Pride and Prejudice — Chapter Twenty-One

The discussion of Mr. Collins's failed proposal continued to trouble the household. Mrs. Bennet was not easily reconciled to the disappointment. She chose to treat Elizabeth with cold civility, speaking to her as little as possible, while seeking comfort in the sympathy of her neighbours, particularly Lady Lucas.

Mr. Collins himself recovered his spirits with surprising speed. He had been wounded, but his vanity was a powerful restorative. In the days following his rejection, he was observed to spend a great deal of time in conversation with Miss Charlotte Lucas. His attentions to her were marked, and Charlotte, a practical and clear-sighted young woman of seven-and-twenty, received them without alarm.

While this quiet drama was unfolding, a letter arrived at Longbourn addressed to Jane from Miss Caroline Bingley. Jane read it in silence and then, with some effort at composure, shared its contents with Elizabeth. The letter informed Jane that the entire Netherfield party had departed for London without any intention of returning to Hertfordshire. Miss Bingley wrote warmly of her own eagerness to see Jane again in town, but her words were so constructed as to make that prospect seem distant.

More troubling still were the hints she dropped regarding her brother. Miss Bingley expressed her great admiration for Miss Darcy — Georgiana Darcy, Mr. Darcy's younger sister — and spoke in terms that strongly suggested she expected Mr. Bingley to form an attachment to her. The implication was clear: Mr. Bingley's friends and family had other plans for him, and Jane was not among them.

Jane bore the news with characteristic gentleness. She acknowledged to Elizabeth that the letter had given her pain, but she refused to condemn Miss Bingley. She could not bring herself to believe that Caroline had written with deliberate cruelty. Perhaps Mr. Bingley's feelings for her had never been as strong as she had imagined. In that case, she told herself, it was better to know it.

Elizabeth was not so charitable in her interpretation. She read the letter with a sharper eye and told Jane plainly what she believed: that Miss Bingley was doing her utmost to detach her brother from Jane, and that she was acting out of both pride and design. The Bingleys had come from trade, yet Miss Bingley was acutely conscious of social position and would not willingly see her brother married into a family she considered beneath them.

Jane listened to her sister's analysis but would not adopt it. It was not in her nature to think ill of others without stronger proof. She preferred patience to resentment, and hope — however faint — to bitterness.

Elizabeth admired Jane's goodness sincerely, though she could not share it. She feared that such a disposition, however lovely, left Jane too open to being hurt. Bingley, she believed, genuinely cared for Jane; it was the interference of others that stood in their way. But with Jane unwilling to act and Bingley gone to London, there was little to be done for now.

The chapter closes with the two sisters reflecting on their situation — Jane with quiet hope and Elizabeth with clear-eyed concern — while elsewhere at Longbourn, Mr. Collins continued his attentions to Charlotte Lucas, apparently quite recovered from the indignity of his rejection.