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1It was not without an effort, meanwhile, that she could wait even for Longbourn, before she told her sister of Mr.
2Darcy's proposals. To know that she had the power of revealing what would so exceedingly astonish Jane, and must, at the
3same time, so highly gratify whatever of her own vanity she had not yet been able to reason away, was such a temptation
4to openness as nothing could have conquered, but the state of indecision in which she remained as to the extent of what
5she should communicate, and her fear, if she once entered on the subject, of being hurried into repeating something of
6Bingley, which might only grieve her sister further. [Illustration: "How nicely we are crammed in" ] CHAPTER XXXIX.
7[Illustration] It was the second week in May, in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch Street
8for the town of ----, in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr. Bennet's carriage was to meet
9them, they quickly perceived, in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out of a dining-room
10upstairs. These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner,
11watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing a salad and cucumber. After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly
12displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming, "Is not this nice? is not
13this an agreeable surprise?" "And we mean to treat you all," added Lydia; "but you must lend us the money, for we have
14just spent ours at the shop out there." Then showing her purchases,--"Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not
15think 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,
16and see if I can make it up any better." And when her sisters abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect unconcern, "Oh,
17but there were two or three much uglier in the shop; and when I have bought some prettier-coloured satin to trim it with
18fresh, I think it will be very tolerable. Besides, it will not much signify what one wears this summer, after the
19----shire have left Meryton, and they are going in a fortnight." "Are they, indeed?" cried Elizabeth, with the greatest
20satisfaction. "They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa to take us all there for the summer!
21It would be such a delicious scheme, and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all. Mamma would like to go, too, of
22all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we shall have!" "Yes," thought Elizabeth; "that would be a
23delightful scheme, indeed, and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton and a whole campful of soldiers, to
24us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton!" "Now I have got
25some news for you," said Lydia, as they sat down to table. "What do you think? It is excellent news, capital news, and
26about a certain person that we all like." Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was told that he need
27not stay. Lydia laughed, and said,-- "Ay, that is just like your formality and discretion. You thought the waiter must
28not 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!
29I 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
30good 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
31her uncle at Liverpool; gone to stay. Wickham is safe." "And Mary King is safe!" added Elizabeth; "safe from a
32connection imprudent as to fortune." "She is a great fool for going away, if she liked him." "But I hope there is no
33strong attachment on either side," said Jane. "I am sure there is not on his. I will answer for it, he never cared three
34straws about her. Who could about such a nasty little freckled thing?" Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however
35incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast
36had formerly harboured and fancied liberal! As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was ordered;
37and, after some contrivance, the whole party, with all their boxes, workbags, and parcels, and the unwelcome addition of
38Kitty's and Lydia's purchases, were seated in it. "How nicely we are crammed in!" cried Lydia. "I am glad I brought my
39bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another band-box! Well, now let us be quite comfortable and snug, and talk
40and laugh all the way home. And in the first place, let us hear what has happened to you all since you went away. Have
41you seen any pleasant men? Have you had any flirting? I was in great hopes that one of you would have got a husband
42before you came back. Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare. She is almost three-and-twenty! Lord! how ashamed
43I should be of not being married before three-and-twenty! My aunt Philips wants you so to get husbands you can't think.
44She says Lizzy had better have taken Mr. Collins; but I do not think there would have been any fun in it. Lord! how I
45should like to be married before any of you! and then I would chaperon you about to all the balls. Dear me! we had such
46a good piece of fun the other day at Colonel Forster's! Kitty and me were to spend the day there, and Mrs. Forster
47promised to have a little dance in the evening; (by-the-bye, Mrs. Forster and me are such friends!) and so she asked the
48two Harringtons to come: but Harriet was ill, and so Pen was forced to come by herself; and then, what do you think we
49did? We dressed up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes, on purpose to pass for a lady,--only think what fun! Not a soul knew
50of it, but Colonel and Mrs. Forster, and Kitty and me, except my aunt, for we were forced to borrow one of her gowns;
51and you cannot imagine how well he looked! When Denny, and Wickham, and Pratt, and two or three more of the men came in,
52they did not know him in the least. Lord! how I laughed! and so did Mrs. Forster. I thought I should have died. And that
53made the men suspect something, and then they soon found out what was the matter." With such kind of histories of their
54parties and good jokes did Lydia, assisted by Kitty's hints and additions, endeavour to amuse her companions all the way
55to Longbourn. Elizabeth listened as little as she could, but there was no escaping the frequent mention of Wickham's
56name. Their reception at home was most kind. Mrs. Bennet rejoiced to see Jane in undiminished beauty; and more than once
57during dinner did Mr. Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth,---- "I am glad you are come back, Lizzy." Their party in the
58dining-room was large, for almost all the Lucases came to meet Maria and hear the news; and various were the subjects
59which occupied them: Lady Lucas was inquiring of Maria, across the table, after the welfare and poultry of her eldest
60daughter; Mrs. Bennet was doubly engaged, on one hand collecting an account of the present fashions from Jane, who sat
61some way below her, and on the other, retailing them all to the younger Miss Lucases; and Lydia, in a voice rather
62louder than any other person's, was enumerating the various pleasures of the morning to anybody who would hear her. "Oh,
63Mary," 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
64blinds, and pretended there was nobody in the coach; and I should have gone so all the way, if Kitty had not been sick;
65and when we got to the George, I do think we behaved very handsomely, for we treated the other three with the nicest
66cold luncheon in the world, and if you would have gone, we would have treated you too. And then when we came away it was
67such fun! I thought we never should have got into the coach. I was ready to die of laughter. And then we were so merry
68all the way home! we talked and laughed so loud, that anybody might have heard us ten miles off!"
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