CHAPTER TWO
Mr Bennet's own wealth and modest income was from
family money, which, unfortunately for his five daughters,
would go to their nearest male relation after their father's
death and not to them. This relation was a cousin, whom
they had never met. On their mother's side of the family
there was a small amount of money, but after her father's
death the family's business had gone to her sister's hus-
band, Mr Philips, and not to Mrs Bennet. Mr and Mrs Phil-
ips lived in the small town of Meryton, only about one
mile from Longbourn, and so they saw their sister and her
five daughters quite frequently.
Their recent visit to Meryton had been more and more
interesting for the younger Miss Bennets, Lydia and
Catherine especially, because some young army officers
had come to spend several months in the town and were
going to be there for the whole winter. At every visit to
their aunt's house the younger girls knew more about the
officers' names and who they were and where they were
staying. They could talk about nothing but the officers -
even Mr Bingley and his fortune, the thought of which
made their mother so cheerful, were uninteresting to them
compared with the young army officers in their red coats.
This was the subject of their conversation one day
when a servant entered with a message for Jane from Mr
Bingley's sisters at Netherfiled Hall. Mrs Bennet's eyes lit
up with pleasure and she could not wait to hear what was
in the note. It was an invitation to Jane to go for dinner
with the two ladies, as Mr Bingley and his friend were go-
ing to have dinner with the officers in Meryton and the la-
dies would therefore be alone.
It was impossible for Jane to have use of the carriage to
take her to Netherfiled, and anyway Mrs Bennet wanted
her to go on horseback. She thought it was likely to rain
and she hoped that Jane would then have to stay at Nether-
field for the night, and so would have a chance of being
with Mr Bingley the following morning.
So Jane set off on horseback and it did indeed start to
rain hard before very long. Her mother was delighted. The
rain continued all evening without a break; Jane certainly
could not come back. But the next morning, at breakfast, a
servant arrived from Netherfield with a note for Elizabeth
from Jane.
My dearest Lizzy,
I am very unwell this morning, after getting wet
through in the rain yesterday. My kind friends here will
not hear of me returning home until I am better and they
have sent for the doctor. I have a sore throat and a head-
ache, but it is nothing serious.
Yours, etc.
Elizabeth, feeling really worried about her sister, decided
to go to her at Netherfield immediately after breakfast,
though her mother was against the idea. But Elizabeth was
determined to go, so she set off on foot as soon as she was
ready. It was muddy after all the rain and when she at last
arrived at Netherfield Hall the bottom of her skirt was dir-
ty, but her face was glowing after the exercise of the walk.
The two ladies at Netherfield were amazed that she had
walked three miles alone so early in the day, and in such
bad weather, but Mr Darcy, though he said very little to
her, thought how fine she looked after the fresh air of the
walk.
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Now that Jane was well again, the subject of a ball at
Netherfield Hall was discussed. Mr Bingley was enthu-
siastic about the idea, but Mr Darcy obviously was not. He
had begun to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much
attention.
Jane was delighted to see her. She was not at all well.
Elizabeth quietly looked after her sister all day; the doctor
came and examined her, said that she had caught a violent
cold and advised her to stay in bed. At three o'clock, when
Elizabeth was about to return to Longbourn, Jane seemed
so upset that she was leaving that Miss Bingley offered a
room for Elizabeth to stay in and sent a servant to Long-
bourn to fetch some more clothes for them both.
So Elizabeth stayed for a few days at Netherfield, slow-
ly nursing her sister back to health. At mealtimes she was
often in the company of Mr Bingley, his sisters and Mr
Darcy and was able to observe Mr Darcy more closely and
to see the attention that Mr Bingley's unmarried, younger
sister so constantly and carefully paid to him. But she also
noticed how often Mr Darcy's eyes were fixed on her, and
was unable to understand why. She found it very strange,
but it did nothing to change her view of him. She liked
him too little to care whether he liked her or not. In fact
the only person whose company she really enjoyed at Ne-
therfield was Mr Bingley's. He was obviously truly con-
cerned about Jane's illness and frequently asked most sin-
cerely how she was progressing
After a few days Jane was able to get up again and Eliz-
abeth wrapped her warmly against the cold and walked
down to the living room with her, to join the other two la-
dies. The gentlemen were not there at first, but when they
came in it was easy to see how happy Mr Bingley was to
see Jane well again, how careful he was to see that she
was warm and comfortable in the best place by the fire
and how he scarcely spoke to anyone else in the room.
