Miss Mary in Pride and Prejudice

Early the next morning, Miss Bingley ignored Jane's efforts to persuade her to stay, and took a carriage to London to find her sister, Mrs. Hurst. It will affect Jane's happy mood, but in hindsight, Jane didn't pay much attention to it. She told Mary that since she married Mr. Bingley, Miss Bingley still regarded herself as the mistress of her brother's house, and often gave orders to the servants by taking the lead. There are many times when I make myself feel embarrassed, but fortunately Mr. Bingley is always on my wife's side, and her life is much easier.Only this time, she did not expect Mr. Bingley to lose his temper so suddenly.

Mary comforted her sister that Mr. Bingley fell out with her sister entirely for Jane's sake. In fact, Jane did not lose anything by doing so, because Mary could see clearly that Miss Bingley always spent a lot of money. , without thinking about her ability to bear it, and in order to settle things down, Jane often asked the housekeeper to pay Miss Bingley's bills without telling Mr. a good thing.Jane only hoped that Miss Bingley could find her lover as soon as possible in London, so that Mr. Bingley would have no responsibility for her.

Kitty, too, left Howard shortly afterwards to go to Uncle Gardner's in London.The days went by, and Mary kept her days as busy as possible so as not to recall her first encounter with the man at Howards End.Although everyone said that the owner of the Emerald Manor had not been back for a long time, Mary never planned to go there once. Although the scenery there was much more elegant than that of Howard, there were many mornings and evenings when Mr. Bingley and Jane When going for a walk in the Emerald Valley, she always excused that little Alan couldn't live without someone to take care of her, and she always refused to go to the Emerald Valley to enjoy the scenery.

At the beginning of April, Jane received a letter from Elizabeth. She told Mary that Elizabeth talked about a major event in Pemberley Manor in the letter: Miss Darcy fell in love with Mr. Austin, the vicar of Pemberley. It has reached the point of discussing marriage, but because Mr. Darcy is not very satisfied with this, and Miss Darcy is unwilling to displease her brother on any issue, the matter is still in a stalemate.Elizabeth hoped that the soon-to-be-born little Darcy would resolve the conflict and satisfy all parties.

Jane and Mary sighed together, who would have thought that Miss Darcy would fall in love with a poor parish priest?However, because Mary had friendship with Georgiana and Mr. Austin Jr., she soon didn’t find it strange: Mr. Austen Jr.’s affection for Georgiana was something she had seen a long time ago, and Georgiana herself was a weak and kind-hearted woman. It is easy to be moved by others. When her brother and sister-in-law are ready to welcome the arrival of a new life, and there are no other men around to distract her, there is a friend of the opposite sex who has similar interests and can talk to her all day long. , she is easy to fall in love.

And Mary analyzed from a rational point of view, this marriage is also very likely to be successful: Mr. Darcy is not an arbitrary parent, on the contrary, he loves his sister very much, and does not pay attention to the role of money in marriage, so he The objection to this marriage is likely to be that Mr. Austin Jr. is not worthy of his sister, or that his sister can have a better choice, rather than because of Mr. Austin Jr.'s poor financial conditions.

But Mary knows from Elizabeth's letter that at least Elizabeth supports Georgiana, and Elizabeth has always been very influential on Mr. Darcy, so she will eventually persuade Darcy to agree to the marriage.Once married, Georgiana can use her inheritance of [-] pounds, and they will live a very rich life. Although they are not very rich, who can say that they will not be happy?

Mary couldn't help but sighed, and she sighed: "Oh, I think an income of one or two thousand pounds a year is the most reasonable level of wealth - it can guarantee food and clothing, and avoid the corruption of luxury and lust. From this From that point of view, Georgiana and Mr. Austin Jr. are very lucky."

Jane couldn't help laughing when she heard this: "Dear Mary, if you are so demanding on the financial conditions of your marriage partner, I will really worry about you. But fortunately, when the pastor of the church, Mr. Collins, came to visit yesterday, I have brought good news—the Reverend Lisbon, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is coming to this area, and as far as I know, he fully meets your requirements."

Mary angrily and embarrassingly denied that she had anything to do with Pastor Lisbon, but Jane had already received a very detailed report from her mother, not to mention that after Mary arrived at Howard Manor, she received two letters from Pastor Lisbon in succession, so She only took Mary's defense as hypocrisy, but in her heart she believed more and more that her sister was very likely to become another pastor's wife.

Besides, Mary is the only guest in Howard Manor besides the owner's family at present, which is a bit deserted, so the frequent visits of the pastor and his wife are not as annoying as before.It has to be said that under the continuous influence of Mr. Collins, Charlotte became more and more good at saying what others would listen to. In addition, she was more reasonable and knowledgeable than Mr. Collins, so it was easier for everyone to love her.In the entire parish, this is a model couple. They are pleasant to others, diligent in chores, and willing to help the villagers to the extent possible. Therefore, the Reverend Collins's family has a good reputation in the local area.

