The two gentlemen left Rosings the next morning.
Mr. Collins had been waiting near the entrance so he could say goodbye to them properly. When he returned, he happily reported that both Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam looked healthy and were in reasonably good spirits, considering the difficult events they had recently experienced at Rosings.
He then hurried back to Rosings to comfort Lady Catherine and her daughter.
When he returned, he brought some good news.
Lady Catherine felt so bored without the two gentlemen that she wanted everyone to come to dinner with her.
Elizabeth could hardly look at Lady Catherine without thinking about what might have happened if she had accepted Darcy’s proposal.
By now, she could have been Lady Catherine’s future niece.
She could not help smiling when she imagined Lady Catherine’s reaction.
“What would she have said?”
“How would she have behaved?”
Elizabeth found the thought amusing.
At dinner, Lady Catherine immediately began talking about the two men leaving.
“I assure you, I feel their absence terribly.”
“I don’t think anyone feels the loss of friends as deeply as I do.”
“I am especially fond of these young men, and they are very fond of me too.”
“They were extremely sorry to leave.”
“But they always are.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam managed to keep his spirits up until the very end.”
“But Darcy seemed to suffer much more this time.”
“I think he felt the separation even more strongly than he did last year.”
“His attachment to Rosings is certainly growing.”
Mr. Collins quickly added a few flattering remarks about Lady Catherine and her importance to Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam.
Lady Catherine and Miss de Bourgh seemed pleased by his comments.
After dinner, Lady Catherine noticed that Elizabeth seemed unusually quiet.
She immediately decided she knew the reason.
“You don’t want to leave Hunsford so soon, do you?”
“If that’s the problem, you should write to your mother and ask to stay longer.”
“Mrs. Collins will be very happy to have you.”
Elizabeth smiled politely.
“Thank you very much for the kind invitation, Lady Catherine.”
“But unfortunately, I cannot accept it.”
“I have to be in London next Saturday.”
Lady Catherine looked surprised.
“Then you will have stayed here only six weeks.”
“I expected you to stay for two months.”
“I told Mrs. Collins that before you arrived.”
“There is really no reason for you to leave so soon.”
“Surely your mother could spare you for another two weeks.”
“My father cannot spare me,” Elizabeth replied.
“He wrote to me last week and asked me to return home.”
“Oh, your father?”
“If your mother can spare you, then your father certainly can.”
“Daughters are never quite as important to their fathers as they are to their mothers.”
“And if you stayed for another full month, I could take one of you with me to London.”
“I will be going there in early June and staying for about a week.”
“There would be plenty of room for one of you in my carriage.”
“And if the weather is cool, I wouldn’t mind taking you both.”
“You are both small enough, after all.”
Elizabeth remained polite.
“You are extremely kind, Lady Catherine.”
“But I believe we should follow our original plan.”
Lady Catherine appeared to accept this.
Then another concern occurred to her.
“Mrs. Collins, you must send a servant with them.”
“You know I always speak my mind.”
“I cannot tolerate the idea of two young women traveling alone.”
“It is completely improper.”
“You must find someone to go with them.”
“I strongly dislike young women traveling without proper protection.”
“They should always have someone with them, according to their position in society.”
“When my niece Georgiana went to Ramsgate last summer, I insisted that two male servants accompany her.”
“Miss Darcy, the daughter of Mr. Darcy of Pemberley, could not possibly have traveled in any other way.”
“I am extremely careful about such matters.”
“You must send John with these young ladies, Mrs. Collins.”
“I am glad I remembered to mention it.”
“It would be embarrassing for you to let them travel alone.”
“My uncle is sending a servant for us,” Elizabeth replied.
“Oh, your uncle!”
“He keeps a male servant, does he?”
“I am very glad someone is thinking about these things.”
“Where will you change horses?”
“Bromley, I suppose?”
“If you mention my name at the Bell, they will make sure you are properly looked after.”
Lady Catherine then asked many more questions about their journey.
Elizabeth had to pay close attention because Lady Catherine did not always answer her own questions.
In some ways, Elizabeth was grateful for this.
If she had been left alone, she might have become completely lost in her thoughts.
She had learned that the only time she could truly think was when she was by herself.
Whenever she was alone, she returned to Darcy’s letter.
She read it again and again.
Before long, she knew almost every sentence by heart.
Her feelings toward Darcy changed constantly.
Whenever she remembered the way he had proposed to her, her anger returned.
She still disliked the pride and arrogance he had shown.
But when she thought about how unfairly she had judged him, she became angry with herself instead.
She began to feel sorry for the pain her rejection had caused him.
She was grateful that he loved her.
She respected his character more than she had before.
But she still could not approve of him.
And she did not regret refusing him.
For the moment, she had no desire to see him again.
Much of her unhappiness now came from thinking about her own past behavior.
She regretted how quickly she had judged people.
She also felt deeply ashamed of her family’s behavior.
That was something she could not easily fix.
Her father was perfectly happy to laugh at his younger daughters instead of controlling them.
Her mother was even worse.
She behaved badly herself and could not understand why her daughters’ behavior was a problem.
Elizabeth had often tried to stop Catherine and Lydia from acting so foolishly.
Jane had tried too.
But their efforts were almost useless because their mother always encouraged the girls.
Catherine was weak-minded and easily irritated.
She followed Lydia’s lead and became offended whenever Elizabeth or Jane tried to correct her.
Lydia was stubborn and careless.
She barely listened to anyone.
Both girls were immature, lazy, and vain.
As long as there were officers in Meryton, they would flirt with them.
And as long as Meryton was close enough to walk to from Longbourn, they would keep going there every chance they got.
Elizabeth also could not stop worrying about Jane.
Darcy’s letter had completely changed her opinion of Bingley.
She now believed that Bingley’s love for Jane had been genuine.
He had done nothing wrong.
The only possible fault was that he had trusted Darcy’s judgment too completely.
Elizabeth felt terrible when she thought about what Jane had lost.
Jane had once had every reason to hope for a happy marriage.
Bingley was wealthy, kind, and genuinely in love with her.
It could have been a wonderful future.
And yet Jane had lost it because of the foolish and embarrassing behavior of their own family.
Then there was Wickham.
Elizabeth could no longer think about him in the same way either.
All these discoveries had completely changed her state of mind.
Elizabeth had usually been cheerful and lively.
Now it was becoming difficult for her to pretend that everything was fine.
During the final week at Hunsford, they continued visiting Rosings as often as before.
Their last evening there was spent with Lady Catherine.
As usual, Lady Catherine wanted to know every detail of their journey.
She asked how they planned to travel.
She gave them instructions about packing.
She was especially concerned about how their dresses should be placed in their trunks.
She explained the correct method with such confidence that Maria felt she had no choice but to follow her advice.
When Maria returned home, she unpacked everything she had done that morning and packed the entire trunk again.
At last, it was time to say goodbye.
Lady Catherine gave them her best wishes.
“I hope you have a pleasant journey.”
“You must come back to Hunsford next year.”
Miss de Bourgh made an unusual effort to be polite.
She gave Elizabeth and Maria a small curtsy and held out her hand to say goodbye.