Austen Said:

business with his steward had occasioned his coming forward a few hours before the rest of the party with whom he had been travelling.

“They will join me early to-morrow,”

“and among them are some who will claim an acquaintance with you — Mr. Bingley and his sisters.”

“There is also one other person in the party,”

“who more particularly wishes to be known to you. Will you allow me, or do I ask too much, to introduce my sister to your acquaintance during your stay at Lambton?”

Bingley was also coming to wait on her;

“It is above eight months. We have not met since the 26th of November, when we were all dancing together at Netherfield.”

whether all her sisters were at Longbourn.

their wish of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, and Miss Bennet, to dinner at Pemberley, before they left the country.

great pleasure in the certainty of seeing Elizabeth again, having still a great deal to say to her, and many inquiries to make after all their Hertfordshire friends.

the ladies of the family intended a visit to Georgiana that morning.

he perceived no other alteration than her being rather tanned, no miraculous consequence of travelling in the summer.

“Yes,”

“but that was only when I first saw her, for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance.”

“Good God! what is the matter?”

“I will not detain you a minute; but let me, or let the servant go after Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. You are not well enough; you cannot go yourself.”

“Let me call your maid. Is there nothing you could take to give you present relief? A glass of wine; shall I get you one? You are very ill.”

“I am grieved indeed,”

“grieved — shocked. But is it certain — absolutely certain?”

“And what has been done, what has been attempted, to recover her?"

“I am afraid you have been long desiring my absence, nor have I anything to plead in excuse of my stay, but real, though unavailing concern. Would to Heaven that anything could be either said or done on my part that might offer consolation to such distress! But I will not torment you with vain wishes, which may seem purposely to ask for your thanks. This unfortunate affair will, I fear, prevent my sister's having the pleasure of seeing you at Pemberley to-day.”

it a happier conclusion than there was at present reason to hope,

his compliments for her relations,

“My dear Sir,

“I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertfordshire. Be assured, my dear sir, that Mrs. Collins and myself sincerely sympathise with you and all your respectable family in your present distress, which must be of the bitterest kind, because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove. No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune — or that may comfort you, under a circumstance that must be of all others the most afflicting to a parent's mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence; though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity, at so early an age. Howsoever that may be, you are grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others;

as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says,

And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace. Let me then advise you, my dear sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offense.

“I am, dear Sir, etc. etc.”

“I am afraid I interrupt your solitary ramble, my dear sister?”

“I should be sorry indeed, if it were. We were always good friends; and now we are better.”

“I do not know. Mrs. Bennet and Lydia are going in the carriage to Meryton. And so, my dear sister,

I find,

from our uncle and aunt,

that

“I almost envy you the pleasure, and yet I believe it would be too much for me, or else I could take it in my way to Newcastle. And you saw the old housekeeper, I suppose? Poor Reynolds, she was always very fond of me. But of course she did not mention my name to you.”

“And what did she say?”

“Certainly,”

“I was surprised to see Darcy in town last month. We passed each other several times. I wonder what he can be doing there.”

“Undoubtedly. Did you see him while you were at Lambton? I thought I understood from the Gardiners that you had.”

“And do you like her?”

“I have heard,

indeed,

that

When I last saw her, she was not very promising. I am very glad you liked her. I hope she will turn out well.”

“Did you go by the village of Kympton?”

“I mention it, because it is the living which I ought to have had. A most delightful place! — Excellent Parsonage House! It would have suited me in every respect.”

“Exceedingly well. I should have considered it as part of my duty, and the exertion would soon have been nothing. One ought not to repine — but, to be sure, it would have been such a thing for me! The quiet, the retirement of such a life would have answered all my ideas of happiness! But it was not to be. Did you ever hear Darcy mention the circumstance, when you were in Kent?”

“You have. Yes, there was something in that; I told you so from the first, you may remember.”

“You did! and it was not wholly without foundation. You may remember what I told you on that point, when first we talked of it.”

his dear sister Elizabeth,