Mr. Bennet’s family lived on an annual income of about two thousand pounds from his estate. Unfortunately, the property was legally tied to a male heir, so after his death, it would pass to a distant male relative instead of his daughters.
Mrs. Bennet had some money of her own, but not enough to make up for what her daughters would lose.
Her father had been a lawyer in Meryton and had left her four thousand pounds.
Mrs. Bennet also had a sister, Mrs. Philips, who was married to a man who had once worked for their father and later took over his business.
She had a brother as well, who lived in London and had a respectable business.
Longbourn was only about a mile from Meryton, which was extremely convenient for the younger Bennet sisters.
They usually went there several times a week to visit their aunt and spend time at the local shops.
Catherine and Lydia went most often.
They had little to keep them busy at home, so when nothing more interesting came up, they went to Meryton simply to fill their mornings and have something to talk about later.
Their aunt always seemed to have some new piece of gossip.
And recently, the arrival of a militia regiment had given them plenty to talk about.
The soldiers were going to stay in the area for the whole winter, and Meryton was their headquarters.
Every visit to Mrs. Philips brought the girls more information about the officers.
Before long, they knew the officers’ names, where they lived, and who they were connected to.
Mr. Philips visited many of the officers himself, which gave Catherine and Lydia even more opportunities to hear about them.
Soon, they could talk about almost nothing else.
To them, even Mr. Bingley’s large fortune was not nearly as exciting as a handsome young officer in uniform.
One morning, after listening to his two youngest daughters talk endlessly about the soldiers, Mr. Bennet finally spoke.
“From the way you two talk, I believe you must be the silliest girls in the whole country.”
“I’ve suspected it for some time, but now I’m certain.”
Catherine became embarrassed and said nothing.
Lydia, however, was not bothered at all.
She continued talking about Captain Carter and how much she hoped to see him that day, since he was leaving for London the following morning.
Mrs. Bennet looked at her husband in surprise.
“My dear, I’m amazed that you are so willing to call your own children silly.”
“If I wanted to think badly of anyone’s children, I certainly wouldn’t choose my own.”
“If my children are silly, I hope I’ll always be able to recognize it.”
“Oh, please. All five of them are very intelligent.”
“That is the one thing we clearly disagree about.”
“I had hoped we agreed on everything, but I have to say that our two youngest daughters are unusually foolish.”
“My dear Mr. Bennet, you can’t expect young girls to have the same good sense as their parents.”
“When they are our age, I’m sure they won’t care about officers any more than we do.”
“I remember when I was young. I liked a man in a red coat myself.”
“And, honestly, I still do.”
“If a handsome young colonel earning five or six thousand pounds a year wanted to marry one of my daughters, I certainly wouldn’t object.”
“I thought Colonel Forster looked especially handsome in his uniform the other night at Sir William’s house.”
“Mamma!” Lydia suddenly said.
“My aunt says Colonel Forster and Captain Carter don’t visit Miss Watson nearly as often as they used to.”
“She often sees them now standing around in Clarke’s library.”
Before Mrs. Bennet could answer, a servant entered with a letter for Jane.
It was from Netherfield.
The servant waited while Jane opened it.
Mrs. Bennet immediately became excited.
“Well, Jane, who is it from?”
“What does it say?”
“What does he want?”
“Come on, Jane. Hurry up and tell us.”
“It’s from Miss Bingley,” Jane said.
She opened the letter and read it aloud.
“My dear friend,
“If you are not kind enough to come and have dinner with Louisa and me today, I’m afraid we may end up hating each other by tonight.”
“A whole day alone together is more than two women can be expected to survive without an argument.”
“Please come as soon as you receive this.”
“My brother and the other gentlemen will be dining with the officers.”
“Yours sincerely, Caroline Bingley.”
“With the officers?” Lydia exclaimed.
“I wonder why Aunt Philips didn’t tell us!”
Mrs. Bennet immediately looked disappointed.
“Dining out? That’s very unfortunate.”
“Can I take the carriage?” Jane asked.
“No, my dear. You should go on horseback.”
“It looks as though it might rain, so if you ride there, you can stay the night.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“That would be a good plan if you were certain they wouldn’t send her home.”
“Oh, they’ll have Mr. Bingley’s carriage when they go to Meryton.”
“And the Hursts don’t have horses for their carriage anyway.”
“I would much rather take the carriage.”
“But your father needs the horses, doesn’t he, Mr. Bennet?”
“They are needed on the farm far more often than I can get hold of them.”
“But if you have them available today,” Elizabeth said, “then that solves my mother’s problem.”
After some discussion, Mr. Bennet finally admitted that the horses were already needed on the farm.
Jane had no choice but to ride to Netherfield.
Mrs. Bennet happily walked her to the door, making cheerful predictions that the weather would soon become terrible.
Her prediction came true.
Jane had barely left before heavy rain began to fall.
Her sisters worried about her.
Mrs. Bennet, however, was delighted.
The rain continued throughout the entire evening.
There was no chance Jane would be able to return home.
