Pomp and Circumstance: A Pride and Prejudice Continuation

Chapter 2: A Most Affectionate Welcome

Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy had not foreseen the effects which her marriage would have on her fondness for her family.

Jane had always been exceptionally dear to her - of that there had never been any doubt. And Mr. Bennet could be relied upon as a sympathetic listener and staunch ally if ever she was in need of one.

For the rest, however, Elizabeth found kinship had always been lacking - her poor mother, who had meant well, but had always gone about it in the most vexing ways possible; Kitty and Lydia, who had been too self-involved to seek any confidences from her; and Mary, who had delivered all her opinions with the high-headed air of one who condescends to their listener.

But as often occurs, there was nothing quite so successful in rendering them into her greater affection than their sudden and total absence, and as content and happy as Elizabeth was with her new life (and she surely was), she nevertheless found that she began to miss them in the way one misses the days which had proven themselves to be merely cozy preludes to current happiness.

Kitty was the first sister with whom she began to form a greater intimacy. Upon inviting her to stay at Pemberley, she was quite pleased to find Kitty was not nearly as troublesome as Lydia's influence had made her out to be. She was still self-absorbed, Elizabeth allowed, and vain in the way youth are predisposed to be, and a little silly moreover; but she also had a great knack for absorbing and mimicking those who were closest to her, and so under the combined influence of Elizabeth and Jane, she began to greatly improve, and by the time of her engagement, Elizabeth had not a hint of reproach in her conduct or character.

Lydia, meanwhile, was the sort of sister one either loathed or pitied, and in her own contentment, Elizabeth chose the latter - though the pity was not so strong as to be tempted to extend anything more than sympathy in her letters, and certainly not strong enough for any monetary support, upon which Lydia seemed particularly fixated.

All that remained, then, was Mary, and after some contemplation, and encouragement from the success with Kitty, she decided to invite Mary to come down to Pemberley for Christmas. She did this out of a sort of sympathy, where she imagined quite clearly the tiresomeness of spending the holidays alone with their mother (for Mr. Bennet would surely set up barricades in his study, and not budge until January had crept to his windows).

Mary had accepted, and came to stay for several weeks, where she made Georgiana's acquaintance for the first time, and spent a good deal of her time in their library. Disappointingly, Elizabeth did not feel the same promise as she had with Kitty, for Mary spoke as pompously as ever, lectured sanctimoniously to Georgiana on various subjects, and was altogether a girl who made quite a disagreeable impression on people. She even refrained from introducing Mary to their neighbors, with the view that she would inevitably either offend them or embarrass herself.

But despite all this, there was something that Elizabeth glimpsed in her - a glimmer, a seedling of something struggling most earnestly to break through the self-importance and severity, something which she was certain had not been present before. What that seedling might sprout, whether genius or wisdom or empathy, was too soon for Elizabeth to tell, but it gave her hope nevertheless, and it was for this seedling that she began to write more regularly to her following her departure, and that she invited her some half-a-year hence to visit Pemberley once more.

Now Elizabeth was awaiting the carriage to arrive at any moment, poised with Georgiana in their parlor. She had entertained at first a brief hope that Mary and Georgiana might become friends, but had been forced to give it up very quickly upon Mary's first arrival. She was quite certain Georgiana was not particularly eager to be welcoming Mary again (nor, she suspected was her brother), but Georgiana was far too kind-hearted a girl to ever speak those feelings aloud, and Elizabeth did not wish to embarrass her with their discussion.