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'I am not likely to leave Kent for some time. Promise

me, therefore, to come to Hunsford.'

Elizabeth could not refuse, though she foresaw little

pleasure in the visit.

'My father and Maria are to come to me in March,' added

Charlotte, 'and I hope you will consent to be of the party.

Indeed, Eliza, you will be as welcome to me as either of

them.'

The wedding took place: the bride and bridegroom set off

for Kent from the church door, and everybody had as much

to say or to hear on the subject as usual. Elizabeth soon

heard from her friend, and their correspondence was as

regular and frequent as it ever had been: that it should be

equally unreserved was impossible. Elizabeth could never

address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy

was over; and, though determined not to slacken as a cor-

respondent, it was for the sake of what had been rather

than what was. Charlotte's first letters were received with

a good deal of eagerness: there could not but be curiosity

to know how she would speak of her new home, how she

would like Lady Catherine, and how happy she would dare

pronounce herself to be; though, when the letters were read,

Elizabeth felt that Charlotte expressed herself on every

point exactly as she might have foreseen. She wrote cheer-

fully, seemed surrounded with comforts, and mentioned

nothing which she could not praise. The house, furniture,

neighbourhood, and roads, were all to her taste, and Lady

Catherine's behaviour was most friendly and obliging. It

was Mr. Collins's picture of Hunsford and Rosings rationally

softened; and Elizabeth perceived that she must wait for

her own visit there to know the rest.

Jane had already written a few lines to her sister, to an-

nounce their safe arrival in London; and when she wrote

again, Elizabeth hoped it would be in her power to say

something of the Bingleys.

Her impatience for this second letter was as well rewarded

as impatience generally is. Jane had been a week in town,

without either seeing or hearing from Caroline. She ac-

counted for it, however, by supposing that her last letter to

her friend from Longbourn had by some accident been lost.

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