"Indeed, Mary, I fear I am inclined to think that your stay at Pemberley has done you very little good, very little good at all!" Mrs. Bennet declared decisively to her daughter one morning, a month or so upon Mary's return to Longbourn.
Indeed, Mrs. Bennet could not be entirely held at fault for such a conclusion, for there was not a great deal of evidence to contradict her words. Mary had been returned to Longbourn in spirits so poor and dismal that it was rather difficult to settle upon any plausible conclusion, other than that her stay had wrought upon her deleterious effects, and had been much to her disservice. If Mrs. Bennet had been liable previously to bemoan her daughter's severeness, or her solitary, pedantic temperament, than she was now inclined to recollect such traits with regretful fondness; for where Mary had once been sharp, and particular, she was these days become listless and withdrawn; and where she had once been wont to enact the weighty levy of her musings upon those around her, she was now, instead, taciturn to a fault; and exceedingly little could be pried from her, as to what subjects occupied her thoughts, and what emotions they were wont to inspire in her. For one as garrulous and desirous of attention as her mother, this was a cruel trick of fate, indeed; very little satisfaction could be derived from such a reticent daughter.
Mary was that morning in a particularly pensive mood, and showed no sign of hearing her mother's declaration; but this silence Mrs. Bennet only took as further encouragement. She continued, with great vigor, "I fear, of course, that it is all of my own misguided doing; I should have easily foreseen such ill consequences. Changes of circumstance do not agree with you, dear. You have clearly taken after me, you see; even the slightest disruption of routine taxes my nerves most terribly."
"And I am certain, Mary, that Mrs. Bennet would not wish any of her daughters to suffer such a cruel fate, as to take after her," Mr. Bennet remarked gravely.
At last Mary's attention was laid claim upon in some measure. She allowed the ghost of a smile to pass across her face at her father's words, but was otherwise unmoved by the subject. "I am perfectly fine, Mama. Only a little tired."
"But how can you insist it to be so? You have every mark of ill health upon you!" Mrs. Bennet declared. "I had every hope, when you first arrived, that the adverse effects I observed in you should pass quickly, upon being reacquainted with the familiarity and nurturement of Longbourn; but alas! you are not at all improved; your wanness, and poor appetite, and general inclination to listlessness; these are all grim portents of health indeed!" Mrs. Bennet had now succeeded in thoroughly alarming herself, and turning to Mr. Bennet, said, "Perhaps we must summon the apothecary, to examine her! She has caught something terrible, I am now all but certain of it!"
"In that case, it is likely too late; and we have no resort left to us but to allow it to take its course."
"Really, Mr. Bennet, how you may be so insensitive to your own child, is truly inconceivable to me!"
Mr. Bennet, not for the first time, was inclined to disagree with his wife's assessment; and to attribute Mary's malaise, which he privately thought to be of a purely spiritual nature, not to her stay at Pemberley, but rather her departure from it. He was not so oblivious as to think that Longbourn, and their peaceful Meryton, could offer nearly the same amusements and diversion which a grand estate as Pemberley, and new and lively company, could offer; and perhaps her current situation, and the unfavourable contrast it presented to the past few months, was enough to sponsor within her such indolence and ennui.
"You are quite right to reproach me, my dear, and in future, I shall endeavour to administer my wit in wiser measure," Mr. Bennet said mildly. "But in truth, Mrs. Bennet, so long as Mary persists until tomorrow, I would be inclined to think that perhaps she is in want only of some fresh air, and some spirited exercise."
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Pomp and Circumstance: A Pride and Prejudice Continuation
Fanfiction"In the character of Mary Bennet there existed a profound irony which was as follows: the only quality that saved her from being wholly ordinary was the extraordinary degree of ordinariness which she possessed." A Mary Bennet romance and Pride and P...