Elizabeth, working at her sewing in another corner of the
room, was delighted to watch them together.
The next morning, as agreed by the two sisters, Elizabeth
wrote to their mother asking for the carriage to be sent to
fetch them the next day. Mr Bennet's reply, however, was
that they could not possibly have the carriage before Tues-
day, so Elizabeth encouraged Jane to ask Mr Bingley if
they might borrow his carriage to take them home. The
master of the house was clearly sorry to hear that they
were thinking of leaving Netherfield and tried several
times to persuade Jane that she was not yet well enough to
make the journey. But Jane was firm when she knew she
was right, and on the Sunday, after church, they were driv-
en home in Mr Bingley's carriage. Mr Darcy, for one, was
not sorry to hear that the two Miss Bennets were leaving-
Elizabeth had been at Netherfield long enough. She at-
tracted him more than he liked. He had scarcely spoken
more than ten words to her in the whole of Saturday; even
when they had been alone together for almost half an hour,
he had kept his nose steadily in his book and would not
even look at her.
Elizabeth was perfectly happy to leave Netherfield, and
the two sisters' arrival back at Longbourn on the Sunday
morning was a surprise to their family. Their mother, of
course, was not happy that her plan to keep Jane and Mr
Bingley together as long as possible had not worked, and
she did not welcome them at all heartily.
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'I hope, my dear,' said Mr Bennet to his wife at breakfast
the following morning, that you have ordered a good din-
ner today, because we are going to have a visitor.'
'Who do you mean, my dear? I know of no plans for
anyone to visit us today.'
"The person I am talking about is a gentleman and a
stranger.'
Mrs Bennet's eyes shone at the thought of a strange
gentleman, a possible catch for one of her daughters.
'I have had a letter from my cousin, Mr Collins. He, as
you know, my dear, is the person who will have this house
and all the family money when I am dead.'
Oh! My dear,' cried his wife, 'please do not even men-
tion that horrible person to me. It is the most terrible thing
that your own poor children will be left without a thing in
the world because of that awful man.'
'It is certainly not a fortunate arrangement, I agree, but
it is not the fault of the gentleman in question, my dear.
And, if you will listen, you will perhaps agree that Mr
Collins's letter to me is very polite and that he himself
seems to be concerned about the future happiness of our
daughters.
The letter was long and very respectful. Mr Bennet read
it out to them all. Mr Collins was a clergyman in the
Church of England. His church was in the village of Huns-
ford,
In Kent, and Bourgh. She had kindly agreed that he
could take some holiday to visit members of his family,
and Mr Collins had decided that he should try to get to
know his cousins, the Miss Bennets. He asked if he could
come to stay for a week at Longbourn, and would arrive
that very Monday, at four o'clock in the afternoon.
'At four o'clock, therefore,' said Mr Bennet, folding up
the letter again, we must expect to welcome this gentle-
man into our house. He seems to be a very respectable
young man and I am sure we will have pleasure getting to
know him.'
Elizabeth did not like the style of the letter, however, it
was too heavy and she did not think Mr Collins sounded a
very sensible young man. To Lydia and Catherine the let-
ter from this unknown cousin was not interesting in any
way. Their heads were too full of the young army officers
in Meryton. As for Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins's letter had
made her feel better about him.
He may indeed be a possibility for one of her daugh-
ters, and she was more quickly willing to welcome him
than her husband or daughters had expected her to be.
Mr Collins arrived exactly on time and was received
most politely by the whole family. He was a tall, heavy
looking young man of five and twenty years old. He be-
haved in a serious way and his manners were very careful
and slow. He admired every room and everything he saw
in the house, not least the five daughters of the family,
whose beauty he had heard of many times before. It soon
became clear that he had come to visit them with the idea
of finding a wife, since his employer, Lady Catherine de
Bourgh, had advised him to marry as soon as he possibly
could. It seemed that he tried to follow Lady Catherine's
advice in all things, to please her wherever he could. She
was obviously an extremely important person.
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It also quite soon became clear that Mr Collins was not,
as Elizabeth had guessed, a very sensible young man. He
was clearly not at all clever, and yet he seemed to think
quite highly of himself. He was a peculiar mixture of pride
and over-polite-ness, of self-importance and shyness. But
having now a comfortable house very near Lady Cathe-
rine's great house, Rosings Park, and having a good in-
come from the church at Hunsford, Mr Collins had decid-
ed to marry. He intended to choose one of the Bennet
daughters for his wife, and so at the same time to make the
Bennet family feel better about the future loss of the Long-
bourn house and all the family money. This had been his
plan in coming to stay and it did not change after meeting
the young ladies in question.
