[Pride and Prejudice] Dear Lydia

At ten o'clock in the morning, the Bennetts sat down in the dining room for breakfast as usual.

The food on the table is rich, there are fragrant sausages, bacon, eggs, fresh mushrooms and black pudding, but the atmosphere on the table is a little stiff.The aftermath of yesterday's unpleasant incident is still brewing.

Lydia just pretended not to see Mrs. Bennet hesitated to speak several times and Mary's more serious face than usual, and quietly buried her head in eating her breakfast, and waited until she swallowed the last piece of toast and wiped her mouth , raised his head and said to Mr. Bennett, "Dad, you won't go out this morning, will you?"

"Don't go out," Mr. Bennet thought Lydia was going to explain to himself the source of the money she used to invest, "I will wait for you in the study."

"No, Dad, it's not that I'm looking for you, but His Excellency the Earl of Chatham is going to Oliver's Hollow this morning. He will stop at Longbourn on the way and come to our house for a while."

"Oh my God!" Mrs. Bennet immediately exclaimed, "Lydia, who do you think is coming to our house? Your Excellency the Earl? Did I hear you right?"

"That's right, Mom."

"Then, what should I prepare to entertain him? Our best pot of black tea happened to be finished. Would it be rude to treat him normally?" Mrs. Bennet panicked.

"Don't be nervous, Mom, you don't need to prepare anything. Your Excellency the Earl can sit for 15 minutes at most and just have a few words with Dad." Lydia comforted.

Mr. Bennet, a sensible country gentleman, was astonished at the news, but not as surprised as Mrs. "I am very honored by it, but what made this great man think of coming to see him?" see me?"

"Father, it's because of what happened yesterday," Lydia smiled. "I don't care what Miss Bingley says about me, but I don't want to create estrangement with my family because of outsiders' gossip, so I want to explain things thoroughly."

The Earl of Chatham's carriage arrived at Longbourne Manor at eleven o'clock, and left after talking with Mr. Bennet concisely and efficiently for more than ten minutes.

The female relatives once again watched His Excellency the Earl's gorgeous carriage and his elegant back from the upstairs window.

Mrs. Bennet once again affirmed that this is the most handsome man she has ever seen in her life. At the same time, it is a pity that Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy missed to accompany Mr. Bennet to receive the earl this morning because they went to a friend's house Your Excellency's chance, otherwise, according to Bingli's good temper, she will be able to patiently tell them about the Earl's clothes, appearance, speech and behavior, and greatly satisfy her curiosity.

The perfect combination of pride, pride and elegance!

This was Mr. Bennet's assessment of the Earl of Chatham, and he used it to assuage his wife's curiosity, though it only served to make Mrs. Bennet's itch for specifics still greater.

But Mr. Bennet didn't have time to talk to her at the moment, he turned to Lydia, "My dear, you are such a lucky child that you actually helped the Earl overcome the stubborn illness that has plagued him for a long time with some little tricks you heard. .It's only natural for him to do something to thank you for it, why didn't you say so sooner?"

"It's about the earl's personal affairs. He may not be willing to make his little problem known to everyone, so it's inconvenient for me to say more."

"Well, that's right. It seems that I have to instruct our family members not to tell this matter casually." Mr. Bennet stroked his chin, "However, how should I explain it to Miss Bingley? The level of attention is frighteningly high, and she'd be bored if she didn't give an account, and we'd be doing dear Mr. Bingley a shame! How about making up a story about Wickham's unexpected generous gift from his distant aunt? Mr. Bennett said enthusiastically, after he got a reasonable explanation and stopped worrying about his daughter's sudden appearance of unknown property, he quickly returned to his old witty and eccentric look.

Jane had no choice but to interject, "Dad, I don't think you need to bother, Bentley will take care of it."

Elizabeth sighed, "The Earl of Chatham asked his financial manager to lend you a loan to invest in a profitable business! God, I want to say that this is a good way to thank people! I heard from my uncle that the Pitt family is in The ability to invest and manage money is unique and amazing! Lydia, you also got their advice when you used your mother's money to buy bonds? Do you know that this is a very sure thing?"

