[Pride and Prejudice] Dear Lydia

Miss Mallard doesn't usually go to balls—because she doesn't dance.

But this time, she helped prepare the dance at Mr. Pete's house, so she needs to be there to watch for any mistakes.

So Miss Mallard had to reluctantly change what she thought was extremely comfortable to wear, but which was as simple as a Quaker nun, and put on a long gray satin dress that was pressed at the bottom of the box, and never let it go. Wearing a silver brooch with a small blue-gray gem on it, curling up her hair and coming to the ball with Lydia.

Although she looks more elegant and ladylike after changing her clothes, and has been praised by everyone who knows her, going to the ball is still a very boring thing for Miss Mallard.

After confirming that the drinks, snacks, accompaniment and other things that need to be paid attention to in the dance party are all right, Miss Mallard sat alone in the corner to watch the fun.

The key objects of observation are the brothers and sisters of Walter's family.

The reason is that these two people behaved very abnormally all night, which made Miss Mallard feel that they had some observation value.

"Dear Lois," Baroness Moran came to look for her, "Did you remember to invite the mother and daughter of De Boer, why I didn't see them, Mrs. De Boer is George's godmother, George will not invite their mother and daughter to the ball How rude."

Miss Mallard handed her a folded letter paper in a leisurely manner, "Mrs. de Boer sent a letter before the ball, saying that her daughter suddenly felt ill and couldn't come."

"Oh, that's good. I was afraid that I missed Mrs. de Boere. Fortunately, I didn't." The baroness was relieved.

Miss Mallard frowned. Her friendship with Baroness Moran was mediocre. Although she often met because of Mr. Pitt, she did not develop any friendship because of her disagreement.

Now the baroness spoke to her in the tone of a hostess questioning the housekeeper, and Miss Mallard immediately resented her.

Baroness Moran has been very preoccupied these days, and it is inevitable that she will be negligent in dealing with some small matters.

In her eyes, Miss Mallard is an old girl who is helpless and lacks property. Mr. Pitt often remembers to take care of her because of the affection between relatives, so she is also a person who lives with her cousin.

Although she didn't say anything on the surface, the baroness had a slight contempt for Miss Mallard in her heart, and she never took her seriously, and she couldn't help showing this disregard when she had something on her mind and couldn't take care of everything.

"George looks very interested tonight, and he's already dancing the third song with Lydia." Miss Mallard calmly began to pick out what the baroness didn't like to hear.

The Baroness's face froze, and she almost couldn't keep her usual charming smile. She had already deliberately controlled herself not to look at those two people too much, and she couldn't stand someone talking about it in person.

After calming down, the baroness simply sat beside Miss Mallard and said intimately, "Lois, don't you think George is a little too warm to Mrs. Wickham before? He has never been so warm to Mrs. Wickham before. What kind of woman is like this."

"Yeah, I also think that George probably admires the lovely Lydia." Miss Mallard continued to poke people's sore spots.

The baroness took a deep breath, suppressed the boredom in her heart, and said softly, "Lois, how can you speak so carelessly! If something happens out of control, Mrs. Wickham's reputation will be damaged, and if there are any scandals, she won't have to be a human being in the future. As her friend, I think you should warn her seriously."

"Thank you for the reminder, but I can assure you that my friend doesn't need such advice. She is a very clear-headed, sensible woman who will not be dizzy because of a man's random courtship. It is George who needs to be advised, maybe Can you go and mention it to him at your convenience?" Miss Mallard rolled her eyes secretly, thinking that persuasion is something I decide on my own, and it's not my turn to be used as a tool by you, besides, Lydia has long been there. After explaining clearly to her, there was really nothing to worry about, so he immediately responded to the baroness's words.

The more Baroness Moran and Miss Mallard talked, the more breathless she felt. She had been with Mr. Pitt for so long, she was careful and considerate, she wanted to win each other's favor, but now Mrs. Wickham could easily Get it, get it easily without saying it, obviously haven't taken it seriously, don't really want it, how can this make her feel comfortable!

After the dance music stopped, he immediately stood up, "Lois, I'm sorry."

Miss Mallard smiled. "Please."

The baroness walked away and chatted with Mr. Grenville for a while, and then had a laughing chat with General Walter for a while, and finally she couldn't control her feet, and came to Mr. Pitt, "George."

"Huh?" Mr. Pitt was smiling and talking to Lydia with his head bowed slightly. He turned his face away when the baroness called him, "Fiona, what's the matter?"

Lydia had already talked to Mr. Pete for a long time, and she felt that it would not be good to stay with him all night. If this continues, she would cause gossip, so she took the opportunity to nod to them, "Talk slowly, I'll go find Luo Yes."

I was worried that Miss Mallard would be bored, but when I walked closer, I saw that she was full of interest. I didn't know what fun I had found for myself, so I felt relieved, "Lois, did you find something interesting?"

