[Pride and Prejudice] Mary's Pride and Prejudice

The town of Windsor has a long history. As early as after William the Conqueror captured England, in order to prevent the resistance of the native British at that time, William I chose a site to build a military fortress and castle here. Later, its military use was gradually weakened, and the royal family gradually Think of it more as a good place for leisure and vacation.

Of course, because it is closely related to the royal family, Windsor Castle is actually closely related to British politics.Since the old king's insanity, he has been arranged here to live a life of isolation from the world. The Queen Mother often stays with him here, but sometimes goes to her eldest son Regent in London.I don’t know if it’s because the people of Windsor town have seen too many royal families and nobles. They always have a kind of elegance and restraint that people in other places don’t have.

Mary and the others have been here for two days, and Alfred went to Liverpool for something, so Mary hasn't seen her since she returned to London, but she went to the bank safe and got Alfred for her to keep. The kinkinis there, to be honest, are really heavy, so Mary only chose a particularly delicate and beautiful bag to keep beside her.She wanted to show it to Jane and Elizabeth. If possible, she would also persuade the two sisters to collect some, just for the value preservation function of gold, so that they can make a very stable profit without losing money.

They came with Mr. Darcy. There is a villa of Mr. Darcy's relatives here, which is [-] times more convenient than staying in a hotel, so Mr. Darcy invited Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner to live here with Elizabeth. And they can take Daphne who lives in the hotel with her classmates to live with her.

But Daphne didn't come, her school didn't arrange the students in a hotel, but borrowed a spacious residential house. It is said that the landlord here has some friendship with their principal, so they can stay in this hard-to-find Windsor Elementary School. Town to find such convenient accommodation.Uncle Gardiner got acquainted with the surrounding environment and chatted with the principal and teacher who led the team for a while, and then left Daphne here with confidence.After all, when he sent his daughter to school, he wanted her to make more friends. It was much more convenient and much more convenient for Daphne to stay here than to live with them, and most of the parents of other female students did the same.

And Daphne told them that after Mr. Bennet sent her to the teacher, he hurried back to Longbourn, where her younger brothers and sisters needed someone to take care of her, while Mrs. Bennet and Lydia stayed behind, temporarily. Live in the hotel around the corner.

Mary didn't find the two of them in the hotel. According to the servants in the hotel, they would go out every day and never come back until dark.Mary had to leave them a note.

That night Mrs. Bennet brought Lydia to find them. They hadn't had dinner at that time, and Mrs. Bennet was very good at catching up.

As soon as Mrs. Bennet entered the door, she smiled and said to Mr. Bingley: "Mr. Bingley, I am so happy that you can come here too. Such a grand event has never been heard before. Anyone with status and education should come. Participate, have you heard? Mrs. Fry wants to participate in the charity sale in person. She is a kind and good person, but my daughters are all people of status. They can just pay for it. There is absolutely no need for such a thing.”

Then she hugged and kissed her brother and sister-in-law and several daughters for a long time. Even if she had a few words to Miss Darcy, Miss Bingley and Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, but only to Mr. Darcy, her words least.

But she still said: "Twenty pounds a ticket for the rowing race, Mr. Darcy, my God, that's enough money to feed those poor people for a year. Although Mrs. Fry gave each of our family a gift of one Tickets, but Mr. Bennet still asks me to donate more to those poor people, of course I will, we can afford it."

Only then did Mary know that Mrs. Fry had really sent the letter to Longbourne, but Lydia and Mrs. Bennet never liked to write letters. Totally forgot to tell Mary about it.

Lydia said indifferently: "I wanted to write it in the letter, but I was busy changing the lace for my hat, or decorating the new carriage at home. Oh, did you see that carriage? Maybe I Forgot to tell you about this, and mother made father buy a new carriage, and Jane let her take it when she was married, because Mr. Getting engaged means I lose the opportunity to enjoy the same rights and interests as my sisters. You must know that it’s not that no one likes me, but that I despise those ugly monsters! It would be too unfair to discriminate against me because of my high vision..."

Mary interrupted her impatiently: "So, I don't think you need a special carriage for the time being, and you can have one if you get engaged, but you don't need it now, so don't bother me, it's okay no."

Lydia glared at her. "I'd never ask for a new wagon if we didn't have the money, but we can afford it."

After thinking about it, Mary decided to tell her sister: "Look, Mr. Bingley doesn't have a carriage, and Miss Bingley doesn't have a carriage, so you don't have a carriage. The price doesn't drop at all. Besides, our carriage is fully enough. I can pay for the carriage." If you save it, you can use the interest to add a few more beautiful new dresses every year. If you don’t want these new dresses, then keep saving, and the interest will increase, and maybe you can have a four-wheeled four-seater carriage by then. You can also have your coachman drive you through the streets in a fancy livery!"

Lydia was attracted by this scene, and she said longingly: "I have seen many such carriages in London, and they are much more magnificent than Jane's."

Then it took her a while to realize, how long do I have to keep the money?Mary is totally fooling me!

……

The rowing competition was held on August 8th. During this period, the weather was fine and the sun was neither too hot nor too cold. It really complemented those sunny boys in beautiful uniforms.

The venue of the competition is in the lake of the small town. There is a stone bridge on the lake with wide green grass on both sides. And buy tickets to enter the tourists, on both sides of the lake are crowded with spectators.

The location of Mary and the others is very good, not far from the starting point, and next to it is a row of charity stalls.

In fact, how long can the competition last, but it will end in a while. The highlight is the charity bazaar after the competition. This is the place that has something to do with Mrs. Fry.

Mrs. Fry made every effort to promote prison reform, and the progress was very gratifying. She inspected not only London prisons, but also prisons in other places, including Scotland and Wales.

