His temperament and worth had been recognised and valued by his aunt and uncle Darcy, with the result that Colonel Fitzwilliam had been appointed as Georgiana’s guardian upon the death of her father, a duty he shared with Mr. Darcy. And, as with his other obligations, the Colonel was most assiduous in the discharge of those duties. Every spare afternoon and every leave from his regiment, he was sure to visit his little cousin, bringing her small presents and books, and assisting in the formation of her taste and education. Mr. Darcy’s was a time of life which saw increasing engagements, taking him from Pemberley more often and for longer periods. Without the same independent fortune for travel, Colonel Fitzwilliam stood more in the place of a brother; he was at Pemberley whenever his studies—or later—his commission, did not require him elsewhere. The young Georgiana loved him with all her heart—the entire quantity of the love that would have normally been parcelled out amongst mother and father, sisters and brothers, was saved for her cousin and his visits. Unfortunately, as Georgiana passed through the difficult years in which a young girl changes into a young woman, her cousin’s opportunity for visiting decreased, with the result that Georgiana, for many weeks at a time, had no friend to soothe her, or help her laugh her way out of the little tribulations of childhood, and later out of the confusion of feelings which accompany adolescence.

It is not surprising, therefore, that she did not naturally acquire the proficiencies of other young ladies: easy, graceful conversation; how to manipulate the attentions of young men; how to secure wanted attentions and discourage the undesired; how to dissemble when convenient; and how to maintain an air of unimpeachable innocence throughout. She had no mother to guide her through the tangled web of society and its contradictions, or to give her those lessons which could form her own confidence to do so, no mother to lead by example, and no mother to follow in safety. Until her own brother married many years later, there were no examples before her of the happy and easy relationship between husband and wife, and no brother or sister to shew her the rules, joys, and sorrows of courtship. Neither Mr. Darcy nor Colonel Fitzwilliam could see Georgiana as a young woman; she was always regarded as a younger sister, and a much younger sister at that. Their love was not the love of a lover, and the love that they excited in turn was, as it often is in interrelations between unequals, confused with both obligation and deference.