Miss Mary in Pride and Prejudice

After receiving the gloves and scissors from a peasant woman, Mary realized that she knew nothing about how to pick grapes. The Earl of Leicester smiled knowingly, and said, "Miss Bennet, just follow along." That’s it, it’s not complicated at all.” In early autumn, there was a layer of mist over the vineyard, and the sun was not strong, but under the airtight grape trellis, it was still a bit hot, Mary followed the example of the Earl of Leicester Holding the grapes in one hand, she cut off the vines with scissors in the other hand, and then carefully put the cut grape bunches into the basket carried by the servant boy behind her, and soon she was covered in a thin sweat .

But she didn't want to give up halfway and be looked down upon by others, so she picked grapes nimbly and kept on picking grapes, while stuffing the biggest and reddest grapes into the mouths of herself and the little servant boy who followed her. When she picked a basket full, She estimated that she had eaten almost half a pound of grapes, what a delicious and juicy fruit!

It seemed that this was not the first time for the Earl of Leicester to do this kind of work, and he seemed to be very handy. When the pile of grapes in the basket was almost full, he sent the little servant boy to send the grape basket to the other side of the vineyard and greeted him. Mary went to rest on the ridge for a while.Mary was also a little tired, and it happened that she was wearing coarse cloth, so she sat down on the ridge and wiped her sweat with the towel handed over by the count without being pretentious.

The earl was silent for a while, and suddenly asked: "Miss Bennet, why did you refuse when Miss Darcy asked you to play the piano last night?" Mary did not expect him to ask such a question, and subconsciously told the truth: "Because I can't play as well as her, and my posture is not as noble as her." Earl Lester said calmly: "It is not noble to be superior to others. The real noble should be superior to your past self."

Mary was silent. Didn't this kind of philosophical words always come from the mouth of myself who is known as a nerd?She found it a little funny, so she said to the count inscrutablely: "Count, if you are familiar with me enough, you will know that the reason why I don't play the piano is to be better than myself in the past." Thinking that the pedantic she also has such a playful side, she couldn't help laughing heartily: "I hope I can get to know you well enough, Miss Bennet."

He said something meaningful, and Mary's heart skipped a beat. She felt that it was getting hotter, so she stood up and said, "It's time for that child to come back, let's continue." The Earl of Leicester did not object , but for the rest of the time, they all maintained this kind of ambiguous silence. The two of them just cut the grapes silently and put them in the basket. The clever boy carrying the basket blinked his curious eyes and looked at himself for a while. The master, looking at the young lady for a while, didn't understand why the two people who were talking and laughing were silent, only the happy farmers and women not far away were chatting and laughing one after another.

When they finally walked out of the vineyard and came to the door of the wine cellar, Mary couldn't help but marvel at the fruits of today's labor. Of course, she only contributed a small part. The hilly pile of grapes was the work of nearly 200 workers for a day. results.The distinguished guests have already sat around the table. In such an event, workers, servants, masters and guests can sit together, eat and drink at will, and there is an inexhaustible supply of freshly baked bread and Bottles of freshly squeezed grape juice, and of course cider, but no one drank any cider. Everyone downed at least six bottles of sweet and refreshing grape juice, and ate a lot of bread and cheese. And a lot of grapes, all the people are blushing, it seems that grape juice can also be intoxicating.

Then when the night deepened and the bonfire was lit, a huge wooden barrel was carried out, and baskets of grapes were poured into the barrel, and then the owner, the Earl of Leicester, took off his riding boots and stood in front of everyone. Amid the cheers, he jumped into the barrel and stomped on the grapes vigorously, the juice splashed everywhere, and Earl Leicester's breeches were instantly messed up.Mary couldn't help screaming, and then laughing again, and even the most reserved Miss Darcy was affected by the scene, and couldn't help applauding the men and women who jumped into the barrel.

Only Mrs. de Bourgh said sullenly: "I can't bear this indecent scene. What is there to be inferior? I hope the wine I drink at Leicester Manor is not squeezed in this way." ’ No one answered her, and on such a happy day, everything seemed so beautiful and forgivable.As the night grew darker, the band played joyful country tunes, and the workers danced to the beat. Elizabeth, the liveliest, was the first to let go of her body, and forced Mr. Darcy to dance. The Earl of Leicester had already changed. Dress up, and ask Mary, Georgiana, and Anne to dance, one by one.Oh, no, when he asked Anne to dance, he was flatly rejected by Mrs. de Bourgh who was on the side. Mrs. de Bourgh thought that a lady of her status would never dance in such a mixed occasion. Yes, and her daughter certainly wouldn't either.

