A few days after his last visit, Mr. Bingley came to Longbourn again. This time, he came alone.
Darcy had left for London that morning and was expected to return home in about ten days.
Bingley stayed for more than an hour. He was cheerful, relaxed, and clearly in an excellent mood.
Mrs. Bennet quickly invited him to stay for dinner.
Bingley looked embarrassed.
“I’m very sorry, Mrs. Bennet, but I’m already expected somewhere else.”
“Perhaps we’ll have better luck next time you visit,” Mrs. Bennet said.
“I certainly hope so. I would be very happy to dine with you whenever I can.”
“Then can you come tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Yes, I’m completely free.”
He accepted the invitation immediately.
The next day, Bingley arrived so early that none of the Bennet women were dressed yet.
Mrs. Bennet rushed into Jane and Elizabeth’s room wearing her dressing gown, her hair only half done.
“My dear Jane, hurry! Hurry downstairs! Mr. Bingley is here. He really is!”
She turned toward the maid.
“Sarah, come here at once and help Miss Bennet get dressed. Forget about Miss Lizzy’s hair for now.”
“We’ll come down as soon as we can,” Jane replied. “But I think Kitty may be ready before us. She went upstairs half an hour ago.”
“Oh, forget Kitty!” Mrs. Bennet cried impatiently. “What does she matter right now? Come on, hurry! Where is your sash, my dear?”
But after her mother left, Jane refused to go downstairs without Elizabeth or one of her other sisters.
That evening, Mrs. Bennet was just as determined to leave Jane and Bingley alone.
After tea, Mr. Bennet went to the library as usual, while Mary went upstairs to play the piano.
Two people were now out of the way.
Mrs. Bennet sat across from Elizabeth and Kitty, staring at them and repeatedly trying to catch their attention.
Elizabeth deliberately ignored her.
Eventually, Kitty noticed.
“What is it, Mama? Why do you keep winking at me? What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing, child. Nothing. I wasn’t winking at you.”
Mrs. Bennet sat quietly for another five minutes.
But she could not bear to waste such a perfect opportunity.
Suddenly, she stood up.
“Kitty, come with me, my love. I need to speak to you.”
She took Kitty out of the room.
Jane immediately looked at Elizabeth.
Her expression clearly said that she hated what their mother was trying to do and begged Elizabeth not to cooperate.
A few minutes later, Mrs. Bennet opened the door slightly.
“Lizzy, my dear, come here. I need to speak with you.”
Elizabeth had no choice but to follow her.
“We might as well leave them alone, you know,” Mrs. Bennet whispered once they were in the hallway. “Kitty and I are going upstairs to sit in my dressing room.”
Elizabeth did not bother arguing.
She simply waited in the hallway until her mother and Kitty disappeared upstairs.
Then she quietly returned to the drawing room.
Mrs. Bennet’s plan had failed.
Bingley was charming, cheerful, and pleasant company. He was everything a young man could be—except that he had not yet officially become Jane’s husband.
He handled Mrs. Bennet’s endless questions and foolish comments with remarkable patience.
Elizabeth was especially pleased to see how calmly he tolerated her mother.
He hardly needed to be asked to stay for supper.
Before leaving that night, Bingley also arranged to return the next morning to go shooting with Mr. Bennet.
After that evening, Jane never again mentioned being indifferent to Bingley.
Neither sister directly spoke about him.
But when Elizabeth went to bed that night, she felt almost certain that everything would soon be settled.
The only thing that worried her was Darcy.
If he returned within the ten days he had mentioned, perhaps something could still change.
But Elizabeth now strongly suspected that Bingley’s return to Jane had happened with Darcy’s approval.
The next morning, Bingley arrived exactly on time.
He and Mr. Bennet spent the morning shooting together, just as they had planned.
Mr. Bennet was pleasantly surprised.
He had expected Bingley to be rather foolish and perhaps difficult to tolerate.
Instead, Bingley was sensible, friendly, and easy to talk to.
There was nothing about him that made Mr. Bennet want to laugh at him or withdraw into silence.
