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- [00:00]
Faith Moore
Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore and this season we're reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Each episode I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes. So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time.
- [00:43]
Cassie Toller
Hello. Welcome back. Things are starting to feel sort of like cozy and homey in this book, aren't they? Things are kind of coming to their conclusion and I always just feel like I just want to sit there with my tea in my cozy chair and watch it all happen. So I hope that you're doing that, whether literally in your cozy chair with your cup of tea or metaphorically, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope this place is your cozy chair and your lovely cup of tea. Welcome. I'm so happy to have you here and to be with you as always. This is episode 21 of season two of Storytime for Grown Ups. We are reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with a few notes along the way. Today we are going to be reading chapters four, 55 through 56. So before we get into that, please make sure if you're not already, that you're subscribed. That will make sure that all these episodes just automatically come into your phone or whatever device you're using to listen. And it means that on November 23rd you will automatically get the trailer for our Christmas Spectacular and you will find out what book we are going to be reading for the month of December. So make sure you're subscribed. Subscribed. And if you haven't already and you've been enjoying the show, I would love it if you would just tap those five stars right there in your podcast player and if you have a couple of extra seconds in that same place, leave a positive review. Those are all really great ways to help this show to grow and to reach more people who haven't heard of it before, which is fantastic. I haven't mentioned this in a while, but I do have a tip jar, a place that you could make a financial donation to the show if you feel like you're able. It's of course not at all mandatory. This show is free and you're welcome here. But if are so able or so inclined, there's a link in the show notes to a page. It's very easy. You can just make a donation of whatever amount seems right for you. And I really do appreciate those donations. It allows me to focus my time and my energy on the podcast when it generates revenue, than on other things. And so I really do appreciate your generosity. It means a great deal to me. And I just wanted to remind you that that is there. And of course, don't forget that you can and should get in touch with me. You just go to my website, which is faithk moore.com, and you click on Contact, and then you fill out that box there, and it goes right to my email. There's also a link to that contact page in the description of this episode. So if you just scroll down, there's various links there. One of them is that page. And I love to hear from you. I love to know what you think of the book. I love your questions. I love to hear you responding to the various things that I have been saying on the show. And it's a great way for us to have a conversation together, even though we're not actually in the same place talking to each other. It feels like we are when you write in and I'm able to share those questions. So please do write in if you have something that you would like to share. Okay, so last time we read chapters 53 through 54. So I'm going to do a quick recap of what happened in those. And then I have a really fun question that I'd like to dive into. Things are getting really fun now. I feel like the end of this book is just like all smiley faces and cozy, warm hugs. So I'm excited we're going to do this question, and then we'll get into today's chapter, which, as I say, are 55 through 56. So here is the recap from last time. So where we left off, Bingley has.
- [04:02]
Narrator
Come back to Netherfield. He came back with Mr. Darcy.
- [04:06]
Cassie Toller
So both Jane and Elizabeth are sort of nervous and excited, but also pretending that they're completely fine.
- [04:12]
Narrator
So both Bingley and Darcy show up at Longbourn, and Mrs. Bennet is sort.
- [04:15]
Cassie Toller
Of overly polite to Bingley and cold.
- [04:18]
Narrator
To Darcy, which really upsets and embarrasses Elizabeth, because Mr. Darcy is actually the one who saved their family from ruin by paying off Wickham's debts.
- [04:28]
Cassie Toller
Darcy is back to being kind of.
- [04:30]
Narrator
Quiet and incommunicative and not the way that he was at Pemberley. And Elizabeth doesn't know what to make of that. Mr. Bingley seems to still be interested in Jane, and Mrs. Bennet invites him and Darcy to come to dinner. So at the Dinner party. Bingley chooses a seat next to Jane, and it really seems like he might actually propose to her soon. But Darcy is seated far away from Elizabeth, and he's cold toward Mrs. Bennet. So Elizabeth really wants to speak to him, but she can't talk to him at the table. And in the drawing room, she's pouring the coffee, and she can't find a way to talk with Mr. Darcy, and he doesn't seem to be seeking her out. And she ends up feeling silly for ever having thought that she might still have a chance with him.
- [05:11]
Cassie Toller
Okay, so today's question comes to us from Cassie Toller. Cassie writes, a few episodes ago, when Elizabeth ran into Darcy at his estate, I was definitely thinking, this is such a rom com. I've got to ask Faith which movie it reminds me of. It was so gratifying to hear you talk about how Pride and Prejudice is the original romantic comedy. I can see why Charlotte Bronte wasn't a huge fan of it. Compared to the big, deep themes of Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice does seem a bit shallow as things get more and more dramatic.
