[Pride and Prejudice] Rich Lady

Since the Christmas holidays, the atmosphere of the entire Netherfield Manor has quietly become tense, because the belly of the hostess of the manor has bulged like a ball, and the doctor believes that Mrs. Bennet is likely to give birth to a child early.

Mrs. Bennet is not too young anymore, and her temper is a little irritable, and she has really suffered a lot.Fortunately, her family members are willing to understand her and protect her, and in the past year, Mrs. Bennet only heard good things, and all the unpleasant and even terrible things were kept from her - so she can keep her mood for a long time Happy, which is extremely important for a pregnant woman.

Even the neighbors were watching, and a group of elderly ladies got together, and some of them said, "Mrs. Bennet is so stupid. God didn't want to give her a boy. Another one won't change anything."

Some said: "Maybe Mrs. Bennet can really get her wish. She spent a lot of money to ask for a doctor from the Silk Country. I heard that the doctor from the Silk Country once made several nobles have heirs."

"That's not necessarily true, don't forget the good deeds of Countess Beassel!"

The women laughed lowly. This kind of thing was very common when they were young. Many noble ladies have "ideal families" - generous husbands, harmonious atmosphere, and handsome lovers. More than 30 years ago, it was not surprising for a noble lady to have a lover. In fact, the jealous husband was the object of ridicule and contempt at that time. A lover never damages the reputation of the noble, regardless of the noble himself. Still a noble lady.But the situation is different now. Although the nobles still want to carnival like before, their wealth and rights have shrunk. Their leader, His Majesty the King, is a loyal and dedicated man. There are countless newspapers that rely on reporting scandals to survive. The nobles We had to keep a low profile.

The Countess of Beassel from France is an example of being too imprudent. According to the once-popular "French Lady's Morning Dressing Ceremony" (Note), she often invites a certain handsome gentleman to participate.The countess didn't feel that she was too much, and even the count himself didn't care too much. He was busy cultivating on the young and strong mistress, hoping to grow a fruit.But it turned out that the countess had grown fruit in her stomach, and the couple were ecstatic, and the count was also annoyed by the tabloid speculation about the father of the child-but the terrible thing was that the countess gave birth to an irrefutable proof, Her child's complexion is dark.Even the Times published a caricature: the lovers of the Earl and Countess of Bearthall drinking tea in a friendly manner, the Countess lying on a gorgeous four-poster bed, and a mouth was drawn under the dark bed The open mouth is wrapped in darkness, only the teeth are white.

"This is not in line with reputation. You must know that according to the old theory, being unfaithful to a lover will ruin a woman's reputation. (Note ②)" said an old lady.

This topic can no longer be continued, the current society is not as romantic as it used to be, besides, this is England, not the profligate France.Everyone can't slander the integrity and morality of a gentleman's wife at will, so they have to insinuate a few acid words to appease their envy, and the old ladies turn to talk about Mr. Bennet.

"Mr. Bennet is a bit out of tune. He doesn't raise livestock for entertainment like other gentlemen (Note ③), but he is keen on matching rams and ewes? I heard that he bought many different breeds on his farm. The sheep, the Lehine, the Cowswood, the Sackford and the Leicester...these sheep didn't get along at all, and two rams died in the fight. What did Mr. Bennet think? ?”

"He's always been a little eccentric, even though he's very respected now, I'd say." An old lady knew something: "He had a ewe on his farm who was mixed with a different breed of sheep and gave birth early this year. A brood of lambs survived and grew fast and well. Mr. Bennet was fascinated. He wanted to raise a new flock of lambs with thick long wool and fat lambs. Mutton—what a whimsy he is!"

In fact, the news of the Countess of Bearthel, which the old ladies talked about, gave new hope to a gentleman fifty miles from the present.

When the gentleman had just received the news that Mrs. Bennet was pregnant a few months ago, he almost passed out from the shock.Happily he had just become a priest, and was doing his best to suppress his grief, and not to come to Longborn at once.At that time, Mr. Collins, uncharacteristically, wrote several expressive letters one after another to greet distant relatives.

But Mr. Bennet, who received the letter, was not interested. He was always lazy in writing letters, and this gentleman committed his old habit on Mr. Collins: putting off difficult things until later.

For three months after the first letter, Mr. Bennet did not think of answering it until Mr. Collins' second letter arrived, just as there was an event on the small farm attached to the Netherfield estate. "The harvest of lambs", the happy Mr. Bennet replied a few lines to Mr. Collins who was eager to see.