In fact, Bingley seemed more open and less eccentric than Mr. Bennet had ever seen him.
Naturally, Bingley returned to Longbourn with Mr. Bennet for dinner.
That evening, Mrs. Bennet once again tried to create an opportunity for Bingley and Jane to be alone.
After tea, everyone was preparing to play cards.
Elizabeth had a letter to write, so she went into the breakfast room.
That meant she would not be around to interfere with whatever her mother had planned.
When she finished her letter and returned to the drawing room, she was shocked by what she saw.
Jane and Bingley were standing together near the fireplace.
They appeared to have been having a serious conversation.
As soon as Elizabeth opened the door, they quickly turned away from each other.
Their embarrassed expressions made everything obvious.
Elizabeth suddenly felt as awkward as they did.
Neither of them said a word.
Elizabeth was about to leave again when Bingley sat down for a moment, then suddenly stood up.
He quietly whispered something to Jane and hurried out of the room.
Jane immediately ran to Elizabeth and threw her arms around her.
She was overwhelmed with happiness.
“Lizzy, I’m the happiest woman in the world!”
She could hardly contain herself.
“It’s almost too much. Far too much. I don’t deserve to be this happy. Oh, why can’t everyone be as happy as I am?”
Elizabeth hugged her warmly.
“I’m so happy for you, Jane. Truly.”
Jane could see how sincere she was.
Every kind word from Elizabeth made her happiness even greater.
But she could not stay there any longer.
“I have to go to Mama at once,” Jane said.
“I can’t let her hear this from anyone else. She has been worrying about me for so long. I have to tell her myself.”
She smiled through her tears.
“He has already gone to speak to Papa.”
Then she looked at Elizabeth with shining eyes.
“Oh, Lizzy, just think how happy this will make everyone in our family! I don’t know how I can possibly contain all this happiness.”
Jane hurried upstairs to find her mother.
Mrs. Bennet had deliberately ended the card game and was waiting there with Kitty.
Elizabeth was left alone in the drawing room.
She smiled to herself.
After all those months of uncertainty, worry, and disappointment, everything had been settled so quickly.
“So this is how it ends,” she murmured.
“All that careful planning by Mr. Bingley’s friend, all his sister’s lies and interference—and this is the result. The happiest, simplest, and most sensible ending possible.”
A few minutes later, Bingley came back.
His conversation with Mr. Bennet had clearly been short and successful.
He opened the door and immediately looked around.
“Where is your sister?”
“She’s upstairs with my mother. I’m sure she’ll be down soon.”
Bingley closed the door.
Then he walked toward Elizabeth with a huge smile.
“I hope you’ll give me your good wishes—and accept me as a brother.”
Elizabeth happily shook his hand.
“I couldn’t be happier about it. You have my sincerest congratulations.”
They shook hands warmly.
Until Jane returned, Elizabeth had to listen to Bingley talk about his happiness and about everything he admired in Jane.
He could hardly stop praising her.
And Elizabeth did not think his hopes of a happy marriage were unreasonable.
Jane was kind, gentle, sensible, and good-natured. Their personalities and tastes were also remarkably similar.
Everything suggested that they would be very happy together.
It was an evening of extraordinary happiness for the whole family.
Jane looked happier and more beautiful than Elizabeth had ever seen her.
Kitty smiled and giggled, already hoping that her own turn would come soon.
Mrs. Bennet was so excited that she could hardly express her approval strongly enough.
For nearly half an hour, she talked to Bingley about nothing except Jane and the marriage.
When Mr. Bennet joined them for supper, his happiness was obvious from his voice and expression.
Still, he said nothing about the engagement while Bingley was there.
Only after Bingley had left for the night did Mr. Bennet turn to Jane.
“Jane, congratulations. I believe you are going to be a very happy woman.”
Jane immediately went to him, kissed him, and thanked him.
“You’re a good girl,” he said.
“I’m very pleased that you seem to have found such a good match. I have no doubt that you’ll be happy together.”
He paused, then smiled.
