Thank you everyone for the reviews! I never thought I would receive five:) This is the new chapter. I hope it's good enough.

Chapter 2

Mr. Bennet did not think he deserved this vexation and turmoil at his age. He had already lived to see many great and amazing things and he was not ready to stand another agitation. But his lady would not let him have his peace.

'But Mr. Bennet, you must see how fortuitous this new acquaintance is! If we do manage to get ourselves invited at Hertford it shall be a very good thing for our girls! I daresay, Mr. Bennet, it will be a good thing for us too. We should be seen more often in society as a respectable, well-bred family. After all, we deserve to be there, just as much as anyone else. And we should make what we can of it. We will never be seen as anything more than uncouth, country people, unless we go out more often.'

'My dear, this is the first time I hear you complain of our position at Longbourn. I thought being lady of this comfortable home and having two daughters richer than the entire shire would be good enough for you.'

'You and your continuous limitations, Mr. Bennet! If God has been so kind on us, why should we be ungrateful? We should take advantage of our situation.'

'By going to that sewer of society called town?' he asked.

'Oh, you talk as if you knew! You've only been once in Hertford!'

'And I saw enough to last me a lifetime.'

'Even if it is as you say it is,' she quickly replied, 'we will not settle there! We will just offer our daughters the opportunity of a better society.'

'Better society? You mean you want Mary and Kitty to be acquainted with the sublime characters of town? Aren't they silly enough as it is? They will only get worse in the company of sillier men.'

'You always give your opinions so decidedly, but when you are proved wrong you have nothing to say. You know as well as I that they could have much better husbands than here,' Mrs. Bennet insisted.

'Were it by me, Mrs. Bennet, I would have them both marry clergy men. That is the most they can aspire to and they would be very lucky indeed if a sensible man thought they were sensible.'

'You take great delight in slandering your daughters, I see!' cried Mrs. Bennet. 'And you have no compassion for me! Well, belittle all you may, Mr. Bennet, but if you think I will let my daughters marry some common man with nothing to recommend him, then you are very wrong. Why shouldn't they get good husbands like Jane and Lizzie did?'

'I'm afraid, Mrs. Bennet, that our family was blessed with this singular occasion only once. No man of Mr. Darcy's caliber would want a wife like Kitty. And even you, my dear, must understand that.'

But Mrs. Bennet would not be persuaded that Kitty and Mary could not aspire to very good marriages. She did not assume they would make good, gentle, skillful wives, but she harboured the view that they were now women of some fortune, that their connections far surpassed the gentry of all Hertfordshire and that they could dare to seek better matches than inferior country pastors.


Mr. Bennet was obliged to go on the farm, in order to avoid another diatribe on husbands, but Mrs. Bennet followed him to the gates to tell him her opinion. Only after he was lost from her sight did she cease her talking.

Kitty and Mary were picking herbs in the garden and they were discussing a similar subject, though they didn't share the keenness of their mother.

'Can you be sure of her?' Mary asked as she looked down to see an ant cross her fingers.

Kitty feigned a look of surprise.

'Can you be sure of her character?' Mary asked again.

'Mrs. Smithson is a very charming lady, but she is very humble and simple. She doesn't spend much, though she could.'

'If you say so.'

'And I'll have you know she likes me very much. Unlike some ladies in this neighbourhood she does appreciate a laugh or two. And she's very kind. I always trespass on her kindness.'

'Doesn't she want anything in return?' Mary asked.

'What could she want that we could give her?'

The girl remained silent and put another herb in her basket.

'You are right, there is nothing we could give her,' Mary said, thinking about the great estates of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley.

'Though I am afraid she will find our house unkempt. Papa never bothers to hire good servants,' Kitty said fretfully.

'Oh, what is the use of keeping a house in order? There will always be a mess, no matter what,' Mary said listlessly. 'One always needs to dust something or repair a chair, it's very dull.'

'Well, Mary, that's how gentle people live, if you did not know.'

'Then we are not gentle people. And what is gentle anyway but an abstract word?' she questioned. 'I read a great deal of words that are abstract.'

'I don't wish to hear about your reading,' Kitty said grimacing. 'You always make it sound much more interesting than it really is.'

'Then I won't talk with you,' Mary said turning her back and continuing her work.

But Kitty could not stand silence for too long and seeing as Mary was her only companion she had to speak to her.

'Aren't you longing for spring?'

Mary shrugged her shoulders and chose not to answer.

'I am. The nature will bloom and all the balls will start! Mama thinks we have a good chance of going to Hertford this year!'

Mary looked over her shoulder at Kitty with a worried expression.

'Hertford? Why?'

