The arrival of the gentlemen shortly before dinner, leaving them only time to change, meant that the happy reunions between spouses took place in the general company. Charlotte was not so engrossed in her own feelings as to miss a degree of anxiety in Mr Darcy as he made enquiries about his wife’s health, and a slight relaxation of his stately demeanour as he observed her general high spirits. But it was her own husband who presented the most unexpected change in his general deportment and behaviour.

Mr Collins approached her with expressions of warmth and affection that were marked by their sincerity and enthusiasm, claiming to have missed her inordinately, both her hand at the helm of their household and her companionship as a spouse. He would never again agree to such a parting, he told all who would listen, never again agree to be deprived for so long of his dear Charlotte’s company. It had been their first separation of more than a few days in over seven years of marriage, and he had felt it sorely.

As dinner progressed, it became apparent that he had, in the soft and lonely evenings of lengthening days, embarked on a programme of reading designed to entertain and impress his wife. Rosings had gone some way to fill the empty hours after dinner, but Mr Collins was uncharacteristically reticent on the subject of the de Bourghs.

Among the first items of news he presented were greetings from Lady Catherine, which were gravely imparted to the Darcys and to Charlotte herself. Those accustomed to Mr Collins’s partiality for his patroness braced themselves for a half-hour rehearsal of all that had been said and done at Rosings in the last two months, embellished with the usual effusions; but no such account was forthcoming. Instead, he explained that before leaving on her excursion to the Continent, Miss de Bourgh had been gracious enough to introduce him to the delights of the novel. On this subject, he, Mr Collins, had undergone a rare sea-change: he knew his wife and cousins to be admirers of this form of reading, and had therefore undertaken to investigate what it had to offer, with the view of reading aloud to his family once the winter evenings drew in.