In the next moment, her attention turned away from the latest sequence of surprises, Elizabeth saw with complete clarity what had been before her eyes for months. Upon Darcy’s return, she acquainted him with the fact of the Colonel’s visit, but not its purpose, and bade him remain at home for his cousin’s return. Elizabeth regarded it a fair certainty, that the Colonel would return to Park Lane accompanied by Georgiana, both miraculously improved.

CHAP. 19.

ELIZABETH COULD NEVER HAVE reckoned that Georgiana’s rapid departure from the house was the result of her inability, in her present state of mind, to endure the visit from Colonel Fitzwilliam and Miss Crawford that must surely be expected of the morning. The Colonel, in the pain of the loss and public disgrace of his brother, would, Georgiana reasoned, surely have become closer than ever to the object of his affections. The thought of someone other than herself providing those words of comfort was inexpressibly painful, and she simply did not possess the strength to wish them joy when she was herself most abjectly miserable. It was not that Georgiana did not wish the best blessings in life for her cousin—she did, generously, and with all her heart—it was simply that she must now comprehend how far removed from those blessings she, herself, would be, and indurate her mind—and to whatever extent possible, her heart—to the prospect of such an unmeditated future. She knew that she did not wish to marry the Comte—or anyone else—as recompense for her disappointment. However, that assurance provided only a small portion of relief to her misery, as such a reflection served only to define what she did not want. It was now attendant upon herself to examine such that remained of her many blessings, and to fix on those most necessary to the recovery of her own happiness, now that Colonel Fitzwilliam—the Viscount—was lost to her for-ever. This was a great deal to consider and decide during the course of one walk of a morning, but Georgiana was firm in her resolution, that she have her thoughts arranged before she could meet the Viscount and his intended with equanimity.