beauty and money

In the early morning of the next day, the golden morning light passed through the deep green valley, like a layer of golden sand, and the annoying black-tailed tits were chirping outside the window, making it difficult to sleep. Mary opened her eyes and saw Benedict. He was still sleeping soundly, snoring softly, like a pure angel, just put his arm on Mary's shoulder, which made Mary's face flush instantly.

She quietly got out of Benest's arms, afraid of waking up the sleeping elf. The smell on his body interfered with her sense of smell, and something wonderful sprouted from the bottom of her heart, making her heart beat faster.

However, the small squirm still woke up Benest, he kissed the corner of Mary's eyes sleepily, then stretched out his arms, and locked her tighter.Why is his little wife so thin, like a fragile wicker.

"Let go of me, it's time to get up." Mary struggled, "Don't you have a lot of things to do, aren't the tenants coming too? Get up quickly."

Benest sighed and said, "Sometimes, I really want to help you into the deep mountains and old forests, just the two of us." As he said that, he kissed Mary's wrist, which seemed to be on fire. The hot, rough scrape of his chapped lips made Mary wince.

"Isn't this place deep enough in the mountains and old forests?" Mary said angrily.

"Of course not enough." As he spoke, Benest sat up, embarrassed to discover what every man has to face in the morning, and then said to Mary: "Dear little Mary, you go first, I will come later ’” It was an excruciating ordeal.

Mary didn't know why, but she stood up anyway, went back to her original room, changed her clothes, waited for her to heat up the cold well water for washing, and brought the water upstairs again, at this moment Benest blushed, He seemed a little strange, Mary thought.

After Benest finished washing, the couple were worried about the bread and the empty vegetable basket. They had to buy some tableware and food.Fortunately, after eating this cold breakfast, the tenants also arrived one after another, and their carriages pulled a lot of items, such as wood and stone, which were almost inexhaustible.There are also many vegetables and fresh fruits on the carriage.

It seems that they are very aware that there is nothing good to eat in this long-abandoned place. After explaining the plan to them, Mr. Benest drove Mary to the town in a carriage. Their home has nothing, and life When I got up, I found that everything was missing.

Nothing grows on the rocky beach except weeds, only a small open space in front of the farm can grow vegetables and grains, but Mary likes flowers, they can buy a lot of life-like flower seeds, and sprinkle the rocky beach in spring, when the time comes so gorgeous.

"Honey, think about what we need. Winter in Antrim is coming, and even the most diligent tenants will not go out by then. So we need to buy everything we lack." The speed of the carriage was not fast. , so it is not bumpy, Mary sits in the carriage and listens to Benest, who is driving the car, talking nonsense, but she puts her eyes on this magnificent forest no matter how many times she looks at it, it is like a god.

"Honey, what are you thinking?" Benest, who didn't get a response, asked reluctantly.

Then Mary came back to her senses and said: "I have to write a letter to tell my friends about my situation." I don't know how Georgiana and Miss de Bourgh are doing, she wants to talk to Georgiana Something about Lefroy.

"Of course, you still have to write to your parents. Your mother-in-law must miss you very much."

The two chatted, and the carriage drove into the small town. The pedestrians in the town took off their hats to salute Mary, and the woman also bowed down. This really flattered her. "What happened to them? Why did they salute me?"

"Honey, you have to know that the more remote the place, the more respect people have for nobles and wealthy people. Forgive them, they love you too much."

"Love me? I'm not popular Mary, no one likes me!"

At this moment, the carriage stopped, and Benest jumped down, opened the door, and stretched out his hand to help Mary get out of the car in a very gentlemanly manner. He said, "No, you are the welcome Mrs. Benest here."

In the eyes of everyone, Mary got off the car. This was an unprecedented experience. In the past, she was always the focus of people's ridicule, but now, she was respected by everyone, which made her flattered.Benest generously led her to visit the shops in the town, and their every move fell into the eyes of the other two women. They said in a disdainful and slightly jealous tone: "He is really married to a man. The door is so dear."

"His brother-in-law, I hear, is Mr. Darcy, the great landowner in Derbyshire, who helped him pay off his London debts and restore his honor."

"Tsk tsk, it's really sweet. Although the lady is not beautiful, in terms of her dowry and property, this is indeed a tall order."

"Secrek is too young, otherwise I would let him pursue this lady. I heard that the two gentlemen went to his wedding, and when they came back, they said that the wedding was very grand."

"Is that so..." These two women are somewhat related to the Benest family, but they have always been close to the eldest brother and the second brother, and they look down on little Benest. Dear, I can't help but sigh, the world is impermanent.

When Benest pulled Mary out of the bakery, the people behind him carried a lot of easy-to-storage bread and flour and put them on his carriage, and just as he was about to run to the tailor, he was caught by Mary up.Benest looked at Mary with longing eyes. His wet green eyes were like puppies.

