Amanda Grange & Jacqueline Webb by Pride, Pyramids Page B

morning,” she said, as she presided over the breakfast table. She looked around at the empty seats and felt a sense of nostalgia for the days when every chair had been full. “I really ought to pay a visit to Mary.”
    Mary, after spending many years at home, had finally married her uncle’s clerk and now lived in simple comfort in Meryton. Although she was the least favourite of her mother’s daughters, she had the advantage of being the nearest, as the others had all settled many miles away.
    â€œA good idea,” said Mr Bennet, who never discouraged his wife from visiting friends or, indeed, from doing anything which would take her out of the house. “You must not let her feel neglected.”
    â€œAnd then I think I will write to Lydia and invite her to stay. We have not seen her for such a long time, and she is bound to be missing us. Ah! My dear Lydia. How happy she will be to see us again, and how happy we will be to see her and her handsome Wickham.”
    â€œWe must not trespass upon their time,” said Mr Bennet, taking a bite of ham.
    â€œIt will be no trespass, I am sure,” said Mrs Bennet, as the mail was brought in on a silver salver.
    She took the letters and glanced idly at the envelopes, then became more animated.
    â€œA letter from Lizzy!” she said.
    This made Mr Bennet look up, for Elizabeth was his favourite daughter.
    Mrs Bennet started to read with a complacency reserved for the daughter who had married ten thousand a year and, incidentally, Mr Darcy. But as she read on, she exclaimed in amazement, “Why, Mr Bennet, whatever do you think?”
    â€œI do not know, my dear,” he said with a long-suffering air, “but I am sure you are about to tell me.”
    â€œLizzy and Darcy are to visit Egypt. Well! What do you think of that?”
    Mr Bennet was startled out of his usual imperturbability.
    â€œEgypt?” he asked, and then he quickly settled back into his usual placidity. “Then I must ask them to bring me back some souvenir. Perhaps a map of the Nile or a crocodile tooth or—”
    â€œWhy, Mr Bennet, there is no need to ask them to bring back some souvenir. It would be far better for us to go to Egypt with them and buy some souvenirs ourselves. I am sure Lizzy and Darcy would be delighted to have us, and a few months in Egypt would set me up nicely.”
    Mr Bennet, however, was no more accommodating than he had been fifteen years before, when Mrs Bennet had desired to go to Brighton. He had refused to countenance a journey then, and he refused now. Having finished his ham and eggs, he remarked that it was impossible and then took refuge behind the latest broadsheet.
    Undaunted, Mrs Bennet continued.
    â€œJust think, Mr Bennet! The camels and pyramids, to say nothing of the company—”
    â€œThen, indeed, let us say nothing of it,” Mr Bennet remarked.
    But Mrs Bennet was constitutionally unable to say nothing, and in the end her husband was forced to retire to the peace of his library.
    Thus deprived of an audience, Mrs Bennet rang for Hill, who provided her with a more appreciative ear, and then carried out her earlier resolves: she must visit Mary at once, and then she must invite Lydia to stay.
    ***
    â€œRemind me again why am I here with you, my love?” Wickham enquired charmingly as, several days later, he found himself on the steps of Longbourn House.
    Lydia fiddled with the slightly grubby ribbon on her bonnet as they waited for the door of her parents’ home to open.
    â€œLa! My dear Wickham, you know as well as I do,” she replied, not even bothering to look at him. “We do not have enough money to live on, and we cannot pay the rent on the rooms we took in the hotel. Mama’s letter came just in time to save us from another midnight exit. But now our problems are solved, at least for a week or two—longer, if you behave yourself. Be charming to Mama and polite to