[Pride and Prejudice] Mary's Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 13 is finally open

Mary wanted to ask about Jane's Mr. Hall, but when the topic started, Jane turned her off. Seeing that Jane was a little unhappy, Mary decided not to ask Jane directly after thinking about it.The next morning Mary was going to the grocery store to look at the decorations, and Elizabeth was very interested in going with her.When the two sisters were in the car, Mary asked Mr. Hall about it.

"This man is nothing." Elizabeth leaned close to Mary and said, "That gentleman is Henry Hall, a businessman from the north. He is much older than Elizabeth. He seems to be almost 30 years old. He is crazy about Jane. You know, Jane is really good-looking, gentle, kind, and generous, and no one will dislike her. But this Mr. Hall still lacks some grace, in my opinion, and he is as stupid as any stupid person. I don't think Jane should feel flattered by being favored by him. For such a gentleman, it is not accidental to praise a beauty, and Jane is grateful for it. It is simply incomprehensible. And I think Mr. Hall's admiration based on such beauty is like dew on the tip of the grass in the morning. And I am lucky to see some of the love poems he wrote to Jane. Jane promises not to mention it to anyone, and it is an unspeakable pain not to laugh at something when it is necessary to laugh at it."

Mary understands Elizabeth very well. It is indeed very depressing to encounter a lot of troubles but not be able to complain.

"What about Jane? Does Jane like him?"

"Of course, even though I'm reluctant, I still have to admit that Jane kind of likes that idiot."

"Then why didn't he propose to Jane? Does Jane still like him now?"

Elizabeth was a little silent, she thought for a while and said to Mary: "Although Jane is a little depressed, it's hard to say how painful it is, because as Jane gets to know Mr. Hall better—even though they only met a few times, they didn't say much. There are more than a dozen sentences, and they are all for the public—but Jane is a little disappointed with Mr. Hall. But you know, Jane is such a kind person, she can always find the good points in people, and then try to forget his shortcomings .When some people misbehave, Jane will always help them change in time. In Jane's view, Mr. Hall has little love for Jane because she doesn't have much dowry. She said that she didn't propose to her because she was too young and other reasons. Jane was going to let go of this love at that time, and was looking forward to going home."

Mary comforted her and said: "If everything is as you said, we should all be thankful that a reckless marriage did not come to fruition. Is a young and good girl like Jane afraid that she will not have an outstanding man to admire?"

"Yes, that's right." Elizabeth laughed.

The fact that the Bennet family funded the loyal maid Alice to open a food store so that she could feed her starving and cold siblings has long been rumored in Meridon.After Mrs. Bennet came back, the acquainted ladies finally found the opportunity to ask the person concerned for details in person.Mrs. Bennet was very proud. She said: "My Mary is always so kind. From this point of view, this is where she is most like me. Since Alice's younger brothers and sisters grew up, she has always been a maid. The wages can no longer support them. I heard that she also wants to sponsor the smartest younger brother to go to school, which is absolutely unaffordable for their family. So Mary suggested that we should help Alice. After all, Alice has served our family for many years. Well, her dad... disappeared again."

Mrs. Cook, the gossip king, asked about the ownership of the store, and Mrs. Bennet continued to praise Alice's nobility: "She doesn't want to get money that doesn't belong to her, so she insists on returning the proceeds of the food store to us, and she As long as we pay for ourselves, in order to let her feel no guilt, we had to agree to her request. But we have decided that this food store can continue to employ Alice's younger siblings. Alice's family is very happy, and they are very grateful to us. You know , her salary is very high, if she performs well, she can get 15 pounds a year! This price can hire a high-class maid in London. And her younger siblings, they all have a well-paid job. If If we don't help them, how can they pay back the money, their father owes a lot of money."

So people praised the generosity of the Bennet family, and highly praised Alice's modesty.

Only the final decorations were left in the grocery store, and Mary took Alice to Meryton these days to make sure everything was as it should be.Several other ladies of the Bennet family also like to come here to join in the fun, and they all gave a lot of important opinions and suggestions.

The attic is used to store raw materials, and the second floor is where the shop assistants live.The space on the first floor is not small, but only a few small round tables are placed, and many small potted plants are placed in the rest. The whole room is full of green and looks vibrant.

Mary custom-made a glass counter, which is used to display various small foods.She didn't use wallpaper, just painted the walls white.

At the same time, there is also the repair of the kitchen, a big oven is indispensable inside, the blacksmith sent all kinds of custom-made shiny cooking utensils, the carpenter sent cabinets and boxes, in addition to all kinds of porcelain and glass products, within a month, this The store looks brand new.

