Prologue–1789
At eighteen, Fanny Gardiner, made her entrance into society–well, if one could call the rural area of Hertfordshire society. She was a beauty by the day's standards, to be sure: slim without being skinny (heaven forbid) , delicately pale (she studiously avoided even a quarter of an hour in the sun), and a small, pouty mouth (well exercised by the length at which she could speak). In short, she had everything to recommend herself to the gentlefolk of Hertfordshire, save for a respectable dowry. Her father, Mr. Gardiner, Esq., owned no estate, kept no servants, and on the whole was a shy, bookish man that could not be convinced of the necessity of promoting his two marriage-eager daughters.
The elder Miss Gardiner, disappointed but not deterred by her slim prospects after her first year out, had sought and gained the attentions of her father's law clerk, a dull young man named Phillips. The younger daughter, Fanny, had bested her older sister in looks, favor of their father, and control of the young Master Gardiner's education. She was not about to let her sister best her in marriage to a dangerously boring lawyer. As for the Gardiner's son, a sweet-tempered boy named Edward, he had no stake in this race, being but eleven.
So it was that at the first assembly the Gardiner sisters had access to, Fanny Gardiner staked her claim and her future on the only single gentleman of note: Mr. Thomas Bennet, gentleman of Longbourn. Nevermind that he was almost twenty years her senior: nevermind that he was almost certainly more of a bore than even Mr. Phillips. He was the wealthiest man in the region, and had the distinction of being of gentle birth, which was more than Fanny, for all her longing, could claim. And he would be hers.
A little over a fortnight later, eighteen year-old Fanny Gardiner, daughter of the country lawyer, and possessor of little dowry, did what no young lady in town had been able to do. She secured the affections and proposal of Mr. Bennet. Even before the marriage, Fanny made a promise to herself: no daughter of hers would suffer the setback she and her sister encountered in making a match. Any daughter of hers would have a dowry, sufficient to sustain her for life.
