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THE MATCH WITH Louisa and Mr. Hurst was when Elizabeth really honed her matchmaking technique. Her part of it was always the human part of it, she supposed, the deep and personal part of it.

Caroline’s part of it was the big picture.

She would look at how each person was connected, their financial and social advantages and weaknesses, and she would craft a match that allowed each person to feel as if they were gaining something and that took into account each person’s deficits.

She was smart in that way. Elizabeth would see it after Caroline had explained, but she could not do it herself, not really.

Elizabeth suspected Caroline simply had some natural talent in that way, that things simply appeared to her, emerging when she looked at the situation. Things did not emerge that way to Elizabeth.

However, Elizabeth was good at determining other things.

For instance, she was the only person who seemed to note that Mr. Hurst loved cards, it turned out. Both Caroline and Charlotte admitted that after Elizabeth had pointed it out, they realized, “Oh, yes, he did talk of cards a great deal, didn’t he?”

But it had not stood out to them until she pointed it out.

Elizabeth seemed to have a knack for identifying the things that a person found pleasant, the things they liked to indulge in, and for determining the sorts of things they found fault with, also.

If a person seemed to be trying to hide something, she would notice the way they steered the discussion elsewhere.

For her, it was as if these things just seemed to emerge from the conversation.

So, it was easy enough to have another conversation with Mr. Hurst, leading him to talk about what he wanted in a wife, and to realize that if Louisa wanted to interest this man, she would likely only have to let him beat her at cards.

Elizabeth was rather convinced that Mr. Hurst was a man who’d be easily flattered, who had an overly inflated opinion of his own intelligence, and who would respond well to a woman falling all over him in admiration.

But then, how to convince Louisa to behave in such a way?

Elizabeth was so interested in trying to come up with an answer that that, she didn’t ask herself if she was doing the right thing until it was already happening, until the courtship was well underway, the marriage nearly secured.

She spoke to Louisa only once about what she was looking for in a husband, and Louisa seemingly wanted protection and safety, which Elizabeth thought was common. Most women did.

But Elizabeth told Caroline to mention offhand about the kind of financial security Mr. Hurst had and to see if Louisa found this interesting at all.

Then, when they all ended up at a whist party at Lucas Lodge, Elizabeth engaged Louisa in conversation briefly.

“Do you ever let men win at cards?” Elizabeth said.

Louisa considered. “You mean, throw a hand on purpose? That seems frightfully dishonest, doesn’t it?”

“So, you wouldn’t do it, then,” said Elizabeth, nodding. “That would be your advice.”

“My advice?” said Louisa. “I don’t know. Why are you considering such a thing?”

“Well, if there was a man who I knew could provide me with a secure future,” said Elizabeth, “a man who would be a good and proper protector, you know, but who might not want me if I seemed… too able to take care of myself? You know?”

“You mean, you would pretend to be too stupid to play at cards and hope to attract him?” said Louisa. “I don’t know, Elizabeth. I don’t know about that at all.”

Elizabeth hunched up her shoulders. “Yes, it seems a bit pathetic, doesn’t it?

It’s only that I sometimes wonder if women have to be a bit manipulative to find a good husband.

Everything is stacked against us. We cannot pursue the man we want, can we?

We are left to try various things to catch his eye.

If I could catch this man’s eye by letting him win a hand of cards, would it be so wrong?

Would it be any different than wearing a pretty, eye-catching bonnet, in the end? ”

“I don’t know,” said Louisa, thinking it through. “I really can’t say. I’m sorry, Elizabeth, I don’t know how to advise you.”

Whether Louisa lost the whist game on purpose to Mr. Hurst or not, no one would ever know.

But he was calling upon her soon enough.

When the match was announced, Elizabeth and Caroline felt assured that it was all to their credit.

They honed their skills on servants next, making three successful matches in the Netherfield household.

And then the Hursts were married and off in London, and Caroline easily convinced her sister to bring her along, which had been her scheme from the start, of course. And then, Caroline was gone.

It had been, at that point, over a year since the first match, with Bingley and Jane. And then Caroline was gone for a long time, months on end. When she did return, finally, in the late fall of 1811, she was different, Elizabeth thought.

