Old Friends and New Fancies (2 page)

LADY CATHERINE DE BOURGH, with her daughter and Mrs. Jenkinson, had been established in her favourite lodgings in Pulteney Street since the middle of March. It had been her custom of late years to spend six or seven weeks in Bath every spring. She had considered it to be good for her daughter's health; she also considered that her own constitution and spirits benefited greatly by this yearly change of social environment. The Rosings' card-parties lacked variety. Mr. and Mrs. Collins remained admirable listeners, but their conversation, like their civilities, occasionally wore a little thin. Lady Catherine, would she but have admitted it, thought that Mr. Collins was too much interested in his own asparagus-beds and too little in her peachhouses; and the ailments of the children kept Mrs. Collins at home on several evenings when it would have been convenient to the hostess at Rosings to make up a quadrille-table. Obviously the most suitable spot in which Lady Catherine and her daughter could have sought change of air would have been the residence of her nephew; but Darcy and Elizabeth had very early in their married life made it clear that they did not intend their house to be turned into a hydropathic establishment for their ailing relatives, and that they would entertain their visitors at such times and for as long as they chose; consequently Lady Catherine had been reduced to the expedient of going to Bath in the season, and to Pemberley when she was asked. She, however, reserved to herself the right of insisting that her relatives should visit her at Bath, and Darcy, who wished to give no occasion of offence to his mother's only sister, was in the habit of taking his wife and sister down there every spring for a short stay at one of the hotels, thus forming among themselves a pleasant and independent little party, which was usually joined by Colonel Fitzwilliam. This year Lady Catherine, having been there for some weeks previously, had been collecting round her a circle of acquaintances, some more and some less likely to be congenial to the relatives whose visit was pending.

"Elizabeth," said Mr. Darcy to his wife, as they stood together in Lady Catherine's drawing-room at a large reception which she was giving in their honour, two days after their arrival, "I think I see General Tilney over there; and, unless my memory is failing me, surely this is his daughter coming towards us, whom we made friends with last year."

"Why, so it is; what a delightful surprise!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "Dear Lady Portinscale, how glad I am to see you again! Do not say you have forgotten me, or I shall find it hard to forgive you!"

"No, indeed, Mrs. Darcy, I was coming to introduce myself, in fear that you might have forgotten me. How do you do, Mr. Darcy? Lady Catherine told me that she was expecting the whole party from Pemberley this week."

"Yes, we have come to put in our period of attendance, as you see," said Elizabeth, "but I never dreamed of anything so pleasant as meeting you again, after what you said last year."

"The truth is that my father has not been at all well, and as he felt himself obliged to come here for a short time, he begged us to join him for two or three weeks."

