At length, it was again Mr. Darcy who secured the respectability and comfort of the last of Mrs. Bennet’s unmarried daughters, although in this instance, not with perhaps such universal gratitude. In the course of Mr. Bennet’s frequent visits to the Darcys’, he and Kitty were often in company of Parson Overstowey when dining at Pemberley, at church, or at some one or other of the parish assemblies. To the surprise of everyone excepting the two most concerned in the business, Kitty accepted an offer from the sociable parson. Mr. and Mrs. Collins had not long adjusted to Mary’s elevated state of importance at Hunsford, when she was called upon to change her station again within a twelve-month for one even loftier—mistress of Longbourn. Upon Mr. Bennet’s removing to the parsonage at Kympton with Kitty and her husband, Longbourn was appropriated by Collins and his family, without requiring the melancholy circumstance, and the concomitant displacement of residual daughters, that had formed the most prominent portion of Mrs. Bennet’s anxieties.

CHAP. 5.

LADY CATHERINE’S late husband, Sir Lewis de Bourgh, had acquired a substantial fortune in shares at a young age and had risen, as a consequence of his success, to a knighthood. Sir Lewis was a tall, spare man, bookish, and industrious. His father, having sufficient insight to recommend his son to an elderly bachelor relative in business in London, had sent the boy to apprentice; whilst other young men would more likely have viewed a London education as an opportunity for vice, Sir Lewis was diligent in attendance, careful in his appearance, and quick in his study. The result of such responsible discharge of his duty was such that, upon his attaining his majority, his superannuated relative was disposed to take him on as partner, so as to relieve himself of the necessity of attending the business on a daily basis. The relative lived not long after this change in responsibilities, at which time Sir Lewis became the sole proprietor of a respectable and prosperous trading firm.