Miss Mary in Pride and Prejudice

For a girl who has lived in the country all year round, it is always exciting to go to London.Although Mary was not as susceptible to these foreign temptations as other girls, since she was not a saint, she naturally looked forward to the trip to London sincerely.

Mr. Bingley sent a carriage to take her directly to Mr. Gardner's home in London. The journey went very smoothly. When they arrived at the destination, they saw the smiling faces of their uncles and aunts welcoming them, their sister Kitty looked more beautiful, and their cousins. They were lively and lovely around, and Mary couldn't be more pleased with the trip.

Mrs. Gardner knew about Mr. Austin Jr. in the correspondence with Mrs. Bennet, so she often inquired in front of her niece. Mary unreservedly expressed to her aunt that she was neither in love with him, nor had Mr. Austin Jr. It's just an ordinary friend. I value his knowledge and ability, and I am willing to associate with him, that's all.

Mrs. Gardner regretted this, because she also thought that Mr. Austen was very suitable for Mary in every way.However, now that Mary had expressed her attitude, Mrs. Gardner no longer mentioned this person.

The life of Mrs. Gardner's family was very leisurely. They seldom went out and had only a few friends in London.Occasionally, Kitty would take Mary to a nearby cloakroom store, and they would go to the small theater to watch performances every week.For the rest of the time, Mary read and played the piano, just like her life at home.One morning, when Mary was at home alone, Mrs. Gardner and Kitty took the two older cousins ​​to the tailor shop. Mary stayed to read the letter because she received a letter from Jane when she was about to go out.

Jane's letters are always pleasant, in which she relates their life since Mary's departure, and the last two gatherings, and when she writes the passage in which Miss Bingley leaves Howard End for her sister in London, Mary could not help smiling, noticing the joy and relief in Jane's writing.What made Miss Bingley make up her mind was that the Earl would also come to London next week on business. Upon hearing the news, Mary couldn't help frowning, feeling a little strange.She read down quickly, and her attention was attracted by a paragraph of text.

"Dear sister, there is another piece of amazing news to tell you. This matter is related to Mr. Austin. Last week, the old Austin finally announced his retirement, but the person who replaced him is beyond your imagination. It turned out to be us Mr. Collins, cousin of Mr. Collins. It seems that after Mrs. de Bourgh, he has a new benefactor. I don't know why the Earl of Leicester is so fond of Mr. Collins, but I do feel sorry for little Mr. Austen, this matter The incident dealt him a great blow, and affected his future livelihood. The night before yesterday, he came here for dinner. He is really a noble person. Although he was very depressed, he didn't complain about anyone, and he didn't say a word to the count. Complaints. He just said maybe an ex-friend would get him a job at the school up north. Oh, poor man."

Little Mr. Austin has lost his vicarage!Mr. Collins instead!No news could be more surprising than this.If Mary had any affection for the Earl before, it was gone because of this incident.She just couldn't understand why the earl would have such a dislike for such an elegant and learned young man as little Mr. Austen, and would not hesitate to ruin one's career.

Is it because he saw little Mr. Austin's affection for Miss Darcy?Mary thought that she was close to a part of the truth. Before that, she had always thought that Miss Darcy loved the Earl, but was rejected by the Earl. Now she thought that maybe things were completely different from what people imagined.But she couldn't really tell what was going on, and being cautious by nature, she decided to keep the matter silent and never mention it to anyone.

So when Mrs. Gardiner and Kitty came back, Mary did not mention to them about little Mr. Austen, but only relayed Jane's letter about some other friends.The days passed so quickly, and just when Mary was about to forget these things, one day, a distinguished guest came to Gardner's house, who was unexpectedly the Earl of Leicester.

It happened that everyone was at home that day, and Mary had long forgotten what the Earl had said about coming to London to visit her. Even if she remembered, she regarded it as a courtesy and never took it to heart. At this moment, she was surprised to see the Earl suddenly appear at the door. .

Mrs. Gardiner was extremely honored to have the Earl at home, and fortunately she was chatting with the Earl, so that the distraught Mary had time to sort out her thoughts, while Kitty nervously said nothing. If I can't come out, I wish I could hide upstairs.

The Earl's words and deeds were really amiable and lively, which made Mrs. Gardner have a good impression of him. Afterwards, she discussed this with her niece, but the niece said that this nobleman is moody, and this time it may be because he is in a good mood , the next time we meet, he may be cold and strict.

