Darcy
Mr Philip Darcy to Mr Darcy
Wiltshire, December 8
Darcy, I was surprised by your last letter and took up my pen to reply to you straightaway. I never thought you would be the man to succumb to the charms of someone unsuitable. You are the last person I would ever expect to lose your sense of your own importance and become beguiled by someone as low as your object of desire seems to be. She is wholly unworthy of your hand, however, as you know yourself, and as she is from the gentry you cannot even assuage your desires by offering her carte blanche; therefore, I advise you to put her out of your mind. Occupy yourself with business, take plenty of exercise, ride hard, make time for fencing every day, go to your club when you do not have company at home, never leave yourself with a moment to think of her. If you do all this, then by and by the attraction will fade. There is a great deal to be said for ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and you were wise to take yourself out of her way. And after Christmas, come to Wiltshire. I am having a large party of friends here in the New Year. You will be amongst your own kind and they will soon drive this woman from your mind.
But before you banish her from your thoughts entirely, answer me this: who is she? I am curious to know just what woman has won your reluctant admiration, for I have never heard you speak so of a woman before. She must be something out of the common way to make such an impression on you.
PD
Mr Darcy to Mr Philip Darcy
Darcy House, London,
December 10
Philip, you misunderstand me. It is not I who was bewitched by someone beneath my station, it was my friend Bingley. He became enamoured of a local girl when we were staying in Hertfordshire. Her father was a gentleman but her mother was a silly, vulgar woman who was always trying to make a match, and her younger sisters spent their lives running after officers. However, we rescued him from the situation and all is well, for when he came to town on business, his sisters and I followed him and persuaded him to remain.
I have just been to Howards and Gibbs to have my mother’s pearls restrung for Georgiana; I mean to give them to her for Christmas. I am debating whether or not to have some further items of family jewellery remodelled for her. She is still a little young for them, but as I am having the pearls restrung, I think it would be easier to have it all done together. She will look very well in them, for she has my mother’s colouring.
I thank you for your invitation to Wiltshire but I am engaged to go to Cumbria in the New Year to see my aunt and uncle there. Maud has just had a child and I am to be the godfather.
Darcy
Mrs Bingley to Miss Caroline Bingley
Yorkshire, December 12
Now, Caroline, what’s all this I hear from your brother about this angel of his? Tell me all about it. I’ve had some of it from Charles, he sent me a letter, but such a letter! I thought, ‘What’s wrong with Charles?’ It wasn’t in his usual cheerful style; it was full of misery and gloom. He met her at that fancy house, he said, and never a prettier nor more agreeable girl lived, but somehow or other she didn’t take to him? I’d like to see the girl silly enough not to take to my Charles. Any girl would be lucky to get him, and that’s not just a mother talking. Now, what’s the tale, Caroline? Has this Mr Darcy persuaded him the girl doesn’t like him? Shall I come down to London and sort things out? Or shall I go to Hertfordshire and see this girl for myself? I will in a trice if you think it will help, only Ned’s not well and the little ’un has colic. I can’t bear to think of your brother unhappy. A nice, pretty girl is just what he needs.
Your Ma
Miss Caroline Bingley to Mrs Bingley
London, December 16
Greetings and felicitations, my dearest Mama.
There is no need for you to come to London or Hertfordshire; indeed, I beg you will not leave my brothers and sisters if they have need of you, for you must not neglect them on any account. It is true that Charles became enamoured of a sweet girl in Hertfordshire, but it was nothing more than a passing fancy on her part. I am persuaded that it was nothing really but a passing fancy on his part, either, and now that he has settled in London he will soon forget all about her, particularly as he has Miss Darcy to entertain him. She is just the sort of nice, pretty girl you would like for Charles. She is unaffected and sweet, and I am persuaded that her family would like the match as well as his. There is no need for you to meet her just yet, Mama, she is still young and nothing is fixed, but do not worry about Charles, he has already recovered from his infatuation with Miss Bennet.
Your dutiful daughter,
Caroline
Miss Caroline Bingley to Miss Jane Bennet
London, December 16
My dear Friend,
As I suspected, Charles is now settled in London for the winter, and we expect to remain here with him, to keep him company whilst he is in town. We will be celebrating the season with Mr Darcy and his sister. Georgiana Darcy grows more beautiful every day, and the bond of friendship between her and Charles is deepening into something more before our eyes. We are all very happy for it. They are well suited, and I am sure you will join with me in wishing them every happiness when the accomplishment of all our wishes should come to pass.
Mr Darcy and Charles are seldom apart. It is good for Charles to have an older, steadier friend who can advise him in the ways of the world, but I believe the friendship is not all in Charles’s favour: Mr Darcy asked his opinion only the other day on some new furniture he is buying, and Charles was able to give his approval of Mr Darcy’s choice.
Charles is very sorry that he did not have time to pay his respects to his friends in Hertfordshire before he left, but he has asked me to repair the omission and I do it gladly, telling you how much he enjoyed his stay in Hertfordshire and the delightful, friendly company he found there.
Write to me soon, my dearest friend, and tell me how you go on in Hertfordshire.
Yours ever,
Caroline
Mr Wickham to Mrs Younge
Meryton, Hertfordshire,
December 18
Dear Belle,
Luck has favoured me. Darcy has left the neighbourhood! His friend became attached to one of the local girls and so Darcy whisked him back to London.
It has been a relief to me, for it means that I can now stay here for as long as I want. Moreover, I can say of Darcy whatever I want, without fear of contradiction. His pride, his arrogance and his overbearing attitude have already given the people of Meryton a dislike of him, and it is child’s play for me to fan that dislike into disgust. Whilst speaking always in sorrow and not in anger I have let it be known that he ruined my chances in life. I was forced to whisper this before, but I now proclaim it in the open. The result is that Darcy is universally despised, and everyone feels how clever they were to dislike him, even before the full weight of his iniquities was known. In this way I have protected myself, for if he should happen to return to the neighbourhood, my friends will be so numerous and his so few that nothing he says will be believed. Indeed, the people of Meryton are happy to condemn him as the worst of men.