Page 32 of Four Syllables
As you might expect, after the wedding trip we never actually lived alone with just the two of us and our servants. By the time I was again with child, our homes resembled a boarding school. We were attended by Jane, Mary, Georgiana, Charlotte, Amy Long, both Goulding sisters—all our defenders from the ball. We were liberal in allowing them to invite guests, so we usually had another half-dozen about. Naturally, that meant our drawing room was stacked like a woodshed with men, but once the word got out that gentlemen left with a fine meal and the other sort of man left with a black eye, we found more of the former.
Jane had lost nearly all the naivety of her earlier life and even decided since she had been holding the Bennet family together since childhood, she had enough of responsibility and amiability. She surprised us all by marryingan officer(red coat and all). She surprised us all again by following the drum until she had her one and only child. Of course, she surprised nobody who knew her well by being disgustingly happy for the rest of her life. General Fitzwilliam had little to complain of himself.
When the war ended after Waterloo, Mary and Charlotte pulled their own trick by spending their suspiciously large dowries touring the continent together. We all wondered if they disliked men, but it turned out they were just not enamoured with Englishmen. They married a Frenchman and an Italian and were very happy. We saw them every few years, and some of our children sorted themselves out into matrimony in due time.
The rest of our merry little band wed as well as could be expected, experiencing the usual range of joys and sorrows, with on average more of the former.
As anyone might have predicted, Lydia tried her best to ruin the family by eloping with some penniless officer, and my husband fixed her foolishness without even leaving his study.
Kitty reformed enough to be launched into society a year behind Georgiana, and they both did well enough.
As for the Darcys, my husband and I met his stated goal of being thehappiest couple in the world.
In the end, I thought I could look back on a life altered beyond recognition by Georgiana’sunderstandingof theimplicationsof a single misused four-syllable word with the perfect example of the breed:SATISFACTION
~~ Finis ~~
