beauty and money

After returning to Longbourne, Mary breathed a long sigh of relief. She almost jumped out of the carriage, and rushed to Longbourne Manor eagerly, and rushed to Mrs. Bennet who was waiting at the door.

"Oh, my dear, you are much thinner." Mrs. Bennet can almost hold her grown-up daughter like a child, and indeed, Mary is thinner than before, and her appearance is more diminished. Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth None of them noticed, but none of it escaped Mrs. Bennet's gaze.

"No, I'm just..." In the middle of Mary's words, Mr. Bennet walked over slowly on crutches. He first kissed his wife on both cheeks, and then asked him what he had done in the past few days matter.Mrs. Bennet's attention was immediately diverted by him.

"My good lord, the servants of Kitty's darlings have brought the little one. They are so unreasonable. I can't stand it. My nerves..." Mrs. Bennet babbled a lot, but Mary listened She was so overjoyed that the little creature she had brought into the world was now at Longbourne, that she ran to see him at once.

The little guy wasn't as energetic as a healthy baby, he looked weak and quiet, hardly noisy, but his face was still white and tender, completely different from the ugly one when he was just born.Mary didn't dare to touch him. He opened his eyes and moved his limbs wildly, making delicate little noises from time to time.

Although the summer is hot and dry, the doors and windows of the room where he lives are still tightly closed, for fear that he will catch a cold.Mrs. Bennet stood beside her at some point, and she said in Mary's ear, "He's cute, isn't he? You'll have your own babies in the future, and they'll be as sweet and soft as clouds."

I'm afraid there won't be such a day, Mary thought regretfully.After seeing little Edward, Mary wanted to take a walk in the afternoon. She looked thin and ordinary in a sky blue skirt made of feather gauze.The large fields of Longborn have already planted patches of wheat. The blue wheat is not yet ripe, and there is no beauty of autumn, only the heat and tranquility of summer.

After entering the shady land, there is a big stone beside the winding path. It is the place where Elizabeth often goes. She often sits and reads there, sometimes in the quiet and unknown world of flowers and vines. Spend in the middle of the day, in the cave where the rose climbed out, and fantasize through the sunlight through the branches and leaves.

The figures of the sisters seem to exist everywhere in Longbourn, so that wherever Mary goes, there is a faint sense of melancholy. She rarely leaves home for so long, and rarely feels lonely, but at this moment, in Longbourne , without the tension and excitement of Oxford, and without friends and sisters, she felt lonely.

When Mary was still sad, Mrs. Bennet had already written to Lydia. She felt that Kitty still needs to cultivate and calm down, and Lydia can't always bother her in the name of being with her.What's more, the summer social is approaching, and Mrs. De Bourgh, Mrs. Darcy's aunt, specially invited the Bennet family. She wanted to invite the Darcy family, especially Elizabeth, but she was disappointed that Elizabeth could not attend.Feeling that she must not miss this opportunity, so that Mr. Darcy would know how outrageous her original choice was, and how many suitors her Anna had, so she reluctantly invited the Bennet family. To regain dignity with the Bennets.It will also let more people in her circle know what the Bennet family's tutor is like, so they can laugh at it, especially when she heard that there is a disabled ugly girl Mary in the Bennet family. It was a great opportunity to humiliate Bennet.

Not knowing that Mrs. De Bourgh's real intention is to show off, Mrs. Bennet still thinks that Mary can get married. In her opinion, there is a fixed annuity and a dowry of nearly [-] pounds. Even though Mary's appearance and body Even if there is something lacking, there will still be gentlemen who will notice the benefits.

Lydia loved the prom when she was young, and she still likes it after she got married. She can compare with the ladies and ladies in costumes and jewelry, and a handsome and promising husband is her favorite.If Lydia had been frivolous in her youth, she was almost the most unpopular lady at a ball now.

Mary, who didn't know about the prom invitation, has been living a comfortable life in Longbourn for the past few days. She is still a little uncomfortable with the servant service when she gets up in the morning. Thinking of her independent days, she feels that the days at home are so special Comfortable.All the troubles will disappear, and she also planted some flowers by herself, but Mary has almost no talent for planting. Under her hands, those delicate flowers will wither soon, and they can only be taken care of by the gardener.

Sometimes she would go to Meryton on horseback to see a play, and she didn't feel the slightest awareness of being accompanied by a maid. She was unknowingly very accustomed to living alone, and she was used to reading theoretical knowledge. When she looked back at these romance novels, she would feel that she interesting.

It's just that Mr. Yang, whom she missed so much, still has no news. Although she was disappointed, she was always a restrained person. After watching the play in Meryton, Mary bought some snacks and rode back by herself. .When she got home and tied the horse, she was reprimanded by Mrs. Bennet.Said that she was used to being wild, and she didn't know how to ask a maid or accompany her by herself, what to do if something happened, and so on.

Mary had to promise Mrs. Bennet that she would never be so disrespectful again, in exchange for the other party's silence. Unfortunately, after a while, Mrs. Bennet proposed that she must attend Miss Anna's social ball.

"No, I'm not going. I don't know Miss de Bauer, and she wasn't at Lizzy's wedding."

