PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 39

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IT was the second
week in May in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch-street
for the town of ---- in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed
inn where Mr. Bennet's carriage was to meet them, they quickly perceived,
in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out
of a dining room upstairs. These two girls had been above an hour in the
place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner, watching the
sentinel on guard, and dressing a sallad and cucumber.

After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set
out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming,
"Is not this nice? is not this an agreeable surprise?"

"And we mean to treat you all," added Lydia; "but you must lend
  us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there." Then
  shewing her purchases: "Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do
  not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as
  not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can
  make it up any better."

And when her sisters abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect unconcern,
  "Oh! but there were two or three much uglier in the shop; and when
  I have bought some prettier coloured satin to trim it with fresh, I
  think it will be very tolerable. Besides, it will not much signify what
  one wears this summer after the ----shire have left Meryton, and they
  are going in a fortnight."

"Are they indeed?" cried Elizabeth, with the greatest satisfaction.

"They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa
  to take us all there for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme,
  and I dare say would hardly cost any thing at all. Mamma would like
  to go too, of all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we
  shall have!"

"Yes," thought Elizabeth, "that would be a delightful scheme, indeed,
  and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton, and a whole
  campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor
  regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton."

"Now I have got some news for you," said Lydia, as they sat down
  to table. "What do you think? It is excellent news, capital news, and
  about a certain person that we all like."

Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was told that
  he need not stay. Lydia laughed, and said, "Aye, that is just like
  your formality and discretion. You thought the waiter must not hear,
  as if he cared! I dare say he often hears worse things said than I am
  going to say. But he is an ugly fellow! I am glad he is gone. I never
  saw such a long chin in my life. Well, but now for my news: it is about
  dear Wickham; too good for the waiter, is not it? There is no danger
  of Wickham's marrying Mary King. There's for you! She is gone down to
  her uncle at Liverpool; gone to stay. Wickham is safe."

"And Mary King is safe!" added Elizabeth; "safe from a connection
  imprudent as to fortune."

"She is a great fool for going away, if she liked him."

"But I hope there is no strong attachment on either side," said
  Jane.

"I am sure there is not on his. I will answer for it he never cared
  three straws about her. Who could about such a nasty little freckled
  thing?"

Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness
  of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other
  than her own breast had formerly harboured and fancied liberal!

As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was
  ordered; and, after some contrivance, the whole party, with all their
  boxes, workbags, and parcels, and the unwelcome addition of Kitty's
  and Lydia's purchases, were seated in it.

"How nicely we are crammed in!" cried Lydia. "I am glad I bought
  my bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another bandbox! Well,
  now let us be quite comfortable and snug, and talk and laugh all the
  way home. And in the first place, let us hear what has happened to you
  all, since you went away. Have you seen any pleasant men? Have you had
  any flirting? I was in great hopes that one of you would have got a
  husband before you came back. Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I
  declare. She is almost three and twenty! Lord, how ashamed I should
  be of not being married before three and twenty! My aunt Philips wants
  you so to get husbands, you can't think. She says Lizzy had better have
  taken Mr. Collins; but I do not think there would have been any fun
  in it. Lord! how I should like to be married before any of you; and
  then I would chaperon you about to all the balls. Dear me! we had such
  a good piece of fun the other day at Colonel Foster's. Kitty and me
  were to spend the day there, and Mrs. Forster promised to have a little
  dance in the evening (by the bye, Mrs. Forster and me are such friends!);
  and so she asked the two Harringtons to come, but Harriet was ill, and
  so Pen was forced to come by herself; and then, what do you think we
  did? We dressed up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes, on purpose to pass
  for a lady, -- only think what fun! Not a soul knew of it but Col. and
  Mrs. Forster, and Kitty and me, except my aunt, for we were forced to
  borrow one of her gowns; and you cannot imagine how well he looked!
  When Denny, and Wickham, and Pratt, and two or three more of the men
  came in, they did not know him in the least. Lord! how I laughed! and
  so did Mrs. Forster. I thought I should have died. And that made the
  men suspect something, and then they soon found out what was the matter."

With such kind of histories of their parties and good jokes did Lydia,
  assisted by Kitty's hints and additions, endeavour to amuse her companions
  all the way to Longbourn. Elizabeth listened as little as she could,
  but there was no escaping the frequent mention of Wickham's name.

Their reception at home was most kind. Mrs. Bennet rejoiced to see
  Jane in undiminished beauty; and more than once during dinner did Mr.
  Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth,

"I am glad you are come back, Lizzy."

Their party in the dining-room was large, for almost all the Lucases
  came to meet Maria and hear the news: and various were the subjects
  which occupied them. Lady Lucas was enquiring of Maria, across the table,
  after the welfare and poultry of her eldest daughter; Mrs. Bennet was
  doubly engaged, on one hand collecting an account of the present fashions
  from Jane, who sat some way below her, and on the other, retailing them
  all to the younger Miss Lucases; and Lydia, in a voice rather louder
  than any other person's, was enumerating the various pleasures of the
  morning to any body who would hear her.

"Oh! Mary," said she, "I wish you had gone with us, for we had
  such fun! as we went along, Kitty and me drew up all the blinds, and
  pretended there was nobody in the coach; and I should have gone so all
  the way, if Kitty had not been sick; and when we got to the George,
  I do think we behaved very handsomely, for we treated the other three
  with the nicest cold luncheon in the world, and if you would have gone,
  we would have treated you too. And then when we came away it was such
  fun! I thought we never should have got into the coach. I was ready
  to die of laughter. And then we were so merry all the way home! we talked
  and laughed so loud, that any body might have heard us ten miles off!"

To this, Mary very gravely replied, "Far be it from me, my dear sister,
  to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with
  the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms
  for me. I should infinitely prefer a book."

But of this answer Lydia heard not a word. She seldom listened to
  any body for more than half a minute, and never attended to Mary at
  all.

In the afternoon Lydia was urgent with the rest of the girls to walk
  to Meryton, and see how every body went on; but Elizabeth steadily opposed
  the scheme. It should not be said, that the Miss Bennets could not be
  at home half a day before they were in pursuit of the officers. There
  was another reason too, for her opposition. She dreaded seeing Wickham
  again, and was resolved to avoid it as long as possible. The comfort
  to her of the regiment's approaching removal was indeed beyond expression.
  In a fortnight they were to go, and once gone, she hoped there could
  be nothing more to plague her on his account.

She had not been many hours at home, before she found that the Brighton
  scheme, of which Lydia had given them a hint at the inn, was under frequent
  discussion between her parents. Elizabeth saw directly that her father
  had not the smallest intention of yielding; but his answers were at
  the same time so vague and equivocal, that her mother, though often
  disheartened, had never yet despaired of succeeding at last.

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1. Ebooks list page : 81
2. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 58
3. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 44
4. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 42
5. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 41
6. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 40
7. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 38
8. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 11
9. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 12
10. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 45
11. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 46
12. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 49
13. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 57
14. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 56
15. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 55
16. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Chapter 54