Page 83 of Hard Home

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Longbourn smelled of itself, which no other house in the world does; and Mrs. Bennet was in the hall before the steps were down, and had told them about the Collinses’ poultry and Mrs. Long’s nephew and the shocking price of a leg of mutton before anybody was out of their bonnet.

Mary was at the top of the stairs.

She said, “You are come, then,” and went into her room; and Elizabeth, who had spent nineteen days composing a speech, understood that she was to follow, and did.

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The pocket-book was on the bed.

It was a plain one, ruled in three columns in a small exact hand, and it began on the twelfth of April and it ran to the sixth of May, and there was not a day missing.

Day. Hour. In company with.

"I could not do the hours exactly at first," said Mary, standing with her hands behind her. "There is only the kitchen clock and the church, and Lydia does not tell anybody where she goes. So for the first week I have writtenmorningandafternoon, which is not good enough. After the eighteenth I began asking Hill, because Hill knows everything and nobody has ever asked her anything, and after that it is right to the quarter hour."

Elizabeth sat down on the bed and read it.

It took her a quarter of an hour, and Mary stood the whole time.

There were four-and-twenty entries. Most were nothing: Meryton, with Kitty, to the milliner; my aunt Philips's, with Kitty and Mrs. Forster; church; the Gouldings'. Eleven of them had Mr. Wickham's name in the third column, which was fewer than Elizabeth had feared and quite enough.

And then there was a second list, at the back, in the same hand, headedLow ground.

It had five entries.

April 14. Evening, abt. 8. Barrett corner as far as water. L., Mr. D., Mr. W.

April 19. Afternoon. Along water to mill and back. L., Kitty, Mr. W., Mr. Chamberlayne.

April 26. Evening, abt. 9. Barrett road to corner. L., Mr. W. (K. asked to go, not permitted by L.)

May 2. Morning. Church fields, edge of the pale ground. L., Mr. W.

May 11. Night, abt. 10 to 11. Barrett road, by moonlight. L., Mr. D., Mr. W.

Elizabeth read the last entry three times.

"She told me about the eleventh," she said. "In the carriage. She told me the whole of it — the moonlight, and the corner, and Denny going cross and quiet on the way home and not giving her his arm. She named Denny. She did not name Mr. Wickham."

"No," said Mary.

"Did she forget him?"

"Lydia has never forgotten a man in her life."

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"Sit down, Mary. I cannot talk to you while you are standing up like a footman."

Mary sat down on the wooden chair by the wash-stand, which was where she always sat, and put her hands in her lap.

"Now," said Elizabeth. "I said in my letter that I would tell you the whole of it when I came, and I am going to, and it will take an hour, and there is one name in it that I have promisednot to say and I shall not say it, and you are not to guess at it aloud."

"Very well."

"And when I have done, I want everything you have found out since Easter, in order, and I do not want you to leave anything out because you think I shall laugh."