"Mary, this is an invitation from relatives, we can't refuse, originally they wanted to invite Darcy and Lizzie, but you know how Lizzie is now, and Darcy is inseparable, so we can only attend on our behalf. "

"But why do you have to take me, you can take Lydia, she loves the ball." Mary really didn't want to leave her beautiful home to go to someone else's ball, thanks to Mrs. Bennet. , an activity that she didn't enjoy much before, now simply loathes it.

"We can't take an unmarried lady instead of a lady. It's very rude. Anyway, Mary, young people from all over the country, even young people from London will gather there." Mrs. Bennet caught Holding Mary's hand, looking directly at her.

"How come you still have such fantasies, who would want to marry an ugly woman with disabilities."

"Mary, don't say that about yourself, you are not disabled at all, just some small problems, much better than that sickly Anna, and, Mary, how I wish I could see your wedding in my lifetime, I have become more and more physically fit all these years It's getting worse, that's my only regret, and I really hope you can find happiness." Mrs. Bennet knew that a tough attitude was useless for Mary, and she could only use emotion to impress her.

Although Mary knew her mother's cunning, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree. At worst, she would leave early at the ball. It's not like she didn't do this before.The more independent she thinks, the more she feels that her so-called politeness before is actually inflexible and stubborn. No one will care if a person leaves early. The protagonist of their dance is not herself. It is meaningless to force myself to stay and make a fool of myself .

In this way, when Mrs. Bennet, who persuaded Mary, mentioned shopping to buy a dress, Mary's face immediately became gloomy, and Mrs. Bennet wisely stopped mentioning it, and she didn't want to bother her daughter about this kind of thing, she knew very well Mary's love for beautiful clothes is very weak. Instead of spending a lot of money on skirts, she might as well buy a few more books.

On the third day, Lydia also rushed to Longborn to meet Mrs. Bennet. The mother and daughter bought a lot of things. Mrs. Bennet also bought clothes for Mary, but Mary didn’t try them on herself. , It doesn't fit well, Mary is tall and thin, the skirt is a bit short and bulky, so it's a pity that Lydia can wear it, she really likes this dark green silk skirt.

On the other hand, Mary simply wore an old white dress. She looked quite well-behaved, and with her ordinary appearance, she was quite unrecognizable.The mother and daughter got into the carriage. Before leaving, Mr. Bennet specifically talked to Mary. He mentioned very cryptically that Mrs. De Bourgh might not be so kind, and it was heartless to ask her to pay attention to the couple. Mother and daughter, Mary readily agreed, anyway, she didn't have the heart to dance, it would be better to be with her mother and sister, so as not to let them cause trouble.

When the carriage arrived at Rosings, it was Charlotte who received them!After marrying Collins, because there was no love between Charlotte and Collins, she didn't care on the surface, but in fact it was very painful. When her friend Elizabeth was happy, she told herself over and over again that even if she didn't marry Collins There will be no love of my own.When she heard the good news of her friend, she was happy for her, but then she was worried, because Mrs. de Bourgh is definitely a very proud and self-respecting woman. In this way, her favorite son-in-law candidate was cheated by an unknown poor girl. How could she forget this kind of shame just because she slowly resumed her relationship with her nephew.

Collins is still very favored by Mrs. De Bourgh, and Mrs. De Bourgh is also reluctantly satisfied with Charlotte's humility and obedience, and generally let Charlotte accompany the frail Miss Anna as a female companion, but most of the time Miss Anna is in poor health and needs to recuperate. Charlotte spends more time with Mrs. de Bourgh, reading aloud to her, talking with her, having afternoon tea with her, etc. Mrs. de Bourg is also arrogant and takes it for granted She aroused Charlotte and asked her to help her with some things, arrange seats, order flowers, etc., and she slowly became Rosings' invisible housekeeper, managing the itinerary of Mrs. De Bourgh, reminding Mrs. Names and families of people who came to visit, chatting with Miss Anna to pass the time, etc., because she has more vision and aristocratic demeanor than the housekeeper, so she also performs tasks such as reception instead of Rosings' master.

Charlotte looks fine, but she can no longer find the delicate and naive attitude of being a girl in her expression. She is very sophisticated and mature in dealing with people, and her speech is also smooth and accidental a lot.Mary thought regretfully, no wonder Elizabeth had less and less contact with Charlotte. She could feel a kind of contempt in the whole Rosings, that kind of obedience on the surface, but actually ridicule.

Elizabeth seldom came to Rosings because of her feud with Mrs. de Bourgh when she was young. Although she wanted to visit Charlotte, she had to contact Mrs. de Bourgh, whom she hated the most, which was really embarrassing. .Because the three of them, mother and daughter, arrived relatively early, and they were close relatives.So Madame de Bourgh received them in person.

For the first time there appeared at last the woman whom Mary had only seen in the distance at Longbourne, with a haughty, silver-haired face and a high, drooping nose.Dressed in a lace-trimmed black outfit, the whole figure is as bloated as if wrapped in a pile of fabric.In summer, I still cover it very thickly, which shows that my body is really not healthy and I am afraid of the cold.

She sat in the chair and saw the mother and daughter coming in. She didn't even think of showing respect, so she asked dryly and disdainfully, "So, who is Mary?"