That's right!Mr. Bennet has found a new pleasure, and firmly believes that this new pleasure will add bricks and tiles to his property.Mr. Bennet's elegant gentleman's taste, unknowingly, turned into a simple money reward thinking.He was keen to breed a new breed that would produce long, dense wool while producing heavy meat, and Mr. Bennet expected the ewes of the new breed to produce more lambs per litter.

With the help of his daughters Mary and Kitty, Mr. Bennet got twelve groups of lambs. Their parents are sheep of different breeds and from different places.Mary is a rigorous little researcher. She remembers which breed of sheep the parents of each flock are, when they were born, weight gain and wool quality.And Kitty and her good friends also helped a lot. The Scottish Sheepdogs obeyed her very much. After she started to help, there was no more fight between the rams and frightened sheep running away.

This incident is also considered news in the local area.Because most of the ranchers with sheep flocks let ewes conceive young in autumn and winter, and get lambs when the weather warms up in March of the following year, so as not to give birth to the wrong season and the ewes cannot feed the lambs.But Mr. Bennet couldn't wait. After he had this idea, he immediately acted to buy rams and ewes of the right age from businessmen and ranchers everywhere.

In this matter, Mr. George, a seed merchant who maintained a good relationship with him, also helped a lot.

At first it was only thought that he had bought the Netherfield estate, and that it was no surprise that he would convert one of the two small farms into a dedicated sheep pasture.It wasn't until November, when the weather was cooler, that the ewes in the Bennet's pasture gave birth to lambs one after another, which quickly attracted people's attention.

It is conceivable that when Jane, Elizabeth and Lydia returned home from the city to celebrate Christmas, they found the wonderful mood of their parents and sisters in the white and soft clouds.

Lydia ran over, picked up a snow-white lamb, buried her face in the bleating little guy, and sniffed it. It smelled like sunshine and straw, but the milky smell was not at all mixed with it. Not bad.The little girl giggled, letting a group of lambs surround her, not afraid of getting her beloved skirt dirty.

Even Jane and Elizabeth couldn't help holding one in their arms and stroking it.

At first, Mr. Bennet was happy for his daughters to come back, but after a while he didn’t allow them to make trouble here anymore. Some of these little lambs were just full moon, and they could only jump and run. The father was afraid that the delicate little lambs would be frightened. .

"Why can Mary and Kitty, they can hug whichever one they want?" The little baby Lydia was reluctant to leave the fence, she pouted and said: "And mother, she is also in here."

Mrs. Bennet was half lying on a comfortable soft chair, with a thick Iranian blanket covering her stomach, surrounded by a few lambs, squinting comfortably in the sunniest place.

"Bad baby, Mom is basking in the sun. Only for half an hour, Mr. Bennet allowed me to come out and bask in the sun." The wife muttered dissatisfied.

"My dear lady, take the children back, half an hour will be up soon! The sun will be less warm in a while, and the wind will blow." Mr. Bennet urged her.

Without waiting for his wife to talk to his little daughter, Mr. Bennet said again: "Kitty can make these little ones obedient and go back to the sheep house smoothly. Mary can guarantee that they will not go to other ewes, and she can recognize them." Bring out every lamb. Most importantly, these little ones are not afraid of them at all, I don't think you can do that?"

The gentleman raised his eyebrows, and motioned the three daughters who had just come back to look at the little lambs who were being touched and bleating.

Jane and Elizabeth put their hands behind their backs, and generously invited Mrs. Bennet: "Mom, let's go back."

This manor, which was much more luxurious and huge than Longbourn, was still very unfamiliar to Elizabeth, especially the decoration, carpets and furniture inside were completely different from the few times she had visited during her summer vacation.But this did not prevent her from liking this manor in the slightest. This was her home. Looking at the familiar portraits hanging on the family corridor, Elizabeth felt very close.

"It would be great if Mr. Bennet could raise a sheep that was bigger and fatter than others." Mrs. Bennet looked at his picture frame and said, "Then I will invite a famous painter to come There is nothing more decent than making a picture of him and the sheep!" (Note ④)

Elizabeth was indifferent to the fashionable pictures circulating among the gentlemen—in England, landed nobles and gentlemen looked down on the increasingly wealthy merchants, bankers and factory owners, so a "high pastime" of raising livestock was popular ", the bigger the livestock, the more successful and superior the recreation, which is really just to show off the vast lands they own on large farms.

Therefore, fashionable paintings of gentlemen and livestock together became popular in the upper social circles.Elizabeth had seen such paintings several times at salons and balls held by nobles. They were all huge portraits of pigs, cows, and sheep.