And Mary was acquainted with Charlotte. When Jane couldn't go out for a walk because of her health, or had family affairs to deal with with Mr. Bingley, Mary would often let the nanny hold Ellen and go to the pastor's house together. Visit and stay for half a day, because Charlotte's daughter Emma is half a year older than Ellen, very lively and lovely, both children like to play with Xue Fei, the adults save a lot of energy.

In the afternoon of this day, because little Alan got up late in the morning, he was still full of energy after lunch. The nanny said that he was probably past the age of needing a nap, so Mary decided to take him to the pastor's house to find love. Mary, she could have afternoon tea with Charlotte, and the best part was that she knew that Mr. Collins would usually be in the village at this time, so they set off.

Sure enough, Mr. Collins was not at home. After the nanny arrived at the parsonage, she went to the kitchen to drink tea and chat with the cook. Charlotte set up a tea table under the cherry tree in the yard. The fragrance was overwhelming, and Emma and Alan decorated Xue Fei with some bows on the lawn under the tree, having a great time.

Although it was afternoon tea enjoyed by only two people, Charlotte has already learned Mr. Collins's emphasis on red tape. On the table, there are only ceramic teapots, teacups, sugar bowls, milk cups, seven-inch dessert trays, desserts, etc. rack, small bowl for tea residues, teapot warmer, tea strainer and saucer for strainer, teaspoon, butter knife, cake fork, etc. It was because of the consideration of avoiding waste that Charlotte did not prepare a three-tier snack stand, but only asked the cook to make freshly baked scones and strawberry jam, in addition to a plate of fresh cheese.

Charlotte first made a slightly hypocritical apology for the crude hospitality, and Mary, who was familiar with the pastor's wife's temperament, immediately praised the softness and hardness of the scones, which made the pastor's wife a little proud, but she Still not satisfied, she reminded Mary that no raisins were added to the scones. She solemnly stated that this was not for saving, but because Mr. Collins had researched the origin of scones and believed that the ancient scones were used as It’s for dessert, so adding raisins to enhance the flavor is understandable, but for afternoon tea, plain scones are enough.Because afternoon tea usually comes with cheese and jam, and when there is good jam, the raisins are superfluous.

Mary nodded approvingly of Charlotte's grandiose scones as she ate scones with cheese and jam.Charlotte may have enjoyed the fun of talking with friends, so she continued: "I have made some beneficial improvements to the scones, and Mr. Collins is very impressed. I think the reason why we British afternoon tea often use Scones are because scones are so easy to make, the whole process takes only 15 minutes from taking the dough out of the cupboard to sending them into the oven, and it’s ready to serve steaming hot, there’s nothing more family-friendly than this .I also warned the cook to make scones by gently patting the dough with hands instead of rolling it out with a rolling pin, so as to get the best texture. The scones should not be too big, and the size of a bite is the most suitable... "

Strictly speaking, although Charlotte is a bit long-winded, Mary does not hate listening to her. On the contrary, if she adapts to her language style, she will benefit a lot. For example, she has learned how to make scones now and is considering After returning to Longbourne, you can do it yourself.

However, the pleasant afternoon tea time ended prematurely. First, because Little Allen was pulling a weed among the pansy bushes and cut his finger on a thorn on the weed, he burst into tears and wiped his wound. After the babysitter came to take care of the two children, Mr. Collins came back with the reheated black tea before Charlotte had poured it into the cup. Returned a guest.

This guest is Mr. Lisbon. As soon as Charlotte was introduced to this gentleman, she was very impressed by his demeanor. In addition, Mr. Collins had nagged countless times that his future was all dependent on this Mr. Special Envoy. As for his evaluation, because the two masters treated Mr. Special Envoy really flatteringly, when he heard that Mary and Mr. Lisbon had already known each other, Mr. Collins, who had never thought highly of Mary, suddenly became respectful to Mary, which made Mary couldn't help laughing.

When all the formalities which Mr. Collins considered essential had been performed, Mr. Lisbon kindly asked to join Mrs. Collins at tea, which was, of course, the honor of the host.The tea is indeed good tea, the finest Ceylon black tea, with a pungent flavor, such as mint and lily-of-the-valley, and a mellow, rather bitter, but sweet aftertaste.It's a pity that a cup of tea is not clean, and Mr. Collins has to listen to Mr. Collins repeatedly reminding everyone that the tea sets are all made of Wedgwood bone china.

It should be noted that when Mr. Collins introduced the tea set, he also subtly integrated his contribution to the parish into it. He seemed to think that doing so was more elegant than complete boasting.Mr. Lisbon nodded frequently to Mr. Collins' long talk, and Mary was knitting a small hat for little Ellen, and now her needlework was getting more and more vigorous. Only Mrs. Collins listened to herself attentively with a smile on her face. Husband's speech.At last the frothing Mr. Collins concluded his speech with a motto: "With tea to entertain the evening, with tea to soothe the evening, with tea to greet the dawn - where tea is, That's where the hope lies."