[Pride and Prejudice] Mary's Pride and Prejudice

The food store was a great success in London, and the three sisters of Mary reaped a lot of joy in London. If it weren't for Mr. Bennet's letters to urge them several times, they simply didn't want to go back.

However, now that the affairs in London have come to an end for the time being, and Mr. Lake has to arrange the rest, they will have a very limited role to play if they stay any longer. Moreover, from the recent report from Kitty, they found that the two little sisters in the family seem to be a little bit out of sorts. Love to learn the momentum of playing around.So in the end, with the concern for their family, the three sisters still set foot on their way home.

This time they took a mail coach. In the past, the sisters used their own carriages or rented carriages between London and Longbourn. At that time, there were too many people or too few people, so "self-driving" Traveling” or “taxi” are safe and cost-effective.But this time there were only three sisters, and Mary, who was good at budgeting, suggested that they try the postal carriage this time.This kind of mail car route is fixed and the cost is cheap. Jane and Elizabeth have never been in this kind of carriage before. Thinking about it, they are a little excited.

Mr. Lake is very disapproving of this way of traveling. After all, among the three girls, only Jane is an adult, and the other two are sixteen and fourteen. Mr. Lake is afraid that they will not be used to this kind of carriage. You know that is not the case. The luxury version of the family-packed comfortable carriage, the mail van originally existed for delivering letters, and Mr. Lake described it as: "It runs very fast and bumpy, and who knows where the dozen or so people on the bus come from?" ?”

However, this did not dispel the excitement and curiosity of the three sisters. Instead, they regarded this as a small novel experience and adventure.Uncle Gardiner and Aunt Gardiner also agree that the girls should have a different experience. The postal bus is licensed, and the safety is very guaranteed, and the route and driver are fixed. There are no other passengers except the passengers on the same bus. cause for concern.Moreover, at this time even the mail vans are not affordable for the lower classes, so there is no need to worry too much about rough fellow passengers, not to mention that in a short distance of more than 20 miles, what can happen to the three sisters together?

Mr. Lake was alone and had no choice but to give in. The three sisters were full of expectations for the upcoming "bus journey" which was only 24 miles long.This excitement lasted until they got into the carriage.

Mary stood outside the car and looked at the postal vehicle in front of her. This type of vehicle was very similar to the public carriages she saw on the streets of London. However, the carriages in London were usually short-distance and did not require high speed, so they usually had two horses. .This kind of postal carriage is pulled by four horses. The driver is wearing a flowered scarf and a straight uniform and sits on the exclusive seat in front of the roof of the carriage, with a rose in his chest pocket.There were two people sitting beside him, and two people on the other side of the roof.At the back of the carriage is a luggage rack with a seat vacant.

This kind of scene reminded Mary of the news that she often saw on the Internet in her previous life. Trains in some countries sold "hang tickets", and passengers could hang them on the outside of the train or sit on the roof of the train. Very similar!

Everyone on the roof had already sat down, and the driver found a young lady under the car staring at them intently, taking off her hat and saluting to Mary, Mary hurriedly returned the salute and got into the carriage, applauding her in her heart: Look at her The driver is a gentleman!

The three sisters did not salute much, and Jane took in three small boxes and placed them under the seats, and some large boxes of some passengers were fixed on the roof of the car.

"Mary, come up quickly." Elizabeth opened the window and called to her.

"Okay." Mary got into the carriage. The interior of this carriage is not as spacious as it looks from the outside, but the two rows of seats facing each other can still accommodate 6 passengers comfortably. Thin curtains in white linen.A large carriage watch is installed on the side wall of the carriage, so that every passenger can easily see the time, and it is now 8:10.The mail van will leave promptly at 8:15.

Now the three sisters Mary are sitting in one side of the car, and two young boys, about thirteen or fourteen years old, are sitting on the other side. One of the fat boys is holding a handkerchief in his hand and wrapping a piece of fried chicken. It is filled with the aroma of food.However, according to social etiquette, it was not polite for him to behave like this, so the fat boy nodded to the three sisters who had just entered and said "sorry", and stuffed them into his mouth three times, five times and two times, and put them in the small basket beside him. There seemed to be some food, but the fat boy immediately closed the lid tightly and stuffed it under the seat. Mary saw that the food was covered with a piece of beige cotton cloth with the logo of Fanny's Food Store printed on one corner. It turned out that it was one of theirs. The customer must have gotten up in the morning without eating, and went to their store to buy takeaway.Mary immediately took a liking to the boy and gave him a big smile.

It's a pity that the winking was thrown to the blind man. The fat boy and his companion rolled their eyes and secretly looked at the other two young ladies opposite. Jane received the most scrutiny, followed by Elizabeth. The beautiful appearance will attract attention wherever they go, but the non-malicious attention of these two children did not arouse their disgust. Instead, Jane showed a very gentle smile to them, making the faces of the two boys suddenly It's red.

At this moment, the car door opened again, and a young boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old, came in, with brown hair, fair skin, bright eyes, and a serious face.

"Alfred—"

"Why did you come? The mail is leaving soon."

Both boys greeted Alfred in unison.

"Sorry, I've been delayed by something." He sat on the edge of the door, just opposite to Mary.

The three sat together and chatted, and through their conversation, Mary guessed that the three were from the same hometown, went to school together in London, and this time they were going home together for the weekend.