- [05:43]
Narrator
Lydia running off with Wickham?
- [05:45]
Cassie Toller
Really? Where did that even come from? I feel in today's stories, this level of drama is comparable to having an affair with your best friend's husband or something. It feels a tiny bit forced to me. I have to remind myself that this kind of writing was pretty new for the time. What seems to me just another silly story about a girl and a guy is actually the original story about a girl and a guy. So one thing I absolutely love about the sections we read last time is that everything has come full circle, right? I mean, Bingley has come into the neighborhood. Mrs. Bennet is trying to get Mr. Bennet to visit him, and Mr. Bennet won't. Bingley has brought his friend Darcy with him. We're right back where we started. And I think it really brings to light what we've been talking about for a while now, which is this idea of change. Here is Mrs. Bennet acting just like Mrs. Bennet. Here is Mr. Bennet acting just like Mr. Bennet. Here, even is Bingley acting toward Jane just like he always has. And here's Jane responding just as she always has, even though she says she's not. And Darcy is also back to acting just the way he did at the very beginning, right? Cold and sort of aloof, just like before. But the one glaring difference is that Elizabeth, now, instead of hating Mr. Darcy, loves Mr. Darcy, because now she knows his true character, and she knows that he isn't rude or disagreeable the way that Mrs. Bennet keeps saying he is. And she knows that the family owes him everything. She knows that he's the man who could complete her. And so it's wonderful, right? Everything has come back around. Everything is exactly the same, except it's not the same at all. And I think Cassie's point is well taken. To us in the modern day, all this may seem sort of cliched and overdone. We kind of know what's going to happen and the excitement is in how it will happen, not what is going to happen. And we know because we've seen it all before. We've seen a million enemies to lovers, romcoms, we've read a million books that follow that basic idea as well. But this is essentially where it all came from.
- [07:53]
Narrator
None of this is to say, by.
- [07:54]
Cassie Toller
The way, that I think that Jane Austen is simply a writer of rom coms. I don't. She's much more than that. She's a brilliant satirist and a really canny observer of her time and her place. So there's more going on than just the romantic comedy.
- [08:10]
Narrator
But here, now, at the end, we're.
- [08:13]
Cassie Toller
Getting the full force of the sort of proto romcom. And at least from my perspective, it's really satisfying. Right? That moment where Mrs. Bennet tells Mr. Bennet he's got to go and visit Bingley, it always feels to me like a sort of puzzle piece slotting, like, satisfyingly into place, like, ah, here we are again. We've been through so much and now this moment, slow signals that everything is going to come together finally.
- [08:39]
Narrator
The story is going to find its.
- [08:41]
Cassie Toller
Way to a conclusion. And the fact that we have this familiar scene repeated sort of signals that the ending will be delightful in a cozy sort of might need a tissue for a second way. It's familiar and comfortable and good, like comfort food or a familiar blanket or something. And there's a sort of high school crush element to the scene at the dinner party. I think Elizabeth is kind of desperately wanting Darcy to come over and talk to her, but not feeling like she could just approach him and not really knowing what to say to him when he does come over. And the frustrating random girl that keeps intervening, who Elizabeth can't tell to go away because she can't reveal her crush because she doesn't know how he feels about the whole thing. It's so high school in a lot of ways. I mean, I feel like I have been in that exact situation in my youth, minus the fancy dresses and the drawing rooms and the coffee urn or whatever. And on the one hand, that might feel sort of stale to us, right? We've all seen the various 1990s high school comedies that Hollywood seemed to be churning out at that time for some reason. But it isn't stale because Austen did it first. And the fact that it's so relatable that we've probably all had some sort of experience like this where our crush.
- [09:56]
Narrator
Is there and we want to talk.
- [09:57]
Cassie Toller
To him, but we're nervous and we hope he makes the first move or whatever. The fact that we all recognize it.
- [10:03]
Narrator
And is a testament to Austen's ability.
