[Pride and Prejudice] Mary's Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 2 Touring Theater Company

On this day, Mary was learning embroidery with Mrs. Bennet, and Mrs. Bennet asked her to decorate her table with her own embroidery, which made Mary very sad.She thought that when she came to a foreign country, she would not have to be as hard-pressed as those predecessors who traveled to ancient China. She had to bind her feet and learn to be a female celebrity, but it turns out that girls in foreign countries also have to learn embroidery, and even girls who can't embroider will be ridiculed. Considered clumsy and tasteless.This was an eye-opener for Mary, so she had to learn from Mrs. Bennet bitterly.Mrs. Bennet thinks this is an important criterion to test whether a girl is well-bred, so she attaches great importance to the girls' handicrafts, and Mary can't be lazy even if she wants to.Mrs. Bennet would say, "Put your books away. No, those philosophies don't matter. When we have a dance, some girls will talk about philosophy together. You can't go to Eton and Oxford. But If you don't know how to be a female celebrity, you will definitely not be able to make a friend!"

As Mrs. Bennet was speaking, Kitty rushed into the room quickly, and exclaimed cheerfully, "Here comes the traveling troupe—here comes the traveling troupe—"

Mrs. Bennet showed a surprised look on her face. At this time, Lydia also ran in. She threw herself into Mrs. Bennet's arms and said with a big smile, "Mom, Mom, the touring troupe is here in May." Leighton, let's go to the show tomorrow, no, today, I can't wait..."

Kitty said anxiously: "The performance will definitely start today. Emily said that she has seen them set up a stage, and they are staying at the Old Louis Hotel." Emily is a good friend of Kitty and Lydia .

"Oh, that's great, I thought they weren't coming this year, Hill—Hill—" Mrs. Bennet called out to the housekeeper.

"What do you want, ma'am?" Hill hurried over.

"Go get the carriage ready, we're going to town to see a performance. Oh, what about Jane and Liqi, go find them and come back, we're going together."

"Okay, ma'am."

"Wait, wait, where did Mr. Bennet go? He must want to go too, we can't leave him, he will die of grief..."

"In the study, madam."

"It's a big surprise that I'll call him myself," said Mrs. Bennet cheerfully.

Mary is also very happy, finally freed from these needles and threads. She doesn't dislike embroidery, but this kind of work is too trivial. Mary strongly believes that embroidery is the slowest work in the world, no one!She may not be able to make a handkerchief in a month, but she would rather spend this time tidying up the garden. One month is enough for her to make a shape for the roses in the garden.Kitty and Lydia were busy looking for clothes and shoes in the dressing room.Mary also went back to her room and put on her out clothes.Lydia rushed over, "哐——" pushed the door open, and asked loudly, "Mary, can you lend me your new hat?"

"Where's your own hat?" Mary asked.

"That's not pretty, Mary. I like your new hat. It's very beautifully embroidered. We can wear it differently."

Mary looked at Lydia, who was only seven, and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to wear your hat, dear."

Lydia said unwillingly: "Honey, please, you don't like wearing hats, just lend me them, and I can lend you my gloves."

"I'm afraid I can't wear your gloves either."

"Please, Mary, I just like your hat."

Mary was really troubled by Lydia, so she had to agree to lend her hat to Lydia.

When she went out, the whole family was in the carriage, except Mr. Bennet, who was going to ride.They happily set off on the road, and passers-by could hear the laughter from the carriage.

The touring troupe will come to Meriton to perform almost every year for about two weeks. At that time, men, women and children from all over the world will come here to watch the performance and sell goods. It has become a grand festival.Even with Mr. Bennet's character, he is very willing to go out and walk around to join in the fun.

Mrs. Bennet finally noticed that Lydia was wearing Mary's hat, so she reprimanded dissatisfiedly: "Lydia, that hat almost put your head in it, it doesn't look good when you wear it, Give it back to Mary quickly."

"No, Mom, I like this hat, it's beautiful."

"But it covers you all over your mouth, so it's not your hat."

Lydia resolutely refused to take off her hat. Although she was only 7 years old, she was already a very beautiful little girl.Besides, although she is young, she has completely inherited her mother's beauty, and it is foreseeable that she will definitely be a beautiful woman in the future, which makes him love beauty even more.Although Mrs. Bennet has various shortcomings, she has no problem with the aesthetics of dressing. She pays attention to dressing up her daughter and is proud of having a beautiful daughter.Although Mary didn't mind lending her hat to Lydia, Mrs. Bennet would not allow Lydia to make such a fool of herself.In the end, Mrs. Bennet promised to buy another hat for Lydia in the hat shop in Meridon, which made Lydia agree to return the hat to Mary.But this provoked another dissatisfaction - Kitty thought she deserved a new hat too.