'The spring dances! What else? Wouldn't it be marvelous, Mary?'

'No…it would be tiring. We would have to travel a long way just to go to a ball that's no different from the one at Meryton. Why bother?'

'But how can you be so obtuse? You compare a country ball with the dances! There will be much more handsome and well mannered gentlemen there.'

'I wouldn't vouch for it. Men are the same everywhere.'

'And who said that?' Kitty asked.

'I think it was a clever writer…' Mary said pondering. 'But it's true, nonetheless.'

'No, it's not. Just because it's written in a book doesn't mean it is valid.'

'Anyway, I do not wish to go,' Mary concluded.

'You'd rather stay home?' Kitty asked incredulous. 'You are so dull, Mary! You'll do nothing here but read. You're always so idle!'

'I am not,' Mary protested.

'Yes you are. All you do is read or walk around the meadows. That's called being idle.'

'No, I work in my mind. That's a different thing. And physical exertion is a waste, you know. I'm not idle if I think,' she said, hiding her face behind her hair.

'Yes you are, you just won't admit it,' Kitty insisted.

'I won't go, whatever you say,' Mary repeated firmly.


Mrs. Smithson and Mr. Smithson arrived at Longbourn on a fine afternoon and expected to be shown the house and the lands and to be introduced to everyone in the family. There was a great commotion until dinner. The servants walked about with more readiness and Kitty and Mary helped them set the table.

Mr. Bennet was brooding quietly behind a newspaper, trying to avoid the expense of too much gallantry. He talked a while with Mr. Smithson but found him to be generally narrow-minded fellow, eager to discuss only trade and prices which bored Mr. Bennet to a great extent.

Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Smithson only talked to be heard by themselves and they did not listen to their companion's replies. They hurried to surpass each other in everything; the house, the cooking, the servants, the husbands, the dresses they had particularly chosen to wear that afternoon.

But Mrs. Bennet had one chief thing to talk of which Mrs. Smithson could not equal. She had daughters. Kitty was met with much cordiality by Mrs. Smithson who asked her what a pretty, lively girl like her ever did in the country side, at which Mrs. Bennet replied:

'She takes exercise and keeps her complexion away from those nasty town airs.'

This reply would have been enough to silence Mrs. Smithson and perhaps admit defeat for the time being, but she received much pleasure from seeing that Mary was rather plain and coarse and that she needn't shy from observing that.

'I see the country side hasn't done much for her, poor thing,' she told Mrs. Bennet regarding Mary.

'On the contrary, the peace and quiet of the country encouraged her to read and study a great deal, so now she is very accomplished. She benefited greatly from this advantage, didn't you Mary?'

Mary felt painfully aware of the ridicule of the situation and chose to be awkward and say nothing, because she feared that if she opened her mouth she would show incontestable proof that she was nothing special. It would defeat the object since she tried so much to be special.

At dinner Mr. Smithson commented on the wood of the dining table.

'A bit rickety, if I may say so myself, but you can find a good sort of cherry wood if you call on my friend, Mr. Perkin. He has the best furniture in town and you if you fret, Mr. Bennet, that it may be too expensive then you should know he lets his customers make the pay in a year's length.'

'Oh we can afford new furniture!' Mrs. Bennet interrupted. 'Why, just the other day I was telling Mr. Bennet that we should get some new armchairs too and maybe a set of beds. I would like to improve some rooms, especially the guest room.'

'Do you have many guests here?' Mrs. Smithson inquired.

'Not as many as we'd like, but surely, many families make a point of coming to see us. Our cook makes some of the best porridges in the entire village,' Mr. Bennet defended herself.

''Do Mrs. Darcy and Mrs. Bingley come to visit often?'

'They were here this Christmas and they brought many wonderful gifts! Lizzie brought a very pretty shawl for Kitty and a very fine pair of silver-lined slippers for Mary, though she does not care for them so much. They will come very soon, in spring, I gather. Perhaps we shall go and see them,' Mrs. Bennet told her, smiling secretively. 'I was very glad we could have them here, though unfortunately they had to stay at the inn, in town. We had enough rooms, to be sure, but it would have been very improper to have us all fit into this tiny house.'

Mr. Bennet coughed loudly.

'This house is big enough to hold four families, on its good days,' he said, looking sternly at Mrs. Bennet.

'Of course, my dear,' she agreed.

'I think it's a charming home. It needs only little improvement to be very pleasing,' Mrs. Smithson said. 'I do hope that when your other daughters shall be at Longbourn we will have the occasion to see them.'

'Depend upon it, you shall be welcome here,' Mrs. Bennet assured her.

