Pride and Prejudice, a play by Mary Keith Medbery Mackaye Part 30

CHARLOTTE.

[_Smiling._] Well, well, Eliza! That speech savours a little of--disappointment.

ELIZABETH.

Oh, yes--anything you please!

CHARLOTTE.

[_Changing the subject._] And you say that Jane is not in her usual spirits?

ELIZABETH.

[_Shortly._] Yes.

CHARLOTTE.

And she is looking poorly?

ELIZABETH.

[_Still more shortly._] Yes--very!

CHARLOTTE.

Did she see much of the Bingleys in London?

ELIZABETH.

[_Bursting out hotly._] She saw nothing of them. Oh, Charlotte, I have just had all my suspicions verified.

CHARLOTTE.

Your suspicions?

ELIZABETH.

Yes, there has been an arrangement in all this. Mr. Bingley has been kept away from Jane by---- [_Stops suddenly._]

CHARLOTTE.

[_Looks up curiously, then speaks quickly._] Don't imagine any such nonsense, Eliza. A young man like Mr. Bingley so easily falls in love with a pretty girl for a few weeks--and, when accident separates them, so easily forgets her, that this sort of inconstancy is very frequent.

ELIZABETH.

We do not suffer from accident, Charlotte. A young man of independent fortune does not suddenly decide of his own free will to think no more of a girl with whom he was violently in love.

CHARLOTTE.

But were they so violently in love?

ELIZABETH.

Yes--I never saw a more promising inclination. Why, Mr. Bingley would talk to no one else--would look at no one else. Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

CHARLOTTE.

[_Smiling._] It is usually a good test. But if Jane did not return his affection---- It really did not seem to me that there was anything _violent_ in Jane's att.i.tude. I could never see that she showed any extreme affection for Bingley.

ELIZABETH.

[_Hotly._] Well, I know that Jane was very much in love with him, and that she showed her affection as much as her nature would allow. If Bingley didn't see it he must have been a simpleton. No--the real trouble was that Jane didn't see him often enough, perhaps, to make her understand his character.

CHARLOTTE.

Oh, if Jane were married to Bingley to-morrow, I should think she had as good a chance of happiness as if she were studying him for a twelve-month. It is far better to know as little as possible of the person with whom you are to pa.s.s your life.

ELIZABETH.

[_Demurely._] In some cases that is undoubtedly true.

MR. COLLINS.

[_Appears at the garden door. He wears a wide-brimmed hat and carries a hoe--also a large basket. He looks in._] Ah! A very charming domestic picture! [_Taking a bunch of radishes from the basket, he speaks to_ CHARLOTTE.] My dear, I have found some fine early radishes. I thought it would be a graceful attention on your part to send some of these to Miss de Bourg. [_He sits upon the chair near the doorway._]

CHARLOTTE.

I fear the apothecary might object.