Fitzwilliam."
"And are your brother and his pretty wife in Bath this
spring? I remember her so well."
"No, they are at home; but we have a brother of hers staying
with us--James Morland. He has a curacy in a very unhealthy
part of the Thames Valley, and he has been extremely ill with a
low fever, so we have brought him here for a fortnight in the
hope that it will do him good."
"How very kind of you to take care of him! He is fortunate
to have such friends."
"Oh, no, it is a very small thing; and he is such an excellent
young fellow--sensible and agreeable, and so hard-working! My
husband has the highest opinion of him; and were he less amiable, it would be a pleasure to be of service to anyone connected
with Catherine."
"You oblige me to repeat that anyone who has you for his or
her advocate is indeed fortunate, Lady Portinscale," answered
Elizabeth, smiling; "but now that you know your character, pray
perform the same kind office for some of the people here. They are nearly all strangers to me, and if my husband were not listening, I
should say that I wonder how my aunt manages to pick them up." "Lady Portinscale will soon gauge your character, Elizabeth,
if you make such terribly outspoken comments," said Darcy,
smiling. "You must not mind her, Lady Portinscale; my aunt's
presence has a demoralizing effect upon my wife. It is a very sad
thing, but I have often remarked it."
"Not her presence in the ordinary way," said Elizabeth; "but
to-day we have been through such a stormy scene together, that
I may be excused for feeling that my aunt and I must go diametrically opposite ways for the rest of our lives."
"Really?" said Eleanor Portinscale, with the faintest suspicion of laughter in her eyes. "Poor Lady Catherine! I recollect
last year that you and your sister-in-law were continually brewing some kind of rebellious mischief against her."
"That is just the cause of the trouble now," responded
Elizabeth. "My sister-in-law became engaged to Colonel
Fitzwilliam last November; but I saw that they were both so
extremely unhappy in their engagement that I was instrumental
in breaking it off, and this happened only last week; so that is
why Robert Fitzwilliam is looking ten years younger, Georgiana
is sheltering safely at home, and Lady Catherine is furiously
angry with everyone all round, especially with me." "I am sorry," said Lady Portinscale with gentle sympathy.
"These things cannot be done without regrets and heartburnings.
I hope it will mean real happiness for them both in the end." "One has to take that part of it on trust," was Elizabeth's
answer; "in the meantime it has upset my husband dreadfully,
and I am afraid he will never be quite reconciled to it until he sees Georgiana happily married to somebody who has at present
not appeared on the scene."
"I suppose she felt altogether disinclined for coming with
you to Bath, else she might have met friends here who would
have distracted her thoughts."
"Yes; but, of course, she would not come, and I could hardly
persuade her even to accept an invitation to go and stay with
my sister Jane for part of the time that we shall be away. We left
her in such terribly low spirits that it is really some consolation
to see Colonel Fitzwilliam looking as if a weight had been taken
off his mind. It would be a sad pity that we should all have got
into hot water with Lady Catherine and nobody be a penny the
better for it."
Lady Portinscale smiled. "He is a very handsome man, and
extraordinarily young-looking; he is nearly forty, is he not?" "Yes, one would not suspect him of it. There is Captain
Wentworth talking to him now; they seem to come here every
year. Mrs. Wentworth and Georgiana became rather friendly,
and they correspond. But those relatives of hers are impossible!
Why, what is going on? Lady Catherine seems to be carrying off
Colonel Fitzwilliam; poor man, he was in such a congenial
group! Whom can she be introducing him to? They are people I
never saw before."
"I do not know them myself, but I have several times seen them
with Lady Catherine," replied Lady Portinscale. "They are called
Ferrars; at least, one of them is Mrs. Ferrars, I am not sure which." The persons who had attracted Elizabeth's attention were
three in number; the two ladies somewhat resembled one
another, being rather thin, small in stature, and very elaborately dressed in the height of the fashion. One of them might have been considered pretty, but for her sharp, almost shrewish features, restless eyes, and the discontented, irritable lines which had formed themselves in her face. The other had these characteristics in a more marked degree, together with a general air of much less refinement and sense. It was not to be expected that Lucy and Anne Steele would have altered very greatly for the better since the empty-headed and overdressed fop who now accompanied them had exalted Lucy to the honour of becoming Mrs. Robert Ferrars. After four years of family quarrels with Mrs. Ferrars and Mrs. John Dashwood, of spending more than her husband's income, of scheming to obtain Anne a husband, of striving to push herself into fashionable society and to hold her own there; she found her only happiness in visits to gay watering-places, where she could pick up new acquaintances, and in their company forget for a time the incessant worries and vexations of her home-life. Anne spent the greater part of the year with her sister and brother-in-law, occasionally diversifying her programme by a visit from Mrs. Jennings, or to Elinor and Edward Ferrars, when out of kindness to Lucy they would consent to receive her for a time; but these visits of Anne's to the rectory at Delaford were a trial to all concerned; and since, on the death of Colonel Brandon, Edward had effected an exchange of livings with a clergyman in Derbyshire, Elinor ventured to hope that Anne would no longer find it a convenience to stay with persons who resided in such an out-of-the-way part of the country. For the present, both Lucy and Anne were quite satisfied with their surroundings. They had had the good fortune to become known to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and by the exercise of all the tact, flattery and obliging manners at their command, had rendered themselves indispensable at whatever entertainments she gave, large or small, and were being treated by her with such marked graciousness as to rouse their hopes of receiving an invitation to Rosings, a mansion of the glories of which they had heard much, as had all Lady Catherine's friends. The introduction, on this evening, to such a handsome, soldierly and aristocratic-looking man as Colonel Fitzwilliam was a piece of good luck which exceeded Anne's wildest dreams; and although, as soon as the proper civilities had been exchanged, he seized the first opportunity of returning to his men friends, Anne lost no time in confiding to Lucy her extreme satisfaction at the addi
tion of such a very smart beau to Lady Catherine's party. "Don't be a fool, Nancy," was Lucy's answer, in somewhat discouraging tones; "what's the good of expecting a man like that to
look at you? And, besides, isn't he engaged to Mr. Darcy's sister?" "No," Anne answered eagerly, "the engagement's broke off.
