Page 6 of Such Low Connections

Elizabeth and her friend Charlotte Lucas sighed in tandem on overhearing these words between their mothers and then laughed together.

“Let us not listen to this,” suggested Charlotte, taking her arm. “We can take our punch over to those chairs and watch the dancing from there. I think your mother is right this time, though. Mr Bingley has taken a definite liking to Jane, and they do make a handsome couple.”

Elizabeth had to agree. To her eyes, Jane appeared equally happy in her partner, her shy smiles rising frequently to her lips and her gaze joyful when it fell upon him. His personality had also struck Elizabeth agreeably. Mr Bingley seemed to have quickly made friends of half the county and had good words to say about everyone and everything he had encountered so far.

It was impossible to imagine disliking so friendly and engaging a young man. If only the rest of his party could have been equally satisfactory, there would have been nothing more to wish for, but regrettably, it was not so. Any hopes of a new friend in Miss Caroline Bingley were dashed in her first entrance to the assembly rooms. Elizabeth distinctly saw her lip curl before she whispered something in the ear of a tall and humourless-looking man beside her.

Behind them walked another couple, a woman as disdainful as Miss Bingley and similar in aspect, and a bleary-eyed man in a well-cut and slightly garish coat who appeared to have imbibed liberally in advance of reaching the assembly rooms’ punch bowl. From neighbourhood intelligence, Elizabeth understood them to be Mr Bingley’s married sister and her husband, Mr and Mrs Hurst.

The elegantly dressed and coiffed Miss Bingley appeared far less satisfied with their new situation than her jolly brother. Elizabeth and Charlotte watched her again now, dancing rather joylessly with the same saturnine companion with whom she had entered.

“Mr Bingley takes pleasure in everything and his sister in nothing, I suspect,” Elizabeth murmured to Charlotte Lucas.

“We likely don’t have the wealth or rank in our circles that Miss Bingley is accustomed to,” Charlotte replied philosophically. “We all feel uncomfortable outside our own familiar groups.”

“She even looks on the orchestra with disdain!” Elizabeth laughed, as the woman did indeed look down her nose towards the players. “See! Not even the fiddler can please Miss Bingley.”

“She seems pleased enough with her partner,” Charlotte observed, her eyes on the tall, dark man.

She might have good reason for being so, for despite his rather stern expression, he was undeniably handsome, and with a tall, graceful form that would have drawn any woman’s eye. Yet there was something lacking. “I do not think that he is so very well pleased with Miss Bingley, though,” Elizabeth had to say, watching their dancing quite critically.

Miss Bingley’s partner danced so properly and formally that it did not really seem to Elizabeth to be dancing at all in the truest sense, although he was entirely well-mannered and correct in his steps.

“With £10,000 a year and half of Derbyshire to his name, Mr Darcy is perhaps well pleased enough already,” Charlotte suggested. “As to a wife, he may take his pick when he chooses, I dare say, and she will be thought a lucky woman.”

“I shall not think her lucky unless Mr Darcy can be convinced to smile rather more,” Elizabeth declared with a bright laugh. She finished her punch just in time, as two of Charlotte’s younger brothers approached and begged for their hands for a reel in the next measure.

∞∞∞

“Why will you not dance, Darcy? I feel a bad friend indeed to bring you here and then leave you standing alone while I have all the fun. Yet you will not be helped, will you?”

Already familiar to their ears, Mr Bingley’s genial tones reached Elizabeth and Charlotte’s ears where they sat on the other side of the potted palms, catching their breath after the reel. Elizabeth began standing to leave, but Charlotte pulled her back and put a finger to her lips.

“I do not see why my disinclination to dance should affect your evening, Bingley. I have already danced a measure with your sister after your earlier complaints and thought I had done my duty to the company.”

Elizabeth pulled a droll face at this rather miserable speech, which seemed to confirm the spirit — or lack thereof — she had seen in his dancing.

“I dare say you have, but most of us dance for pleasure, not duty. Surely there must be some young woman here who might tempt you for the next dance, although I have already claimed the sweetest.”

Hearing this, the two young women smiled at one another, sharing the same early but promising hopes for Jane’s future happiness.

“Go and enjoy Miss Bennet’s smiles, Bingley,” Mr Darcy replied wearily. “This entertainment is not for me.”

“Miss Bennet’s sister Elizabeth is a pretty, lively girl, is she not?” suggested Mr Bingley, not yet giving up the fight. “She seemed not to have a partner for the next dance when I saw her a minute ago.”

Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide at this suggestion, and she shook her head in alarm at the idea of having to dance with Mr Darcy, much to Charlotte’s amusement.

“No, Bingley. Miss Elizabeth Bennet is not for me, no more than any of the other unexceptional young women of Hertfordshire who cannot find a partner for the dance.”

Charlotte’s amusement faded on hearing this insult to her friend, but Elizabeth smiled reassuringly at her. While Mr Darcy’s remarks stung her pride, the relief of not having to dance with so haughty and self-satisfied a man outweighed such a minor offence.

“You act as though the entire company were beneath you, Darcy,” scolded his friend.

“How else should I act in this place?” replied Mr Darcy rather blankly, as though he found Mr Bingley’s remark confusing. “I cannot pretend that I am someone else, or that my station in life is other than it is.”

“You are impossible, Darcy. I leave you to your own devices and go to seek more genial company,” Mr Bingley finally declared. “You will find me on the dance floor.”

As the two men parted company and walked away in different directions, Elizabeth and Charlotte both let out explosive noises of astonishment.