Sitting alone and thinking about what was to come, Mr. Bennet had a moment of regret for not demanding Elizabeth marry Mr. Collins the month before. Yes, the man was an obsequious toad, but perhaps she could have made something of him. He’d no doubt that she could have managed him, had she set her mind to it. But he had not known then what he knew now, and he wasn’t sure which Elizabeth would have hated more: being married to Collins or having to earn her living as a governess or a companion. If another suitor came along, for any of them, he would have to say yes out of simple necessity. As long as the man was good, respectable, and solvent, he saw no reason to withhold his blessing. Had Collins asked after his diagnosis instead of before, he did not know how he would have acted.

He simply did not know.

~

By mid-afternoon, each of the Bennet girls, save Lydia, had spent time with a music and drawing master, had been told by said master what she should work on and accomplish before her next lesson the following day, and had spent an hour learning French with the tutor. The two eldest girls, Jane and Elizabeth, would take their lessons together and be one another’s practice partners. Kitty and Mary would continue on individually and practice together in the afternoons, which neither was very happy about, Mary being very serious and Kitty being very silly. When it was time to dress for dinner, Longbourn had never seen four more tired young women trudging up the stairs to change.

Dinner that evening was a subdued affair. The girls were tired and confused by their father’s recent actions. The elder were worried that something had occurred to cause so drastic a change—for before, he really had been a very indolent father—and the younger were by turns happy to be studying seriously (Mary) and pleased the day was over (Kitty). It should be said that Kitty did miss her younger sister Lydia, for the first little while, at least. She missed having someone to talk to and giggle with. But it should also be said that while Kitty was a very silly girl, she was also a girl of hidden talents. She had done well with her scales in her music lesson and the master had complimented her high, delicate voice, and to her great surprise, the drawing master told her she was learning the quickest of all her sisters. Though exhausted and confused and missing her sister slightly, Kitty Bennet went in to dinner just a tiny bit happier that day.

~