‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’

However ill the feeling of disgust he may experience towards London society and its pompous parties, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding mamas, that he is considered as the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters.

Now, Sir Phillip Crane, whose older brother and father had both recently died in the span of two weeks, found himself in the midst of a ballroom, looking as out of place as a fish on solid ground. He had inherited the baronetcy and the estate in Gloucestershire, and he had quickly realized he needed someone to care for Romney Hall before the furniture started to rot, and the maids began to complain about cracks in the walls.

So he travelled to London, preened himself like the city gentleman he never had been and would never be, and gathered enough courage to attend a ball. And God knows he regretted it the second he walked in.

A pack of mamas rapidly swarmed the gentleman as they tossed daughters upon him, and he realized, rather quickly, that he was not cut out to deal with such… insistent creatures.

Sir Phillip managed to get through part of the evening with a tense smile and a couple of rather dull conversations with some ladies before he decided to go outside to catch a very needed breath.

Surely most people would be inside, enjoying the string quartet's melodies, drinking lemonade, or pretending true love was as real as novels claimed it to be. Whatever it was they were doing, Sir Phillip was certain he would return to Romney Hall as soon as he possibly could.

—excerpt from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen