Chapter 12: Country Life 6: A man who breaks into the highest echelons of British society...
Lydia shrugged and said, "Because Mr. Darcy danced only once last night with you, Lizzie, besides Miss Bingley, his friend's sister, I thought you might have something to talk about."
Elizabeth firmly denied: "No, of course not, we hardly chatted."
The few sentences that do appear are also about Mr. Wickham.
Mrs. Bennet thought that Mr. Bingley wanted to take his relationship with Jane to a new level, so he brought his friend along to visit as a formality.
Maybe he will discuss his engagement with Mr. Bennett today!
Mrs. Bennet hurried to the kitchen and asked Mrs. Morley, the cook, to prepare breakfast for Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy.
Because of her expectations of Mr. Bingley, her hostility towards Mr. Darcy was reduced a lot.
To Mrs. Bennet's disappointment, Mr. Bingley had no plans to propose today, and they had both already had breakfast.
However, Mr. Bingley agreed to join the Bennett family's brunch. He only asked for a cup of black tea and a portion of Margaret cookies, and was then seated next to Jane by Mrs. Bennett.
Although Mr. Bingley had no intention of proposing marriage, his enthusiastic and attentive attitude towards Jane still made Mrs. Bennet very satisfied.
She frequently gestured to others with pride, and stared at the ambiguous couple without any concealment, which gave Elizabeth a headache.
Fortunately, Mr. Darcy, who always paid attention to etiquette, didn't seem to care about the atmosphere at the table today. He kept staring at the dessert in front of him with a frown, as if the carrot cinnamon cake had committed some huge mistake.
Elizabeth, who was always watching him and ready to deal with his attack, noticed it, but before she could organize her words, Mr. Darcy suddenly made up his mind.
He ate the cake in one bite and said, "Mrs. Bennett, your dessert chef is quite good."
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole restaurant fell silent for a moment, and everyone looked at Mr. Darcy in surprise.
Mrs. Bennett was also surprised and stammered, "Well, Mrs. Morley will definitely be pleased to hear this comment. If you think it is good, maybe you can have another piece."
Darcy didn't respond. Perhaps he realized that he was not good at making a tactful opening statement, so he went straight to the point.
"Mrs. Lawrence, I am very interested in what you mentioned yesterday. I wonder if you would be free to explain the whole story now. I mean, the Birmingham and Liverpool Canal."
“Birmingham-Liverpool Canal?!”
Mr. Bennett cried out in surprise.
Heather also looked up in surprise. She had just been struggling with the half-cooked green peas on the plate. She didn't expect Mr. Darcy to come and ask so anxiously.
Darcy was indeed anxious.
After Heather ran out last night, he immediately left the hall and returned to the study.
He spent the whole night reading books on canal navigation, and even forgot about hearing the name he hated most from Elizabeth's mouth.
Because he soon realized that this was not only a business with high returns, but also a rare opportunity, an opportunity to break into the top class of British society.
The lifelong wish of every heir of the Darcy family is to lead the family to a higher status, preferably to be granted a title of nobility.
However, apart from marriage, the class structure in Britain is more rigid than imagined.
Wealth can be accumulated from generation to generation, but honor and status require the help of prayer timing.
Now, he saw a glimmer of opportunity.
The geographical location of the Birmingham-Liverpool Canal and the industrial layout along the route determined that it was destined to become a highly profitable route, and the huge success of the Manchester-Liverpool Canal before it attracted the wealthy and powerful nobles who smelled the potential to flock to it.
If he could get the original equity of the New Canal, he would at least be a member of the shareholders club, and this closed circle with extremely high barriers to entry might accept his membership.
Darcy couldn't help but imagine the future, but he tried his best to stay sober.
Those richer and more powerful officials who were richer than him would not want a piece of the pie, so how could Mrs. Lawrence persuade him to join in? Did her late husband have some connections?
Hazel thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Darcy, you want to ask me how I got the opportunity to buy the original shares of the new canal, right?"
Mr. Darcy nodded.
Even Mr. Bingley looked at him blankly now. It seemed that Mr. Darcy had not told him about this.
"On paper, the threshold for buying a property isn't that high—just a thousand acres," Heiser said. "But so many people can meet that requirement, so it's clear there must be a lot of hidden effort going on behind the scenes."
Darcy said, "That's what I'm wondering about. Could it be that your husband left behind some reliable connections?"
Hessel smiled and said, "Of course not. Even if Earl Lawrence were still alive, he, a middle-class foreign nobleman, would not have been able to extend his influence so far. But he did leave behind one thing - the original shares of the Manchester-Liverpool Canal."
Darcy exclaimed, "He is actually the original shareholder of the canal which is now the most valuable!"
"It was a matter of chance," said Hessel. "The Birmingham Company has agreed to give all shareholders in the canal the right to subscribe to new shares, so that means I will have a place to subscribe at once."
Darcy quickly reacted: "So you want to find someone to cooperate because you only have the subscription rights but not a thousand acres of land, right?"
Heather admired in her heart, he is worthy of being the male lead, his mind is so quick.
Lancaster's letter explained the whole truth to her in detail, and she had to read it over and over again before she could understand it.
However, she maintained a nonchalant expression and said, "Due to inheritance laws, I can't get the full amount of land for now, at least not before the equity transaction is completed. However, I believe that there are many more people who own land than those who have subscription rights, so finding a suitable partner shouldn't be difficult."
In fact, Heather didn't know whether it was a difficult task, but she felt that even if Darcy disagreed, Mr. Lancaster could handle it.
Because he mentioned in the letter that if Hessel didn't have a candidate, he could help find one.
Having a reliable lawyer behind you is reassuring.
Darcy agreed with Heather's statement, but a business expert like him couldn't be fooled by a single sentence. "Of course, you must have other options, but since you took the initiative to find me, I think I should have my advantages over other candidates."
Heather murmured to herself that the advantage was that she was not familiar with other large landowners, and only Darcy's wealth and character had been tested by an entire original book.
Heather was about to continue when the others at the table finally began to understand a little, ending their private conversation between the two of them.
Elizabeth was the first to react, and she succinctly summarized the key information: "So, Auntie has a rare investment opportunity and wants to cooperate with Mr. Darcy to make money, right?"
Mary added, "I've read that Liverpool and Birmingham rank second and third in population, respectively, after London. The newspapers also mentioned that the factories and businesses in these two cities are developing rapidly." Mr. Bennett also said, "Lizzie and Mary are right. This will definitely be an investment project that will bring huge profits."
Now even Mrs. Bennet understood that her sister was going to hand over such a great opportunity to make money to an outsider, and Mr. Darcy, an outsider she hated!
Mrs. Bennett cried out in anger, "Oh my God, my sister, are you crazy? How can such a good opportunity be given to an outsider for nothing?"
Heather was confused. "How can it be a free deal? I'm not doing charity. Cooperation is naturally beneficial to both parties! Besides, my brother-in-law and brother don't have a thousand acres of land, so I have no choice but to find an outsider."
Mr. Darcy had just been somewhat confident in himself, but now, fearing that Hazel might be influenced by others, he immediately stated, "Of course, Mrs. Laurence, you can state your conditions, and we can discuss them slowly."
Mrs. Bennet was very resistant to the thought that Mr. Darcy, who was always in a bad mood and had nothing to do with her family, would take advantage of her sister.
At this moment, her mind became unusually flexible: "If my current family members don't work, then my future family members will be fine!"
She turned to look at Mr. Bingley and asked, "Mr. Bingley, you should also have a thousand acres of land, right?"
The restaurant was now in complete chaos.
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