In Darcy's Debt by Gwendolyn Dash

Author:Gwendolyn Dash [Dash, Gwendolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pride & Printing Press

Chapter 12

Mr. Bennet studied her for a long time and with some unknown emotion masking his countenance. “Let me advise you to think very hard on this, especially as he intends to whisk you away to a church before noon. I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband, unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery.”

Elizabeth was appalled. “I hope you think somewhat better of me than that! Do not let your disappointment in one child’s wild behavior lead you to think we are all of us lacking.”

“I assure you, I do not. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life.”

Elizabeth listened intently to his warning, but could not see through to an alternative. She felt as if she were trapped on a runaway carriage. The time for stopping Mr. Darcy had been when he first represented them as engaged, or when he came again and again, as a lover, to the Gardiners’ townhouse. Certainly it would have been before he procured for them a special license. The news would get out; the gossip would be unbearable.

And, Elizabeth was forced to admit, she had to own up to her own part in this predicament. She had not stopped him. She had not corrected him, to the Gardiners, to Mr. Darcy himself.

But what was the good in expressing any of that now? The time for contemplation had passed. “I do not think there is any danger in that. If anything, Mr. Darcy is too correct in his behavior, too concerned with propriety.”

“Is he?” Mr. Bennet raised an eyebrow. “He flew into this house with a special license and no permission from the father of the intended bride.”

And he had sent her a secret letter detailing all his private dealings. And he had proposed to a girl with no fortune. And…and…and… “I am as surprised as you. A special license, as if I were the daughter of a duke.”

Mr. Bennet laughed. “No, you are not that, though you may have all the jewels and carriages of one.” He seemed to think this all over for a long moment, but at last he said, “I suppose he must love you very much, Lizzy. And for that alone, I am inclined to think well of him. To add to this, his kindness toward our family…” He took a breath. “If you are resolved, how can I be otherwise?”

“Thank you, Papa.”

“But how shall this come about? The man outside seems determined to be quick about it.”

Yes, and possibly with good reason. She did not know what Mr. Darcy had heard, but she doubted he would have taken this drastic step without a strong cause.

“I would give you away, but I had determined that I would not see Lydia again until she was good and married.

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