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wife of the colonel of the regiment, to accompany her to

Brighton. This invaluable friend was a very young woman,

and very lately married. A resemblance in good-humour

and good spirits had recommended her and Lydia to each

other, and out of their _three_ months' acquaintance they had

been intimate _two._

The rapture of Lydia on this occasion, her adoration of

Mrs. Forster, the delight of Mrs. Bennet, and the mortifica-

tion of Kitty, are scarcely to be described. Wholly inatten-

tive to her sister's feelings, Lydia flew about the house in

restless ecstasy, calling for every one's congratulations,

and laughing and talking with more violence than ever;

whilst the luckless Kitty continued in the parlour repining

at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was

peevish.

'I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask _me_ as well

as Lydia,' said she, 'though I am _not_ her particular friend.

I have just as much right to be asked as she has, and

more too, for I am two years older.'

In vain did Elizabeth attempt to make her reasonable, and

Jane to make her resigned. As for Elizabeth herself, this

invitation was so far from exciting in her the same feelings

as in her mother and Lydia, that she considered it as the

death-warrant of all possibility of common sense for the

latter; and, detestable as such a step must make her were it

known, she could not help secretly advising her father not to

let her go. She represented to him all the improprieties of

Lydia's general behaviour, the little advantage she could

derive from the friendship of such a woman as Mrs. Forster,

and the probability of her being yet more imprudent with

such a companion at Brighton, where the temptations must

be greater than at home. He heard her attentively, and then

said,--

'Lydia will never be easy till she has exposed herself in

some public place or other, and we can never expect her to

do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as

under the present circumstances.'

'If you were aware,' said Elizabeth, 'of the very great dis-

advantage to us all, which must arise from the public notice

of Lydia's unguarded and imprudent manner, nay, which has

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