But most of the prisoners don't have any skills, and the textile workshops she can introduce require a spacious place in the prison to accommodate the machines, which is not available in every prison.Therefore, the prison workshops produce the most handmade products, which do not require huge operating tables and machines.Just provide the prisoners with some materials and gadgets.

But on the other hand, these handmade products can only stand out among the many commodities and be purchased by people only after they are carefully crafted by good craftsmen, but these prisoners often lack good craftsmen with real craftsmanship.Therefore, after a long time, those poorly made handicrafts began to be unsalable, and most of the warehouses of Colonel Edwards' trading company were occupied by these unsellable backlogs.

Although the colonel can afford the money, Mrs. Fry can't just watch him lose money, and according to this trend, he will lose more and more in the future, and the duration is hard to estimate. By then, the prison workshop will be difficult to maintain. go down.

So Mrs. Fry decided to hold a charity sale, and she would personally sell goods for the prisoners at the booth.Mrs. Fry is a well-known philanthropist in the UK. According to the old Chinese saying, she is a living Bodhisattva and a good person, and she definitely has many fans.Among them was the headmaster of the Locke School. Hearing Mrs. Frye talk about this, the headmaster said: How much money can be raised if all these goods are sold?He thought of those street jugglers, touring troupes and circuses, and the lights in his mind "ding" came on, so there was a boating competition held together with the charity fair.When he contacted Hobbit College, the other party immediately agreed. This is a great opportunity to expand the school's influence and reputation, and it must not be missed.

There are several rows of seats near the starting point, with beautiful curtains for shade. The people sitting here are all celebrities, whether they have children at home participating in the competition, or people who come from the name of Mrs. Muffley or the headmaster of the two public schools. Either rich or expensive.

The sailors are all dressed up very energetically. Today these boys will perform a thrilling rodeo in front of everyone—sports have always been loved and sought after by the British—and the huge ticket proceeds will be donated to the poor People, these actions are so in line with the spirit and style of a gentleman, which makes these young gentlemen very excited.

The competition went smoothly, Rocke School won the championship as the host, and the organizer awarded a medal to each team member.Then, the bazaar, which attracted much attention, began.

Mary walked back and forth among these stalls with her family. The most popular of these stalls was Mrs. Fry's stall, which was crowded with people. The gentlemen and ladies of the upper class saw that their idols were not inferior to modern fans at all. Brother fan sister, demeanor all disregarded, people rushed to buy items from her stall.Mary and the others couldn't squeeze in at all.

Of course, the business of other stalls can't be considered deserted. Mary wandered to a small stall surrounded by a few young people, which specially sold dolls.But apart from one or two children, there are only a group of boys and girls who buy things.But these young people didn't buy these dolls for their own fun, it was completely drunk, because behind the stall were two beautiful girls, Daphne and a beautiful lady with blond hair and blue eyes.

This is their role. They come here to help with the charity sale. Of course, their maids are the main labor force, and they will do it themselves when they are too busy.However, Daphne's temperament is very similar to Jane's, and she always takes the initiative to help.The blond Miss Margaret was very popular, and several young men present all came towards her. .

Mary bought a few rag dolls here. These toys were so simple that they would not be able to afford to give to the Gardiner family's cousins, but they could be taken back to Longbourne, and the children in the village would never dislike them.

Lydia wandered around and didn't find anything she wanted, so she complained to Mary endlessly, but Mrs. Bennet didn't bring her here to buy things, she would go up to chat with people she used to know in London , and then acquaintances bring acquaintances, Mrs. Bennet has met some new friends, Uncle Gardiner and her are indeed siblings, both of them have expanded their social circle through this, but the purpose of the two is different.

As soon as Mary looked up, she saw Mr. Darcy and Miss Darcy walking slowly from that side. Originally, their seats were not too close to each other, but as soon as they walked around at the end of the show, they were farther apart.But this street is limited, and the two sides always meet each other. When Mr. Darcy saw Elizabeth, he came over to talk, which made Miss Bingley behind him very angry.In the past two days, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have been getting along day and night. He thinks that he has properly concealed his admiration, but all his friends except Mr. Bingley, who is really silly and sweet, know it well.

As Mary walked, she walked in a row with Miss Bingley, and she said to Miss Bingley nonchalantly, "That purple August chrysanthemum blooms so beautifully!"

Miss Bingley sneered: "Why bother with those, Miss Mary, there are more beautiful flowers in this world that no one appreciates."

Mary was choked back, and simply ignored her.

The bazaar ended with a bang, and Mrs. Fry's booth sold out quickly, and then she went to help other booths. She is a veritable star. No matter where she goes, the crowd follows her. , the items at that stall sold out quickly.Daphne's dolls sold quickly, and many people kept the same idea as Mary, even if they didn't bring them to their families, they could give them to the children of tenants or servants on the manor.So they didn't ask Mrs. Fry to help.

Uncle Gardiner asked them whether they would go home directly or go to school, but Daphne said that if the principal allowed, they could follow their parents, but they had to return to school after three days, so Uncle Gardiner picked up his daughter and went back together.

When everyone turned to leave, Lydia could not be found. Mary looked left and right and finally saw this big tree. Colonel Edwards seemed to be talking to Lydia, but Lydia looked impatient. Mary called her, and Lydia immediately threw Colonel Edwards away and ran over, hugged Daphne's arm and hurried away.

This was originally an episode, but something happened that night, and it was related to Lydia and Daphne.

The author has something to say:

I'm sorry, I've been really busy these two days, and I still have to write something, because there are some turning points in these two chapters, so I'm not satisfied after writing it. I really can't afford to procrastinate. If you have any comments, please tell me directly. I will change it when I have time.

I will add another chapter in a while, and make up for Monday's