Miss Mallard held out two fingers, "Two things, do you want to hear?"

Lydia immediately became interested, and sat down beside Miss Mallard, "Of course, tell me what it is."

Miss Mallard pulled her up, "Let's go to General Walter and his wife first. It's not good that you haven't been able to sit down and talk to them seriously tonight. We'll talk about other things slowly when we get back."

Lydia scolded, "Lois, I know you'll be bored at the dance, why don't you rush over here to accompany you, why are you still teasing people like this!"

That being said, I obediently followed Miss Mallard to where the Walters were sitting.

Although Mrs. Walter kept telling Lydia to just have fun, she was very happy to see that she still remembered herself and came to talk with her very much after dancing a few dances.

General Walter was in the same good spirits as Mrs. Lydia, who had visited him with Mr. Wickham the other day, and reported on Mr. Wickham's recent condition.After Mr. Wickham was a few years older, he was much more stable than before. He restrained himself and did not do anything too outrageous when he was at sea. In addition, their ships have been going smoothly at sea without any major incidents. His performance during this period of time was very good. General Walter was very satisfied with him, and felt that the person he recommended did not embarrass him, so he was very happy to see the Wickhams these days.

It's just that Mr. Walter Jr. and his sister still maintained a strange attitude. When they saw Lydia and Miss Mallard passing by, they immediately made excuses and walked away.

Miss Mallard squeezed Lydia's hand to tell her not to mind, Lydia nodded, thinking that I had already discovered that something was wrong with them, and there seemed to be something wrong.

Over there, after Mr. Peter had finished a few irrelevant questions to the baroness, he looked back and found that Lydia and Miss Mallard had sat down with the Walters and were chatting happily. Shrugging, he turned around and asked the baroness suspiciously, "Fiona, what exactly do you want to tell me, we don't need to be so devious, just say what you have."

The baroness frowned, "George, I thought your purpose of holding this ball was to take this opportunity to have a relationship with Senator Morse?"

"You are right."

"Then why didn't I see you talking to him all night, instead dancing endlessly with Mrs. Wickham."

"Because my second purpose of hosting this ball was to dance with Mrs. Wickham, and Mr. Morse and I had a harmonious and fruitful 15 minutes of conversation before the ball started, and completed the first of the evening. purpose, so I only need to concentrate on completing the second purpose for the rest of tonight." Mr. Pete said in a good mood.

The baroness finally couldn't bear it anymore, and asked bluntly, "Don't you plan to spend more time on her? What are you doing!"

Mr. Pete touched his chin, "Nothing, I just don't want to suppress myself too much, Fiona, please don't ask me too much. First, the environment is not suitable; second, I can't answer too many questions, I can only tell You and I really like the feeling when we are with her, so I am willing to create more opportunities for myself. I really have no other ideas other than that. Maybe in the future, my relationship with Mrs. Wickham will be like that of you—— Will be great friends."

The baroness thought that the credibility of this statement was extremely low. Mr. Pitt was either perfunctory or deceiving himself. It's too inconsistent with her noble and elegant image, "Oh, George, I saw Mr. Eshton over there. I just have something to say to him. You don't mind if I walk away for a while."

"Of course not, you can do whatever you want."

At this time, a servant hurried across the living room to Mr. Darcy and said something in a low voice. Mr. Darcy dismissed him after asking a few more serious questions. Everyone's eyes were drawn to him, but Darcy The gentleman looked as if nothing had happened, and after a few glances, everyone stopped paying attention.

After a while, when everyone's attention was no longer on him, Mr. Darcy came up to Mr. Pete, "I'm sorry, Pete, something urgent happened, and I'm afraid I have to leave early."

Mr. Pete asked him, "What is it? I wonder if I can help?"

"It was my aunt, Mrs. de Boer, who sent a message that something happened to her and she needed my help," Mr. Darcy replied after a moment's consideration. My aunt has not authorized me to tell other people about this, so please forgive me, I can’t say more, maybe you can ask Mrs. de Boer directly in two days.”

Mr. Peter understood this, and please Mr. Darcy don't say anything more about it, go to the aunt who needs help first, and if there is any need for help, please don't see outside, just send someone to tell him.

Mr. Darcy tried not to attract the attention of others when he left, but Lydia, as his relative, paid more attention to him than others, so she still saw it, was a little worried, and greeted Miss Mallard in a low voice I just wanted to quietly ask Mr. Pete what happened.

After leaving his seat, he went to put back the fun glass to make a show, and then turned to look for Mr. Pete, but was stopped by Mr. Walter Jr. who suddenly walked in front of him in a diagonal stab.

Little Mr. Walter seemed to be worried about something, "Mrs. Wickham, can you give me some time, I have something to ask you."