- [10:05]
Cassie Toller
To create such believable characters and situations. So, as Cassie says, Charlotte Bronte, who wrote our previous book, Jane Eyre, she hated Pride and Prejudice because she felt it was all too normal and boring. It was just a picture of people going about their lives and there was no real drama. And like Cassie, I understand that critique, but I don't think that it's altogether fair. Because what Austen does so expertly is give us these characters who are instantly recognizable as people we know in real life, but who have been sort of enlarged by some ratio that makes them larger than life. We know these kinds of people, but they've been amped up for comedic value, but also to sort of point out their flaws and their weaknesses.
- [10:51]
Narrator
But as we've been discussing with Mr.
- [10:53]
Cassie Toller
Collins, for example, there's nuance to them, too. And Austin is all the time playing, I think, with our prejudices and our.
- [11:02]
Narrator
Pride and forcing us to really look.
- [11:05]
Cassie Toller
And then look again at these people and to understand that rather than being the kind of two dimensional characters that end up populating the more modern rom coms, they are actually pretty multifaceted. And it's us who thought they were two dimensional when really there's much more to them than originally meets the eye. So here's Bingley back to woo Jane. Here's Darcy back to sitting around in drawing rooms not talking to anyone. Here's Jane falling in love with Bingley, but pretending she's not. And here's Elizabeth having fallen in love with Darcy but not knowing whether he still loves her or if he could bring himself to marry her, even if he does love her now that her family is even worse than before. And our job for the next few episodes, there are three more, including this one. So our job is to basically to sit back and relax and watch all the pieces fall into place. So let's do that. And don't forget to write to me, faith k moore.com and click on contact. I really want to know what you're thinking as we wrap this up. All right, let's get started with chapters 55 through 56 of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's story time.
- [12:20]
Narrator
Chapter 55. A few days after this visit, Mr. Bingley called again, and alone. His friend had left him that morning for London, but was to return home in 10 days time. So Darcy's in London and Mr. Bingley has come to visit Longbourn on his own. He sat with them above an hour and was in remarkably good spirits. Mrs. Bennet invited him to dine with them, but with many expressions of concern, he confessed himself engaged elsewhere. Next time you call, said she, I hope we shall be more lucky. He should be particularly happy at any time, etc. Etc. And if she would give him leave, would take an early opportunity of waiting on them. Can you come tomorrow? Yes. He had no engagement at all for tomorrow, and her invitation was accepted. With alacrity he came, and in such very good time that the ladies were none of them dressed. Meaning they aren't dressed for dinner, not that they're naked. In ran Mrs. Bennet to her daughter's room in her dressing gown and with her hair half finished, crying out, my dear Jane, make haste and hurry down. He is come. Mr. Bingley is come. He is indeed. Make haste, make haste. Here, Sara, come to Miss Bennet this moment and help her on with her gown. Never mind Miss Lizzy's hair. We will be down as soon as we can, said Jane, But I dare say Kitty is forwarder than either of us, for she went upstairs half an hour ago. Oh, hang Kitty. What has she to do with it? Come. Be quick, be quick. Where is your sash, my dear? But when her mother was gone, Jane would not be prevailed on to go down without one of her sisters. The same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again. In the Evening after tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his custom, and Mary went upstairs to her instrument. Two obstacles of the five being thus removed. Mrs. Bennet sat looking and winking at Elizabeth and Catherine for a considerable time, without making any impression on them. Elizabeth would not observe her, and when at last Kitty did, she very innocently said, what is the matter, Mama? Why do you keep winking at me for? What am I to do? Nothing, child, nothing. I did not wink at you. She then sat still five minutes longer, but unable to waste such a precious occasion, suddenly got up and saying to Kitty, come here, my love. I Want to speak to you. Took her out of the room. Jane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth, which spoke her distress at such premeditation and her entreaty that she would not give in to it. In a few minutes Mrs. Bennet half opened the door and called out, lizzie, my dear, I want to speak with you. Elizabeth was forced to go. So Mrs. Bennet has very obviously made it so that Jane can be alone with Bingley. But Jane doesn't want them to go, because she would feel very awkward. We may as well leave them by themselves, you know, said her mother, as soon as she was in the hall. Kitty and I are going upstairs to sit in my dressing room. Elizabeth made no attempt to reason with her mother, but remained quietly in the hall till she and Kitty were out of sight, then returned into the drawing room. Mrs. Bennet's schemes for this day were ineffectual. Bingley was everything that was charming, except the professed lover of her daughter. His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party, and he bore with the ill judged officiousness of the mother, and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance. Particularly grateful to the daughter. He scarcely needed an invitation to stay supper, and before he went away, an engagement was formed, chiefly through his own and Mrs. Bennet's means for his coming next morning to shoot with her husband. After this day, Jane said no more of her indifference. Not a word passed between the sisters concerning Bingley, but Elizabeth