After a while, with the driver's shout, the carriage started.

At that time, the road construction in Britain was very developed. There were many roads from the city to the countryside, but they were still very bumpy. The main functions of the mail car were two: one was to deliver letters, and the other was to carry people.Therefore, every town the carriage will stop for a while, the driver will leave some letters, newspapers and packages, and then take away some other things, and some passengers will get on and off the station.

This kind of journey was a bit novel to Mary and the others. Their previous carriages always went straight from the starting point to the destination, and such roadside scenery was directly skipped.So this time the three people looked at them very carefully: the village girl with bright eyes who was waiting for the letter, the hotel clerk who tried to chat with the coachman, and the traveler who got off the car for a 3-minute rest every time he arrived at a place and sat on top of them.

The journey was not boring, not to mention that there were suitable traveling companions. The two boys on the opposite side began to strike up a conversation with the three of them. Mary was very quiet by nature, so after the initial self-introduction, she became silent. A guy who likes to talk, the two of them are relatively silent.

The other four young people chatted enthusiastically, and Elizabeth's occasional witty remarks made her charm soar to the level of Jane.

During the first break, a person knocked on the car window. It was a well-dressed young man who asked Alfred respectfully, "Do you need to come down and drink some water, master?"

"No, Matthew, I'm not thirsty," said Alfred.

"We don't have to, I can eat some fruit now." One of the two boys said to Matthew with a smile, and the fat boy actually took out a few bright red apples from their small box.

Matthew retreated politely, and seemed to climb onto the roof of the carriage again. It turned out that he was actually Alfred's servant.Mary looked at Mr. Alfred across the way. Even though he was sitting in the carriage, he had a straight back and a straight face. It could be seen that he was well-bred. He must have come from a wealthy family. At such a young age, there was a personal servant .

You must know that there are a lot of exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes these years. People who hire servants have to pay servant tax. The salary of male servants is twice that of maidservants, and their tax rate is several times that of maid tax.A small wealthy family living in London usually hires one or two maids, but only those with financial strength can afford to hire male servants, not to mention the young gentleman opposite is studying at a young age. With a valet.Mr. Bennet’s valet, Allen, played a more like a housekeeper in the Bennet family. He not only took care of Mr. Bennet’s affairs, but also managed the family’s fields and tenants, and communicated with tax officials and civil servants. It was he who dealt most of the time with him, and Mr. Bennet generally kept him at Longborn, and rarely took him out.Of course, Mr. Bennet himself is a person who rarely goes out.

At this time, the fat boy across from him bravely handed Elizabeth an apple: "Please forgive me, miss, I hope we have this honor." He blushed and stammered, but he actually wanted to hand the apple to Jane. , but timid in her heart, it is better to talk to Elizabeth, who looks more "approachable" in appearance.

Ha - Mary laughed secretly in her heart, is such a simple method enough to pick up girls, boy?

At this time, the gentleman opposite also handed her an apple. Mary hesitated when she took it. It seemed impolite for her not to finish the apple, but she really didn't like it.

In her previous life, Mary lived in poverty since she was a child. Not to mention fresh fruits, even Chinese cabbage could not be eaten open.Ordinarily, with her experience like this, when she grows up, she should like to eat something delicious when she has the conditions, but the situation is just the opposite. When she has the conditions, she can't eat sweet fruits. She was choked with sand and noodles, but the pears were juicy and sweet, but she always felt that it was not worthwhile to spend one-third of the price on pears.Therefore, even if she bought some fruit and put it in the cabinet in the dormitory, she often forgot to eat it when it broke.Over time, she simply stopped buying them. It was not until she got her own house and bought a small refrigerator that she bought some fruits again and put them away for guests.

Mr. Alfred seemed to have misunderstood Mary's predicament. He apologized slightly to Mary, and then took the apple back. When Mary was a little embarrassed, Mr. Alfred took an apple from the fat boy's basket. Fruit knives and a small silver plate.Mary was immediately full of curiosity about this little box, it was simply Doraemon's pocket, it contained everything.

The fat boy also woke up like a dream, and quickly took it over, cut up a few apples, put toothpicks on them, and presented them to the ladies again.The speed and proficiency of the technique is really amazing.

The three sisters thanked him one after another, put small pieces of apples into their mouths and tasted them gracefully.

"Serving ladies is my highest criterion." The fat boy said with a smile, "This is a special apple from Kent, which is very sweet. Our school cafeteria supplies it every day. I like it so much, so I brought a few apples this time. I'll go back, but the blackberries at home are already ripe, and they are delicious, and I can bring some jam back to London, and I find the jam is very good with potato chips, especially the potato chips from Fanny's, which are very crispy." Little The fat man talked about the newly opened food store in London, and he actually treasured the food in the food store. It seems that this little fat man is really a foodie. Mary sympathizes with him a little bit. Ni's food store is considered a delicious paradise.

"It's a pity that your brother can't eat such delicious food, Alfred." The little fat man said to Alfred, "Maybe it is enough to satisfy a person's heroism on the endless sea, but I have read about the navy. Report, they are being abused in terms of food, I will never be a navy in the future, and you, Alfred, I am very worried about you, after all, your family has a tradition of being a navy."

"I won't, I have my own way to go." Mr. Alfred said.

The author has something to say:

The child is not feeling well in the past two days, and the update will not be too regular. I would like to apologize to everyone, please forgive me!