As she said this, she averted her eyes from the sight of a couple who embraced, at length and openly, before disappearing into the bronze pavillion, and wondered if, indeed, Georgiana’s summary of French marriage might be more accurate than her own. Once again, Elizabeth found reason to rejoice in her good fortune in loving and securing the man who could contribute most to her own happiness in his character, constancy, and strength of mind. She attempted a momentary image of Mr. Darcy as a French man, but it would not do—there was no aligning his entirely English views of propriety and honour with the scene just recently before her.

CHAP. 3.

UNLIKE THE BENNET SISTERS, Georgiana had no compulsion to marry for want of independent means, and had no mother to convince her that the pursuit of an husband must be her chief occupation in single life. Her brother, who could yet see her only as a younger sister, despite her five-and-twenty years, never ventured upon the subject, having no inclination to hurry the day she should leave Pemberley. Elizabeth had sufficient delicacy and respect for the private nature of her sister to only think her comments about the prospect of one day Georgiana finding a suitor who might make her wish for a change. Free from the pressure of her family, Georgiana’s own thoughts on the matter were simple: she loved a man whom every passing day seemed to put further out of her reach—his heart being engaged elsewhere. Her feelings could, therefore, never be declared, and she had neither the desire nor the necessity to marry without love. Despite Georgiana’s quiet outward nature, there was nothing of compromise in her heart when it came to her own attachments, or of doubt to soften the pain of disappointment. If her present situation were allowed to continue indefinitely—and she had no idea that it could not—she could consign herself to an unmarried future with more complaisance than is generally felt by a woman at her time of life.