{{prxprp125.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 125 ||

reanimated, and the influence of his friends successfully combated

by the more natural influence of Jane's attractions.

Miss Bennet accepted her aunt's invitation with pleasure; and

the Bingleys were no otherwise in her thoughts at the same time,

than as she hoped by Caroline's not living in the same house

with her brother, she might occasionally spend a morning with

her, without any danger of seeing him.

The Gardincrs staid a week at Longbourn; and what with

the Philipses, the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day

without its engagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided

tor the entertainment of her brother and sister, that they did not

once sit down to a family dinner. When the engagement was

for home, some of the officers always made part of it, of which

officers Mr. Wickham was sure to be one; and on these occasions,

Mrs. Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth's warm conv

mendation of him, narrowly observed them both. Without

supposing them, from what she saw, to be very seriously in love,

their preference of each other was plain enough to make her a

little uneasy; and she resolved to speak to Elizabeth on the subject

before she left Hertfordshire, and represent to her the imprudence

of encouraging such an attachment.

To Mrs. Gardiner, Wickham had one means of affording

pleasure, unconnected with his general powers. About ten or

a dozen years ago, before her marriage, she had spent a considerable

time in that very part of Derbyshire to which he belonged. They

had, therefore, many acquaintance in common; and, though

Wickham had been little there since the death of Darcy's father,

five years before, it was yet in his power to give her fresher

intelligence of her former friends, than she had been in the way

of procuring.

Mrs. Gardiner had seen Pemberley, and known the late

Mr. Darcy by character perfectly well. Here consequently was

an inexhaustible subject of discourse. In comparing her recoil

lection of Pemberley, with the minute description which Wickham

could give, and in bestowing her tribute of praise on the character

of its late possessor, she was delighting both him and herself.

On being made acquainted with the present Mr. Darcy's treatment

 [[125]]