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damp to her triumph. The marriage of a daughter, which had been the first object of her wishes since Jane was sixteen, was now on the point of accomplishment, and her thoughts and her words ran
wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials, fine muslins, new muskets, and servants. She was
busily searching through the neighbourhood for a proper house for her daughter, and, without knowing or considering what their income might be, rejected many as deficient in size and
importance.
 Haye Park might do, said she,  if the Gouldings could quit it- or the great house at Stoke, if the drawing-room were larger; but Ashworth is too far off! I could not bear to have her ten miles from
me; and as for Pulvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful.
Her husband allowed her to talk on without interruption while the servants remained. But when they had withdrawn, he said to her:
 Mrs. Bennet, before you take any or all of these houses for your son and daughter, let us come to a right understanding. Into one house in this neighbourhood they shall never have admittance. I
will not encourage the impudence of either, by receiving them at Longbourn.
A long dispute followed this declaration; but Mr. Bennet was firm. It soon led to another; and Mrs. Bennet found, with amazement and horror, that her husband would not advance a guinea to buy
clothes for his daughter. He protested that she should receive from him no mark of affection whatever on the occasion. Mrs. Bennet could hardly comprehend it. That his anger could be carried to such
a point of inconceivable resentment as to refuse his daughter a privilege without which her marriage would scarcely seem valid, exceeded all she could believe possible. 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 future son s having abducted her daughter 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 unfavourable beginning from all those who were not immediately on the spot.
She had no fear of its spreading farther through his means. There
were few people on whose secrecy she would have more confidently depended; but, at the same time, there ¦was no one whose knowledge of a sister s frailty would have mortified her so much-
not, however, from any fear of disadvantage to herself, for she expected there would be no more civilities between them. Had Lydia s marriage been concluded on the most honourable terms, it was
not to be supposed that Mr. Darcy would connect himself with a family where, to every other objection, would now be added an alliance with a man whom he so justly scorned.
 What a triumph for him, she often thought, could he know that the proposals which she had proudly spurned only four months ago, would now have been most gladly and gratefully received! He
was as generous, she doubted not, as the most generous of his sex; but while he was mortal, there must be a triumph.
She began now to comprehend that he was exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her. His understanding and temper, though unlike her own, would have answered all
her wishes. It was an union that must have been to the advantage of both; by her aggression and liveliness, his introversion might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement,
information, and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance. What a pair of warriors they would make! Sparring by the river at Pemberley; crossing the Altai
Mountains in a fine coach on their way to Kyoto or Shanghai-their children eager to master death as their mother and father had before them.
But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was. An union of a different tendency, and precluding the possibility of the other, was soon to be
formed in their family. How Wickham and Lydia were to be supported in tolerable independence, she could not imagine. But how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only
brought together by an abduction, an attempted murder, and a carriage accident, she could easily conjecture.
Mr. Gardiner soon wrote again to his brother. The principal purport of his letter was to inform them that Mr. Wickham had resolved on quitting the militia.
Mr. Gardiner soon wrote again to his brother. The principal purport of his letter was to inform them that Mr. Wickham had resolved on quitting the militia. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]