{{prxprp189.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 189 ||

even for Longbourn, before she told her sister of Mr. Darcy's

proposals. To know that she had the power of revealing what

would so exceedingly astonish Jane, and must, at the same time,

so highly gratify whatever of her own vanity she had not yet been

able to reason away, was such a temptation to openness as nothing

could have conquered, but the state of indecision in which she

remained as to the extent of what she should communicate; and

Ker fear, if she once entered on the subject, of being hurried into

repeating something of Bingley, which might only grieve her

sister further.

Chapter XXXIX

It was the second week in May, in which the three young ladies

set out together from Gracechurclvstreet for the town of, in

Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where

Mr. Bennet's carriage was to meet them, they quickly perceived,

in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia

looking out of a dining-room upstairs. These two girls had

been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting

an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing

a [salad] and cucumber.

After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a

table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords,

exclaiming: 'Is not this nice? is not this an agreeable surprise;'

'And we mean to treat you all,' added Lydia; 'but you must

lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out

there.' Then showing her purchases: 'Look here, I have bought

this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought

I might as well buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as

I get home, and see if I can make it up any better.'

 [[189]]