Miss de Bourgh told me so to-day. And fancy Lady Catherine
introducing him to us at once! She must want us to be all friends
together, mustn't she?"
"Well, it's likely you'll go and spoil it in some way; you never
caught the doctor, for all his attention," Lucy responded with
true sisterly candour, "and I expect we'll find we don't see much
of Colonel Fitzwilliam. He's staying at the hotel with the Darcys,
and from the look of Mrs. Darcy I don't know as she'll want to
do just what Lady Catherine tells her, all day long." "I shall go and sit by Miss de Bourgh," said Nancy, after a
moment's contemplation of this dismal prospect, "and perhaps
Lady Catherine will introduce me to the Darcys. You'd better
come too, Lucy. We can't get along without knowing them now." Lucy consented, after some demur; and in the course of the
evening their hopes of an introduction were realized, and their
self-importance greatly increased; for Mrs. Darcy, curious to
ascertain what kind of hangers-on had found places in her aunt's
cortege
this year, had conversed for a short time with them both;
and with the prudence and consideration which was characteristic of her, had refrained from expressing to her husband the full
extent of the unfavourable impression which they created. "I do not much care for those new friends of my aunt's,"
Darcy remarked to his wife when they reached home. "Why, my dear, you were not even introduced to them,"
exclaimed Elizabeth. "Robert, I noticed, did not escape, but you
did. Besides, they are related to the Ferrars at home; there is no
getting away from that."
"I gathered that they were, but I can hardly believe it. That
man brother to Edward Ferrars! I heard him trying to argue with
Robert about Nelson's tactics at the battle of the Nile, and it was
enough for me. I have heard far sounder sense talked at a tenants' dinner--at the end of one, too."
Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth laughed. "His views upon life in
general appeared to suffer somewhat from lack of breadth," said
the former, "and I can imagine it would be possible to find him
a tedious companion. As for the ladies of the party, I did not
have much conversation with them."
"I think the look of them rather frightened Robert," said
Elizabeth; "but, on the whole, they are tolerably unobjectionable. After all, one can't always pick and choose at a place like
Bath, and, anyhow, we must be civil to Aunt Catherine's friends--it is not for very long. I am really going to practise what
I preach, so you need not look at me like that, Mr. Darcy." The following evening the whole party met again at a concert in aid of a charity, which had been patronized by Lady
Catherine to the extent of several pounds' worth of tickets. The
morning had been spent by the Darcys and Fitzwilliam in their
own occupations; but they had been obliged to dine with their
aunt, and to meet at dinner the Robert Ferrars, with Miss Anne
Steele. General Tilney, Lady Portinscale's father, and his son
Frederick made up the requisite number of gentlemen, and
Elizabeth found much to divert her in watching, during dinner,
the manoevres of Miss Steele, who, seated between the two
bachelors, was fully occupied in efforts to make herself equally
and incessantly agreeable to both of them; the dire failure of
which might have aroused some compassion had she not been so
completely self-satisfied and confident. Captain Tilney certainly
kept up the conversation in the style that was expected of him
as long as he could, and then turned to Miss de Bourgh and
devoted himself to her, having been informed by his father that
she was a considerable heiress, and his attentions to her must be
regulated accordingly. Colonel Fitzwilliam, for his part, found
three-cornered discussion carried on with great animation
between himself, his aunt, and General Tilney, who sat opposite,
on the military genius of the French generals, considerably more
interesting than Miss Steele's observation on the Bath assemblies and her openly-expressed predilection in favour of officers
as partners. Elizabeth and her husband were no better off in their
respective companions. The inanities of Robert Ferrars, and the
pretensions of his wife, were calculated to put a severe strain on the good intentions of Lady Catherine's niece and nephew
towards her guests.
"How elegantly Lady Catherine's dinner-parties are always
carried out!" remarked Lucy to Mr. Darcy, in a kind of loud aside,
as they unfolded their napkins. "She seems to be one of those
fortunate persons who always manage to have everything about
them as
recherche
as it is at home, wherever they may be staying.
Don't you think so, Mr. Darcy? No one else could have made this
apartment what it is, but with Lady Catherine's delightful
appointments you could, I daresay, easily imagine yourself to be
in one of the smaller dining parlours at Rosings, could you not?" Mr. Darcy was rather taken aback by this speech, and hastily
making a mental review of his aunt's usual visitors, failed
entirely to connect Mrs. Robert Ferrars with the dining parlour,
or any other room at Rosings; so his reply was not very satisfactory to his questioner.
"It seems a pleasant and convenient room. My aunt, I believe,
generally takes these lodgings; and when she settles down in a
place for a few weeks, naturally likes to make it comfortable." "Oh, but I think it is a special gift of dear Lady Catherine's,"
exclaimed Lucy. "You cannot deny it, Mr. Darcy, knowing
Rosings as you do. Now at our lodgings--well, I daresay the
rooms are very little smaller than this--but try as I will, I cannot
give them a home-like air, though I assure you I brought two
large packing-cases of dainty trifles from our country house." "Indeed!" said Darcy.
"Yes, but the lavish refinement, combined with substantial
comfort, of Lady Catherine's surroundings always appeals to me
so strongly when I come here. I am sure you understand what I mean, Mr. Darcy, with a home like Pemberley as a standard to
judge other people's houses by."
"I had not regarded Bath lodgings from that point of view,"
said Mr. Darcy. "Are you making a long stay here, may I ask?" "Yes, we hope to remain for some weeks. I always enjoy Bath
so much at this time of year; and so does Mr. Ferrars. I consider
it infinitely preferable to the autumn season, do not you, Mr.
Darcy? All the best people seem to come now, and one is not
likely to meet anyone whose acquaintance one would not wish
to continue afterwards."
Mr. Darcy took advantage of this pause, during which his
companion helped herself to fish, to consider what reply he should
truthfully make to such a sentiment; but before Mrs. Ferrars could
insist upon his agreeing with her, he was called upon by his aunt
from the end of the table to support her in a flat contradiction of
General Tilney, who was undoubtedly getting the best of a somewhat heated argument. Elizabeth was not more fortunate in her
companion. The wearisome descriptions of this or that friend's
house, habits, achievements, which were all that Robert Ferrars
could contribute to the conversation, were almost more than