Regarding the clerk, Mary weighed it over and over again, and decided to let Alice's brother Albert and sister Joyce come.Alice was in charge of the kitchen, Albert and Joyce were in charge of entertaining the guests, and two cooks were also employed.

Originally, Mary planned to transfer a maid to manage the store with Alice. This would disperse Alice's rights and make Mary more comfortable in managing the store.But after careful consideration, Mary gave up this idea. Although handing over the store to a family is easy to cause fraud, Mary opened the store in the name of Alice's family. In order to deserve the name, she still let Alice and her younger siblings manage it. Well, as long as Mary comes to inspect the accounts from time to time, I believe there will be no major problems in this regard in a short period of time.What's more, Mary's vision is not limited to Meryton or even Hartfordshire. She sets her sights on London, which is the place with the highest consumption level in the UK.

On a sunny Monday, the store, named Fanny's Foods, officially opened.

Because the store had enough buzz before it opened that people were talking about it for a whole month, so when it did open, curious customers flocked here like a flood.The fresh and delicious potato chips, fried chicken and fried fish were immediately praised by the guests. There are also various mashed potato cakes. Because the seats are limited, many guests bought them to take home.

Of course, the Bennet family also appeared here, and people praised their generosity one after another. Alice was also very excited to express her gratitude to every guest.Mr. Bennet only walked around here a little, praised the decoration of the store, and left.The remaining Mrs. Bennet led the ladies to socialize until dark, because it was really an occasion for her to be majestic, so she was still reluctant to part with Mrs. Bennet until she left.

The next day, Mary and Mrs. Bennet came to the store again. Alice explained yesterday's expenses and income. Mary made a rough calculation and found that the income is not bad. If this continues, the store can reach an annual gross profit of 500 yuan. It’s around sterling, but yesterday was the first day of opening, and almost everyone in Meridon came to watch the excitement, so this kind of income can’t be regarded as daily income. How well the store is doing depends on the sales situation in a week at least .

Mrs. Bennet wanted to stay here to enjoy the compliments from everyone, but Mary still pulled her away. She said to Mrs. Bennet: "Mom, we are just investors, not the proprietresses who entertain guests."

When her mother heard such words, she immediately pulled Mary away, as if trying to avoid the plague, she thought, even her sister-in-law, Mrs. Gardiner, would not entertain guests in the shop in London, so how could she It's okay to do such a demeaning thing.

Mrs. Bennet has a lot of misgivings about Fanny's Food Store. She wants to go there to enjoy the praise brought by her kindness, but she is also afraid that people will gossip behind her back and seriously hurt her. Her nerves ached from thinking about the torment, so she simply shunned food stores for a long time.

Compared to her keeping her at arm's length, her daughters are not so worried.The Miss Bennets always liked to call on Alice when they were in Meryton.Especially Kitty and Lydia, they love it very much.Although there are servants in the family, the two of them especially like to boss Albert around and play around with him.But Albert is a simple and honest young man, he has never been impatient or unwilling, and is always willing to run errands for the two ladies.Fortunately, Mary found out about this very quickly. She severely stopped the two younger sisters from messing around and warned them that if they disturbed Albert like this again, their pocket money would be deducted.Because Mary had deducted their pocket money several times since she took office, it was useless even if the two of them begged their mother, so Kitty and Lydia were still very afraid of this punishment.

After a month of operation, the business of the food store has been very stable and in good condition. Many people like to buy some to taste at afternoon tea. The food in the food store is also a very good food when entertaining guests at banquets be careful.According to this situation, the annual net profit of Rose's Food Store should be maintained at about 300 pounds, which is an extremely exciting figure. The investment in opening the store is less than 100 pounds, and such a high profit can be made in the first year It was unexpected.Mrs. Bennet was very happy. She calculated that she could save an extra dowry of 40 to 50 pounds for each daughter every year. Although this is not much, if Jane gets married when she is around 20 years old, the family can give her almost [-] pounds. dowry.Moreover, if the store continues to operate for decades, then even if the daughters cannot inherit the Langborn family property in the future, they will still receive a handsome inheritance after their parents die.This finally gave Mrs. Bennet some relief from her twitching nerves of late.

The author has something to say:

Notice that there will be a one-day power outage on June 6. The author is afraid that he will not be able to update on time, so he wrote some in advance and saved it in the manuscript box. It is a bit small, so everyone can read it.