This was strongly endorsed by Elizabeth - wouldn't it be unfair if one person was rewarded for being naughty and the other got nothing for following the rules?So in the end Mrs. Bennet had to promise to buy everyone a new hat, and everyone was satisfied.

The car stopped at the hat shop in the town. Originally, Mr. Bennet wanted to take his daughters to the restaurant for dinner, but since Mrs. Bennet has decided to buy hats, let’s spend the money first, Banner Mr. Te decided to go to the restaurant to reserve a table and wait for the women slowly. Mary also wanted to go together. She had just persuaded Mrs. Bennet not to buy her a new hat in the carriage, but to give her the money for the new hat. The whole thing is fair and reasonable.

Mary and Mr. Bennet had been finishing their meal in the restaurant, and Mrs. Bennet hurried over with her daughters, so that they had only time to eat some cold meat, but who cares now, they can Not for food, as long as you're not hungry.After eating, they hurried to the stage of the performance again. On the way, they met Mrs. Bennet's sister, Aunt Philip.

"Oh, it's great. I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. Why did they come? Every time they leave, I start to look forward to their next visit. It really feels like years." Aunt Philip said to Banner when they met. said Mrs. Tate.

Mrs. Bennet was also extremely excited: "Yes, yes, I don't know if the leading actor from last time is still there, you know, they always change actors."

Now the entire Meridon is discussing a theater troupe. Aunt Philip has sent someone to inquire about the troupe's arrangement today: They arrived in Meridon yesterday afternoon. They started building the stage early this morning and started performing in the afternoon. It is said that it is a new play. Very popular in London.

Mr. Bennet had already sent his servants to buy tickets, so they were not in a hurry, but there were too many pedestrians on the road, almost ten times the usual number, and many people flocked to the stage full of joy. They had to quicken their pace.

They met a lot of friends below the stage, but in such a situation, everyone really didn't want to greet each other. After waving and nodding, they all sat in their seats. Their tickets were all in front of the stage, with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in the middle, Elizabeth and Jane on one side, Mary, Kitty and Lydia on the other.Generally, the opening drama will be a comedy that everyone is happy with, and the performances of the actors are also wonderful. Mary watched it with gusto, but Kitty and Lydia kept talking about the actors' makeup and clothing, which annoyed Mary. She whispered a reminder I met them several times, but they didn't seem to restrain themselves. Mary had to change seats with Mrs. Bennet on the other side of her. Changed positions, and not long after, Mary heard Mrs. Bennet scolding Lydia and Kitty, and then everything stopped, and Mary and Mr. Bennet beside him looked at each other and smiled.

The plot on the stage is very old-fashioned. Kind people will be rewarded, but evil people will always be punished by mistake. People in the audience laughed.When the performance was over, everyone stood up and applauded warmly. Even after the performance, people were unwilling to leave.It is said that there will be some skits in the following. People gather in twos and threes to chat and laugh. This is an alternative social occasion.

Elizabeth wanted to borrow books from the circulation library, and Mary decided to go with her.The circulation library is the only place in the town where people can borrow books for a small fee. Mary likes this place very much. The collection of books here is ten times that of Bennet's.

She and Elizabeth met Miss Charlotte of the Lucas family here. Miss Charlotte was nine years older than Mary and seven years older than Elizabeth. According to their ages, their social circles should be completely different, but unexpectedly It was because Charlotte and Elizabeth became good friends, probably because they were the few girls around who were good at thinking and independent.

Charlotte wanted to borrow a sheet music, and Mary wanted to, so Elizabeth accompanied them to the row of bookshelves where music was introduced.Several people were carefully selecting, and Elizabeth and Charlotte were still discussing something in a low voice. Unexpectedly, an accident happened suddenly: there was a quarrel from the opposite side of them, and then, suddenly, the bookshelf beside them began to shake. Mary was almost stunned: what's going on?But before she had time to think about it, Elizabeth dragged her and Charlotte to run outside, but they had reached the end of the bookshelf before they knew it, and it was too difficult to run outside. Mary had never hated the height and length of the bookshelf so much. Fortunately, they finally escaped. Although they were a little headache from being hit by the falling books, Mary did a stupid thing at this time. When she ran to the exit, her wallet fell to the ground, and there was Mrs. Bennet inside. The dozens of shillings she had just given her, so she went back to pick up her purse, so that she could not complain about the bookshelf when she was hit by the corner of the bookshelf.