"Yeah." Lydia nodded indiscriminately, happy that they would guess like this.

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"... And so finally Lydia's troubles were settled!" said Miss Mallard.

Mr. Pitt, who had just returned from the port town of Woolwich, sat down to tea with his cousin, and Miss Mallard related to him the recent events.

After hearing this, Mr. Pete didn't make a sound, his face was not very good-looking, probably because he was annoyed that he was not here when it was so important. After a while, he finally found the target of attack, "Is that Miss Bingley panicking? Is there nothing to join in the fun?" ?”

"No, she's not joking," Miss Mallard answered leisurely. "I think it's a little bit of idle meanness and jealousy that drives her."

"This energetic lady should learn to use her extra energy where it should be used." Mr. Pitt stood up, "I heard that her brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, had a property dispute with someone in Surrey , The entrusting person contacted Palmer's lawyer, wanting to ask him to help with the lawsuit, I will write to Palmer right away, asking him not to accept this business, because there is a lady with a low moral standard in this family!"

Miss Mallard shrugged her shoulders to express her understanding of Mr. Pitt's obvious anger behavior, but felt that Mr. Hearst was indeed innocent. "I heard that Miss Bingley's sister married a man with more than enough style and less money. I'm afraid he can't stand it." A failed property dispute case."

Mr. Pitt had gone too far to hear the words.

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Miss Bingley has been very depressed lately.

First of all, I was reckless and did something to interfere with the property of my sister-in-law's family, and my efforts were not thankful. Even my brother Bingley had a big opinion on her because of this matter.

Then my sister complained a lot about it because my brother-in-law, Mr. Hearst's already pitifully small property was involved in a dispute. Originally, Mr. Hearst had already entrusted his relationship to find a famous man. Lawyer Palmer helped him with this lawsuit, but lawyer Palmer replied lightly with a letter asking for a reason to reject him, and cryptically told him that the reason was because he heard that his sister-in-law had an aggressive temper and behaved surlyly.

After receiving the reply, Mr. Hurst almost fainted from anger. What logic is it that his sister-in-law is blaming him for her arrogance?He was Miss Bingley's brother-in-law and not Miss Bingley's father!His sister-in-law was snobbish by nature, and she never had much respect for his brother-in-law, who had no property. He also suffered a lot from Miss Bingley, okay?

The unlucky Mr. Hurst had no choice but to go to Mr. Bingley to complain. Mr. Bingley didn't know who his sister had offended again. He had no choice but to blame Miss Bingley for being so careless recently, so he hurried to help his brother-in-law Go to a lawyer again.

Miss Bingley received more complaints and accusations than she had received in the previous 20 years combined. She was so depressed that her face was dark all day long. If she hadn't had to wait until Jane gave birth before she could leave, she would have gone to London alone. up.

"Thank you, you helped me, so I can withdraw my plan to bribe the housemaid to pour laxatives into Miss Bingley's tea." Lydia thanked Mr. Pete.

"You're welcome."

After hearing such frank and creative words, Mr. Pete's deep and handsome facial features were almost distorted. He probably remembered that he was miserably deceived when he and Lydia met for the first time in Ramsgate. Shaking her head disapprovingly, "By the way, Mrs. Wickham, your methods of revenge are still as weird and brutal as ever. Please don't mind me. I'm not blaming you, just giving an objective evaluation."

The corners of Miss Mallard's mouth twitched a little, "Honey, this is how you came up with to teach Miss Bingley a lesson?"

Lydia spread her hands innocently, "Compared to Miss Bingley's actions, I am kind. She is Mr. Bingley's sister after all. Even if I don't look at Bingley's face, I still have to look at Jane's face. I can't do things that go too far." .”

Miss Mallard rolled her eyes. "I reckon she'd rather you go too far than suffer the embarrassment and embarrassment of having a sudden violent diarrhea while a guest."

Lydia burst out laughing.

Mr. Pete quickly turned his face away, his shoulders trembled, and he turned back after a while, "Mrs. Wickham, I brought you and Lois back with presents, and they will arrive early tomorrow morning. If you are free, come and see them tomorrow morning." look."

