“My father and I made a visit to Paris when I was a boy, sailing to Ostende through Bruges, and Lille. I was fortunate enough to come of age directly following Amiens, although we all knew that the peace would not last. It lasted just long enough to require my tutor to over-throw all of our plans at the last moment, and avoid France entirely by travelling through Saxony. I was looking at my copy of Wilkinson,” said Mr. Darcy, “but I find it now hopelessly out of date. It was my bible during the tour of my youth, but it seems hardly a place has survived with its name or boundaries intact since Buonaparte has finished with Europe.”

“Come, come, Darcy,” cried Mr. Bennet, “I am sure an atlas is still quite satisfactory, for, even if the names are different, the geography is the same. Even Buonaparte could not move the mountains!”

“That is a matter of some dispute,” replied Mrs. Gardiner, “especially if you consider his great achievement over the Simplon. If he has not actually moved the mountains, he has surely made them less relevant to the traveller.”

“Very true, my love,” nodded Mr. Gardiner, “although I am not sure it was a great bargain from the point of view of the English—the convenience of the present company excepted, of course!”

The rest of the week continued fine and frosty, and Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Gardiner, Parson Overstowey and Colonel Fitzwilliam, recently arrived, were able to amuse themselves out of doors. The ladies walked, talked, and sewed. The Bingleys and all their children and servants arrived well before Christmas. Lord and Lady Hallendale, living much nearer, were due to arrive only a few days before Christmas Eve. Lady Catherine and her daughter, unable to command a sufficient audience amongst the other distractions and personages, declined to visit and remained instead at Bath, under the pretense of preferring it to all places at that time of year.

Family tradition at Pemberley dictated that there be performed a theatrical at Christmas time. Upon the arrival of the Bingleys, therefore, it took little urging for the plan to be concluded that a play be performed at Pemberley, although no-one could agree on which play, the family all talking ten to the dozen over one another. The children were charged with the task of the selection, and under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Annesley, the eldest of the Bingleys’ and the Gardiners’ children were allowed into the library of Pemberley to locate a suitable play. The Bingleys had been recently abroad on a family journey to Argyllshire and Inverness, which had included a sailing trip around Iona, Mull, Coll, and Tiree. The children excitedly alighted upon a volume of Joanna Baillie’s Miscellaneous Plays, selecting “The Family Legend,” for it included the requisite ingredients of nighttime boat rides, sinister schemes, dramatical gentlemen’s duels, and at least one hysterical lady abandoned on a rock.