Elizabeth could no longer keep Darcy’s proposal from Jane.
The next morning, she finally decided to tell her sister what had happened.
She left out the details that directly involved Jane and Bingley, because she did not want to upset Jane.
Instead, she simply told her the main points of Darcy’s proposal.
Jane was surprised at first.
But because she naturally believed the best of Elizabeth, she soon accepted that Darcy’s feelings for her sister were completely believable.
Her surprise quickly turned into sympathy.
“I am sorry that Mr. Darcy expressed his feelings in such an unpleasant way.”
“But I feel even worse thinking about how much your refusal must have hurt him.”
“He was certainly wrong to be so confident that you would accept him.”
“He should not have shown such confidence.”
“But Lizzy, just think how much more painful the rejection must have been for him because of it.”
“I do feel sorry for him,” Elizabeth admitted.
“But he has other feelings that will probably soon make him forget me.”
“You don’t blame me for refusing him, do you?”
“Blame you? Of course not.”
“But you do blame me for speaking so strongly about Wickham?”
“No. I don’t think you were wrong to say what you believed.”
“You may change your mind when I tell you what happened the next day.”
Elizabeth then told Jane about Darcy’s letter.
She explained everything it said about Wickham.
Jane was horrified.
She had always believed that people were basically good.
It was painful for her to accept that one person could be guilty of so much dishonesty and selfishness.
Although Darcy’s explanation made her feel better about him, it could not make the truth about Wickham any easier to accept.
Jane tried to find some way that both men could still be innocent.
“This must be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Perhaps Darcy has made a mistake.”
“Perhaps Wickham has also been misunderstood.”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“That won’t work.”
“You can’t make both of them good men.”
“You have to choose one.”
“There is only enough goodness between the two of them to make one decent man.”
“And lately, most of it seems to have moved from Wickham to Darcy.”
“As for me, I am beginning to believe that it all belongs to Mr. Darcy.”
“But you are free to decide for yourself.”
It took Jane some time before she could even smile.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so shocked.”
“Wickham is really that bad?”
“It is almost impossible to believe.”
“And poor Mr. Darcy!”
“Lizzy, think about what he must have suffered.”
“To love you and then be rejected must have been terrible.”
“Especially when he already knew that you thought so badly of him.”
“And then he had to tell you such an unpleasant story about his own sister.”
“It must have been extremely painful for him.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“No, your sympathy has taken care of mine.”
“I know you will feel sorry for him enough for both of us.”
“The more you pity him, the less I feel the need to.”
“If you continue feeling sorry for him, my heart will be as light as a feather.”
Jane still could not completely let go of her old opinion of Wickham.
“Poor Wickham.”
“He always looks so kind.”
“And there is something so open and gentle about him.”
Elizabeth sighed.
“I suppose someone seriously failed when those two men were growing up.”
“One of them was given all the goodness.”
“The other was given all the appearance of goodness.”
“I never thought Mr. Darcy looked as unpleasant as you once claimed.”
“And yet I was so proud of myself for disliking him without any real reason.”
“It felt clever.”
“Disliking someone gives you endless opportunities to make jokes about him.”
“You can criticize him whenever you want.”
“And if you keep making fun of someone long enough, you are bound to say something witty sooner or later.”
“Lizzy, when you first read Darcy’s letter, you couldn’t have laughed about it like this.”
“Certainly not.”
“I was miserable.”
“I was extremely upset.”
“And I had no one to talk to.”
“I didn’t have my Jane there to comfort me.”
“I needed you so badly.”
“I knew I had behaved foolishly and vainly, but I needed you to tell me that I wasn’t quite as ridiculous as I felt.”
Jane looked at her sadly.
“It is unfortunate that you spoke so harshly about Wickham to Mr. Darcy.”
“Now that we know the truth, your words seem completely unfair.”
“I know.”
“But speaking so bitterly was the natural result of the prejudice I had been building up.”
“There is something else I need your advice about.”
“Should I tell everyone here what Wickham is really like?”
Jane thought about it carefully.
“Surely you don’t need to expose him so publicly.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think we should say anything.”
