Pride and Prejudice

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Their reception from Mr. Bennet, to whom they then turned, was not quite so cordial. His countenance rather gained in austerity, and he scarcely opened his lips. The easy assurance of the young couple indeed was enough to provoke him. Elizabeth was disgusted, and even Miss Bennet was shocked. Lydia was Lydia still, untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless. She turned from sister to sister, demanding their congratulations, and when at length they all sat down, looked eagerly round the room, took notice of some little alteration in it, and observed with a laugh that it was a great while since she had been there.

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The sanguine hope of good, however, which the benevolence of her heart suggested, had not yet deserted her. She still expected that it would all end well, and that every morning would bring some letter, either from Lydia or her father, to explain their proceedings, and perhaps announce their marriage. Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired after a few minutes' conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected, with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage, blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing

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well looked after. I always thought they were unfit to have the charge of her, but I was overruled, as I always am. Poor dear child. And now here's Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight Wickham wherever he meets him, and then he will be killed, and what is to become of us all? The Collinses will turn us out before he is cold in his grave, and if you are not kind to us, brother, I do not know what we shall do

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And now do, when you get to town, find them out wherever they may be. And if they are not married already, make them marry. And as for wedding clothes, do not let them wait for that, but tell Lydia she shall have as much money as she chooses to buy them after they are married. And above all, keep Mr. Bennet from fighting. Tell him what a dreadful state I am in, that I am frighted out of my wits, and have such tremblings, such flutterings all over me, such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by day. And tell my dear Lydia not to give any directions about her clothes till she has seen me, for she does not know which are the best warehouses.

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Mr. Gardiner left Longbourn on Sunday. On Tuesday, his wife received a letter from him. It told them that on his arrival, he had immediately found out his brother and persuaded him to come to Gracechurch Street. That Mr. Bennet had been to Epsom and Clapham before his arrival, but without gaining any satisfactory information, and that he was now determined to inquire at all the principal hotels in town, as Mr. Bennet thought it possible they might have gone to one of them on their first coming to London before they procured lodgings. Mr. Gardiner himself did not expect any success from this measure, but as his brother was eager in it, he meant to assist him in pursuing it.

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She was more alive to the disgrace which her want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter's nuptials than to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with Wickham a fortnight before they took place. Elizabeth was now most heartily sorry that she had, from the distress of the moment, been led to make Mr. Darcy acquainted with their fears for her sister. For since her marriage would so shortly give the proper termination to the elopement, they might hope to conceal its unfavorable beginning from all those who were not immediately on the spot.

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I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister's infamous elopement. I know it all, that the young man's marrying her was a patched-up business at the expense of your father and uncles. And is such a girl to be my nephew's sister? Is her husband, is the son of his late father's steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth! Of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted? You can now have nothing further to say, she resentfully answered. You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg you to return to the house.

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Not a syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy's meditated elopement. To no creature had it been revealed where secrecy was possible, except to Elizabeth and from all Bingley's connections her brother was particularly anxious to conceal it from the very wish which Elizabeth had long ago attributed to him of their becoming hereafter her own He had certainly formed such a plan, and without meaning that it should affect his endeavor to separate him from Miss Bennet, it is probable that it might add something to his lively concern for the welfare of his friend.

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"Well, Lizzy," said Mrs. Bennet one day, "what is your opinion now of this sad business of Jane's? For my part, I am determined never to speak of it again to anybody. I told my sister Phillips so the other day, but I cannot find out that Jane saw anything of him in London. Well, he is a very undeserving young man, and I do not suppose there's the least chance in the world of her ever getting him now. There is no talk of his coming to Netherfield again in the summer, and I have inquired of everybody, too, who is likely to know."