“Mr. Darcy,” began Elizabeth as they met the following evening at supper, “Lady Hallendale and I were discussing the merits of a trade-school in the village. I would find great gratification in such an employment, first undertaking to study what has been done to advantage elsewhere. I am confident of the merit of Lady Hallendale’s suggestion and your very reasonable reliance upon my genius to venture such an improvement along-side your plans for the new tenants’ cottages. Do you find the idea interesting?”

“Much more than interesting, Elizabeth, it is laudable. I only wonder why such an idea has not come to our thinking before this.”

Elizabeth replied, “As I now become a true proficient upon the subject—having studied for the entirety of this afternoon—I believe it probable that we are well-situated as to the neighbourhood where such a school of industry could be of great utility in improving the prospects of the poor.” Elizabeth was scrupulous in imputing the idea—now that she was sure of her husband’s approbation—to Lady Sarah, and re-iterated her own willingness to assist Mr. Darcy in the school’s establishment and proper operation. Darcy was visibly delighted, but expressed his only reticence that, lest Elizabeth find such an undertaking to be more demanding upon her time and energies than she reckoned, perhaps Georgiana or Lady Hallendale would be amenable in assisting with the plan.

“My dearest, you quite mistake the matter,” said Elizabeth with an unusually grave air. “It is precisely because I am ashamed of what I do not do, compared with your own exertions and the useful employments undertaken by your sister and your aunt, that I have given myself at least so much trouble as to contemplate what endeavour might lay within my limited sphere of usefulness.”

Darcy looked at Elizabeth with a gentle scepticism and again reminded her of the amount of time and effort which such an undertaking would require. Elizabeth very thoughtfully replied that she would willingly compound for the necessary trouble, if she were assured that he would view the school as a beneficial addition to the new plan for the village. That it should be necessary to give an explanation for her attention to this undertaking was exceedingly awkward—Oh! How heartily did she now wish that she had compounded more diligently with Georgiana for some share in the house-keeping!—Elizabeth assured him earnestly and solemnly that she truly wished to be useful. Lest he be overwhelmed by the extent of her ambition, she concluded by smiling and saying, “It would be a great boon to my already prodigious conceit to walk about the building, pointing to ‘what great improvement here,’ and ‘that stamp of genius over there.’ It may be that your great improvers will choose to write about my building, in time!”