Now and then he seemed to speak less than he had before. Once or twice she was pleased to think that he looked at her as if he were searching for a likeness to Jane. It might have been her imagination. But there was no mistaking his manner toward Miss Darcy, who had been named as Jane's rival. No special affection appeared in the looks of either of them. Nothing passed between the two of them that would support the hopes his sister had held. On this point her mind was soon at ease. Two or three small things before the visitors left also showed, to her anxious reading of them, a tender memory of Jane. He seemed to wish to speak her name, if only he had dared. While the others were talking together, Bingley spoke, and there was a real note of regret in his voice. "It is a very long time since I saw Miss Bennet." Elizabeth had not yet answered when he went on. "It is more than eight months. We have not met since the twenty-sixth of November, when we all danced together at Netherfield."

Elizabeth was pleased that his memory was so exact. Later, when no one else was listening, he asked whether all her sisters were at Longbourn. There was not much meaning to be read in the question itself, or in what he had said before. But his look and his manner gave the words meaning.

She had few chances to watch Mr. Darcy himself. But whenever she did look at him, she saw a face that wished to please everyone. In everything he said there was a tone very far from any pride or contempt toward the people around him. Even if the change she had seen the day before lasted only a short while, she felt sure that it had lasted at least one day. He was now seeking the acquaintance of people whom, a few months earlier, he would have thought it a disgrace to know. She saw him trying to make a good impression on them as well. He was kind not only to her, but to the very relations he had openly looked down upon. Elizabeth remembered their last violent scene at the parsonage in Hunsford. The difference and the change were so great, and they touched her so deeply, that she had to work to hide her astonished look. Even among his dear friends at Netherfield and his high relations at Rosings, she had never seen him try so hard to please. And here he was trying before people whose good opinion could bring him no importance at all, people whose acquaintance alone would earn him the mockery and blame of the ladies of Netherfield and Rosings. He was laying aside his vanity and his stubborn coldness.

The visitors stayed more than half an hour. When they rose to go, Mr. Darcy told his sister to say that he wished to have Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner and Miss Bennet to dinner at Pemberley before they left the country. Miss Darcy was shy, as though she was not used to inviting guests. Still, she obeyed him willingly. Mrs. Gardiner looked at her niece, wishing to know whether the one most concerned in the invitation wished to accept it. But Elizabeth had turned her head away. Mrs. Gardiner guessed that this was not dislike of the plan, but only a moment of confusion. Seeing that her husband, who was fond of company, accepted it gladly, she promised to come as well. The day was fixed for two days later.

Bingley said he was glad to be certain of meeting Elizabeth again. He had a great deal still to say to her, and a great many questions to ask about all their friends in Hertfordshire. Elizabeth took all of this to mean that he wished to hear about her sister, and she was pleased. For this reason, and for several others, she was able to look back on the last half hour with some satisfaction once the visitors were gone. While that half hour was passing, she had hardly enjoyed it at all. She wanted to be alone. She was afraid of the questions or the hints of her uncle and aunt. So she stayed with them only long enough to hear them speak well of Bingley, and then she hurried away to dress.

But she had no need to fear the curiosity of the Gardiners. They had no wish to force her to speak. It was plain that she knew Mr. Darcy far better than they had supposed. It was plain too that he was deeply in love with her. There was much to interest them, but nothing they could properly ask about.

Now the question of whether they could think well of Mr. Darcy became an anxious one for them. As far as their own knowledge went, they could find no fault in him. They could not help being touched by his politeness. Suppose they had drawn his character only from their own feelings and from what the servant said, and had left out every other account. The people who had known Darcy in Hertfordshire would not have recognized that picture as a picture of him. But now they had reason to wish to believe the housekeeper. They soon saw as well that they must not lightly dismiss the word of a servant who had known him since he was four years old, and whose own manner was respectable. Nothing they had heard from their friends at Lambton took much weight from that word. The only thing charged against him was pride. He was probably proud indeed. And if he was not, the people of a small market town that his family did not visit would certainly have given him the name of a proud man. But everyone agreed that he was a generous man who did much good for the poor.

As for Wickham, the travelers soon learned that he was not thought highly of in this place. The main facts of his business with his patron's son were not properly known. But it was widely known that he had left many debts behind him when he left Derbyshire, and that Mr. Darcy had paid them afterwards.

That evening Elizabeth's thoughts stayed at Pemberley even more than they had the day before. The evening felt long. But it was not long enough for her to settle her own feelings toward one person in that house. She lay awake two whole hours trying to make them out. Certainly she did not hate him any more. It was so. Hatred had gone long ago. And almost as long ago she had begun to be ashamed that she had ever disliked him enough to call it hatred. Her respect had come from her belief in his good qualities, and at first she had granted it unwillingly. But for a long time now it had not gone against her feelings at all. What she had heard the day before, which showed him as a very kind man and spoke so well of him, had grown that respect into a warmer feeling. But above respect and good will there was a feeling in her heart she could not turn away from. It was gratitude. Gratitude that he had once loved her, and that some of that love still remained. Gratitude that he had forgiven the sharp and bitter manner in which she had refused him, and all the unjust blame she had thrown in with that refusal. She had been certain that he would avoid meeting her as he would avoid his greatest enemy. Yet when chance brought them together, he seemed most anxious to keep up the acquaintance. When only the two of them were concerned, he made no rude show of affection and no strange display of manner. Even so, he wished to make a good impression on her friends. He had made up his mind to have her know his sister. Such a change in so proud a man raised not only surprise but gratitude. It could only be explained by a warm love. Because the change came from such a feeling, the impression it left was one she might encourage. She could not say exactly what it was, but it was not in the least unpleasant. She respected him, she thought highly of him, and she was grateful to him. She felt a true interest in his happiness too. There was only one thing she wanted to know now. How far did she wish that happiness to depend on herself? And how far would it help the happiness of them both if she used the power her imagination told her she still had, and made him propose to her again?

That evening the aunt and the niece agreed together. It had been a great kindness in Miss Darcy to come to them on the very day she reached Pemberley. They could not repay it in the same measure, but they ought to try to show some politeness on their side. Miss Darcy had reached the house only in time for a late breakfast. So they decided that it would be very proper to call at Pemberley the next morning. They would go, then. Elizabeth was glad. But when she asked herself why, she had very little to answer.

Mr. Gardiner left the two of them not long after breakfast. The fishing plan had been talked of again the day before, and he had firmly promised to meet some of the gentlemen at Pemberley by noon.