But no dwelling looks unappealing when the windows are warm with light, and someone had clearly prepared for their arrival with ample fires and candles. At that point, chilled and tired to the bone, Charlotte was so grateful to Lady Catherine (who had instructed both their and her servants most minutely in every detail of preparation), she would not have cared if that lady was an ogre with two heads. She was more than happy to echo her husband’s praise of her ladyship’s magnanimity, although grateful that the dark and damp precluded her new spouse from dragging her into the garden so that she might admire the aspect of Rosings that could be glimpsed through a gap in the trees, an excursion that would have to wait until the morning.

The trunks were brought in, the postilion tipped, the staff (a respectable-looking married couple and a round-eyed young girl) introduced, and the necessary curtseys and bows made. Charlotte could at last look about her new home, beginning with a narrow entrance hall from which led a somewhat precipitous flight of stairs. Mr Collins ushered his new bride into the front parlour and began to list, yet again, each item of furniture the room contained. Fortunately, he, too, was fatigued by the journey, and cut short the tour to revert to the dining room, where cold meat and cake had been laid out as a wedding supper and the housekeeper was bustling in with hot water for tea.

Charlotte gained the impression that although the rooms were smaller and less grandly appointed than Mr Collins had claimed, his representations, allowing for his natural tendency to exaggeration, had been fair nevertheless. She had little doubt that she could be – would be – very comfortable here. And even tired, anxious about what lay ahead, her bones still aching from the jolting of the coach, she felt something like excitement.

This was her home. She was mistress of all she saw, even if that amounted only to these rooms and their appointments. She was already noting that some of the glasses were cloudy, and would need soaking in spirit vinegar; that the dining-room fireplace smoked a little and might require the services of a sweep; that the silver, although old-fashioned and heavy, was of good quality, and would respond to more assiduous polishing.