Good Sense Is Heritable
Prologue
The late Mrs. Bennet, formerly Elizabeth Gardiner, had been a good-natured, sensible woman who had been her husband's equal in every way. The marriage, founded in mutual respect, friendship, and love as it was, could only make them as happy as they imagined they would be. And so they were, for two blissful years, but the birth of twins proved both a felicitous and tragic event.
Naturally, there was that inescapable period of reticence and isolation that Mr. Bennet had to undergo, being a man still very much in love with his wife. After a few weeks of inconsolable misery, however, he resolved – admirably – to live on, if only for the sake of his dear children. Richard and Elizabeth were now the center of his universe, and he devoted himself to them.
Nevertheless, his devotion was not enough; from all quarters he was advised to marry a second time, for the sake of his children's upbringing. At first every feeling in him revolted against the idea – no one could take his dear Beth's place – no one! And yet....
Little Richard and Elizabeth Bennet could not be anything but dear, but Richard had a healthy pair of lungs and gave his father and nursemaid constant proof of it at all hours of the day and (regrettably) night; and Lizzy would delight in attempting to pick up and throw everything within reach, whether it be a toy, her lunch, or Richard.
Mr. Bennet, a respectable gentleman with a healthy estate to his name, was not an unattractive prospect for aspiring wives. Even so, it was not until he met the exceptionally pretty Miss Jennings that he began to court anyone in earnest. He believed Fanny Jennings to be a demure, sweet-tempered young lady, ideally suited to be a good mother to Richard and Elizabeth; before long he proposed, and they were married.
He could not know his mistake until it was too late. By Lizzy's and Richard's third birthday he began to have his doubts, yet pushed them aside – and by the time Clara Bennet was born a year later, Mr. Bennet kept his wife's company but little, if he could help it. Mrs. Fanny Bennet was less of a parent to his children than even his former brother-in-law and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, who were nearly as much at Longbourn as they were in London.
The lack of a sensible mother may seem a harsh circumstance for Richard and Lizzy to grow up in, but anybody's worry would be misplaced, for it is a truth universally acknowledged that
GOOD SENSE IS HERITABLE