went to bed in the happy belief that all must be speedily concluded unless Mr. Darcy returned within the stated time. So Jane isn't saying anymore that she's over Bingley, and she clearly loves him and very much hopes that he'll propose. And Elizabeth thinks he will, unless Darcy comes back and tells him not to. Seriously, however, she felt tolerably persuaded that all this must have taken place with that gentleman's concurrence. But she actually thinks that maybe Darcy has given his blessing. Bingley was punctual to his appointment, and he and Mr. Bennet spent the morning together, as had been agreed on. The latter was much more agreeable than his companion expected. There was nothing of presumption or folly in Bingley that could provoke his ridicule or disgust him into silence. And he was more communicative and less eccentric than the other had ever seen him. Bingley, of course, returned with him to dinner, and in the evening Mrs. Bennet's invitation was again at work to get everybody away from him. And her daughter Elizabeth, who had a letter to write, went into the breakfast room for that purpose soon after tea, for as the others were all going to sit down to cards, she could not be wanted to counteract her mother's schemes. So Elizabeth felt like it was safe to go off and write her letter because everyone else was going to play cards, and she assumed that would mean that Mrs. Bennet wouldn't be trying to get Bingley and Jane alone. But on her returning to the drawing room when her letter was finished, she saw to her infinite surprise, there was reason to fear that her mother had been too ingenious for her. On opening the door, she perceived her sister and Bingley standing together over the hearth as if engaged in earnest conversation. And had this led to no suspicion, the faces of both, as they hastily turned round and moved away from each other, would have told it all. Their situation was awkward enough, but hers, she thought, was still worse. Not a syllable was uttered by either, and Elizabeth was on the point of going away again when Bingley, who as well as the other had sat down, suddenly rose, and, whispering a few words to her sister, ran out of the room. Jean could have no reserves from Elizabeth where confidence would give pleasure, and instantly embracing her, acknowledged with the liveliest emotion that she was the happiest creature in the world. So Bingley has proposed, and Jane has said yes. Tis too much, she added, by far too much. I do not deserve it. Oh, why is not everybody as happy? Elizabeth's congratulations were given with a sincerity, a warmth, a delight which words could but poorly express. Every sentence of kindness was a fresh source of happiness to Jane, but she would not allow herself to stay with her sister, or say half that remained to be said for the present. I must go instantly to my mother, she cried. I would not on any account trifle with her affectionate solicitude or allow her to hear it from anyone but myself. He has gone to my father already. Oh, Lizzy, I know that what I have to relate will give such pleasure to all my dear family.
- [19:41]
Cassie Toller
How shall I bear so much happiness?
- [19:44]
Narrator
She then hastened away to her mother, who had purposely broken up the card party and was sitting upstairs with Kitty. Elizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation. And this, said she, is the end of all his friends anxious circumspection of all his sister's falsehood and contrivance, the happiest, wisest, and most Reasonable end. In a few minutes she was joined by Bingley, whose conference with her father had been short and to the purpose.
- [20:23]
Cassie Toller
Where is your sister?
- [20:25]
Narrator
Said he hastily as he opened the door. With my mother upstairs. She will be down in a moment, I dare say. He then shut the door, and coming up to her, claimed the good wishes and affection of a sister. Meaning he's telling her that he's going to marry Jane and that he's happy that she, Elizabeth, will now be his sister. Elizabeth honestly and heartily expressed her delight in the prospect of their relationship. They shook hands with great cordiality. And then, till her sister came down, she had to listen to all he had to say of his own happiness and of Jane's perfections. And in spite of his being a lover, Elizabeth really believed all his expectations of Felicity to be rationally founded. Because they had for basis the excellent understanding and super excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself. It was an evening of no common delight to them all. The satisfaction of Ms. Bennet's mind gave such a glow of sweet animation to her face as made her look handsomer than ever. Kitty simpered and smiled and hoped her turn was coming soon. Mrs. Bennet could not give her consent or speak her approbation in terms warm enough to satisfy her feelings, though she talked to Bingley of nothing else for half an hour. And when Mr. Bennet joined them at supper, his voice and manner plainly showed how really happy he was. Not a word, however, passed his lips in allusion to it till their visitor took his leave for the night. But as soon as he was gone, he turned to his daughter and said, jane, I congratulate you. You will be a very happy woman. Jane went to him instantly, kissed him, and thanked him for his goodness. You are a good girl, he replied, and I have great pleasure in thinking you will be so happily settled. I have not a doubt of your doing very well together. Your tempers are by no means unlike you. Are each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on? So easy that every servant will cheat you, and so generous that you will always exceed your income? I hope not so. Imprudence or thoughtlessness in money matters would be unpardonable in Mexceed. Their income. My dear Mr. Bennet. Cried his wife, what are you talking of? Why, he has four or five thousand a year, and very likely more, then addressing her daughter, oh, my dear, dear.
