[Pride and Prejudice] Liz's Little Vest

"Sorry, my father said he doesn't want to see guests now." Mr. Jenner came down from the study and explained with some regret, "My father doesn't like to be disturbed by others when he is thinking."

"It's ok."

Elizabeth didn't feel offended at all. After all, this scientist's habits were different from ordinary people. She had a deep feeling in her previous life.

She then asked again: "There is a big dairy farm in Bennett's house. I wonder if Mr. Jenner would like to visit it? Maybe there will be some interesting samples."

"May I ask where?"

"Just at Longbourn, sir, and only two or three miles from here."

"That's great, father and I have nothing to do next week."

Mr. Jenner Jr. agreed very readily.

Of course, the ulterior motive is not in alcohol.

Mr. Jenner has visited countless ranches, and this one is clearly no exception.Mr. Jenner's promise this time is firstly to make up for his father's refusal of Miss Elizabeth's request to see her;

"May Miss Bennet invite me to come with you?"

It was Mr. Elton who had a sense of urgency because of Darcy. He obviously didn't want to give up any chance to communicate with Miss Elizabeth. It would be even more perfect if they could upgrade their business partnership to a personal friendship. .

"I didn't expect Mr. Elton to be interested in the ranch?" Elizabeth joked.

Elton glanced at Mr. Darcy who was writing a letter in the distance without leaving a trace, and then said: "Of course. If you see too many horses and carriages in London, you will also miss the cattle and sheep in the countryside."

"Then Mr. Elton has come to the right place."

"That is for sure. I am very grateful to Charles for his invitation, otherwise I would not have known such an interesting place in Meryton."

I am even more grateful to Charles for inviting him, which allowed him to meet such an interesting girl as Miss Elizabeth, Elton said silently in his heart.

After the itinerary of visiting the ranch was finalized next Monday, Elizabeth bid farewell to everyone in the living room. After all, the purpose of going to Netherfield Manor this time was to accompany Jane, and it was impossible for her to completely entrust this "responsibility" to Mr. Bingley—even if He will be more than happy.

--

Elizabeth spent most of the evening in Jane's room.

She was very pleased to see Jane and Mr. Bingley warming up quickly, and it seemed that they were close to talking to each other-although it would take outside help to make these two dull people understand each other's feelings.

But what made her even more happy was that when she woke up the next day, her sister's illness was completely cured, and she didn't have any signs of a cold.

In this way, it shows that although the fate has not been completely changed, it has at least deviated from the original route.She is now finally beginning to believe that as long as she perseveres in her efforts, the family tragedy will never happen again.

After letting go of her heart troubles, Elizabeth made an appointment with Mr. Elton in the study early in the morning to discuss publishing matters.

"Miss Bennett, I am very shocked to see your work, please allow me to express my appreciation to you again. "Pride and Prejudice"-what a nice name! I really didn't expect a five thousand word article Short stories have such a stretch.”

"Thank you, Mr. Elton." Receiving the publisher's compliment, Elizabeth's hanging heart dropped.

"Miss Bennett, your writing is witty and humorous. I believe readers will like it."

"Thank you," she said with some embarrassment when she was praised, "Sir, you can just call me Elizabeth."

Elton froze for a moment, the roots of his ears turned red inadvertently.

Miss Elizabeth—what an endearment!He was very happy to see himself getting closer to Miss Elizabeth: "Miss Elizabeth—"

Elton's voice softened subconsciously, but when he thought about the topic to be discussed next, he suddenly became a little serious: "What do you think about publishing? You are the author of this book, I want to hear your Views."

"My manuscript has been sent to Tom, editor-in-chief of the Ladies' Magazine." It will be published in twelve issues, and the manuscript fee will be two hundred pounds. Elizabeth is very satisfied with this amount. When it is, it will be published immediately."

"no problem."

"Then the royalties—"

The brothers clearly settled the accounts, and Elizabeth already regarded Mr. Elton as a friend, and suddenly felt a little awkward when talking about money.

"Eight hundred pounds, what do you think, Miss Elizabeth?"

Eight hundred pounds?This is a little less than she expected, after all, publishing is no more than publishing in magazines, and the copyright of the entire work will be given to the publisher.

Elizabeth's inadvertent frown inevitably made Mr. Elton nervous, which he had never faced with clients before, and he quickly explained: "Sorry, Miss Elizabeth, the right to decide the copyright fee is not in my hands... "

What he didn't say was that although "Pride and Prejudice" was an excellent work, it was written by newcomers after all, and their publishers were not very optimistic about it.Originally, he was only willing to pay [-] pounds to buy the copyright, but he reluctantly agreed to the [-] pounds after lobbying.

"I know, thank you Mr. Elton, please give me a moment to consider—"

As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the study was knocked by a servant.

"Mr. Elton, Miss Bennet," said the servant, "Mrs. Bennet and the ladies are here."

