A Story in the Style of Jane Austen
Elizabeth was quietly reading at the
feet of her sister Jane, who was working on a dainty piece of embroidery. The
sisters had been retired to the drawing room in companionable silence for most
of the morning, each deep in thought, reflecting on the events of the previous
evening at the ball in Meryton. Jane was fondly thinking on the charming Mr.
Bingley, while Elizabeth’s thoughts weren’t quite so charitably inclined
towards Mr. Darcy’s detestable behavior towards her. Their twin reverie was broken
by the excited shouts of younger sisters Lydia and Kitty, who bounded into the
room accompanied by chants of “A visitor! We have a visitor!”
Kitty beamed and twirled her skirts
while Lydia concentrated on fixing the satin ribbons in her hair. Jane,
thinking that perhaps Mr. Bingley had come to call, quickly settled herself
back on her settee in what she hoped was a beguiling pose. Mr. Bennet, roused
from his study by his boisterous daughters, stalked into the room, trailed by
his wife. Mrs. Bennet fussed at her younger daughters, prattling on unheeded
about a Big Blue Box, and a ridiculous cravat. “Really. I’ve never…so
inelegant. And to come to call on a family of our society, dressed in
such…untidy attire! What will the neighbors say!”
Elizabeth inquired after the
whereabouts of their mysterious visitor, caught up in her sisters’ infectious
excitement. Mr. Bennet, having seated himself by the window, and in the midst
of lighting his pipe, gestured expansively. “Says he’s a doctor…” At which
point, he was interrupted by his wife going on once again about blue boxes in
the lane and nattily dressed gentlemen masquerading as country physicians, to
which her daughters paid no mind. Lydia clapped her hands in childish
excitement, exclaiming “La! A doctor!”
At that precise moment, the drawing
room door opened, silencing all of the assembled Bennets. The man standing in
the doorway adjusted his bow tie and cleared his throat. “Ah. Yes. I do
apologize, but I’ve only just realized I’ve come at a bad time, and…” to which
the girls politely demurred that it was, in fact, a perfectly reasonable time
and, as social obligations dictated, bade him to sit with them. Mrs. Bennett
quickly sent a crestfallen Kitty to arrange tea for their impromptu gathering.
The stranger, looking quizzically
at an instrument resembling a flameless candle, explained, “Well, you see, I
seem to have arrived a bit early. I should be here later in the narrative.
Right about the time Miss Elizabeth Bennet realizes the nature of her true
feelings for Mr. Darcy.” Elizabeth issued a shocked declaration of her
intention of never having any kind of positive feelings toward such as man as
Mr. Darcy. Mrs. Bennet took up her daughter’s discarded book and proceeded to
fan herself quite vigorously, having worked herself up to an almost apoplectic
state at such an idea as her dear Lizzie and the arrogant and aloof …and very
wealthy Mr. Darcy.
Having made another unintended
social faux pas, the stranger retreated from the room into the hall, where Mr.
Bennet, who was also intent on making his escape, joined him. At that moment
they were passed by Mary Bennet, so intently reading aloud from a well-used
copy of Fordyce’s Sermons that she
did not seem to even see the oddly attired stranger and quite passed him by
without even an acknowledgement. Apologizing for his daughter’s lack of
manners, Mr. Bennet took his guest by the elbow. “Young man, now that you have
sufficiently shocked and scandalized the women of my household, let us retire
to the study so that you may tell me all about that marvelous contraption of
yours. You say it has something to
do with time…“
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