{{prxprp207.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 207 ||

'But it is fortunate,' thought she, 'that I have something to

wish for. Were the whole arrangement complete, my disappoint'

ment would be certain. But here, my carrying with me one

ceaseless source of regret in my sister's absence, I may reasonably

hope to have all my expectations of pleasure realized. A scheme

of which every part promises delight can never be successful; and

the general disappointment is only warded off by the defence of

some little peculiar vexation.'

When Lydia went away, she promised to write very often and

very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were always

long expected, and always very short. Those to her mother,

contained imie else, than that they were just returned from the

Library, where such and such officers had attended them, and

where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made her quite

wild; that she had a new gown, or a new parasol, which she

would have described more fully, but was obliged to leave off

in a violent hurry, as Mrs. Forster called her, and they were going

to the camp; -- and from her correspondence with her sister there

was still less to be learnt -- for her letters to Kitty, though rather

longer, were much too full of lines under the words to be made

pubb'c.

After the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence, health,

good humour, and cheerfulness began to reappear at Longbourn.

-- Everything wore a happier aspect. The families who had been

in town for the winter came back again, and summer finery and

summer engagements arose. Mrs. Bennet was restored to her

usual querulous serenity, and by the middle of June Kitty was

so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears;

an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth hope, that

by the following Christmas, she might be so tolerably reasonable

as not to mention an officer above once a day, unless, by some cruel

and malicious arrangement at the War^office, another regiment

should be quartered in Meryton.

The time fixed for the beginning of their Northern tour was

now fast approaching, and a fortnight only was wanting of it,

when a letter arrived from Mrs. Gardiner, which at once delayed

its commencement and curtailed its extent. Mr. Gardiner would

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