Pooches and Prejudice, Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

Most evenings, my family likes to sit near the fireplace in our drawing room and chat, play games, or mess about with craft supplies. I like to keep them company, and if there is a lap to be had, I will gladly sit on it.

One evening, my mistress and all my sisters leave! I miss them very much, but the master lets me into his library where he has a small pallet of old blankets next to his fireplace. It is a rare treat for me to lay in here. Master likes to read quietly to himself, so I doze off within minutes.

Just as I’m in the middle of a dream where I catch Hare Brain, there is the sound of the rest of my family returning home. Ecstatic, I leap up from the pallet and run into the hall. Oh, there they are, looking ever so beautiful! Mrs. Hill is helping them out of their coats and wraps.

My master has followed me into the main foyer. “Was the assembly ball everything you could have hoped for? Did you all get to meet Mr. Bingley and demonstrate how the silliest girls in England dance?”

“Yes, indeed, we did meet the charming Mr. Bingley,” replies my mistress, leading the way into the drawing room. “He brought his sisters and two other gentlemen with them to the ball. Oh, my dear, you have not done him credit! He is the most wonderful young man I could have hoped for!”

“I see,” says my master, looking a bit disappointed as he takes his favorite seat. “I had rather hoped he would not live up to your expectations.”

“Oh, my dear Mr. Bennet, we have had a most delightful evening, a most excellent ball. I wish you had been there. Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with her twice.”

As Lizzie, Kitty, and Lydia flit around Jane, teasing her about the man she danced with, Mary picks me up. As she strokes my back, she whispers, “And of course no one noticed me or asked me to dance. I wish I had been home with you and a good book.”

Soon my mistress is talking about Lizzie. “He slighted poor Lizzie, you know,” she says. “Can you imagine anyone saying she is not handsome enough? I can assure you that Lizzie does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited, that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man.”

Mary sits down next to Lizzie. “He must be quite blind indeed to have described you thusly, Lizzie,” Mary says to her.

Lizzie takes me from Mary and cuddles me against her chest. “It is of little matter, Mary. He did not wound me. Besides,” she says, rubbing her nose against mine, “as long as Blossom loves me, who cares what a silly man thinks?”