- [22:54]
Cassie Toller
Jane, I am so happy.
- [22:56]
Narrator
I am sure I shan't get a week of sleep.
- [22:58]
Cassie Toller
All night I knew how it would be.
- [23:01]
Narrator
I always said it must be so at last. I was sure you could not be so beautiful for nothing. I remember as soon as ever I saw him when he first came into Hertfordshire last year. I thought how likely it was that you should come together. Oh, he is the handsomest young man that ever was seen. Wickham, Lydia, were all forgotten. Jane was beyond competition. Her favourite child. At that moment she cared for no other. Her younger sisters soon began to make interest with her for objects of happiness which she might in future be able to dispense. Mary petitioned for the use of the library at Netherfield, and Kitty begged very hard for a few balls there every winter. Bingley from this time was, of course, a daily visitor at Longbourn, coming frequently before breakfast and always remaining till after supper, unless, when some barbarous neighbor, who could not be enough detested, had given him an invitation to dinner, which he thought himself obliged to accept. Elizabeth had now but little time for conversation with her sister, for while he was present, Jane had no attention to bestow on anyone else, but she found herself considerably useful to both of them in those hours of separation that must sometimes occur in the absence of Jane. He always attached himself to Elizabeth for the pleasure of talking of her, and when Bingley was gone, Jane constantly sought the same means of relief. He has made me so happy, said she one evening, by telling me that he was totally ignorant of my being in town last spring. I had not believed it possible. I suspected as much, replied Elizabeth. But how did he account for it? It must have been his sister's doing. They were certainly no friends to his acquaintance with me, which I cannot wonder at, since he might have chosen so much more advantageously in many respects. But when they see, as I trust they will, that their brother is happy with me, they will learn to be contented, and we shall soon be on good terms again, though we can never be what we once were to each other. That is the most unforgiving speech, said Elizabeth, that I ever heard you utter. Good girl. It would vex me indeed to see you again. The dupe of Miss Bingley's pretended regardless, would you believe it, Lizzie, that when he went to town last November he really loved me, and nothing but a persuasion of my being indifferent would have prevented his coming down again? He made a little mistake, to be sure, but it is to the credit of his modesty. This naturally introduced a panegyric from Jane on his diffidence and the little value he put on his own good Qualities. So a panegyric is a speech about how wonderful someone is. So Jane is going on and on about how Bingley is modest and unassuming. Elizabeth was pleased to find that he had not betrayed the interference of his friend. For though Jane had the most generous and forgiving heart in the world, she knew it was a circumstance which must prejudice her against him. So Bingley hasn't told Jane that Darcy intervened to separate them, and Elizabeth is glad of that because she doesn't want Jane to dislike the man that she is now in love with. I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed. Cried Jane. Oh, Lizzy. Why am I thus singled from my family and blessed above them all?
- [26:33]
Cassie Toller
If I could but see you as.
- [26:35]
Narrator
Happy, if there were but such another man for you, if you were to give me 40 such men, I could never be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I can never have your happiness.
- [26:50]
Cassie Toller
No, no, let me shift for myself.
