Amanda Grange: Wickham's Diary

'Impudent boy!' she said, ruffling my hair affectionately. But then she became more serious. 'Charm is a great asset in life, but there are certain people who will not respond to it at all. Amongst them are tailors, bootmakers, and tradespeople, people you will need to converse with in the future. They will grant long credit to a man who behaves as though he owns the world, but they will not give anything to a charming rogue, for they know that charm never paid a bill. You must study people carefully, George, so that you can decide which manner will best suit the people you are dealing with. Sometimes charm and sometimes authority. Try it now. Stand up very straight and look down your nose at me. Just think of Fitzwilliam. He has the true Darcy spirit. There is not a tradesman in the land who would refuse him credit, though he is only sixteen years old.’

I tried to assume Darcy's posture and expression, and Mama laughed and said that I did it very well, at which I collapsed into laughter beside her.

'I wish I were Fitzwilliam,' I said, when we had recovered. 'Then other people would have to study how to please me, instead of me studying how to please them.'

'My dear George, you would hate it if you were Fitzwilliam. He will grow up to inherit a lot of responsibility as well as his money, something you would not like at all. You are better as you are.'

I thought there was something in what she said. Even so, I would happily change places with Fitzwilliam. Then I could pay someone to take care of my responsibilities and I could spend my time enjoying myself.

The morning was hot and Fitzwilliam and I escaped from the schoolroom and ran down to the river, where we dived in and swam to our heart's content.

'I love Pemberley,' he said, as he swam lazily on his back, looking at the sky, which was a clear and cloudless blue. 'I could not be happier, knowing that one day it will all be mine. Do you love it, too?'

'Of course I do,' I said, thinking, One day, when I marry an heiress, I shall have an estate just like it.

'Do you think you will be the steward here, after your father?' he asked.

His words shattered my daydream. He saw me, not as a landowner and an equal, but as a steward, someone who would spend the rest of my life serving him. I felt myself grow red with anger and mortification, but, remembering Mama's advice, I thought of a way I could Turn the situation to my advantage.

'To do so I would need a good education,' I said. 'Papa went to university, you know, courtesy of a kind uncle, but I have no such relative to sponsor me.'

'As to that, I believe Papa means to send you to Cambridge with me. He thinks a great deal of your papa, you know, and he wants to help you because of it.'

'I had never imagined... that is very kind of him... I will try to be worthy of him,' I said, expressing myself surprised and suitably grateful.

Fitzwilliam smiled and said, 'I am glad we will be there together. It will be good to have someone there I know. All my cousins are the wrong age to be there with me, either just too old or just too young.'

I tried to think of Fitzwilliam at Cambridge and I wondered what he would do there, how he would comport himself. He would be unconsciously arrogant, no doubt, behaving as though he owned the place.

Such behaviour would not do for me. I would have to follow Mama's advice. I would make friends, meet their sisters, and marry an heiress.

When I returned home, Mama was very pleased to hear that Mr Darcy meant to send me to Cambridge, and she laughed when I said I meant to take her advice.

'A wise decision. You do not have the temperament to apply yourself to the books, Georgie, and you certainly do not have the temperament to be poor. You have winning manners and good looks and they will be a great help to you. But, whilst you should spend most of your time trying to hear of any suitable heiresses, you should not neglect any other opportunities that might come your way. You might have to wait a few years for the right heiress to come along. In the meantime, there are some valuable livings hereabouts. If you continue to win Mr Darcy's approval, then he might give you one of them when you grow up.'

'A living? What, as a churchman? Mama! You are joking? I have no desire to go into the church.'

'Why not? It will give you a gentleman's residence and a good income, for which you need do very little work. You need only look the gentleman, which you can do very easily, and hire a curate to write your sermons for you. You will have an entree into all the best society and you will meet many sheltered young ladies who do not go out a great deal in the normal way. Moreover, they will already be disposed to like you, for you will appear to great advantage in the pulpit, and do not forget that you will not have any competition in church, as you would at a ball. A clergyman is the king in his own church. He reigns supreme.'

I thought about what she said, and I remembered that I had noticed the girls casting lingering looks at the Rev Mr Mathias last Sunday, despite his plain looks.

'I think, perhaps, it might be a good idea,' I said. 'I could wear a black suit and have one simple pin—a diamond—in my cravat.'

I thought of myself standing in the pulpit, with everyone admiring me in my new black suit, and all the girls swooning over me, and I thought it would do very well, at least until I found my heiress.

'Then set your sights on the church. George, and on the rich living of Pemberley. The parsonage is a fine house, far better than this one. and it is capable of further improvement. It is well situated, and it would not shame a far wealthier man than you. And why not set your sights on Georgiana Darcy, too?'

'Georgie? She is little more than a baby!' I said, laughing at the thought of it.

'But she will not always be so. Little children have a habit of growing up, you know, and there is not such a great difference in age between you. When she is ready for marriage you will not yet be thirty. And she has a handsome dowry, thirty thousand pounds.'

'That is so,' I said thoughtfully.

'A man can go far with thirty thousand pounds. He can take a house in town for the Season, and better yet, as the husband of Georgiana Darcy, he will be admitted into the highest society, for do not forget that her uncle is an earl. And the beauty of it is that no one will blame you for mixing so much in the world, as they might do if you did not have such an exalted wife, for you can say that you are doing it for her sake and not your own.'

'And we can go to Brighton in the summer, and Bath in the autumn,' I said, seeing a happy future stretching out in front of me.

'You can indeed. You can travel as much as you desire.'

'Though it is a long time to wait,' I said, feeling suddenly dissatisfied. 'I do not think it will suit me to live on a narrow income until I am thirty. I would rather have my heiress sooner.'

She smiled at me.

'You have your mother's impatience, alas! Very well, what about Anne de Bourgh? She is coming here next week. She is another wealthy heiress; indeed, she will be richer than Georgiana, for she will inherit Rosings Park. Should you like to live there, George?'

I was much struck by the idea.

'I have never been, but it sounds very grand,' I said, adding, 'far better than a parsonage.'

'You are right, it is a great house, a very great house, with an extensive park and delightful gardens. It is in a delightful part of the country, too, being in Kent, and so very convenient for London. I went there once when I was a girl. Oh, not to stay, but just to look around when the family was away. I was touring the area with Mama and Papa, and Mama had a wish to see it. If an opportunity arises for you to visit it, you should not neglect it. I think you would like Rosings very well.'