{{prxprp261.jpg}} || PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 261 ||

> to settle on my niece, in addition to her own fortune. If, as I conclude

> will be the case, you send me full powers to act in your name, throughout

> the whole of this business, I will immediately give directions to Hagger'

> ston for preparing a proper settlement. There will not be the smallest

> occasion for your coming to town again; therefore, stay quietly at

> Longbourn, and depend on my diligence and care. Send back your

> answer as soon as you can, and be careful te write explicitly. We

> have judged it best, that my niece should be married from this house,

> of which I hope you will approve. She comes to us to-day. I shall

> write again as soon as any thing more is determined on. Yours, dec.

> '£dw. Gardiner.'

'Is it possible!' cried Elizabeth, when she had finished. 'Can

it be possible that he will marry her?'

'Wickham is not so undeserving, then, as we have thought him,'

said her sister. 'My dear father, I congratulate you.'

'And have you answered the letter?' said Elizabeth.

'No; but it must be done soon.'

Most earnestly did she then entreat him to lose no more time

before he wrote.

'Oh! my dear father,' she cried, 'come back and write

immediately. Consider how important every moment is in

such a case.'

'Let me write for you,' said Jane, 'if you dislike the trouble

yourself.'

'I dislike it very much,' he replied; 'but it must be done.'

And so saying, he turned back with them, and walked towards

the house.

'And may I ask?' said Elizabeth; 'but the terms, I suppose,

must be complied with.'

'Complied with! I am only ashamed of his asking so

little.'

'And they must marry! Yet he is such a man.'

'Yes, yes, they must marry. There is nothing else to be done.

But there are two things that I want very much to know: -- one is,

how much money your uncle has laid down, to bring it about;

and the other, how I am ever to pay him.'

'Money! my uncle!' cried Jane, 'what do you mean, sir?'

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