- [26:52]
Narrator
And perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time. The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not be long a secret. Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it to Mrs. Phillips, and she ventured, without any permission, to do the same by all her neighbors in Meryton. The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world, though only a few weeks before, when Lydia had first run away, they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune. Chapter 56. One morning, about a week after Bingley's engagement with Jane had been formed, as he and the females of the family were sitting together in the dining room, their attention was suddenly drawn to the window by the sound of a carriage, and they perceived a chaise and four driving up the lawn. It was too early in the morning for visitors, and besides, the equipage did not answer to that of any of their neighbors. So the equipage is the carriage and the horse and the driver and everything associated with it. So a carriage is pulling up, but they don't recognize it. The horses were posed, and neither the carriage nor the livery of the servant who preceded it were familiar to them. As it was certain, however, that somebody was coming. Bingley instantly prevailed on Ms. Bennet to avoid the confinement of such an intrusion and walk away with him. Into the shrubbery they both set off, and the conjectures of the remaining three continued, though with little satisfaction, till the door was thrown open and their visitor entered. It was Lady Catherine de Bourgh. They were, of course, all intending to Be surprised, but their astonishment was beyond their expectation, and on the part of Mrs. Bennet and Kitty, though she was perfectly unknown to them, even inferior to what Elizabeth felt, she entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious, made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation than a slight inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a word. Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother on her ladyship's entrance, though no request of introduction had been made. Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost politeness. After sitting for a moment in silence, she said very stiffly to Elizabeth, I hope you are well, Ms. Bennet. That lady, I suppose, is your mother. Elizabeth replied very concisely, that she was. And that, I suppose, is one of your sisters. Yes, madam, said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to a Lady Catherine. She is my youngest girl but one. My youngest of all is lately married, and my eldest is somewhere about the ground, walking with a young man who I believe will soon become a part of the family. You have a very small park here, returned Lady Catherine after a short silence. It is nothing in comparison to Rosings.
- [29:54]
Cassie Toller
My lady, I dare say, but I.
- [29:56]
Narrator
Assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas. This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening. In summer the windows are full west. Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner, and then added, may I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left Mr. And Mrs. Collins? Well, yes, very well. I saw them the night before last. Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling. So it's totally unclear why Lady Catherine is here, and Elizabeth is trying to figure it out, though it would be rude to just come out and ask.
- [30:37]
Cassie Toller
Her, so she thinks.
- [30:38]
Narrator
Maybe she has a message for her from the Collinses. But no letter appeared, and she was completely puzzled. Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to take some refreshment. But Lady Catherine, very resolutely and not very politely, declined, eating anything, and then rising up, said to Elizabeth, miss Bennet, there seem to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company. Go, my dear, cried her mother, and show her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage. Elizabeth obeyed, and, running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble Guest downstairs. As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining parlour and drawing room, and, pronouncing them, after a short survey to be decent looking rooms, walked on. Her carriage remained at the door, and Elizabeth saw that her waiting woman was in it. They proceeded in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse. Elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable. How could I ever think her like her nephew? Said she as she looked into her face. As soon as they entered the copse, Lady Catherine began in the following manner. You can be at no loss, Ms. Bennet, to understand the reason of my journey hither. Your own heart, your own conscience must tell you why I come. Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment. Indeed you are mistaken, madam. I have not been at all able to account for the honour of seeing you here. Ms. Bennet, replied her ladyship in an angry tone, you ought to know that I am not to be trifled with. But however insincere you may choose to be, you shall not find me so. My character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness, and in a cause of such moment as this, I shall certainly not depart from it. A report of a most alarming nature reached me two days ago. I was told that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageously married, but that you, that Ms. Elizabeth Bennet, would in all likelihood be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy. Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible, I instantly resolved on setting off for this place, that I might make my sentiments known to you. So Lady Catherine has heard that Elizabeth and Darcy are engaged, or will soon be engaged, and she wants to put a stop to it, since Elizabeth is so much lower socially than Darcy, and also because she wants Darcy for her own daughter. If you believed it impossible to be true, said Elizabeth, colouring with astonishment and disdain, I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it? At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted. You're coming to Longbourn to see me and my family, said Elizabeth coolly, will be rather a confirmation of it, if indeed such a report is in existence. So she's saying that the fact that Lady Catherine is visiting them will confirm this rumor of Darcy wanting to marry her. Because why else would she come to visit Elizabeth's family? If. Do you then pretend to be ignorant of it? Has it not been industriously circulated by yourselves? Do you not know that such a report is spread abroad? I never heard that it was. And can you likewise declare that there is no foundation for it? I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer. So, even though Elizabeth is not at all engaged to Darcy and has no idea why Lady Catherine thinks that she is, Lady Catherine is being so rude.
- [34:56]
Cassie Toller
That Elizabeth is refusing to tell her.
