Chapter 25C

But in spite of the certainty in which Elizabeth affected to placethis point, as well as the still more interesting one of Bingley’sbeing withheld from seeing Jane, she felt a solicitude on thesubject which convinced her, on examination, that she did notconsider it entirely hopeless. It was possible, and sometimes shethought it probable, that his affection might be re-animated, andthe influence of his friends successfully combated by the morenatural influence of Jane’s attractions.Miss Bennet accepted her aunt’s invitation with pleasure; andthe Bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the time, thanas she hoped that, by Caroline’s not living in the same house withher brother, she might occasionally spend a morning with her,without any danger of seeing him.The Gardiners staid a week at Longbourn; and what with thePhilipses, the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a daywithout its engagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided forthe entertainment of her brother and sister, that they did not once sit down to a family dinner. When the engagement was for home,some of the officers always made part of it, of which officers Mr.Wickham was sure to be one; and on these occasions, Mrs.Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth’s warmcommendation of him, narrowly observed them both. Withoutsupposing them, from what she saw, to be very seriously in love,their preference of each other was plain enough to make her alittle uneasy; and she resolved to speak to Elizabeth on the subjectbefore she left Hertfordshire, and represent to her the imprudenceof encouraging such an attachment.To Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham had one means of affordingpleasure, unconnected with his general powers. About ten or adozen years ago, before her marriage, she had spent aconsiderable time in that very part of Derbyshire, to which hebelonged. They had, therefore, many acquaintance in common;and, though Wickham had been little there since the death ofDarcy’s father, five years before, it was yet in his power to give herfresher intelligence of her former friends, than she had been in theway of procuring.Mrs. Gardiner had seen Pemberley, and known the late Mr.Darcy by character perfectly well. Here consequently was aninexhaustible subject of discourse. In comparing her recollectionof Pemberley, with the minute description which Wickham couldgive, and in bestowing her tribute of praise on the character of itslate possessor, she was delighting both him and herself. On beingmade acquainted with the present Mr. Darcy’s treatment of him,she tried to remember something of that gentleman’s reputeddisposition when quite a lad, which might agree with it, and wasconfident at last, that she recollected having heard Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-natured boy.