Austen Said:

“what is your opinion now of this sad business of Jane's? For my part, I am determined never to speak of it again to anybody. I told my sister Phillips so the other day. But I cannot find out that Jane saw anything of him in London. Well, he is a very undeserving young man — and I do not suppose there's the least chance in the world of her ever getting him now. There is no talk of his coming to Netherfield again in the summer; and I have inquired of everybody too, who is likely to know.”

“Oh well! it is just as he chooses. Nobody wants him to come. Though I shall always say that he used my daughter extremely ill; and if I was her, I would not have put up with it. Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart; and then he will be sorry for what he has done.”

“Well, Lizzy,”

“and so the Collinses live very comfortable, do they? Well, well, I only hope it will last. And what sort of table do they keep? Charlotte is an excellent manager, I dare say. If she is half as sharp as her mother, she is saving enough. There is nothing extravagant in their housekeeping, I dare say.”

“A great deal of good management, depend upon it. Yes, yes. They will take care not to outrun their income. They will never be distressed for money. Well, much good may it do them! And so, I suppose, they often talk of having Longbourn when your father is dead. They look upon it as quite their own, I dare say, whenever that happens.”

“No; It would have been strange if they had; but I make no doubt they often talk of it between themselves. Well, if they can be easy with an estate that is not lawfully their own, so much the better. I should be ashamed of having one that was only entailed on me.”

she had herself endured on a similar occasion, five-and-twenty years ago.

“I am sure,”

“I cried for two days together when Colonel Miller's regiment went away. I thought I should have broken my heart.”

“If one could but go to Brighton!”

“A little sea-bathing would set me up forever.”

“Lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances.”

“Already arisen?”

“What, has she frightened away some of your lovers? Poor little Lizzy! But do not be cast down. Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret. Come, let me see the list of the pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by Lydia's folly.”

her whole heart was in the subject,

“Do not make yourself uneasy, my love. Wherever you and Jane are known you must be respected and valued; and you will not appear to less advantage for having a couple of — or I may say, three — very silly sisters. We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to Brighton. Let her go, then. Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to anybody. At Brighton she will be of less importance even as a common flirt than she has been here. The officers will find women better worth their notice. Let us hope, therefore, that her being there may teach her her own insignificance. At any rate, she cannot grow many degrees worse, without authorising us to lock her up for the rest of her life.”

Lydia's going to Brighton

her husband's never intending to go there himself.

for the felicity of her daughter,

she should not miss the opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possible —

Mr. Gardiner would be prevented by business from setting out till a fortnight later in July, and must be in London again within a month, and as that left too short a period for them to go so far, and see so much as they had proposed, or at least to see it with the leisure and comfort they had built on, they were obliged to give up the Lakes, and substitute a more contracted tour, and, according to the present plan, were to go no farther northwards than Derbyshire. In that county there was enough to be seen to occupy the chief of their three weeks;

Pemberley was situated. It was not in their direct road, nor more than a mile or two out of it.

to see the place again.

“My love, should not you like to see a place of which you have heard so much?”

“a place, too, with which so many of your acquaintances are connected. Wickham passed all his youth there, you know.”

“If it were merely a fine house richly furnished,”

“I should not care about it myself; but the grounds are delightful. They have some of the finest woods in the country.”

how she liked it.

“I have heard much of your master's fine person,”

“it is a handsome face. But, Lizzy, you can tell us whether it is like or not.”

“And is Miss Darcy as handsome as her brother?”

“Is your master much at Pemberley in the course of the year?”

“If your master would marry, you might see more of him.”

“There are very few people of whom so much can be said. You are lucky in having such a master.”

“His father was an excellent man,”

“This fine account of him,”

is not quite consistent with his behaviour to our poor friend.”

“That is not very likely; our authority was too good.”

as to the date of the building,

of going round the whole park,

it might be beyond a walk.

only of returning to the carriage as quickly as possible.

“for your housekeeper,”

“informed us that you would certainly not be here till to-morrow; and indeed, before we left Bakewell, we understood that you were not immediately expected in the country.”

“He is perfectly well behaved, polite, and unassuming,”

“There is something a little stately in him, to be sure,”

“but it is confined to his air, and is not unbecoming. I can now say with the housekeeper, that though some people may call him proud, I have seen nothing of it.”

“I was never more surprised than by his behaviour to us. It was more than civil; it was really attentive; and there was no necessity for such attention. His acquaintance with Elizabeth was very trifling.”

“To be sure, Lizzy,”

“he is not so handsome as Wickham; or, rather, he has not Wickham's countenance, for his features are perfectly good. But how came you to tell me that he was so disagreeable?”