“Darcy never gave me permission to make his letter public.”
“Especially everything concerning Georgiana.”
“He clearly wanted that part to remain private.”
“And if I tried to correct everyone’s opinion of Wickham, who would believe me?”
“Everyone in Meryton already dislikes Darcy.”
“Their prejudice against him is so strong that half the town would probably collapse from shock if I tried to make them see him as a good man.”
“I couldn’t convince them.”
“Wickham will be leaving soon anyway.”
“Once he is gone, it won’t matter much to the people here what he is really like.”
“Eventually, the truth will come out.”
“And then we can laugh at everyone for being so foolish.”
“For now, I will say nothing.”
Jane nodded.
“I think you’re right.”
“If Wickham’s mistakes were made public, his reputation might be ruined forever.”
“Perhaps he already regrets what he has done.”
“He may even be trying to repair his reputation.”
“We shouldn’t push him so far that he gives up trying.”
Their conversation finally brought Elizabeth some peace.
For two weeks, she had been carrying several heavy secrets.
Now she had told Jane two of them.
She also knew that Jane would always listen if she needed to talk about either Darcy or Wickham again.
But one secret still remained.
Elizabeth could not tell Jane the other half of Darcy’s letter.
She could not explain how deeply Bingley had cared about Jane.
That was something she had to keep to herself.
She felt that only a real understanding between Bingley and Jane could make it proper for her to reveal it.
She thought about it privately.
“If that almost impossible thing ever happens, Bingley will be able to tell Jane himself.”
“And he will probably explain it much better than I ever could.”
“I cannot tell her until the information is no longer important.”
Back at Longbourn, Elizabeth finally had enough time to observe Jane closely.
It was obvious that Jane was not happy.
She still loved Bingley deeply.
Jane had never been in love before.
Because of that, her first love had taken a very strong hold on her.
Her feelings were also steady and serious because of her calm nature.
She still thought of Bingley more warmly than she thought of any other man.
Only her good sense and concern for her friends kept her from constantly thinking about what she had lost.
Elizabeth knew that too much regret would only make Jane unhappy and harm everyone’s peace of mind.
One day, Mrs. Bennet brought up the subject again.
“Well, Lizzy, what do you think about Jane’s unfortunate situation now?”
“As for me, I have decided never to mention it to anyone again.”
“I even told your Aunt Philips that the other day.”
“But I cannot find out whether Jane saw anything of Bingley while she was in London.”
“He is such an undeserving young man.”
“I don’t suppose there is the slightest chance of Jane getting him now.”
“I’ve heard nothing about him returning to Netherfield this summer.”
“I’ve asked everyone who might possibly know.”
“I don’t believe he will ever live at Netherfield again,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, then, that’s his choice.”
“Nobody is asking him to come back.”
“Although I will always say that he treated my daughter terribly.”
“If I were Jane, I certainly would not have tolerated it.”
“But there is one thing that comforts me.”
“I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart.”
“And when that happens, he will be sorry for what he has done.”
Elizabeth could not possibly find comfort in such a thought.
So she said nothing.
A little later, Mrs. Bennet changed the subject.
“Well, Lizzy, the Collinses are living very comfortably, I suppose?”
“I hope it continues.”
“What sort of food do they have?”
“Charlotte must be an excellent housekeeper.”
“If she is anything like her mother, she must be very careful with money.”
“They certainly aren’t wasteful, I imagine.”
“No, not at all.”
“I thought so.”
“They must be very good at managing their money.”
“They will never spend more than they can afford.”
“They’ll never have money problems.”
“Well, good luck to them.”
“And I suppose they often talk about inheriting Longbourn after your father dies.”
“They probably think of it as their own already.”
“They couldn’t talk about that in front of me,” Elizabeth replied.
“No, of course not.”
“That would have been very strange.”
“But I’m sure they talk about it when you’re not there.”
“Well, if they can feel comfortable thinking about an estate that doesn’t legally belong to them, that’s their business.”
“I would be ashamed to have a property that was only mine because of an inheritance rule.”