--

Regarding Jane's recovery, the only person in the entire Netherfield Manor who was unhappy was probably Mrs. Bennet who rushed over from Ban's mansion in the morning.

She didn't want Jane's life to be in danger, but she didn't want her to recover so quickly that she would go home after staying overnight.

In Mrs. Bennet's plan, Jane is going to live in Netherfield Manor for seven or eight days—it's better to have a few more heavy rains and stay for more than half a month, so that she can deepen her relationship with Mr. Bingley .Maybe he'll propose when he leaves, and then Jane will never have to come back.

However, the plan couldn't keep up with the changes, and all she can do now is murmur: "Jane's body is too flexible, and she suffered a lot last night, so it doesn't matter at all now. If it wasn't like this, I would have to tell you to take care of me A few days."

"No trouble." Mr. Bingley didn't want Jane to leave so soon, "I'm sure my sister will be very happy."

"Of course." Taking Charles's face into consideration, Miss Bingley said coldly and slightly politely.

"That's the advantage of living in the country," said Mrs. Bennet proudly. "There are 24 restaurants between Meryton and Longbourn, oh no, now including Netherfield Manor, there are 25. Home. Even if a family only lives for one day and eats three meals, it will take nearly a month to finish living in."

Mr. Bingley would have laughed if it hadn't been for Miss Bennet's presence, but his sister was not so considerate of his sweetheart[1].

Miss Bingley glanced at Darcy expressively, and then said slowly: "Then you went to the city, old lady, so you won't be able to return home for a year?"

"You're right!" Mrs. Bennet, who thought the whole world revolved around her, became more enthusiastic. "My brothers, the Gardiners, live in London, near Cheapside. Chipsay, have you been there?"

Zipsey?

"I've seen it," said Miss Bingley with a smile. "It's really wonderful there."

"Certainly! But let me tell you, there's not much to do in London except Cheapside's jeweller's shop. The country is much more comfortable, with game-grounds to hunt, and officers in red uniforms stationed in the militia—no Mr. Bingley?"

"The city and the countryside have their own advantages and disadvantages. I think that if I live in the country for a long time, I want to go back to the city, and if I live in the city for a long time, I also want to go to the country."

"Isn't it? Mr. Bingley," Mrs. Bennet obviously remembered only the second part of the sentence, "so I advise you, although the lease term of Netherfield Manor is short, you must not move out in a hurry."

"Old lady, do you even know the lease term so well?" The surprise in Miss Bingley's words seemed fake and exaggerated.

"Of course!" Mrs. Bennet took it as a compliment and said triumphantly, "There is nothing in Meryton that I don't know. But this is not enough to make me proud. My proudest thing is of course Jane. There is no other girl in the whole village who is more beautiful and gentle than her. At the age of 15, she made a gentleman fall in love with her and wrote a poem. Unfortunately, she did not propose marriage in the end-we all think it is his loss [1]."

"Mother……"

Mrs. Bennet couldn't stop once she made a fool of herself. She didn't care about Jane's blushing face, and then said: "Actually, the eldest daughter of the Lucas family is not bad. She can talk to anyone she sees at will. That's it. What I call good education is not like some people who think they are great and refuse to say a word[1]."

She glanced at Darcy obviously, and then looked at Mr. Bingley: "It's a pity that Charlotte is so ugly, and the whole family is waiting for her to make meatloaf. Fortunately, my Jane is not like this When we grow up, we can still hire a cook in our family[1]..."

"Mother……"

Jane can't wait to find a hole in the ground and get into it.

"Mother--"

After receiving the summons from the servant, Elizabeth rushed downstairs from the study, but she still couldn't stop the old lady from making a fool of herself.

Perhaps Elizabeth's voice was sharper. Mrs. Bennet paused, a little unhappy: "Liz, you are used to acting wild at home, you can't come here to mess around, don't forget that you are a guest[1]."

"..."

This is really "distinguishing right from wrong".

Elizabeth felt a little helpless, she didn't want to argue with her mother in front of everyone, so she came up with a curvy way to save the country: "Manli, I saw that you practiced for a long time in the piano room yesterday, do you want to reward everyone with some music?" listen?"

She spoke playfully and earnestly, successfully diverting everyone's attention away from Mrs. Bennet.

Manli fully understood what Elizabeth meant, and specially chose a long Scottish piece of music.

Mr. Bingley took the opportunity to invite Jane to dance a Scottish dance, and the tense atmosphere in the room gradually eased.

Mrs. Bennet had no one to talk to, and dared not chat with the cold Mr. Darcy, so she sat down in boredom and discussed with Lydia and Kitty about the hat shop and the militia in Meryton.

Miss Bingley thought she walked gracefully beside Darcy: "Mr. Darcy, when can I congratulate you?"

Miss Bingley was never tired of provoking Darcy and Elizabeth. She often satirized their marriage and "commented" that such a combination would bring him infinite benefits[2].

