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I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for

myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet

with another Mr. Collins in time.'

The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not

be long a secret. Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it

to Mrs. Philips, and she ventured, without any permission, to

do the same by all her neighbours in Meryton.

The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest

family in the world; though only a few weeks before, when

Lydia had first run away, they had been generally proved to

be marked out for misfortune.

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