Mary just shook her head, and Benest followed her depressedly to the grocery store. They need matches and candles. If they want to survive the winter, they really need a lot of things. The firewood can be collected by tenants and repaired as soon as possible. Potatoes and vegetables for the winter can be stored in the cellar.

As for fresh milk and goat's milk, I probably don't need to think about it. These things will not produce milk until the spring of next year.Hens rarely lay eggs in winter, so they can be killed to supplement protein.

"Hi, ma'am, hello." The grocery store owner took off his hat and bowed, and was as surprised as the bakery owner just now, this lady's ability to calculate and bargain.

"We'll need about forty six-inch tallow candles, and a tea set, um, let me see, matches, pots, plates? No, that's enough, we won't be inviting..."

"A total of twelve shillings..."

"No, no, you made a mistake." Mary said firmly.

"impossible."

"I mean, your matches and candles are much higher than the market price. You sell them to other people for a lot cheaper than us... It's not right, but I think we can keep you Order here, if the price is fair." Before buying something, Mary had asked the tenants about the basic market prices, and the prices that merchants sold to nobles were often much higher, because they never asked about the price or bargained. If things go on like this, it will be like a convention.

But Mary has lived independently in Oxford for a long time, and she does not accept this kind of discrimination.Mr. Benest didn't think there was anything strange about Mary at all, after all, he was also an unlucky ghost who was deceived by inflated prices.He also went to jail for this.

After the couple bought all the things that should be bought, the bosses of the whole town almost collapsed. This lady is really too shrewd.Little Mr. Benest is really poor. With such a powerful wife, I'm afraid he won't have a penny.

The people who were still envious just now are afraid to avoid Mary in a blink of an eye. Mary has successfully reversed her popularity and was almost listed as a rejected account.

At this time, Mary realized that it was getting late, but she hadn't bought a Christmas gift for Benest yet. It was convenient for the two of them to separate, so they separated and bought Christmas gifts for each other.

After thinking about it, Mary came to the tailoring store that Benest wanted. There were customers in the store and they were taking body measurements. However, Mary didn't want to buy clothes for him because he already had enough clothes.There were so many fine accessories on the glass counter, handkerchiefs, hat clips, gloves and cufflinks, all very Antrim.

The people of Antrim love green gemstones and various greens that symbolize the forest, and the handkerchiefs are embroidered with exquisite forest patterns, deep emeralds and tortoiseshell cufflinks.At this moment, the door of the tailor's shop was opened, and two women walked in. They stared at Mary as soon as they entered, and whispered while watching.

This strange behavior made Mary feel uncomfortable. The owner of the store glanced at them, but kept his mouth shut. These two women were the most powerful gossips in his town, and he didn't want to be spread gossip.

"Oh, how pitiful."

"That's right. I didn't expect him to marry you. It's really sad."

"Little Mr. Benest turned out to be such a person. Grace has been waiting for him for several years. It's not that he dislikes Grace for being too poor. He's just the housekeeper's daughter."

"I heard they were very close..."

"Keep your voice down." One of the women pointed. Their voices were not loud, but it was enough for Mary to hear clearly.

She rolled her eyes, and although she knew that this might be intended for her, she didn't want to respond to the two women at all.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you are Mrs. Benest! It's really you!" Seeing that Mary refused to answer, one of the women shouted exaggeratedly.

Mary could only smile back when they took the initiative to call her. "Hi, may I ask who you are..."

"I'm Little Benest's aunt. Although I can't go to London to attend your wedding, I heard that your wedding was very grand. I'm so happy for you. I hope I didn't disturb you. We were talking too loudly just now. "

"Yes, yes, what we just said is not true, so don't pay attention to it." The other woman repeated again, fearing that Mary might not understand. "Although Grace loves little Benest very much, after all, there are many issues to consider in marriage, right? Haha, I made a mistake."

"Well. I don't care about his past at all, I mean I already knew he was notorious, and that has nothing to do with me, but he sold me his present and future." Mary's cold and overbearing statement That said, she didn't care what this playboy was like before, he was just her husband bought by Mary, and the relationship between them was only about interests, just a community of interests.

These remarks completely dumbfounded the woman on the other side who wanted to watch a good show. This was completely different from their imagination of Mary crying with a pale face.She has the temperament of a proud and cold gentleman, especially when her stone-like brown eyes stare at people, it is really scary, as if there is a fire inside, which can burn everything.

"Oh, yeah, then, then let's not bother..." One of them tugged on the other's sleeve, and then they both slipped away.

Although she said she didn't care, Mary's mood turned bad for no reason. She asked angrily, "What's the ugliest and hardest-selling thing in your store?"

The angry voice made the boss tremble with fright, and then he pointed to a row of ugly woolen fisherman hats hanging on the wall, decorated with some tortoiseshell buttons (some kind of sea turtle), the color was ugly and collapsed It's collapsed, it seems to be used for fishing in winter.

"That one, I want it." Mary snorted and bought a fisherman's woolen hat for 6 shillings. The color was an indescribable dark green. People in Antrim like green...