{{prxprp128.jpg}} || 128 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

panicd her out of the room. As they went down stairs together,

Charlotte said,

'I shall depend on hearing from you very often, Eliza.'

'That you certainly shall.'

'And I have another favour to ask. Will you come and

see me?'

'Wc shall often meet, I hope, in Hertfordshire.'

'I am not likely to leave Kent for some time. Promise me,

therefore, to come to Hunsford.'

Elizabeth could not refuse, though she foresaw little pleasure

in the visit.

'My father and Maria are to come to me in March,' added

Charlotte, 'and I hope you will consent to be of the party. Indeed,

Eliza, you will be as welcome to me as either of them.'

The wedding took place: the bride and bridegroom set off for

Kent from the church door, and everybody had as much to say,

or to hear, on the subject as usual. Elizabeth soon heard from

her friend; and their correspondence was as regular and frequent

as it had ever been; that it should be equally unreserved was

impossible. Elizabeth could never address her without feeling

that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and, though determined

not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what

had been, rather than what was. Charlotte's first letters were

received with a good deal of eagerness; there could not but be

curiosity to know how she would speak of her new home, how

she would like Lady Catherine, and how happy she would

dare pronounce herself to be; though, when the letters were read,

Elizabeth felt that Charlotte expressed herself on every point

exactly as she might have foreseen. She wrote cheerfully, seemed

surrounded with comforts, and mentioned nothing which she

could not praise. The house, furniture, neighbourhood, and

roads, were all to her taste, and Lady Catherine's behaviour was

most friendly and obliging. It was Mr. Collins's picture of

Hunsford and Rosings rationally softened; and Elizabeth per'

ceived that she must wait for her own visit there, to know

the rest.

Jane had already written a few lines to her sister to announce

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