He found the eldest Miss Bennet's lovely face absolute-
ly charming, and so it was Jane that he chose first. But the
next morning before breakfast Mrs Bennet made it clear to
him that her eldest daughter's future interests lay else-
where, so Mr Collins quickly changed his plans from Jane
to Elizabeth, even while Mrs Bennet was putting some
wood on the fire. Elizabeth, next to Jane in birth and beau-
ty, was a natural second choice after Jane, of course. Mrs
Bennet took note of the way Mr Collins seemed to be
thinking and wondered if she would soon have two daugh-
ters married. The idea pleased her and she started to like
this young man, whom she had not even liked to speak of
the day before, very much indeed.
After breakfast the young ladies set off to walk into
Meryton together to visit Mrs Philips, their aunt, and Mr
Collins was invited to go with them. As they walked down
the main street of Meryton, they met some of the young
army officers who Lydia and Catherine had been getting
to know. They were introduced to a new young officer
who had just arrived in the town, a Mr Wickham, and the
young ladies all thought he was very handsome and com-
pletely charming. He made such pleasing conversation as
they walked on together down the street towards the Phil-
ips's house.
Just then they heard the sound of horses, and saw Mr
Bingley and Mr Darcy riding along the street. Seeing the
group of young ladies, the two gentlemen rode towards
them and greeted them politely. Mr Darcy was trying hard
not to look too much at Elizabeth, to look elsewhere, when
his eyes fell on the new young officer, Mr Wickham. Eliz-
abeth happened to be watching them both as they saw
each other, so she saw the effect of the meeting. Both
changed colour; one looked white and the other red. Mr
Wickham touched his hat; Mr Darcy was just able to re-
turn the greeting, but most unwillingly. What could be the
meaning of it? It was impossible to imagine; it was impos-
sible not to want to know.
The next day Mr Collins and the five young ladies were
invited to spend the evening at their aunt's, in Meryton.
Some of the officers were to be there, and they were all
pleased to hear too. When he came in, every female eye
was on him, but Elizabeth was the happy woman he even-
tually sat down next to and with whom he began an agree-
able conversation.
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After some time she was able to bring the name of Mr
Darcy into their conversation and asked Mr Wickham if he
knew that gentleman well.
'Yes, indeed,' replied the young man, I have know Mr
Darcy family all my life. Do you know Mr Darcy well
yourself, may I ask?'
'As well as I would ever wish to,' answered Elizabeth. 'I
have spent several days in the same house as him at Ne-
therfield, and I find him very disagreeable. People do not
much like him in this neighbourhood, you know. They
find him bad-tempered and proud.
'I should not give my opinion of him. I have known him
too well and too long,' replied Mr Wickham. 'But I cannot
pretend to be sorry that people do not like him here. His
behaviour towards me has been most unfair in the past,
even though his father was always very good to me. His
father wanted to leave me some money when he died, but
this Mr Darcy, his son, made sure that the money did not
all come to me and his father's wishes were never put in
writing, so I have no hope from the law. I never intended
to join the army, but as you can see, I have had to. It is a
very sad story and I cannot think well of Mr Darcy.'
Elizabeth was horrified to hear this awful story. She
was amazed to think that a man as gentle and pleasant as
Mr Bingley could have such a proud, hard friend, but Mr
Wickham told her that Mr Darcy could be very agreeable
and friendly towards people if he chose to be; that he
could be a very interesting and pleasant companion if he
wished, especially with people such as Mr Collins's em-
ployer, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who was as rich he
was. Lady Catherine, it seemed, was Mr Darcy's aunt. It
was likely that Mr Bingley simply did not know what sort
of man his friend really was, Elizabeth thought, and she
began to suspect that Lady Catherine herself might be as
proud and disagreeable as her nephew, in spite of all the
good things the foolish Mr Collins continually said about
her. Elizabeth went away at the end of the evening with
her head full of Mr Wickham's sad history, and could
think of nothing else all the way home, though there was
no time to mention anything of it to any of her sisters, be-
cause neither Lydia nor Mr Collins were silent once on the
whole journey back to Longbourn House.
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