Pride and Prejudice: The Second Proposal

A few days after Lady Catherine’s visit, Mr. Bingley returned to Longbourn, and to Elizabeth’s nervous surprise he brought Mr. Darcy with him.Mr. Bingley wanted to be alone with Jane, so he suggested a walk, and before long he and Jane had fallen far behind, leaving Elizabeth to walk on with Kitty and Mr. Darcy.Kitty was too afraid of Mr. Darcy to speak, Mr. Darcy said very little, and Elizabeth was secretly forming a desperate resolution.

When Kitty turned aside to visit her friend Maria Lucas, Elizabeth was left alone with Mr. Darcy, and she knew that the moment for her resolution had come.“Mr. Darcy,” she said boldly, “I cannot keep from thanking you any longer for your great kindness to my poor sister, and my whole family would thank you too, if they knew of it.”Mr. Darcy answered, with surprise and feeling, that he was sorry she had ever been told, and that if she must thank him, it should be for herself alone, since he had thought only of her.

Then he spoke plainly: if her feelings were still what they had been last April, she must tell him at once, for his own wishes had not changed, and one word from her would silence him forever.Elizabeth forced herself to speak, and although she did so awkwardly, she made him understand that her feelings had changed so much that she now received his words with gratitude and pleasure.His joy was greater than any he had felt before, and he spoke as warmly as a man deeply in love can, while Elizabeth, too shy to meet his eyes, could at least listen.

They walked on without noticing where they were going, and she learned that Lady Catherine herself had brought them together, for she had told Mr. Darcy every word of their quarrel, hoping to make him promise never to marry Elizabeth.“It taught me to hope,” said Mr. Darcy, “because I knew that if you had truly decided against me, you would have told her so frankly.”Elizabeth blushed and laughed, and admitted that after abusing him so freely to his face, she could hardly have any scruples about abusing him to all his relations.

Mr. Darcy said that he could not forgive himself for the way he had behaved at Hunsford, and that her reproof about his ungentlemanly manner had tormented him for months, until he admitted that she was right.He confessed that all his life he had been taught to be good but never to control his pride, and that she had humbled him with a lesson that was hard at first and very valuable afterwards.Elizabeth told him that his letter had soon made her think better of him, and she begged him to remember the past only as far as the remembrance gave him pleasure.

Before they turned home, he told her that he had confessed to Mr. Bingley how wrong he had been to interfere, and that he had assured his friend that Jane’s affection was real.Elizabeth almost said how easily Mr. Bingley was guided, but she held her tongue, for he had not yet learned to be laughed at, and after walking for miles without noticing, the two of them parted quietly in the hall.