Then she stared angrily at Mr. and Mrs. Darcy and got angry. Unfortunately, Mr. Darcy didn't have much family background. Under Elizabeth's influence, he became more open-minded and easy-going. A few dances, at the instigation of Elizabeth, even like the Earl of Leicester, invited a few peasant girls who looked more elegant to dance a few dances.

This time the old lady was so angry that she said angrily that she couldn't stay any longer, so Colonel Fitzwilliam had to call a carriage for her and take her home himself.Annie, who had always been obedient, said that she wanted to watch it for a while. The old lady hesitated for a while, maybe because she felt that it was rare for her daughter to show interest in something, so she no longer insisted on Annie going back with her.

Not long after the old lady left, a young man in gentleman's attire came over to ask Anne to dance. Mary recognized him at once as the gardener, Mr. Henry Davis. What she didn't expect was that Anne readily agreed, and soon He walked briskly into the crowd.Mary was a little worried for no reason. She felt that Mr. Davis was too talkative and too active for a gardener.Just at this time the Earl of Leicester asked her to dance again, so Mary took this opportunity to ask him about Davis.

"Oh, you're asking about Henry. He came from a good family and was a classmate of mine at Cambridge University, but the family inheritance was squandered by his parents, so he had to make a living by himself. He is very accomplished, and is currently studying the genetics and variation among species..." Then Earl Leicester said a long list of words that Mary could not understand, but this did not prevent her from having a good opinion of Mr. Davis. Initial impression - penniless, but at the same time high-spirited.She didn't agree with this kind of person in her heart, but seeing that Earl Leicester had a good impression of Davis, she kept silent.

The party reached its climax. Although there was no piano, small musical instruments also made the atmosphere very lively. People began to sing. The Earl of Leicester ordered barrels of wine to be brought up from the wine cellar for everyone to drink happily , Even the ladies drank several glasses. After drinking two glasses, Mary felt that her face was hot. She suspected that the Earl had taken the old wine by mistake.At this time, some girls in the village sang love songs, which caused bursts of laughter from the boys. Mary began to feel that the scene was a little wild. She saw Mr. Darcy talking warmly with the Earl of Leicester, and Elizabeth They were whispering to Miss Darcy that they didn't seem to realize that they should leave the scene and let the people in these villages enjoy their own joy.

After a while, she suddenly noticed that Anne didn't know where she had gone.Mary's eyes are a little short-sighted, but because she has to work in the vineyard, she didn't bring her glasses today, so she can only wander helplessly among the crowd.Fortunately, the Earl of Leicester noticed what she was looking for, and immediately left Mr. Darcy and walked to Mary, asking her if there was anything she could do for her. Mary told him that she was looking for Anne, and the Earl of Leicester immediately went to the crowd. In the middle of the crowd, Mary didn't see his figure for a long time, and then suddenly the crowd parted, and the Earl of Leicester appeared, and Anne was beside him.

Oh, is this still the Anne Mary knew?I saw her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were shining with excitement, and her whole body seemed to be on fire. Mary couldn't help holding her hand, and her hand was trembling slightly. Mary called out: "Annie, what happened? You Is there something wrong?" Anne had a faint smile on her lips: "No, dear Mary, I'm fine, nothing could be better."

However, even the Earl of Leicester saw that there was something wrong with Anne, she was so different from usual, so he called the carriage, and everyone hurriedly ended the happy harvest festival in the vineyard, and the villagers cheered to the owner and The guests waved goodbye, Anne seemed to be drunk, she laughed and threw a bouquet she had been holding to the crowd, which elicited a burst of cheers, the carriage had already started, and Mary just saw Anne's bouquet out of the corner of her eye It fell into the hands of Mr. Henry Davies, who was playing with the bouquet, and watching the carriage wistfully away, and Mary's heart skipped a beat.

That night, Anne fell ill with a persistent high fever. Mrs. de Bourgh was very anxious. The Earl of Leicester sent for a famous doctor in Manchester overnight, but the diagnosis was just a stomach flu.The doctor said that Anne usually eats a single and restrained diet, but this time she must have eaten too many grapes, which overloaded her stomach and made her fall ill.This diagnosis was reasonable and accepted by everyone, and no one raised any objections except Mary who was suspicious.

In the next few days, Annie stayed in her room to recuperate. Although she had a fever all the time, she was in good spirits, not as sickly as before when she was sick.When everyone went horseback riding, hunting, feeding swans by the lake, visiting wine cellars or cheese factories, Mary was happy to accompany her in the castle, but Anne said that she could not be so selfish, which made Mary lose a lot of fun. Mary attends outings, and Mrs. Jenkinson is fine with herself.Mary was uneasy about Mrs. Jenkinson, but Anne insisted, and at last she had to submit to her kindness.

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