"What is it? Is it a very big thing? You have to ship it specially?" Miss Mallard asked with a normal expression, as if she didn't realize how funny her weird words were just now.

"It's some relatively rare heather seedlings, which can be planted in your flower garden. There are also two hound cubs."

"Cubs of the Hound!" Lydia was pleasantly surprised.

"Yes, I saw you play with Pilot outside twice." Pilot is the cutest of Mr. Pete's hounds.

Mr. Pitt explained something very simply, and turned his eyes away after speaking, with a somewhat unnatural expression on his face.

Miss Mallard snorted to herself, thinking that it was rare for a hard-hearted cousin to be embarrassed.

"You actually noticed that I like Pilot. I have only teased it twice. Sir, you are so careful. Thank you so much. I believe that two puppies will be the cutest presents I have ever received!" Lydia smiled , I was a little moved.

No one in her family pays so much attention to and takes care of her preferences. Although Mrs. Bennet dotes on her very much, she has always lacked these meticulous observation skills, let alone other people. His thoughts will not be used on her.

With such an interesting gift, Lydia will naturally not be lazy, "Okay, I will come early tomorrow morning."

After she left, Miss Mallard looked at her cousin with a half-smile, "George, although I am very happy to receive gifts, I really don't remember you having the habit of bringing gifts to others when you go out, so I have to I wonder if I can get rare breeds of heather and puppies because of someone else's favor."

"Lois, the relationship between our sister and brother has always been very good. I feel sad when you say that," Mr. Pete said without changing his expression, "I admit that the cubs of the two hounds were brought to Mrs. Wickham specially. , but the rare species of heather was specially brought to you, you haven't always been interested in botany recently."

Another reason is that it would be too abrupt to send something to Lydia alone. If my cousin also received a copy at the same time, everyone would not think much about it.Of course, the reason for this need not be said.

The next morning the weather was not so good, and it began to rain lightly after breakfast, so everyone gave up the idea of ​​going out and settled down to find some entertainment at home.

Mr. Bennett went to the study as usual, and Mrs. Bennett happily took Elizabeth and Jane upstairs to instruct the two maids to rummage through the box and find the baby equipment left before.

Only Lydia was thinking about the two puppies, walking around the breakfast room by herself, looking at the sky outside from time to time, hoping that the rain would stop soon.

"Lydia, what are you doing here?" Mary asked as the door of the breakfast room was pushed open.

"Nothing, I waited for the rain to stop before going out."

Mary walked in and said with some hesitation, "I noticed that you don't like staying at home very much recently, and you always go out alone. Are you unhappy?"

"No, why do you think so? I always run out because I'm going to find Lois." Lydia was a little surprised.

"That's good. I was afraid you were unhappy because of what happened the other day. Lydia, please believe me, when Miss Bingley came to make trouble for no reason, we didn't speak up for you because everyone was too surprised at the time, not because we just I immediately believed Miss Bingley, of course we are still on your side." Mary said eagerly,

Lydia blinked, "Oh, Mary, I understand, thank you for explaining it specifically. To be honest, I feel a lot more relieved to hear you say that."

Mary blushed, and then suddenly handed her a letter, "Just now the postman delivered newspapers and letters, and there was one of you in it. I'm here to deliver a letter to you."

Lydia took it and found that the letter came from an inn in Marlborough.She wondered who the letter was for her. She couldn't remember any friend who was traveling recently and would send her a letter from the hotel.

Lydia was even more surprised when she opened it and read the contents of the letter.

The letter was from Mr. Wickham. He asked Lydia to meet him at the hotel in Marlborough tomorrow. He had something very important to discuss with her, and he asked her to go quietly alone. Don't let others know, he came down quietly while the ship was in port for maintenance, not a holiday, his friend Lieutenant Jin covered him, if anyone found out that he left the ship without authorization, he and Lieutenant Jin would both be punished.

Lydia hesitated. Marlborough is not far from London, and about [-] miles from Longbourn. If the carriage is fast, you can go back and forth in a day. In theory, you can rush to meet tomorrow, but Mr. Wickham is like this What happened mysteriously?