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Chapter XLI

The first week of their return was soon gone. The sec-

ond began. It was the last of the regiment's stay in

Meryton, and all the young ladies in the neighbour-

hood were drooping apace. The dejection was almost uni-

versal. The elder Miss Bennets alone were still able to eat,

drink, and sleep, and pursue the usual course of their employ-

ments. Very frequently were they reproached for this in-

sensibility by Kitty and Lydia, whose own misery was ex-

treme, and who could not comprehend such hard-heartedness

in any of the family.

'Good Heaven! What is to become of us? What are we

to do?' would they often exclaim in the bitterness of woe.

'How can you be smiling so, Lizzy?' Their affectionate

mother shared all their grief; she remembered what she had

herself endured on a similar occasion five-and-twenty years

ago.

'I am sure,' said she, 'I cried for two days together when

Colonel Millar's regiment went away. I thought I should

have broke my heart.'

'I am sure I shall break _mine,'_ said Lydia.

'If one could but go to Brighton!' observed Mrs. Bennet.

'Oh yes! -- if one could but go to Brighton! But papa is

so disagreeable.'

'A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever.'

'And my aunt Philips is sure it would do _me_ a great deal

of good,' added Kitty.

Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually

through Longbourn House. Elizabeth tried to be diverted

by them; but all sense of pleasure was lost in shame. She

felt anew the justice of Mr. Darcy's objections; and never

had she before been so much disposed to pardon his inter-

ference in the views of his friend.

But the gloom of Lydia's prospect was shortly cleared

away; for she received an invitation from Mrs. Forster, the

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