FOR SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE excursion to Netherfield Park, there was little intercourse between the Lucas and the Bennet families, with gusting rain keeping them housebound. This suited Charlotte, who was not yet sure she could face Mrs Bennet and keep a firm rein on her temper. But Lizzy soon sent her friend a note advising of a new addition to the family party: the mysterious future master of Longbourn, the unknown but heartily detested Mr Collins, had taken it upon himself to pay his relatives a visit. This young man had recently taken orders and been granted a handsome living in Kent, life events that had prompted him to pacific thoughts of his distant family. There was much speculation about his motives, which, in a letter to Mr Bennet, he had hinted involved making some conciliatory gesture towards his ‘fair cousins’. All in all, the visit provided some interest, and Elizabeth was eager for Charlotte to join them in a walk to Meryton.

The party from Longbourn fetched Charlotte, greeting her all at once in a fashion to which she was accustomed, so that she filtered out Lydia and Kitty’s halloos and impatient demands that she hurry along, reserving her attention for Lizzy, Jane, and their escort. A stately and self-important young man, he seemed unable to stop speaking. Words on every possible commonplace flowed in a steady stream, so there were none of the awkward silences that might otherwise attend a group of distant relatives making each other’s acquaintance for the first time – especially in circumstances as delicate as these: the interloper and the cousins he would disinherit. Lizzy and Charlotte were able to catch up with their news under the cover of Mr Collins’s enumerative praise of all his surroundings; by the time they reached Meryton, they expected to hear him congratulate them on the dirt in the main street.

Charlotte was intrigued as to whether the rumours that he had come to pay court to one of his cousins were true, and it was with some amusement that she thought she discerned a particular interest in Lizzy on the part of the young man. He would have been better off setting his sights on Mary, the most studious of the five Bennet sisters, but it seemed that Lizzy was his object, although she was as yet apparently unaware of her prolix cousin’s intentions.