Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 22
“Now I have got some news about a cat we all admire,” said Lydia, as they crouched down at the table.
Elizabeth told the waiter he need not stay.
“As if the waiter cares what I am going to communicate!” scoffed Lydia. “But he is a scrawny cat; I never saw such ridiculously long whiskers in my life.”
Lydia went on to relate that Mary King, whom Wickham had lately been forming designs on, had left Meryton. Wickham was a free cat again.
Jane looked concerned. “I hope there was no strong attachment between the two,” she ventured.
“Oh,” said Lydia carelessly, “I will answer for it; he never cared three straws for her—who could about such an ugly spotted thing?”
Soon afterward, the four Bennet sisters and Maria crammed themselves into the carriage with their cat carriers, ribbons, and remnants of Lydia’s new bonnet.
“Dear me!” cried Lydia as they rattled along. “What a good piece of fun we had the other day at Colonel Forster’s. What do you think we did? We dressed up Chamberlayne to pass for a lady. Lord, how funny he looked and how we laughed!”
Who could care about such an ugly spotted thing?
Lord, how funny he looked and how we laughed!
They came home to a warm welcome and a big family party at dinner. Lydia gaily described the fun and noise of being crowded together in the carriage.
“I was ready to die of laughter!” she said.
Mary just looked sour. “I should infinitely prefer a book,” she replied.
In the afternoon Lydia was urgent with the rest of the girls to walk to Meryton and to see how every body went on; but Elizabeth steadily opposed the scheme. It should not be said, that the Miss Bennets could not be at home half a day before they were in pursuit of the officers. There was another reason too for her opposition. She dreaded seeing Wickham again, and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible. The comfort to her, of the regiment’s approaching removal, was indeed beyond expression. In a fortnight they were to go, and once gone, she hoped there could be nothing more to plague her on his account.
ELIZABETH WAS IMPATIENT to relate to Jane all that had passed at Hunsford between herself and Mr. Darcy—excepting, of course, Mr. Darcy’s role in separating Bingley from Jane. That intelligence could only give her sister pain.
Jane was at first astonished to hear of Mr. Darcy’s proposal, and grieved that he should be suffering any pain from Elizabeth’s refusal. But this was nothing compared to her sister’s dismay on learning that Wickham was as wanton and wicked as a wild dog. Jane would have liked to believe that no such wickedness existed in all the world as was here collected in one cat!
“Poor Wickham!” cried Jane. “There is such an expression of goodness in his soft blinks! Such an openness and gentleness in his manner of purring.”
“There certainly was some great mismanagement in the upbringing of those two cats,” Elizabeth replied. “One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”
The two sisters discussed whether they should make their knowledge of Wickham’s true character public.
Elizabeth thought it should not be attempted.
“You are quite right,” said Jane. “He is now, perhaps, sorry for what he has done, and anxious to reestablish a character. We must not make him desperate. He might, perhaps, be driven into the sewers of London to live a life of decadence and debauchery.”
One has got all the goodness and the other all the appearance of goodness.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bennet continued to fuss and fret over Mr. Bingley’s leaving Netherfield, not realizing how much pain her incessant complaining gave Jane.
“To think he has escaped and now nothing will come of their attachment which seemed so promising only a few short months ago!” she wailed.
“Well, Lizzy,” she continued soon afterwards, “and so the Collinses live very comfortably, do they? Charlotte is an excellent manager, I dare say, and catches plenty of rodents and makes them go a long way. And so I suppose they purr together at the thought of having Longbourn when your father is dead. How unfeeling of them! Well, if they can be easy with an estate that is not lawfully their own, so much the better. I should be ashamed of having one that was only end-tailed on me.”
“Well, Lizzy,” said Mrs. Bennet one day, “what is your opinion now of this sad business of Jane’s? For my part, I am determined never to speak of it again to anybody. I told my sister Philips so the other day. But I cannot find out that Jane saw any thing of him in London. Well, he is a very undeserving young man-and I do not suppose there is the least chance in the world of her ever getting him now. There is no talk of his coming to Netherfield again in the summer; and I have enquired of every body too, who is likely to know.”
“I do not believe that he will ever live at Netherfield any more.”
“Oh well! it is just as he chooses. Nobody wants him to come. Though I shall always say that he used my daughter extremely ill; and if I was her, I would not have put up with it. Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then he will be sorry for what he has done.”
THE DEPARTURE OF the militia from Meryton was now almost at hand. Dejected and disappointed, Lydia and Kitty went completely off their wet food and prowled around the house day and night lamenting their misfortune in losing the society of so many handsome toms. Only Elizabeth and Jane continued