{{prxprp202.jpg}} || 202 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ||

Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real mischief;

and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to any body. At

Brighton she will be of less importance even as a common flirt

than she has been here. The officers will find women better

worth their notice. Let us hope, therefore, that her being there

may teach her her own insignificance. At any rate, she cannot

grow many degrees worse, without authorizing us to lock her up

for the rest of her life.'

With this answer Elizabeth was forced to be content; but her

own opinion continued the same, and she left him disappointed

and sorry. It was not in her nature, however, to increase her

vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having

performed her duty, and to fret over unavoidable evils, or augment

them by anxiety, was no part of her disposition.

Had Lydia and her mother known the substance of her con-'

ference with her father, their indignation would hardly have found

expression in their united volubility. In Lydia's imagination, a

visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness.

She saw with the creative eye of fancy, the streets of that gay

bathing place covered with officers. She saw herself the object

of attention, to tens and to scores of them at present unknown.

She saw all the glories of the camp; its tents stretched forth in

beauteous uniformity of lines, crowded with the young and the

gay, and dazzling with scarlet; and to complete the view, she

saw herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly flirting with at least

six officers at once.

Had she known that her sister sought to tear her from such

prospects and such realities as these, what would have been her

sensations; They could have been understood only by her

mother, who might have felt nearly the same. Lydia's going to

Brighton was all that consoled her for the melancholy conviction

of her husband's never intending to go there himself

But they were entirely ignorant of what had passed; and their

raptures continued, with little intermission, to the very day of

Lydia's leaving home.

Elizabeth was now to see Mr. Wickham for the last time.

Having been frequently in company with him since her return,

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