Mrs. Gardner felt that it was impossible for a person's personality to be so weird. However, she didn't care about the Earl's various things at first, but now she has other ideas. She just found that Mary seemed to have a deep prejudice against the Earl. I was even more surprised, so I didn't make too many comments, just observed carefully.Because she has already discovered that the characteristics of her nieces are that they often have relatively keen observation skills for others, but when it comes to herself, they are either fake or fake, or they are really hindsight.

If the earl's one visit was a courtesy, then two or three visits would have to make Mary feel incomprehensible.And had the Earl come here only to chat with Mrs. Gardiner?Of course, Mrs. Gardiner was undoubtedly a very elegant and interesting woman, but Mary thought that the earl should have a lot of elegant, interesting and noble women in his social circle in London.But no matter what, she didn't think about it, that is: the earl has fallen in love with her.

However, the Earl was indeed deeply in love.The earl was originally a gloomy person who didn't like to socialize, but his status made him the focus of attention no matter where he went.As an adult, he especially became the prey pursued by the young noble ladies and the object of flattery, which made him very annoying.And Mary was the only one he met who was indifferent to his wealth and title of nobility, and even a little respectful.At the same time, Mary's easygoing and indifferent attitude towards people and things and her obsession with books and art made him feel that Mary was his ideal partner.

However, as usual, his wealth and status attracted the vain Miss Bingley, and his elegant manners and demeanor attracted the simple and infatuated Miss Darcy, but made the rational and self-respecting Mary even shy away.The close relationship between Mary and Mr. Austin Jr., especially Mary's mother's expectations for their marriage, made the Earl of Leicester quite jealous of Mr. Austin Jr., and even made the move of delegating the post of pastor to others. Even the earl himself felt guilty, but his heart burned with jealousy made him insist on going his own way.

When he saw Mary again in London, he became more and more infatuated with her. However, with the keen sense of a person in love, he couldn't help but notice that Mary was quite indifferent to him.Ordinarily, for a young man like him who has no relatives and no relatives, if he visits a certain young lady so frequently, the other party will always notice something and understand his intentions. However, Mary is no more considerate to him than when she was at the Emerald Valley Manor. Kind, on the contrary also alienated a lot.

The earl guessed it was because she had learned about little Mr. Austen and felt pain and shame, but he couldn't make up his mind to forget her, so he couldn't help but visit Gardiner's house often.Mary was not a harsh person. The Earl's frequent visits forced her to regard him as a frequent friend, so she always received him politely every time.What annoyed her was that her uncle and aunt obviously regarded the Earl as her suitor, and often tried to give her some advice, which made her laugh and cry. She believed that this matter was absolutely impossible, so she had to take their advice as groundless.

The only thing that comforted her was that her aunt was obviously a tight-lipped person, while Kitty didn't care about anything but her own affairs, so her mother didn't know about the count.Because she recently received an urgent letter from Mrs. Bennet, admonishing her never to agree to Mr. Austen's marriage proposal.It turned out that Mrs. Bennet also learned about the pastorship, because Mr. Collins proudly told all his relatives that he had got a more lucrative position, so Mr. Austin Jr. unfortunately lost his chance to become Bennett. The qualifications of the wife's son-in-law.Although Mary admired Mr. Austen's knowledge and character very much, but because she understood Mr. Austen's feelings for Miss Darcy, she felt sorry for his future, but receiving such a letter would not bring her much. pain of.

The days flowed like water for a month.One day in July, Mrs. Gardiner was very happy to learn that her favorite niece, Elizabeth, was coming to London too. It is said that in such a bright weather, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy would not be willing to leave their picturesque Pemberley Manor , and came to noisy and dirty London, however, they received an invitation from Mrs. De Bourgh, Mrs. Darcy's aunt, who was going to hold a grand birthday celebration for her only daughter, and in this way Taking this opportunity to show her daughter to the social world, the old lady attaches great importance to this gathering and specially invites all relatives and friends who the old lady thinks are qualified to attend, and Mr. Darcy, as the closest relative of the old lady in the world, naturally has no reason If they didn't come to participate, considering the feelings of the elderly, the Darcy couple had no choice but to come and bow down.

Mary was very happy to see her sister, and she found that Miss Darcy did not accompany them as usual. Elizabeth explained that Miss Darcy was unwell and needed to rest, and the air in London was obviously not suitable for her.This explanation is really far-fetched enough, so that Mary can't help thinking that the reason why Miss Darcy didn't come to London was because she didn't want to see the Earl of Leicester again.The Earl of Leicester is also related to the de Bourgh family, so he was also invited this time.