{{prxprp255.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 255 ||

shire might be able to give more information; and though

she was not very sanguine in expecting it, the application was

a something to look forward to.

Every day at Longbourn was now a day of anxiety; but the

most anxious part of each was when the post was expected. The

arrival of letters was the first grand object of every morning's

impatience. Through letters, whatever of good or bad was to be

told, would be communicated, and every succeeding day was

expected to bring some news of importance.

But before they heard again from Mr. Gardiner, a letter arrived

for their father, from a different quarter, from Mr. Collins; which,

as Jane had received directions to open all that came for him in

his absence, she accordingly read; and Elizabeth, who knew what

curiosities his letters always were, looked over her, and read it

likewise. It was as follows:

'My dear Sir,

'I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in

life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering

under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertford'

shire. Be assured, my dear sir, that Mrs. Collins and myself sincerely

sympathise with you, and all your respectable family, in your present

distress, which must be of the bitterest kind, because proceeding from

a cause which no time can remove. No arguments shall be wanting

on my part, that can alleviate so severe a misfortune; or that may comfort

you, under a circumstance that must be of all others most afflicting to a

parent's mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing

in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because

there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this

licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a

faulty degree of indulgence; though, at the same time, for the consolation

of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own dis^

position must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an

enormity, at so early an age. Howsoever that may be, you are grievously

to be pitied, in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins,

but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have

related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false

step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others,

for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect

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