{{prxprp200.jpg}} || 200 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

But the gloom of Lydia's prospect was shortly cleared away;

for she received an invitation from Mrs. Forster, the wife of the

colonel of the regiment, to accompany her to Brighton. This

invaluable friend was a very young woman, and very lately

married. A resemblance in good humour and good spirits had

recommended her and Lydia to each other, and out of their three

months' acquaintance they had been intimate two.

The rapture of Lydia on this occasion, her adoration of

Mrs. Forster, the delight of Mrs. Bcnnet, and the mortification of

Kitty, are scarcely to be described. Wholly inattentive to her

sister's feelings, Lydia flew about the house in restless ecstasy,

calling for every one's congratulations, and laughing and talking

with more violence than ever; whilst the luckless Kitty continued

in the parlour repining at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her

accent was peevish.

'I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask me as well as

Lydia,' said she, 'though I am not her particular friend. I have

just as much right to be asked as she has, and more too, for I am

two years older.'

In vain did Elizabeth attempt to make her reasonable, and

Jane to make her resigned. As for Elizabeth herself, this invita^

uon was so far from exciting in her the same feelings as in her

mother and Lydia, that she considered it as the death-warrant of

all possibility of common sense for the latter; and detestable as

such a step must make her were it known, she could not help

secretly advising her father not to let her go. She represented to

him all the improprieties of Lydia's general behaviour, the little

advantage she could derive from the friendship of such a woman

as Mrs. Forster, and the probability of her being yet more impru'

dent with such a companion at Brighton, where the temptations

must be greater than at home. He heard her attentively, and

then said,

'Lydia will never be easy till she has exposed herself in some

public place or other, and we can never expect her to do it with

so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the

present circumstances.'

'If you were aware,' said Elizabeth, 'of the very great disadvan^

 [[200]]