[Pride and Prejudice] Lady Makes Money

As soon as the carriage entered the yard, he saw Mr. Bennet standing at the end of the driveway from afar.

Everyone was amazed.

As soon as the car stopped, Mrs. Bennet was the first to jump out of the carriage and asked eagerly, "My dear, what happened?"

"No, I saw you coming back, so I came out to greet you. How are you, did you have fun? Did you remember to bring me a gift?"

Mr. Bennet asked back with a smile.

There was silence all around.

Except for the sound of servants carrying things.

Six pairs of eyes looked at Mr. Bennet together, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Those eyes were like seeing a ghost in broad daylight.

Mr. Bennet can be called a good husband and a good father, but like most men at this time, he is very machismo in his bones.

He can dote on his wife and daughter, but he will never chat and laugh with them, and it is even more impossible for him to come out of the room just to greet them.

I even made a joke with them just now!

This feeling is no different from seeing a ghost.

Even though Mr. Bennet always thought that he was quite strong in his heart, he still felt embarrassed when facing six pairs of eyes full of doubts and incomprehension.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably, and laughed to himself: "Isn't mine? That's okay, as long as you have fun."

"Dad, we bought you shredded tobacco. Is this... a gift?"

At this moment, a small, somewhat disturbed voice came from the crowd. Mr. Bennet looked around and found that it was his fourth daughter, Kitty who was almost completely ignored by him.

"Of course."

Mr. Bennet smiled, and even waved to Kitty, calling her to his side, and rubbed her head: "Thank you dear, I still know that I miss Dad when I go out."

Having never been praised by her father before, Kitty blushed with excitement, but still shook her head shyly, and corrected in a low voice: "It's not me, Manli bought it, I don't have money."

"We picked it together." Manli said hastily.

After finishing speaking, she looked at her father curiously: "Dad, did something good happen today? Why do you look so happy?"

Hearing his daughter's question, the smile on Mr. Bennet's face deepened.

He didn't answer, but just gave Manli a meaningful look, then pointed to the direction of the living room, and said to everyone, "Come with me, I'll read you a story."

Everyone was even more confused, completely unaware of what happened?

Everyone looked at each other, followed father obediently, and walked into the living room together.

Only Manli expected something, and a smile involuntarily rose from the corner of her lips.

Five minutes later, Mr. Bennet sat in his favorite seat.

He solemnly put on his reading glasses, and looked at the family members sitting in a circle around him one by one.

Then he took out a copy of the "Hartfordshire Gazette" solemnly, and read a love story seriously.

"..."

Manli felt that she was about to commit embarrassment and cancer.

Listening to my father read the soul-stirring love novel I wrote so seriously... This feeling is really indescribably weird.

She held her forehead and turned her face away secretly.

Don't want to hear a word.

"My God, it's so touching!" Mrs. Bennet sighed first, and wiped the tears overflowing from the corners of her eyes.

"Whoa, did Margaret die just like that? My God, why? She's so beautiful! Why can't both her and Andrew be alive? God, this is too cruel! No, I'm so sad , Dad, who is the author? I want to write to him and ask if his heart is made of stone?"

Lydia suddenly burst into tears, and while crying, she was going to grab the newspaper to see the author's name.

Manli shrunk her neck subconsciously——

This is the legend, do you want to send the blade to the author?

"I think that reunion in heaven is already the best ending they can get? In heaven, they can live together forever and live happily together."

Jane, who is not very talkative on weekdays, actually took the initiative to express her views today.She sighed faintly, her voice full of regret and a touch of longing.

"Dad, this story is really nice. Tell us who the author is? I'm going to look for it. Where can I find his other stories? Or next time we go back to the market, we'll all go to the bookstore to see if there are any stories about him." Bazaar."

Elizabeth urged excitedly.

Mr. Bennet didn't speak, just looked at Manli with a smile, as if letting her decide how to deal with the next thing.

Manli sighed, raised her hand and said, "There's no need to find the author, I wrote this story."

After finishing speaking, ignoring the two sisters who looked unbelievable, they turned their heads to look at Lydia: "Do you want to write to me? Okay, I will give you a day, and I will see it at this time tomorrow. You can write anything, Even if you send me a stone, as long as you can write clearly what you think."

Delia: "..." I didn't, I didn't want to, I wasn't going to write it! ! !

Manli rubbed her stomach a little depressed.

very hungry!

She originally planned to get serious with these guys after eating and drinking enough!

But now, they had to advance the plan.

