Chapter 5: Van Drecht Arrives Bearing Antiquarian Credentials

The second piece of intelligence to arrive at Longbourn that week came, as the best intelligence always did, through Mrs. Philips, who had received it from Mrs. Long, who had it from the innkeeper's wife at the White Hart, who considered herself the neighbourhood's most reliable primary source on matters of arrival and departure and was not wrong.

A Dutchman had taken lodgings.

"A scholar," Mrs. Hartwell reported, bearing the information to the breakfast table with the specific disappointment of someone who has just ascertained that a thing is not useful. "Of antiquities. He has letters of introduction to Mrs. Fenton." She set down her cup. "Mrs. Fenton, of all people. Who introduced the man to Mrs. Fenton?"