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attended them, and where she had seen such beautiful orna-

ments as made her quite wild; that she had a new gown, or

a new parasol, which she would have described more fully,

but was obliged to leave off in a violent hurry, as Mrs.

Forster called her, and they were going to the camp; and

from her correspondence with her sister there was still less

to be learnt, for her letters to Kitty, though rather longer,

were much too full of lines under the words to be made public.

After the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence,

health, good-humour, and cheerfulness began to reappear at

Longbourn. Everything wore a happier aspect. The fami-

lies who had been in town for the winter came back again,

and summer finery and summer engagements arose. Mrs.

Bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity; and

by the middle of June Kitty was so much recovered as to be

able to enter Meryton without tears, -- an event of such happy

promise as to make Elizabeth hope that by the following

Christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable as not to men-

tion an officer above once a day, unless, by some cruel and

malicious arrangement at the War Office, another regiment

should be quartered in Meryton.

The time fixed for the beginning of their northern tour

was now fast approaching; and a fortnight only was wanting

of it, when a letter arrived from Mrs. Gardiner, which at

once delayed its commencement and curtailed its extent. Mr.

Gardiner would be prevented by business from setting out

till a fortnight later in July, and must be in London again

within a month; and as that left too short a period for them

to go so far and see so much as they had proposed, or at

least to see it with the leisure and comfort they had built on,

they were obliged to give up the Lakes, and substitute a more

contracted tour; and, according to the present plan, were to

go no farther northward than Derbyshire. In that county

there was enough to be seen to occupy the chief of their

three weeks; and to Mrs. Gardiner it had a peculiarly strong

attraction. The town where she had formerly passed some

years of her life, and where they were now to spend a few

days, was probably as great an object of her curiosity as all

the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale, or

the Peak.

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