'We will call when I am in town, that is,' Mr. Smithson said. 'I get many commissions in the furthest of places and I am away a great deal. But that is how a man gains experience. Travelling suits me very much for I am a free spirit.'

'Oh, yes you are, my dear,' Mrs. Smithson agreed heartfully.

Mr. Bennet rolled his eyes and took another gulp of his wine.

'I wish we could travel more,' Mrs. Bennet said, looking at her two daughters. 'But Mr. Bennet is not much of a traveler. He much prefers the comfort of home. But I always say there is nothing wrong in traveling. I wish my girls could go and see as much as you do, Mr. Smithson.'

'Of course, it wouldn't be very proper for young ladies to go about so much,' Mr. Smithson rectified. 'They would get some very wild ideas.'

'Indeed no! But a little excursion from time to time does wonders,' Mrs. Bennet quickly reasserted.

'What do the young ladies think?' Mrs. Smithson asked.

'I think it would be wonderful if we could go to Hertford!' Kitty exclaimed.

Mary nudged her under the table, but she ignored the sign.

'Hertford? Why, you ladies have never been there?' Mrs. Smithson asked, feigning great surprise as she placed a hand over her chest to underline the shock.

'We've never had the opportunity. And we hear there are so many balls there!' Kitty went on.

'But we wouldn't want to travel there,' Mary quickly added.

'Oh, it's an easy distance dear!'

'It would still be tiring and there wouldn't be much to see.'

Mrs. Smithson raised a brow and looked at her husband who harboured a similar expression.

'I think my husband can tell you there is a lot to see and I have been there myself to vouch for it. You can never meet more good-natured people. Their tastes are very superior and yet they are so artless. There is no superciliousness about them. And there is so much to do there. We go to the theatre every night and we have many gatherings with smart scholars that discuss literature and philosophy. Surely, you who claim to be so accomplished, would be partial to that, Miss Bennet?'

'I never said I was accomplished,' Mary protested.

'We trust your opinion Mrs. Smithson,' Mrs. Bennet intervened, 'and I am sure that if we ever do get there, we will be as pleased as you were.'

'For now we have to content ourselves with the many advantages of the country side,' Mr. Bennet said. 'We are not in the means to travel.'

'Oh, it's a shame because spring is arriving soon and there will be many wonderful enjoyments. It is a pity for these young girls.'

The dinner ended with much talk about the misfortune of the Miss Bennets.

After four more dinners in the company of the Smithsons, Mr. Smithson finally took the hint that Mrs. Bennet dearly wanted her daughters to join them in Hertford and after much deliberation decided to propose a very daring scheme that would have to be approved by his wife first.

'Might we be so bold as to invite your daughters to join us this spring? It wouldn't inconvenience us at all. We long for some company, because sometimes we get very sick of our acquaintances and we just want to have some peace and quiet. And I believe they would enjoy the dances very much.'

'Oh, my dear, what a spurious idea! I am sure I would have never thought about it! You are ever so forward!' Mrs. Smithson remarked. 'I would have never presumed to invite the Miss Bennets. But now that you have, you have spared me the task for I am terrible at invitations.'

'Oh, Mr. Smithson you are too kind!' Mrs. Bennet exclaimed. 'To think about my poor daughters! That is uncommonly kind, Sir! What a wonderful thing it would be! I couldn't show my gratefulness in any other way than to recommend you to all my acquaintances!'

'It is a merry thought, Mr. Smithson but I am not sure whether I allow it,' Mr. Bennet spoke, rather upset.

'Oh, please papa! We shan't be in anyone's way!' Kitty moaned.

'Kitty, it was a good thing I did not let you go to Brighton. I should not let you go now either.'

'But papa! Please think how unjust this is! I am not nearly as careless as Lydia! And Mary will take care of me.'

'I will certainly not,' Mary muttered. 'I do not even wish to go.'

'My dear, you cannot be this harsh with them!' Mrs. Bennet exclaimed.

'I agree with her, Mr. Bennet,' Mrs. Smithson interrupted. 'You can be sure we shall take very good care of your daughters. Otherwise you would be offending us if you considered we are not fit to take charge of your offspring. You should know we take great delight in chaperoning young girls.'

The women made so much noise and protested with such alacrity, the husband spoke so pompously of his wife's excellent skills as a matron and Mary was so weak in her disapproval of the scheme that Mr. Bennet had to agree with the plan in order to get some sleep that night.

It was decided then that in two weeks' time, the girls would travel to Hertford with the Smithsons. Mrs. Bennet insisted that she and her husband should go as well but Mr. Bennet was displeased with the outcome of the evening and was adamant about his staying home. His lady understood not to try anymore.