“You have rather similar personalities. You are both so agreeable that you’ll probably never make a firm decision about anything. You’re both so trusting that your servants will take advantage of you. And you’re both so generous that you’ll probably spend more money than you earn.”
Jane laughed.
“I hope we won’t be that careless with money. I certainly don’t think financial foolishness would be acceptable.”
“Spend more than they earn?” Mrs. Bennet cried. “My dear Mr. Bennet, what are you talking about? Mr. Bingley has four or five thousand pounds a year, perhaps even more!”
Then she turned excitedly toward Jane.
“Oh, my dear Jane! I’m so happy! I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink tonight.”
“I knew this would happen eventually. I always knew it!”
“I remember the very first time I saw Mr. Bingley in Hertfordshire last year. I thought at once that the two of you might marry.”
She clasped her hands together.
“He is the handsomest young man I have ever seen!”
For the moment, Wickham and Lydia were completely forgotten.
Jane had become Mrs. Bennet’s favorite daughter.
Her younger sisters quickly realized that Jane’s marriage might bring them opportunities too.
Mary asked if she could use the library at Netherfield.
Kitty begged her mother to arrange for a few dances there every winter.
From that point on, Bingley became a daily visitor at Longbourn.
He often arrived before breakfast and usually stayed until after supper.
The only thing that could keep him away was an invitation to dinner from some neighbor.
Even then, he only accepted because he felt it would be rude not to.
Elizabeth now had little opportunity to talk privately with Jane.
Whenever Bingley was there, Jane could think of almost nothing except him.
But Elizabeth became useful to both of them whenever they were separated.
When Jane was not around, Bingley happily stayed beside Elizabeth and talked endlessly about Jane.
When Bingley was gone, Jane did exactly the same thing with Elizabeth.
One evening, Jane said,
“He made me so happy when he told me that he truly had no idea I was in London last spring. I could hardly believe it.”
“I suspected that might be the case,” Elizabeth replied. “But how did he explain it?”
“It must have been his sisters.”
“They certainly didn’t want him to continue seeing me. I can understand why, in a way. They probably thought he could make a much better marriage.”
“But once they see how happy he is with me, I hope they’ll accept it.”
“Perhaps we can become friendly again.”
Jane smiled.
“Although I don’t think we could ever be as close as we once were.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“That is probably the harshest thing I have ever heard you say.”
She shook her head.
“Still, I would hate to see you fooled by Miss Bingley’s fake affection again.”
Jane suddenly looked thoughtful.
“Lizzy, would you believe that when he went to London last November, he really was in love with me?”
“Yes, I believe it.”
“He told me that if he had not been convinced that I was indifferent to him, he would have come back to Hertfordshire.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“So he made one small mistake.”
“That was all.”
“But at least it proves how modest he is,” Elizabeth said.
Jane immediately began praising Bingley’s modesty and how little he thought of his own good qualities.
Elizabeth was secretly relieved that Bingley had not told Jane about Darcy’s interference.
Jane was generous and forgiving, but Elizabeth knew that learning the truth might have made her resent Darcy.
“I really am the luckiest person in the world!” Jane exclaimed.
“Lizzy, why have I been so fortunate when everyone else in my family has had so much trouble?”
She took Elizabeth’s hand.
“If only I could see you just as happy as I am.”
Then she smiled.
“If only there were another man like Mr. Bingley for you.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“Even if you gave me forty men like Mr. Bingley, I could never be as happy as you are.”
“Until I have your goodness and your gentle nature, I don’t think I could ever have your happiness.”
She shook her head playfully.
“No, no. I’ll take care of myself.”
“Perhaps, if I’m lucky, I’ll eventually find another Mr. Collins.”
It did not take long for everyone in the neighborhood to learn about Jane and Bingley.
Mrs. Bennet could not resist telling Mrs. Philips.
Mrs. Philips then told nearly everyone she knew in Meryton.
Before long, the Bennets were being described as the luckiest family in the world.
Only a few weeks earlier, when Lydia had run away, everyone had been certain that the Bennet family was destined for disaster.
Now, their fortunes seemed to have completely changed.