Those paintings are full of fat round pigs, fat and oblong cattle and sheep, and the houses and trees are extremely short, exaggerated and scary.When Elizabeth saw it for the first time, she couldn't understand it. In that painting, no matter whether it was the livestock or the owner, they all had small heads and big bodies, and their slender feet were propped on the ground.It was still my good friend Laura who pointed out to her the size, weight and owner's name marked on the corner of the painting, and quietly told Elizabeth that this was a proof of successful breeding.Elizabeth just understood.

"Dear Mamma, I don't think Daddy would like it. He likes the girls' paintbrushes better," Elizabeth said. "I think Daddy would think it would be more meaningful to draw a picture of the two of you than anything else."

"Lizzie, shall we draw a portrait of the whole family together and hang it here?" Jane pointed to the empty wall and said, the history of the Bennet family is very short, so there is nothing to say, but it can be enriched from now on gallery.

The younger sisters all echoed her idea, and Elizabeth couldn't help laughing when she thought of the "family portrait" characteristic of the flower planting country: "We can draw one every Christmas and hang it here. How interesting! This year we have seven Individuals, next year there will be eight, oh no, maybe nine."

"Nine?" Kitty asked suspiciously, "Why are there nine? Will there be two children in our family?"

Jane's face was as red as a dewy red apple just picked.

Elizabeth winked mischievously: "Someone will visit our new home soon. Maybe we will have a brother-in-law!"

"Oh! Jane, is it true?" asked Mrs. Bennet, who had the best ear for such words, "has Mr. George proposed to you?"

Even Mr. Bennet's ears were pricked up, and he was shaking the newspaper, and now he was thinking of the manner in which he should behave when Mr. George came to visit.In short, we can't be as casual as before, the father-in-law must have the majesty of the father-in-law.

The relationship between Jane and Mr. George has grown by leaps and bounds in a few months. Mr. George is indeed a wonderful person, he is sincere and honest enough.As Jane got closer and closer to him, not only the pain was soothed, but he also became different - Mr. George was good at observation and judgment, and had a keen intuition. During the process of getting along, his strengths influenced Jane.

When Jane relieved herself and pulled out the thorn, she cried hard for the last time for Miss Duda's injury.Elizabeth believed that, at least when she met a 'friend' like Miss Duda again, Jane would never take the initiative to approach and be deceived again.

On the first night in Netherfield, in Miss Elizabeth’s letter to Mr. William again, she lamented: “There is such a person, he taught a tame girl to calmly, calmly and peacefully refuse any unreasonable request—the church loves The lady refused, this is the most beautiful romance I have ever seen."

Mr. Darcy was at the house of his aunt Rosings when he received this letter.Miss Lizzie's exclamation could not but misunderstand, worry, and distress him, and the gentleman made up his mind to visit Longbourne again.

The author has something to say: [-] small red envelopes will be given for comments in this chapter, and [-] small red envelopes will also be given for Jiageng.

Gagen is still relatively late, before 12 o'clock in the evening.

Note: Morning makeup: French noble ladies wear thin casual clothes, while dressing up, while dealing with various affairs, while having sex with their admirers.The admirers formed a circle and had a cordial and friendly conversation centered on the lady.Even the king himself is willing to participate in such popular activities. For example, there are exact records describing the situation where Charles II participated in the morning makeup of the Duchess of Portsmouth.Compared with the king, it is the young priests who participate in the morning makeup more often.

Note ②: In France, during the period of Mrs. Pompadour (1721-1764), there was a special concept: "In this era, women have no obligation to love their husbands, but if they cheat their lovers, they are shameful love liars. Therefore, if you are unfaithful to your husband, you will not be blamed; if you are unfaithful to your lover, you will be considered as having a bad moral character. Or if your emotional intelligence is so low that you can no longer be friends with your past lover after a relationship is over, it is also considered a problem with your character Or it’s not decent enough to behave in the world.” ——The Confusion of Marriage Relations in Europe in the Eighteenth Century

Note ③: In Britain in the early 19th century, many nobles and gentlemen owned large farms, and raising livestock was considered a "high-level pastime" at that time. ——"In 19th-century Britain, the hottest status symbol was to own a painting like this"

Note ④: The livestock they raised were bigger than ever before, and nobles and gentlemen were proud of it. In order to gain recognition and show their achievements to the public, paintings with the theme of "huge" livestock became popular. ——"In 19th-century Britain, the hottest status symbol was to own a painting like this"

This is the era of "the fat pig races the elephant".