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Miss Bennet coughed.

“That is scarcely an improvement,” she said.

“It is only necessary to establish the draught,” Pritchard assured her.

“Then we ought to give it time,” Bingley said quickly. “Shall we look at the grounds and return?”

It was a reasonable proposal. Darcy accepted it before Miss Bennet could make another objection, though he found himself wondering whether Bingley wished to inspect the grounds or merely escape an inconvenient room.

They spent an hour outside. There was much to approve: a kitchen garden in good order, sound stable roofs, and water sufficient for the house. Pritchard answered Darcy’s questions about the drains without evasion and showed him where repairs had been made. The defects were not universal. Bingley had grounds for liking the property.

Darcy wanted him to like it, too.

He had imagined Charles established within an easy ride, Jane and her child visiting Pemberley, a household near enough that company might become ordinary again. The thought had influenced his examination more than he cared to admit.

When they returned upstairs, the nursery window stood fully open and the fire had been allowed to burn low. The room smelled strongly of smoke.

Pritchard acknowledged that the chimney would require attention.

“A mason can examine it before the family takes possession. The owners will entertain a reasonable allowance.”

Bingley turned toward Darcy. “That seems fair.”

“It does,” Darcy said. “If the chimney were the only consideration.”

Caroline looked up from brushing a mark off her glove.

“What else can there be? The principal rooms are excellent.”

Darcy addressed his friend. “Your wife would be at the other end of the house, upon another floor, from the room intended for her child. Putting a nurse here does not shorten the distance.”

“We could make the dressing room a nursery,” Bingley said.

Miss Bennet opened her mouth, then closed it. Darcy had already measured that room with his eye.

“A cradle would fit,” he said. “So would very little else. Where would the nurse sleep?”

“The room across the passage.”

“The dressing room opens through your bedchamber. The nurse would have to pass through it whenever the child needed her.”

Bingley looked toward Elizabeth at last. “You do not think Jane would like it.”

“I think she would try to like it if she knew you had chosen it,” she replied. “That is why I should rather you did not choose it on her behalf.”

Darcy watched Bingley’s disappointment settle into his face. It was unpleasant to cause it, particularly when his own advice had helped bring them here.

“There is also the road,” Darcy said. “The short way would suit you and me in fine weather. It would not suit your wife in a carriage. You would not be so near us as the map suggests.”

“I had thought of that upon the way,” Bingley admitted.

Miss Bennet looked at Darcy with an attention she had not given him for several days. He could not tell whether she was surprised by the objection or merely pleased to hear somebody else make one.

“I agree with your sister,” he told Bingley. “This is a handsome house. It does not answer your present needs.”

Pritchard accepted the judgment with more grace than Caroline. He suggested another possible alteration, heard Bingley’s questions, and at last agreed to send particulars of other properties. Darcy was grateful that the man did not require them to disparage everything they had liked before permitting them to decline it.

The housekeeper brought them bread, cold meat, and tea in a room overlooking the garden before they left. Caroline was civil to the housekeeper and complimentary about the meal, but she directed most of her conversation to her brother. Miss Bennet ate quietly beside Sally.