Pride and Prejudice; Sense and Sensibility

Chapter 73 Sir John and His Friends

Barton Hall is about half a mile from the cottage.The Dashwoods had passed the cottage when they moved down the valley, but Barton Park could not be seen from the house because a mountain peak hid the view.The house at Barton Manor was tall and handsome, and the Middletons maintained a style of living that was both hospitable and refined.Hospitality fulfilled Sir John's wishes, elegance his lady's.There are friends in their home almost every day.There are all kinds of guests in their house, more guests than any nearby.This was a necessary delight to their happiness, for however different they may be in temperament and manners, they are very much alike in mediocrity of talent and tastelessness.They are therefore obliged to confine their occupations (which have nothing to do with social occupations) to a very narrow world.Sir John loved hunting, and his wife, Lady Middleton, looked after the children.

One is chasing and hunting, and the other is teasing children. This is their only ability.It was in Lady Middleton's advantage that she could devote the whole year to pampering the children exclusively, while Sir John had only half the year of independent activity.But all the want of talent and education was more than made up for by the constant busyness of visits or visits from friends, which gave Sir John constant briskness, and his wife's good breeding an opportunity to show.

Mrs. Middleton's pride in her cooking and housekeeping was a vanity which was her greatest enjoyment at every dinner party, and it was for this reason that she took great pleasure in every dinner party held at home.Sir John's interest in society, however, was much more genuine.He was so delighted to have so many young people about him that there was no room for them in the house, and the more rowdy the better, the happier he was.He was a blessing to all the teenagers in the neighborhood, because in the summer he was always gathering everyone together for outdoor meals of frozen ham and roast chicken; in the winter, he held family dances more often , except for the 15-year-old girl who never tires of jumping, this will always be satisfied for other young girls.

There was always a new family in the place, which always pleased Sir John.His new lodger for Barton Cottage was, in every respect, very pleasing to him.The three Miss Dashwoods were young and pretty, and their lack of affectation was enough to appeal to him, for in his opinion, that lack of affectation was something that young girls lacked.Once she puts on airs, no matter how attractive her appearance is, her heart will become eclipsed.He has a friendly disposition, and whenever someone is in misfortune, he is always willing to help, as a convenience.Therefore, being able to express his kindness to a few cousins ​​​​made him feel very happy for being a kind person; but having an all-female family live in his country house made him feel very important. A heartfelt delight for a hunting enthusiast.For a man who loves hunting, although he admires only those who are of his own sex and also loves hunting, is always reluctant to allow them to live on his estate, so as not to encourage their love.

Sir John greeted the Dashwood mother and daughter at the door, and welcomed them sincerely to Barton Manor.He accompanied the guests into the drawing-room, and kept expressing to the girls that he was disturbed that he hadn't got any handsome young men with them.The question had caused him uneasiness the day before.Besides him, they saw only one male guest here, he said.This is a very good friend of his, who is visiting with him, but he is neither young nor chatty.There are so few guests, I hope the ladies will forgive me and assure them that similar situations will never happen again in the future.Sir John visited several houses that morning, wishing to invite more guests, but as tonight was a beautiful moonlight night, everyone's appointments were full.Fortunately, Mrs. Middleton's mother also came to Barton Manor at the last moment.The old lady was a very jovial, agreeable, and fun-loving woman, and Sir hoped the ladies would not find this party as dull as they thought it would be.When the young ladies and their mothers saw that there were strangers at the table, they were satisfied and had no other extravagant hopes.

Mrs. Middleton's mother, Mrs. Jennings, was an elderly, agreeable, laughing, obese woman.She babbled on and on and looked happy, but also vulgar.She is very good at telling jokes and jokes, and she laughs out loud.By the end of dinner, she had made many similar wisecracks with lovers long and husband short.She hoped the ladies hadn't left their sweethearts in Sussex, and insisted that she'd seen them blushing, whether it was true or not.Marianne was very annoyed by this and felt wronged for her sister.She turned her eyes to Eleanor, wanting to see how she would deal with such an attack, but she didn't expect that Eleanor didn't take Mrs. Jennings' banal banter to heart. Instead, it was her sister's serious look that made her feel pain.

The manner of the guest, Colonel Bland, is very different from that of Sir John, and it seems that he is not suitable to be his friend, just as Mrs. Middleton is not suitable to be his wife, and Mrs. Jennings is not suitable to be Mrs. Middleton's mother. .Colonel Bland was silent and serious, but not unpleasant in appearance, though Marianne and Margaret decided that he was a very old bachelor, for he was past thirty-five.Although his face was not pretty, he looked bright and kind, and his conversation was especially polite and gentlemanly.

Among these people, the Dashwood mother and daughter did not feel that any of them had a kindred spirit with them.But Mrs. Middleton's sternness and sullenness were exceedingly repulsive, and the serious Colonel Bland and the cheerful Sir John and his mother-in-law were more amusing by comparison.After dinner, the four children came running in, making a lot of noise, and Mrs. Middleton only seemed to cheer up when she saw them.These children dragged her to and fro by her clothes, and there was no talk of them except them.

In the evening, people found that Marianne was very talented in music and asked her to perform on the spot.The piano was turned on and everyone was ready to revel.Marianne sang very beautifully, and at everyone's request she sang some of the sweetest songs in the score.These scores, which Mrs. Middleton brought from her natal family when she married, seem to have been placed on the piano and may have never been moved, because the lady gave up music in order to celebrate her own marriage.However, according to her mother, she played very well, and she herself said that she was very fond of music.

Marianne's singing was warmly received.Sir John would praise her aloud when she finished a song, but he was talking aloud to someone else during Marianne's performance.Lady Middleton kept telling him to be quiet, wondering how he could be distracted, even for a moment, from a song, while she herself asked Marianne to sing a song she had just finished.

Among the guests and the host, only Colonel Bland was not ecstatic when he listened to the song.The Colonel just listened respectfully.Marianne, too, had a great respect for him at the time, for the others were so unseemlyly displaying vulgar taste and lack of taste, that she rightly lost her respect for them.Although the colonel was not as obsessed with music as Marianne was, compared with the insensitivity of the others, it was already very rare.Marianne quite reasonably thought that in a man of thirty-five, the sensitivity of feeling and the intensity of joy might all be gone.She could fully understand the colonel's prudence, which was human nature.

(End of this chapter)