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would have delighted them all. Elizabeth had not before

believed him quite equal to such assurance; but she sat down,

resolving within herself to draw no limits in future to the

impudence of an impudent man. _She_ blushed, and Jane

blushed; but the cheeks of the two who caused their con-

fusion suffered no variation of colour.

There was no want of discourse. The bride and her

mother could neither of them talk fast enough; and Wick-

ham, who happened to sit near Elizabeth, began inquiring

after his acquaintance in that neighbourhood, with a good-~

humoured ease which she felt very unable to equal in her

replies. They seemed each of them to have the happiest

memories in the world. Nothing of the past was recollected

with pain; and Lydia led voluntarily to subjects which her

sisters would not have alluded to for the world.

'Only think of its being three months,' she cried, 'since I

went away: it seems but a fortnight, I declare; and yet there

have been things enough happened in the time. Good

gracious! when I went away, I am sure I had no more idea

of being married till I came back again! though I thought

it would be very good fun if I was.'

Her father lifted up his eyes, Jane was distressed, Eliza-

beth looked expressively at Lydia; but she, who never heard

nor saw anything of which she chose to be insensible, gaily

continued, 'Oh, mamma, do the people hereabouts know I

am married to-day? I was afraid they might not; and we

overtook William Goulding in his curricle, so I was de-

termined he should know it, and so I let down the side glass

next to him, and took off my glove and let my hand just

rest upon the window frame, so that he might see the ring,

and then I bowed and smiled like anything.'

Elizabeth could bear it no longer. She got up and ran

out of the room; and returned no more till she heard them

passing through the hall to the dining parlour. She then

joined them soon enough to see Lydia, with anxious parade,

walk up to her mother's right hand, and hear her say to her

eldest sister, 'Ah, Jane I take your place now, and you must

go lower, because I am a married woman.'

It was not to be supposed that time would give Lydia that

embarrassment from which she had been so wholly free at

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