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“What of me?”

“Will you consider yourself settled then?”

Elizabeth looked at the fire. She could hear the question beneath the ordinary one, and was not ready to answer it on the afternoon of his arrival.

“I do not know yet.”

“Well. You need not know it before dinner.”

She looked back at him, grateful enough that he must see it.

The door opened. Mr. Darcy stopped when he saw them, then came in to ask whether they had everything they required.

“My father has acquired the chair,” Elizabeth said. “I believe the principal difficulty is settled.”

Darcy looked at Sir upon the rug. “Then I must congratulate him. It is not always easily done.”

“She negotiated upon my behalf,” Mr. Bennet replied. “I am glad to find her talents employed.”

“I have found them useful,” Darcy said.

Elizabeth looked up. His eyes rested upon hers for only a moment before he turned toward her father. It was enough to make her conscious of every foolish hope she had refused to put into a letter.

Mr. Bennet took up the book beside his chair and opened it. He made no observation upon either of them.

She loved him very much for that.

Chapter Forty-Six

MR. BENNET HAD found the novel before Darcy entered the library.

It lay open upon the desk, where Darcy had left it after Elizabeth finally supplied her opinion of the ending. Her father stood beside it with one finger between the pages and an expression which made Darcy suspect he had not chosen a passage favourable to the author.

“Has my daughter persuaded you to dislike this yet?”

“Not entirely.”

“Then she has been less diligent than her letters suggested.”

Darcy greeted him and moved a chair nearer the desk. Mr. Bennet accepted it, keeping the book in his hand.

“She objected to the ending,” Darcy said.

“So did I, when I first read it.”

“You have finished it, then.”

“Some years ago. I cannot remember every kindness the gentleman performs, but I recall being grateful to him for ceasing to explain them.”

Darcy sat opposite. He had intended to look over a letter from Hammond before breakfast. The letter could wait, though he was uncertain whether he wished to defend a book against both Bennets in his own library.

“The gentleman does improve.”

“He receives a fortune. It is an improvement in his circumstances, certainly.”

“He has altered his conduct before he receives it.”

“Then the author might have trusted us to admire him without the inducement.”