Caroline was staying with her brother, and she sent word that Elizabeth must come and dine with them, and Elizabeth did. The girls put their heads together in the sitting room after dinner, and Caroline said it was quite good to see her.

But when she began speaking of London society, Elizabeth felt as if Caroline had gotten obsessed with the financial side of it, with the status side of it.

All of these men she spoke of, she never talked about anything except how much money they had or who they were related to or how close they were to a title.

“Anyway, I’ve made a hash of it,” said Caroline.

“I need you. You’re the one who’s good at understanding people, figuring out what they want.

I shan’t make a match without you. So, you will come back with me to London, as soon as I can get my sister to send for me.

Will you not? Your mother will allow it? ”

“Likely,” said Elizabeth. “But will Louisa wish me to be there?”

“I shall see to that,” said Caroline.

“Perhaps I could stay with my aunt and uncle, the Gardiners.”

Caroline shuddered. “No, no, no. Please, Elizabeth, never speak of such a thing. Don’t they live on Gracechurch Street?”

Elizabeth knew that was not the fashionable part of town, but the way that Caroline emphasized the street only served to cement her impression that Caroline had grown too obsessed with the wrong things. Her friend was a bit of a snob, Elizabeth thought.

“And we shall find a way to make a match for you, of course,” said Caroline.

“One for me and one for you. Then we can both live as happy old married ladies. We shall visit each other at our estates in the country in the summer, and our children can grow up together. After all, Eliza, we are almost sisters, are we not?”

Elizabeth was not entirely fond of her name being shortened in such a way, but Caroline had never done it before, so she didn’t say anything about that.

“We are almost sisters. But don’t you have anyone in mind who is a man you simply enjoy being around?

Someone you think you have something in common with? ”

Caroline looked at her, blinking in thought. “This is why I need you. You always bring up things I hadn’t thought of.”

How was it that she could have not thought of how she would get along with her own husband? But Elizabeth didn’t say that out loud either.

“Well,” said Caroline with a little smile, “there is one man.”

“Yes?” said Elizabeth.

“He’s a friend of Charles’s, actually, or they have spent time in each other’s company, at any rate.

His grandfather was an earl, and his uncle is the earl now, the Earl of Matlock.

So, he has quite good connections. He owns an estate called Pemberley.

His income is quite good, upwards of ten thousand a year—”

“Caroline, this is all well and good but—”

“No, I’m getting to it, to what you said,” said Caroline, chuckling a little. “He’s proper, you know?” She shrugged.

“Proper?” said Elizabeth, shaking her head at Caroline. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think we have that in common, a concern with doing things the right way, with propriety.”

Oh, lovely. So, he’s a snob and you’re a snob, thought Elizabeth.

“His name is Mr. Darcy,” said Caroline. “You know, he was in town when I left, and I have the impression he wasn’t doing anything. I wonder if I could convince Charles to invite him here.”

“Here?” said Elizabeth. “Now? Isn’t there anyone else you have something else in common with, something more, I don’t know, warm, such as both liking puppies or a certain kind of flower or—”

“Don’t be ridiculous, everyone likes puppies and flowers,” said Caroline. “Mr. Darcy is really perfect. You meet him, figure him out, and then we can make a plan.”

“Right,” said Elizabeth faintly.

“You’ll be quite able to figure him out,” said Caroline, nodding. “You always figure everyone out.”

It was sort of true, Elizabeth supposed. She had figured out all the servants in the matches they’d made, after all, and she now noticed it about herself, that she was able to understand people so well .

This matchmaking endeavor between herself and Caroline, it had changed her in some way, made her more aware of her own abilities and observations.

“Yes, I suppose I could figure him out,” said Elizabeth. “But he likely won’t come here , will he?”

IT TURNED OUT that Caroline could not get Mr. Darcy there through her own abilities.

She sent a letter from Netherfield, begging Elizabeth to find some way to convince her brother to write to Mr. Darcy. You must contrive to sit next to him at dinner on Thursday, for we are engaged to come and eat at Longbourn. If anyone can do it, Eliza, I know it’s you.

There it was, the shortened name again. But it was in a letter. Elizabeth didn’t think that it was the right time to mention she wasn’t entirely fond of being called Eliza.