She took the newspaper, put it on the tea table in front of her, and drew a circle on the short story her father just read with her hand: "[-] words, five pounds. Aren't you always curious, where did I get the pocket money?" Money? The answer is here, I earned it myself."

There were gasps all around immediately.

"Five pounds? Manli, are you right?" Elizabeth's eyes almost popped out.

"Look at this." Manli took out the previous letter from the editorial department from her small bag and pushed it to her.

"I submitted the manuscript in the name of my father."

After finishing speaking, her eyes wandered over her parents' faces again: "Mom and Dad know."

Mr. Bennet made no rebuttal.

Mrs. Bennet also nodded quickly: "Your father told me, but I didn't expect that the story of Baby Manley is so touching. Oh my god, my darling, you are amazing!"

At this moment, the sisters finally believed that they had heard correctly, and all of them seemed to be dreaming for a while.

On the one hand, he was proud of Manli, and on the other hand, he was indescribably envious.

The expressions on each face are different.

Manli simply struck while the iron was hot: "You see, making money is not as difficult as you imagined? I just wrote such a short story and earned five pounds. Why can't you give it a try? With money, Delia If you want to buy a beautiful hat, you don’t need to ask your mother, and no one will tell you how much candy Kitty likes to buy. Jane, Lizzy, you can buy more expensive lace, and you can even go to London to order beautiful skirts.”

"Really? If I make money, don't I have to give it to my mother?"

The cake drawn by Manli was so round that the sisters were all addicted to their sweet dreams, and their eyes became sparkling.

As soon as the words fell, Lydia was the first to ask.

Mrs. Bennet sat up straight immediately, and was about to speak, but was stopped by her husband's look.

Hesitating to speak, she also turned her head, and looked at Manli with her daughters.

Manli thought for a while, but instead of answering Lydia's question directly, she changed the subject.

"I discussed our dowry with my father this morning. I asked my father, can we buy some more land and a manor of our own? In this way, our family can freely use the money we earn. In the future, our five The sister’s dowry should be more than a thousand pounds. But my father said that the gap is too big, and we can’t afford it with our current income.”

Mrs. Bennet stood up abruptly, and her face suddenly became ugly.

"Decent! Where is your decency, Manli? A daughter of a good family, how can she ask her parents for a dowry?!"

She seemed completely unable to believe that such words came from the mouth of her third daughter, whom she had always been proud of, and her lips trembled a little with anger.

She wanted to say something more, but was stopped by Mr. Bennet.

"Let Manli finish speaking!"

Mr. Bennet's tone was unprecedentedly serious, so startled that she had no choice but to swallow back the reprimand that came to her lips.

Manli pretended not to notice that her mother and sisters were already shocked by her words.

The tone continued calmly: "I didn't ask my father for the dowry, because I knew that even if I asked him, he wouldn't have any extra money for me."

Speaking of this, she smiled self-deprecatingly: "I also know that my thoughts are a bit deviant. If today's words are spread, people outside don't know how to ridicule me for being immodest and not dignified. All I think about is money, and I am very philistine. But..."

She shrugged: "If you don't have money, you don't have a beautiful dress to go to the prom, and you can't buy anything you want to eat. Even after you get married in the future, you have to worry about whether the next month's rent will be enough, and whether the charcoal will be available when winter comes. Buy a little more...wouldn't you still be ridiculed?"

"Rather than suffer for the rest of my life, I would rather work harder now and find a way to make money earlier."

"But, why do we have to make money ourselves? Shouldn't making money be a man's business?" Kitty finally couldn't hold back anymore, and asked with a puzzled look on her face.

Manli did not refute, but nodded in approval.

"That's right, money can be earned by men. But how can you guarantee that you will marry a rich man?"

She drew a circle in the air with her hand: "Have you ever counted how many rich men are there in Hertfordshire? How many of them are unmarried? Among the unmarried men, young and handsome men can be seen How many are left?"

The expression on her face changed, and her gaze towards the sisters became very complicated.

A little bit bitter, but also a bit distressed.

She lowered her voice, and asked slowly, word by word: "Rich, unmarried, young and handsome, men you can admire... Even if there are, how can you guarantee that he will also like you?" Would you like to marry you? You know, even if all the girls in our Bennet family are beautiful, there are still many beautiful girls in Hertfordshire, even London. What's more, there are Rich men are usually most willing to marry a woman who is the same as them and also rich. It doesn't matter if she is beautiful or not."

Manli's words were like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

As soon as the words came out, the women in the room were shocked at the same time, with surprised expressions on their faces.Mrs. Bennet even began to tremble, and her whole body collapsed into her husband's arms.