When Mrs. Bennet created such a good atmosphere, she naturally wanted to step in: "I think Pemberley Manor will be full of vitality with such an interesting mother-in-law."

Darcy gave Miss Bingley a cold look: "I didn't know that a lady's imagination can be so rich."

Miss Bingley smiled sarcastically, but she was still unwilling to give up the opportunity to taunt: "Why don't you invite Mrs. Madam to dance too? That way your future mother-in-law will be happier seeing it. An annual income A son-in-law of ten thousand pounds!—sufficient bragging for a long time among twenty-four families in the country."

Darcy did not answer, but his indifference to the proposal to invite Elizabeth to dance gave Miss Bingley hope.

But she knew that she was just an assist, and it was Miss Elizabeth's superb mother who really played a role. She believed that even if Mr. Darcy didn't care about Elizabeth's "arrogance and rudeness", he would eventually hate Mrs. Bennet's unscrupulous speech and brutal stupidity the behavior of.

Miss Bingley didn't mind further assists: "I hope that when you have good things to do in the future, you have to advise your mother-in-law to be careful in her words and deeds, and don't talk nonsense in front of Mrs. De Bower. Oh yes, and her Relatives from the London Cheapside merchants, they may give you a lot of jewelry at your wedding, but you have to be more discerning, the Cheapside jewelers don’t have much good reputation[3].”

When she said this, she forgot that her brother was also a businessman who made his fortune.

Darcy looked at her coldly again: "Have you any other advice[2] on the furtherance of my family's happiness?"

"There are. There are quite a few portraits to be added to your gallery at Pemberley Hall. The five Mrs. and sisters are bound to be hung, and perhaps their husbands from the militia. Your mother-in-law speaks very well, I think." Few painters can capture her look; your father-in-law is very knowledgeable, and it is not flattering to hang next to your father. And Mrs. - she likes to walk, I think I must ask the painter to draw more lines on the crinoline mud-"

"Also, don't forget your aunt's uncle and aunt. I heard that they are lawyers in Meryton, and they can be regarded as colleagues of your great-uncles who are judges—"

"Thank you for your kindness." Darcy interrupted Miss Bingley sternly.

enough.

He didn't want to hear her go on, and it was torture for him to hear anything about Miss Elizabeth now.

As Miss Bingley thought, Mrs. Bennet's words and deeds greatly affected his love for Elizabeth.

Although the irony in Miss Bingley's words could not be more obvious, it cannot be denied that what she said was true.

He thought of the secular views, the expectations of the family, his own class and Elizabeth's background, and felt that no matter from which point of view, if he married Miss Elizabeth, he would shame himself and the family.

Mr. Darcy wanted to get himself out of the matter quickly, but the fatal thing was that his judgment and self-control were completely useless at this moment.

His body was on this side of the living room, but his ears and eyes couldn't help jumping to the other side of the living room.

He heard Elton call Miss Elizabeth.Miss Elizabeth—what an endearment.

He saw Elton extend his arm to Elizabeth in a very gentlemanly way and invite her to dance, and the lady smiled back.

The two just smiled and looked at each other, talking quietly from time to time, and the atmosphere was warm.

Darcy's brain told him that Mr. Elton might be the best choice for Miss Elizabeth—Elton was a businessman who would not dislike her father as a squire, and might be more tolerant of her mother's stupidity and rudeness.

However, his heart was like a ball of fire—every time the above thoughts appeared tenaciously, he would be completely burned out by the ball of jealous anger.

Mr. Darcy's face was distressed, his brows were drawn together, and his lips were as white as his skin.But he is trying his best to control, trying to melt all the mixed emotions into his stomach, and then disappear.

However, Miss Bingley seemed to feel that the pain was not enough, and she continued to make up the knife: "Poor Mr. Darcy, you are obviously one step late, and the honorable lady has already started dancing with others."

"Miss Bingley, please watch your words," Mr. Darcy managed to suppress the demonic emotions in his heart, "whom Miss Bennet dances with—it has nothing to do with me."

Irrelevant?

Miss Bingley looked at Darcy again to make sure that there was no wave in his eyes, and then smiled.

They spoke in a moderate voice just now, and Miss Elizabeth should be able to hear them just right.

The author has something to say:

Ding——Mr. Darcy who is probing ing on the edge of danger, welcome to the ultimate version of Chasing Wife Crematorium!

The author rubs his little hands: I won't abuse the official cp, please rest assured, cuties.But please allow our Mr. Darcy to struggle silently with secular concepts and family expectations for a period of time. This is also a necessary process~ I think it’s better to get tangled up early, and it’s too late to tangled up when he proposes.

Note:

1. Many parts of this chapter are adapted from the original Chapter 9. I originally wanted to be more original, but it’s a pity that Mrs. Austen’s portrayal of Mrs. Bennet is too vivid, and she is reluctant to delete it.