Mrs. Bennet repeatedly congratulated herself.
“That was a very clever idea of mine!”
She did not yet realize just how pleased she was going to be with her plan.
The next morning, shortly after breakfast, a servant from Netherfield arrived with another letter.
This time, it was for Elizabeth.
“My dearest Lizzie,
“I’m feeling quite unwell this morning, probably because I got completely soaked yesterday.”
“My kind friends won’t allow me to return home until I feel better.”
“They also insist that I see Mr. Jones, so please don’t worry if you hear that he has come to examine me.”
“Other than a sore throat and a headache, I’m not seriously ill.”
“Yours affectionately.”
Elizabeth read the letter aloud.
Mr. Bennet looked at his wife.
“Well, my dear, if Jane becomes seriously ill and actually dies, at least you can comfort yourself with the thought that she did it all while following your plan to get closer to Mr. Bingley.”
Mrs. Bennet was not worried.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Nobody dies from an ordinary cold.”
“She’ll be perfectly well taken care of.”
“As long as she stays at Netherfield, I’m perfectly happy.”
“I would go and see her myself if I had the carriage.”
Elizabeth was genuinely worried about Jane.
Since there was no carriage available, she decided to walk to Netherfield.
She was not a good rider anyway, so walking was her only real option.
“I’m going to see Jane,” she announced.
Her mother stared at her.
“How can you possibly think of walking all the way there in this horrible mud?”
“You’ll look absolutely terrible when you arrive.”
“I only care about seeing Jane.”
“That’s all that matters to me.”
Mr. Bennet smiled.
“Lizzy, is that your way of asking me to send the horses?”
“No, Papa.”
“I’m perfectly willing to walk.”
“It’s only three miles, and when you have a good reason for going somewhere, the distance doesn’t matter.”
“I’ll be back by dinner.”
Mary looked thoughtful.
“I admire your willingness to help your sister.”
“But I believe feelings should always be controlled by reason.”
“In my opinion, the amount of effort we make should always match the seriousness of the situation.”
Catherine and Lydia immediately volunteered to walk with Elizabeth as far as Meryton.
Elizabeth agreed, and the three sisters set off together.
“If we walk quickly,” Lydia said, “perhaps we’ll see Captain Carter before he leaves.”
When they reached Meryton, the sisters separated.
Catherine and Lydia went to visit one of the officers’ wives.
Elizabeth continued toward Netherfield alone.
She walked quickly across one field after another.
She climbed over fences, stepped through muddy paths, and jumped over puddles without slowing down.
By the time she finally saw Netherfield in the distance, she was exhausted.
Her stockings were dirty, her shoes were muddy, and her face was glowing from the exercise.
When Elizabeth entered the house, she was shown into the breakfast room.
Everyone except Jane was there.
Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley were both surprised that Elizabeth had walked three miles so early in the morning, especially in such terrible weather and without anyone accompanying her.
Elizabeth could tell that they thought her behavior was improper and rather ridiculous.
Still, they welcomed her politely.
Mr. Bingley was even warmer.
He greeted her with genuine kindness and good humor.
Mr. Darcy said very little.
Mr. Hurst said nothing at all.
Darcy found himself watching Elizabeth.
He admired the healthy color in her face after the long walk, but he also wondered why she had been willing to come such a long distance alone.
Mr. Hurst, meanwhile, was thinking about nothing except breakfast.
Elizabeth immediately asked about Jane.
The answer worried her.
Jane had slept badly during the night.
Although she was already awake, she had a fever and was still too weak to leave her room.
Elizabeth was relieved when she was taken to Jane.
Jane was delighted to see her.
She had wanted to ask Elizabeth to come, but she had been afraid of causing trouble for her family or alarming them too much.
Now that Elizabeth was there, she was extremely grateful.
Unfortunately, Jane was too ill to talk much.
When Miss Bingley left the sisters alone, Jane could do little more than thank Elizabeth for coming.
Elizabeth stayed quietly beside her.
After breakfast, Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst came back into the room.
Elizabeth began to think more kindly of them when she saw how concerned they were about Jane.
Soon, the doctor arrived.
After examining Jane, he said that she had caught a severe cold and needed plenty of rest.
He advised her to stay in bed and promised to send her some medicine.
Jane followed his advice without argument.
Her fever was getting worse, and her headache had become very painful.
Elizabeth refused to leave her side.
The other women also stayed nearby most of the time.
With the men out of the house, there was little else for them to do.
Around three o’clock, Elizabeth finally decided that she should return home.
She was reluctant to leave Jane, but she knew her family would be waiting for her.
Miss Bingley immediately offered her the carriage.
Elizabeth needed only a little encouragement before accepting.
But when Jane heard that Elizabeth was leaving, she became upset.
Seeing how disappointed Jane was, Miss Bingley quickly changed her offer.
“Why don’t you stay here with Jane for a while?”
Elizabeth was very grateful.
“I would be happy to stay.”
A servant was sent to Longbourn to tell the family that Elizabeth would remain at Netherfield.
He was also asked to return with some clothes for her.