Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 3
“Hounds, how horrible!” cried Mrs. Bennet with a shudder. “They would chase you all over the countryside.”
“I should outrun them,” declared the young tom. Mrs. Bennet continued to exclaim over the horror of hounds, and the dispute ended only with the visit.
“[Darcy’s] pride,” said Miss Lucas, “does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.”
“That is very true,” replied Elizabeth, “and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, “is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
THE KITTIES OF Longbourn soon waited on those of Netherfield. The visit was returned in due form. Miss Bennet’s pleasing mannerisms grew on the goodwill of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley, though Mrs. Bennet was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth sniffing. Elizabeth still saw superciliousness in the Bingley sisters’ treatment of everybody, hardly excepting even Jane, and could not like them.
It was generally evident that Mr. Bingley did admire Jane and equally evident that Jane was in a way to be very much in love; but Elizabeth considered with pleasure that Jane was not a demonstrative cat, and her preference was not likely to be discovered by the world in general. She mentioned this to her friend Charlotte Lucas, who only shook her head.
“If a cat conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of securing a home. Who will want to pet and pamper such a cat?” she said. “Jane should therefore make the most of every half hour in which they are playing or napping to command his attention.”
“But Jane has known Bingley only a fortnight,” said Elizabeth. “She romped with him at Meryton and shared a bowl of wet food with him in company four evenings. Those four evenings have enabled them to ascertain that they both like Purina better than Fancy Feast, but with respect to any other leading characteristic, I do not imagine that much has been unfolded.”
A few days later, the neighboring cats gathered at Lucas Lodge. Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley’s attentions to her sister, Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his pedigreed friend. No sooner had Mr. Darcy made it clear to himself that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her luminous eyes. And, in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of an aristocat, he was caught by their easy playfulness as she chased a ball of yarn under the table.
Elizabeth then proceeded to pounce on the piano and the other cats pranced around the drawing room. Mr. Darcy watched in silence.
“What a charming amusement this is for young cats, Mr. Darcy!” said Sir William Lucas. “I consider prancing as one of the first refinements of polished society.”
“Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world. Every alley cat can prance.”
“You have a house in town, I conclude?” asked Sir William. Mr. Darcy yawned.
“I once had some thought of getting fixed in town (by an eminent veterinarian of our acquaintance) so Lady Lucas would not be disturbed by my nightly prowls.”
Soon afterwards, Miss Bingley approached Mr. Darcy.
“Imagine,” said she, “the insipidity, and yet the yowls—the nothingness, and yet the self-importance—of all these country cats! What would I give to hear your strictures on them!” growled Caroline.
Mr. Darcy assured her that his mind was more agreeably engaged in admiring Elizabeth Bennet’s beautiful eyes.
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet!” repeated Miss Bingley. “I am all astonishment. I’ve heard she’s a good mouser, too, so that settles the matter. Pray, when am I to wish you joy?”
“A female’s imagination is very rapid,” remarked Mr. Darcy drily. “It jumps from admiration to mice, and from mice to matrimony, in a moment.”
Convinced by his manner that all was safe where Elizabeth was concerned, Miss Bingley spent the rest of the evening trilling to Mr. Darcy and preening herself by the fire.
The insipidity, and yet the yowls—the nothingness, and yet the self-importance—of all these country cats!
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance [said Charlotte to Elizabeth] . If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always contrive to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”
“You make me laugh, Charlotte; but it is not sound. You know it is not sound, and that you would never act in this way yourself.”
LONGBOURN, MR. BENNET’S territory, produced 2,000 juicy mice a year. The entire estate was end-tailed to a male