[Pride and Prejudice] Becoming Katherine Bennett

It must be said that Mr. Darcy was a good partner.

After discovering that Catherine was not good at dancing, he adjusted his dance steps in time and guided Catherine with the most basic footwork. In addition to paying attention to the rhythm of the music at all times, he also sent her clear signals with gestures and eyes from time to time to let her know what's next How to move to avoid bumping into or stepping on others.

Under his thoughtful guidance, Catherine made no mistakes in the next few pieces of music.

When the dance ended, Catherine finally breathed a sigh of relief and expressed her gratitude to Darcy from the bottom of her heart: "Thank you for your care, this must be the best dance I have done in the past six months, and you are the best dance partner I have ever met. "

Darcy said politely: "I am very happy to hear this compliment."

Sending Catherine back to her original position, Darcy nodded slightly, and then left.

As soon as he left, Elizabeth, who was standing by the side, posted it and asked curiously, "What did you do to make Mr. Darcy smile?"

Catherine didn't see Darcy smiling, she thought Elizabeth was wrong.

Elizabeth was very sure: "Just now, I did see it, but it's not important, Kitty, now you have to tell me how you and Mr. Darcy met?"

Catherine was also confused about this matter.She searched all over her memory but couldn't recall any intersection with Darcy.She thought Mr. Darcy wanted to know Elizabeth from her, but he said nothing.Catherine couldn't figure out what he meant either.

Catherine took Elizabeth's hand, looked into her dark eyes, and explained solemnly: "I can't lie to you, Lizzie, I swear to you that I have never touched Mr. Darcy, and tonight is the first time for the two of us." We didn't say anything during the talk, during the dance."

"Oh, you don't have to be so serious, I'm just asking casually." Elizabeth was amused by Catherine's attitude, "but you didn't talk for half of it?"

Catherine shook her head: "It's not that I didn't say anything, but it didn't exceed ten sentences. Mr. Darcy doesn't like to talk, and I don't want to speak rashly to arouse his disgust. I thought he didn't speak first to show the meaning of the conversation, so I didn't want to talk too much." Talked, and we ended up facing each other in silence."

Catherine has always been bad at communicating with people, thinking of topics and chatting is a burden for her.And her mind was all on the dance steps, like a student who heard the teacher say "I'll call and ask questions" in class, she has been engrossed in waiting for Darcy's prompt, for fear of stepping on others.

She doesn't mind exposing the shortcomings of not being good at dancing, but it has already caused trouble for Mr. Darcy, and she must make some progress.

Thinking of this, Catherine decided to clean up Darcy's negative image in front of Elizabeth as a reward: "Lizzie, Mr. Darcy is actually not as bad as you and I thought before, and he is occasionally a gentleman. You know I I haven’t danced for a long time, and many dance steps are rusty. I always made mistakes at the beginning, and even stepped on him a few times. Who would have thought that not only was he not angry, but he took all the mistakes on himself, and patiently led me to dance.”

"You're right, he was a gentleman at times," joked Elizabeth. "You don't like Mr. Darcy, Kitty?"

Catherine was left speechless by her rich associations, and said angrily: "I assure you, Lizzie, I will never like him, but you, even notice whether he is smiling or not, you have to take care of yourself." Heart."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to like him. I'm sure more determined than you are, but whenever my heart shows the slightest sign of slipping away, I'll repeat to it Mr. Darcy's evaluation of me. But it's his opinion of me. It's not about you, if you fall in love, I don't think my mother would mind taking back the bad things she said."

Catherine rolled her eyes at Elizabeth: "Lizzie, you'd better remember what you said now, and I will read them out in public as congratulations on the day you get married."

"Me too." Elizabeth smiled mischievously.

After Catherine answered Mrs. Bennet's curiosity with the reason that "Mr. Darcy could not refuse Sir Lucas's proposal, so he had to invite me to dance", Mr. Darcy's invitation to dance was like a stone thrown into a river. , although a small wave was stirred up, it was quickly carried away by the current without leaving any trace.

One morning a few days later, Mr. Bennett and Catherine got up early and went out, taking a carriage to London.

Their trip is still related to "Blood Return".

Mr. Gordon wrote a letter half a week ago, imploring Mr. Bennett to go to London, and wanted to talk about the release and publication of "Blood Return".

Mr. Bennet felt the matter was settled and wondered what else to talk about.Catherine has some ideas.Although Mr. Gordon was very sincere in the contract at the beginning, it was for newcomers. At that time, the status of the two parties was not equal. As a publisher, Mr. Gordon was generally relatively strong.

But that's not the point, Catherine thought, if it wasn't for the low liquidated damages, Mr. Gordon would not have contacted them in such a hurry.

Although the two parties were serious when signing the contract before, since the book has not been published yet and no actual interests are involved, Mr. Gordon set the liquidated damages at 2000 pounds according to the market price. After all, the sales of many books may not reach this level. number.

But now the influence of "Blood Return" is gradually showing, and it seems to be well beyond 2000 pounds.Catherine has heard others discuss her at the ball several times. If she is willing, there must be other newspapers or magazines willing to pay the money.After all, there are still too few entertainment methods in this era.

Of course, Catherine also thinks her book is worth it.In order to make money, she searched her brains at the beginning, sitting at the desk and thinking hard, setting and revising the outline and details over and over again, anticipating the key turning points and stalks in advance, and listing the characters one by one to prevent "thousands of people from being the same". Strictly grasp the rhythm of depression, counterattack, and upgrade, first arouse readers' emotions such as sympathy, unwillingness, and anger, so that they have a sense of substitution, and then use cheating factors to make readers feel as if they have slapped the bad guy in the face, change The hearty pleasure of real life.

Mr. Bennett is a gentleman who is not good at fighting with others. He has guarded his ancestral property in Longbourn all his life, and he has no defense against the means that businessmen will use for profit.In this negotiation, Catherine didn't think that Mr. Gordon would give in so easily.

After much thought, Catherine worried that Mr. Bennett would be deceived, and finally proposed to go together.During the introduction, Mr. Bennett could use the excuse that Mr. Bennett was unwell and unwilling to speak out, and she would help him negotiate. Presumably Mr. Gordon would not be picky about this detail.

Horatio Gordon sat in his office, and every now and then he went to the window and looked anxiously out at the road.

"Uncle, I think if you watch it a few more times, Mr. Bennett won't appear earlier because of it."

It was a young man who said this.He sat lazily on the sofa, lazily put away the newspaper in his hand, and raised his deep and charming eyes.