Upon their return, the gentlemen were confirmed in their enthusiasm for the advancement of gas-lighting, and the potential for a venture that depended upon the collieries of the Pemberley estate. The Parkers left that same day, eager for each other’s company and the comfortable chaos of their own hearth. Pemberley was like-wise restored to its original fruit and peace.

Mr. Darcy had also extended an invitation to an agricultural correspondent, Mr. Knightley of Surrey, to accompany him on a tour of the Pemberley collieries, as well as its orchards. Mr. Knightley was due to arrive the following week. Mr. Darcy hoped to procure that gentleman’s opinion on the endeavours in gas-light, as Mr. Knightley was a steady, reflective man, with a reputation as having uncommon success in agricultural experimentations.

“I believe we will all find Mr. Knightley most agreeable,” ventured Darcy to his wife and sister. “It is sometimes difficult to discern the character of an acquaintance made through the medium of pen and paper, but he writes with such reason and attention to the details of his study, that I feel I already know him. He is married, Elizabeth, before you ask; it is a question ladies always ask. His wife is a young woman of respectable family and fortune from the village adjoining his own estate. His younger brother is married to her sister; he is an attorney living in London, and who I believe is acquainted with the Gardiners.”

“Oh!” laughed Elizabeth, “that must have been very convenient. If only my mother had been blessed with a son, Georgiana might have made a match with him, and we all could have been disposed of with a very little inconvenience! But upon a prolonged reflection, I could never be persuaded to relinquish Georgiana, so we are happiest as to fortune as we are.”

“It is a great shame that his wife does not accompany him,” Darcy added, “for he writes of her as being both beautiful and charming—high praise from such a man, indeed—but she is in expectation of her confinement, so she remains with her sister and invalid father in Highbury. I was surprised to hear that Mr. Knightley removed to the estate of his father-in-law upon his marriage, and did not take his wife to his own house, Donwell Abbey. Her father, as I understand it, so disliked losing his daughter and could not, at his time of life, be expected to countenance so material a change to his habits and remove thither. A most singular arrangement, indeed, but I must honour Knightley for being a man who would make such a change for the love of his wife and the feelings of her father.”