- [34:58]
Narrator
That there actually is no engagement? This is not to be borne, Miss Bennet. I insist on being satisfied. Has he? Has my nephew made you an offer of marriage? Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible. It ought to be so. It must be so, while he retains the use of his reason. But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in. If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it. Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns. But you are not entitled to know mine, nor will such behaviour as this ever induce me to be explicit. Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place. No. Never. Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now what have you to say? Only this, that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me. Lady Catherine hesitated for a moment and then replied, the engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy they have been intended for each other. It was the favorite wish of his mother as well as of hers. While in their cradles we planned the union. And now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished, is their marriage to be prevented by a young woman of inferior. Inferior birth, of no importance in the world and wholly unallied to the family? Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends? To his tacit engagement with Miss de Bourgh? Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy? Have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours, he was destined for his cousin? So she's saying that Darcy isn't actually engaged to Miss de Bourgh? Only that Lady Catherine and Darcy's mother hoped that they would get married. Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry. Miss de Bourgh, you both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honour nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him? Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest. Forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest. For do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends. If you willfully act against the inclinations of all, you will be censured, slighted and despised by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace. Your name will never even be mentioned by any of us. So she's saying that if Elizabeth marries Darcy, then no one in Darcy's family will acknowledge her. These are heavy misfortunes, replied Elizabeth. But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine. Obstinate, headstrong girl. I am ashamed of you. Is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring? Is nothing due to me on that score? Let us sit down. You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose. Nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person's whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment. That will make your ladyship's situation at present more pitiable, but it will have no effect on me. I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended on the maternal side from the same noble line, and on the fathers from respectable, honourable, and ancient, though untitled families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses. And what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family connections or fortune. Is this to be endured? It must not, shall not be. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up. In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman, I am a gentleman's daughter. So far we are equal. True, you are a gentleman's daughter, but what of your mother, who are your uncles and Aunts, do not imagine me ignorant of their condition. Whatever my connections may be, said Elizabeth, if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you. Tell me once and for all, are you engaged to him? Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine have answered this question, she could not but say after a moment's deliberation, I am not. Lady Catherine seemed pleased. And will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement? I will make no promise of the kind. Miss Bennet. I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require. And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your Ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter. But would my giving you the wished for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill judged. You have widely mistaken my character if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell. But you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no further on the subject. Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done to all the objections I have already urged. I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sisters infamous elopement. I know it all. That the young man's marrying her was a patched up business at the expense of your father and uncle. And is such a girl to be my nephew's sister? Is her husband, who is the son of his late father's steward, to be his brother. Heaven and earth, of what are you thinking are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted? You can now have nothing further to say. She resentfully answered. You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house. And she rose as she spoke. Lady Catherine rose also. And they turned back. Her ladyship was highly incensed. You have no regard then for the honor and credit of my nephew? Unfeeling, selfish girl. Do you not consider that a connection with. You must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody? Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments. You are then resolved to have him? I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me. It is well. You refuse then, to oblige me? You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honour and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends and make him the contempt of the world. Neither duty, nor honor nor gratitude, replied Elizabeth, has any possible claim on me in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy, and with regard to the resentment of his family or the indignation of the world. If the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment's concern and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn. And this is your real opinion? This is your final resolve? Very well. I shall now know how to act. Do not imagine, Ms. Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I hoped to find you reasonable. But depend upon it, I will carry my point in this manner. Lady Catherine talked on till they were at the door of the carriage, when, turning hastily round, she added, I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased. Elizabeth made no answer, and without attempting to persuade her ladyship to return into the house, walked quietly into it herself. She heard the carriage drive away. As she proceeded upstairs, her mother impatiently met her at the door of her dressing room to ask why Lady Catherine would not come in again and rest herself. She did not choose it, said her daughter. She would go. She is a very fine looking woman and her calling here was prodigiously civil, for she only came, I suppose, to tell us the Collinses are well. She is on her road somewhere, I dare say, and so passing through Meryton thought she might as well call on you. I suppose she had nothing particular to say to you, Lizzy. Elizabeth was forced to give in to a little falsehood here, for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was impossible.
- [46:06]
Faith Moore
Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought of the chapters. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website, faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the show notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode. Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor. This is an independent podcast. It's produced, recorded and marketed by me, so I need your help. Spread the word about the show by posting about it on social media or texting a link to your friends. Don't forget to subscribe. Tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. And if you're able to support the show financially, there's a link in the show notes to make a donation. I would really, really appreciate it. Alright everyone, story time is over.
- [47:04]
Narrator
To be continued.