“She does not love him, Husband.” Elizabeth was gentle, but firm, upon this point. “Although she esteems him greatly and sees a great deal of her brother—whom she adores—in his person and his address, she continues to view him only as your friend, and I believe no amount of time would change her mind on this matter. She was, of course, grateful for the care and assistance—as was I—he provided in your absence.”

“I am only sorry that I was forced to leave you. If you could but know with what pain I rode away from the two whom it was my bounden duty to protect, and thinking that I was, in a most dishonourable manner, foreswearing my most sacred oath. Thank God you are both safe and home! I am further aggrieved to admit that my early return to London has accomplished little, for the situation is quite beyond hope.” And with his customary œconomy of speech, Darcy informed Elizabeth of the particulars of the events surrounding the death of Viscount Dunfield and the results of the subsequent enquiry.

Elizabeth was aghast at the depravity of the circumstances, and asked question after question, until she was of a sudden struck by the recollection of another matter of import, and produced the letter from her pocket-book sent in reply by Anne Wentworth regarding Sir William. “The letter was poorly directed, and missed us at Venice. I only received it upon our return to Paris. I fear it is too late for the warning she gives to have any benefit, but it is imperative that you read it, for Sir William’s character is base, indeed, and surely endangers Lady Catherine’s fortune.”

Gravely, Darcy took the letter. “I am afraid, Elizabeth, that the contents of the letter may be easily conjectured. Any warning will have come too late to be of use. I have been with Lady Catherine these few days—or rather, I should say she has been with me, in London; her situation is, I am sorry to report, almost surely beyond remedy. She has invested the entire sum of her jointure in an ill-conceived scheme recommended to her by this scoundrel, Elliot, who has since deserted her. Anne de Bourgh, it seems, is to marry the man herself. Lady Catherine’s independent fortune is almost certainly lost, for the investment is worthless, and there was nothing that Gardiner or I could do by the time she appealed to us.”

Elizabeth was wholly unprepared for the news concerning Anne de Bourgh, and enquired further into the particulars.