Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, стр. 35
“Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh, my sweetest Lizzy! How rich and how great you will be! What dinners, what collars, what comfortable cat carriers you will have! Jane’s is nothing to it—nothing at all. Such a charming cat! So handsome, so distinguished! Oh, my dear Lizzy, pray apologize for my having disliked him so much before. I hope he will overlook it.”
Jane looked at her doubtingly. “Oh, Lizzy! it cannot be. I know how much you dislike him.”
“You know nothing of the matter. That is all to be forgot. Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable. This is the last time I shall ever remember it myself.”
Miss Bennet still looked all amazement. Elizabeth again, and more seriously assured her of its truth.
“Good Heaven! can it be really so! Yet now I must believe you,” cried Jane. “My dear, dear Lizzy, I would—I do congratulate you— but are you certain? forgive the question—are you quite certain that you can be happy with him?”
“There can be no doubt of that. It is settled between us already, that we are to be the happiest couple in the world. But are you pleased, Jane? Shall you like to have such a brother?”
“Very, very much. Nothing could give either Bingley or myself more delight. But we considered it, we talked of it as impossible. And do you really love him quite well enough? Oh, Lizzy! do any thing rather than marry without affection. Are you quite sure that you feel what you ought to do?”
“Oh, yes! You will only think I feel more than I ought to do, when I tell you all.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, I must confess, that I love him better than I do Bingley. I am afraid you will be angry.”
“My dearest sister, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?”
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.”
I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.
ELIZABETH’S SPIRITS SOON rising to playfulness again, she spent the next morning cavorting in the copse with Mr. Darcy and teasing him about how he happened to become attached to her. She settled the matter nicely herself by supposing that her saucy nature, so different from that of other female cats who followed him everywhere, imitating his tastes and meowing pitifully when he was out of sight, was a refreshing change.
Both cats had news to communicate—Mr. Darcy to his aunt and Elizabeth to hers. This was soon done. Jane herself received a congratulatory letter from Caroline Bingley, but Elizabeth, looking over her sister’s shoulder, detected several claw marks on it, which Jane kindly chose to overlook.
Georgiana’s happiness in anticipating acquiring a sister was much more sincere and both Elizabeth and Darcy looked forward to all the comforts and coziness of their family party at Pemberley.
“My resolution of thanking you for your kindness to Lydia had certainly great effect [said Elizabeth]. Too much, I am afraid; for what becomes of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise, for I ought not to have mentioned the subject? This will never do.”
“You need not distress yourself. The moral will be perfectly fair. Lady Catherine’s unjustifiable endeavours to separate us, were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude. I was not in a humour to wait for any opening of your’s. My aunt’s intelligence had given me hope, and I was determined at once to know every thing.”
“Lady Catherine has been of infinite use, which ought to make her happy, for she loves to be of use.”
Anne, what the hell am I supposed to do with this stupid wedding veil?
SINCE BIRTH, MRS. Bennet had nursed and nudged, licked and lamented over her five kittens, and happy were her maternal feelings the day she got rid of her two most deserving—though it cannot be said that their brilliant matches taught her either delicacy or decorum.
Kitty improved as any kitty would who spends her time in the superior company of her two more sensible siblings. And although Lydia frequently tried to tempt her to visit with promises of toys and toms, Mr. Bennet would never consent to her going.
Mary alone of the five sisters stayed at home. Mrs. Bennet’s love of company, however, compelled her daughter to socialize more and sleep less (although Mary had always professed to be philosophizing when her sisters caught her napping).
As for Lydia and Wickham, they lived a restless peripatetic life, moving from place to place in search of a cheaper kennel.
Miss Bingley, upon learning of Darcy’s marriage, hissed and spat and was so ill-tempered that even her sister Louisa found her company insupportable. But, as she wished to retain the right to ramble the hills and halls of Pemberley, she took herself in paw and appeared at that great house disguised as an amicable cat.
Pemberley was now Georgiana’s home and she and Elizabeth grew to love each other even as well as Darcy hoped they would. Georgiana was occasionally alarmed at seeing how Elizabeth sported with Mr. Darcy, often tempting him to join her in a game of toss the mouse.
Lady Cat was extremely indignant at the marriage of Darcy. She eventually overcame her resistance to visiting Pemberley, however, and was seen sniffing about the woods, probably to ascertain the degree of pollution they had received