Part 2
Disaster hit our family when Lydia was eloped with Mr. Wickham. I was angry with her, and I spoke ill of her. She disgraced all of us. Lizzy came back from Derbyshire, seemed feeling heavily than before.
Mr. Collins had written to console us, which I thought to be quite kind. But Lizzy did not think so. I thought latter at that night, and I believed that he mean nothing good. He was just congratulated that he had escaped from associating with our family.
I was angry with him. I blamed myself for being so blind as to like him all the while. He deserved none of good ladies. I thought now was that he did not deserve to have a wife as good as Charlotte.
Things finally settled, and Lydia was married. They returned to Longbourn. Mama was delighted. Papa was disapproved of the match, and blaming himself for its happening.
It seemed our life returned to normal, except without Lydia at home. Jane was clearly still care for Mr. Bingley. Lizzy looked sad. I always saw her walking in the garden, sighing as she was reading sometimes a letter from my Aunt Gardiner, sometimes a letter from whose handwriting I cannot recognize.
But it seemed that we were not allowed to be peaceful. Not a long time later, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy returned to Netherfield. Mr. Bingley was still attentive to Jane, and soon they were engaged.
I was so happy for her, so did Lizzy. But once I noticed her looking out from a window, seemed out of spirit. I didn¡¦t know the reason for her distress.
Things were quite strange afterwards. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who was Mr. Darcy¡¦s aunt, visited Lizzy, and left in hurry without returning from the room. Then, papa received a letter from Mr. Collins, which he never shared with us.
Then, Mr. Darcy, who went to London for business returned to Hertfordshire and engaged with Lizzy. At this time, I realized that Lizzy had been secretly in love with him for long!
I saw my two elder sisters married in a beautiful winter morning. Both wearing the brightest of their smiles.
After their marriages, Lizzy moved to Pemberley with Mr. Darcy, and Jane remained at Netherfield, where she was blessed with a pregnancy.
Kitty and I became close. We always accompanied mama to visit the new Mrs. Bingley. We benefited each other. She became more ladylike, and I became livelier, though I was still very moralized.
Jane moved to the North a year later. Mr. Bingley bought his estate at last, and named it Bingley Manor. Their first child was born there. He was a lovely boy with golden curls and clear blue eyes.
Kitty went to visit Lizzy soon after Jane¡¦s child was born. She and Miss Darcy made good friends, and she wrote and told me news. Lizzy was pregnant. Kitty and Miss Darcy both found a man to dislike, and both of their dislikes blossomed into loves, and the two couples entered to matrimony at the same year.
Kitty then moved to a country in the North, and farther even from Derbyshire, where Jane and Lizzy resided.
Lydia¡¦s manner soon grown to like Mama¡¦s, she gave birth to a child five months after her marriage, which seemed to be a prove of her had been compromised by Mr. Wickham before they married. She was too young to be a mother, and she nearly died from childbirth. To our great surprise, Mr. Wickham changed much and he sold his place in the regulars and settled down in Newcastle, beginning to be in trade.
Kitty sometimes wrote to me, describing some arguments between her and her Earl. They shared a love from arguments, and soon blessed with a child. Not long after Lizzy safely delivered the heir of Pemberley.
I now believed that I would be an old maid, until my Uncle Phillips¡¦ new clerk arrived.
He was three years my senior. He was not handsome, but looked pleasant. He was fond of books, like me. He was the only one appreciated my talents, and the only one who enjoyed to hear me sing.
His name was Carleton Scott. He courted me properly. We were engaged properly. We were married at Longbourn Church properly. All the time we behaved properly.
He was my equal, and we were many ways alike. I could not believe that would be in love with my uncle¡¦s clerk, and became an attorney¡¦s wife.
He bought Netherfield Park, and we were settled there. I was delighted with my life.
Therefore, after that fateful year, mama had her five daughters married. She became more sensible and papa highly regarded her at their late years. When she died, which happened many years after I married, he was the saddest one, though he did not voice out. He died two years after. I believed that he must have been in love with her.
All my sisters married for love, maybe except Lydia. But she was well contented now. She enjoyed to be a soldier, later a trade man¡¦s wife, which my prediction half-corrected.
As I predicted, Jane¡¦s marriage was a marriage of warm affections. Lizzy¡¦s marriage was a marriage of passions and deep understanding.
My prediction only wronged at Kitty. She had married a Lord.
I always told our stories to my daughters when they were children. The story began at, ¡§Once upon a time, there was a Mr. Bennet married a Miss Gardiner¡K¡¨ And the story always ended at my own marriage.
I would describe to them that my marriage was a marriage of reason.
Indeed it is.
But I found love in this marriage. That¡¦s what I wanted. I would never be neglected.
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FINIS
Since 2005 Copyright© Christy Tse