Having reconciled their difference with such success, they returned to the dining-room, and Lizzy and Georgiana spent the remainder of the evening, respectively, in studying Mr. Knightley and thinking of her cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. Over the next several days, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley spent a great deal of time both above ground and under it, conversing with the land steward and mine manager, ascertaining the best plan for the creation of manufactories to extract the coal-gas; whilst the coal-gas had heretofore been seen as an adverse and dangerous substance, the new process of distillation had safely harnessed its utility, and its potential for good was seemingly limitless. Each evening, Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley engaged in very detailed discussions as to the methods for the best exploitation of the coal-gas, and, upon Mr. Knightley’s departure for Surrey and his family, both men were entirely satisfied. A plan had been drawn up, which, after securing Mr. Parker’s approbation, was to be implemented with all the availability of means and assurance of right.

CHAP. 13.

THE GREAT FRENCH WAR that prevented travel abroad confined the English at-home, the exploration of the houses of their neighbours as an enforced substitute. Legions of once scrupulously polite ladies and gentlemen assumed the duties of house-inspectors, boldly enquiring into the cupboards and corners of Pemberley—whether arriving for the day (as once an inquisitive Elizabeth Bennet had done) to view the furniture and trees, wander around the extensive gardens, and admire the lake, or—more troublesome still—if they were at all acquainted with the family, staying at Pemberley for what seemed interminable periods of time, consuming the contents of the Darcys’ larder, shooting, fishing, and touring the countryside, tormenting the neighbouring families. At first, Mr. Darcy bore this trial with the tolerance of habit, but, even with the coming of the Peace, the visitors continued to arrive in such multitudes as to try even his inured patience. Elizabeth was heard to complain, “It is insupportable that we should constantly be incommoded by a public who wish to wander through our house and gardens, looking into cupboards, carrying mud into the hallways—actions which certainly aspire to incivility—preventing us from being easy in our own home. Is there nothing we can do to discourage this stream of intruders, Mr. Darcy?”