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Chapter XXXIX · Pride and Prejudice | Audiobook

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  Speaker 1: Chapter 39 It was the second week in May, in
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  Speaker 1: which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch
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  Speaker 1: Street for Hertfordshire, and, as they drew near the appointed
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  Speaker 1: inn where Mr Bennet's carriage was to meet them, they
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  Speaker 1: quickly perceived, in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty
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  Speaker 1: and Lydia looking out of a dining-room upstairs. These two
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  Speaker 1: girls had been above an hour in the place, happily
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  Speaker 1: employed in visiting an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on
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  Speaker 1: guard and dressing a salad and cucumber. After welcoming their sisters,
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  Speaker 1: they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold
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  Speaker 1: meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming,' Is not
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  Speaker 1: this nice? Is not this an agreeable surprise?' And we
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  Speaker 1: mean to treat you all, added Lydia, but you must
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  Speaker 1: lend us the money, for we have just spent hours
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  Speaker 1: at the shop out there. Then showing her purchases, Look here,
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  Speaker 1: I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it
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  Speaker 1: is very pretty, but I thought I might as well
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  Speaker 1: buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces
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  Speaker 1: as soon as I get home, and see if I
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  Speaker 1: can make it up any better. and when her sisters
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  Speaker 1: abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect unconcern, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: but there were two or three much uglier in the shop,
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  Speaker 1: and when I have bought some prettier coloured satin to
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  Speaker 1: trim it with fresh, I think it will be very tolerable. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: it will not much signify what one wears this summer,
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  Speaker 1: after the Shire have left Meryton, and they are going
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  Speaker 1: in a fortnight. Are they indeed? cried Elizabeth, with the
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  Speaker 1: greatest satisfaction. They are going to be encamped near Brighton,
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  Speaker 1: and I do so want Papa to take us all
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  Speaker 1: there for the summer. It would be such a delicious scheme,
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  Speaker 1: and I dare say, would hardly cost anything at all.
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  Speaker 1: Mama would like to go too, of all things. Only
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  Speaker 1: think what a miserable summer else we shall have. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: thought Elizabeth. That would be a delightful scheme indeed, and
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  Speaker 1: completely due for us at once. Good heaven! Brighton, and
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  Speaker 1: a whole campful of soldiers to us, who have been
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  Speaker 1: overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the
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  Speaker 1: monthly balls of Meryton. Now, I have got some news
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  Speaker 1: for you, said Lydia, as they sat down to table.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think? It is excellent news, capital news,
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  Speaker 1: and about a certain person that we all like. Jane
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  Speaker 1: and Elizabeth looked at each other, and the waiter was
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  Speaker 1: told that he need not stay. Lydia laughed and said, Aye,
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  Speaker 1: that is just like your formality and discretion. You thought
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  Speaker 1: the waiter must not hear, as if he cared. I
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  Speaker 1: dare say he often hears worse things said than I
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  Speaker 1: am going to say. But he is an ugly fellow.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad he is gone. I never saw such
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  Speaker 1: a long chin in my life. Well, but now for
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  Speaker 1: my news. It is about dear Wickham. Too good for
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  Speaker 1: the waiter, is not it? There is no danger of
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  Speaker 1: Wickham's marrying Mary King. There's for you. She has gone
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  Speaker 1: down to her uncle at Liverpool. Gone to stay. Wickham
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  Speaker 1: is safe. And Mary King is safe, added Elizabeth. safe
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  Speaker 1: from a connection imprudent as to fortune. She is a
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  Speaker 1: great fool for going away, if she liked him. But
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  Speaker 1: I hope there is no strong attachment on either side,
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  Speaker 1: said Jane. I am sure there is not on his.
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  Speaker 1: I will answer for it. He never cared three straws
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  Speaker 1: about her. Who could about such a nasty little freckled thing?
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was shocked to think that However incapable of such
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  Speaker 1: coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was
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  Speaker 1: little other than her own breast had formerly harboured and
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  Speaker 1: fancied liberal. As soon as all had ate, and the
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  Speaker 1: elder ones paid, the carriage was ordered, and, after some contrivance,
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  Speaker 1: the whole party, with all their boxes, workbags and parcels,
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  Speaker 1: and the unwelcome addition of Kitty's and Lydia's purchases were
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  Speaker 1: seated in it. How nicely we are crammed in, cried Lydia.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad I brought my bonnet, if it is
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  Speaker 1: only for the fun of having another bandbox. Well, now,
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  Speaker 1: let us be quite comfortable and snug, and talk and
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  Speaker 1: laugh all the way home, and in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: let us hear what has happened to you all since
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  Speaker 1: you went away. Have you seen any pleasant men? Have
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  Speaker 1: you had any flirting? I was in great hopes that
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  Speaker 1: one of you would have got a husband before you
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  Speaker 1: came back. Jane will be quite an old maid soon,
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  Speaker 1: I declare. She is almost three-and-twenty. Lord, how ashamed I
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  Speaker 1: should be of not being married before three-and-twenty. My Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Phillips wants you so to get husbands you can't think.
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  Speaker 1: She says Lizzie had better have taken Mr. Collins, but
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  Speaker 1: I do not think there would have been any fun
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  Speaker 1: in it. Lord, how I should like to be married
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  Speaker 1: before any of you, and then I would chaperone you
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  Speaker 1: about to all the balls. Dear me, we had such
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  Speaker 1: a good piece of fun the other day at Colonel Forster's.
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  Speaker 1: Kitty and me were to spend the day there, and Mrs.
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  Speaker 1: Forster promised to have a little dance in the evening.
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  Speaker 1: By the by, Mrs. Forster and me are such friends.
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  Speaker 1: And so she asked the two Harringtons to come. But
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  Speaker 1: Harriet was ill, and so Pen was forced to come
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  Speaker 1: by herself. And then, what do you think we did?
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  Speaker 1: We dressed up Chamberlain in woman's clothes on purpose to
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  Speaker 1: pass for a lady. Only think what fun! Not a
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  Speaker 1: soul knew of it, but Colonel and Mrs. Forster and
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  Speaker 1: Kitty and me except my aunt, for we were forced
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  Speaker 1: to borrow one of her gowns, and you cannot imagine
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  Speaker 1: how well he looked. When Denny, and Wickham, and Pratt,
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  Speaker 1: and two or three more of the men came in,
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  Speaker 1: they did not know him in the least. Lord, how
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  Speaker 1: I laughed, and so did Mrs Forster. I thought I
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  Speaker 1: should have died, and that made the men suspect something,
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  Speaker 1: and then they soon found out what was the matter.
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  Speaker 1: With such kind of histories of their parties and good jokes,
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  Speaker 1: did Lydia, assisted by Kitty's hints and additions, endeavour to
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  Speaker 1: amuse her companions all the way to Longbourn. Elizabeth listened
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  Speaker 1: as little as she could, but there was no escaping
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  Speaker 1: the frequent mention of Wickham's name. Their reception at home
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  Speaker 1: was most kind. Mrs Bennet rejoiced to see Jane in
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  Speaker 1: undiminished beauty. and more than once during dinner did Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth, I am glad you are
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  Speaker 1: come back, Lizzie. Their party in the dining room was large,
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  Speaker 1: for almost all the Lucases came to meet Maria and
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  Speaker 1: hear the news, and various were the subjects which occupied them.
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  Speaker 1: Lady Lucas was inquiring of Maria across the table, after
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  Speaker 1: the welfare and poultry of her eldest daughter. Mrs. Bennet,
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  Speaker 1: was doubly engaged, on one hand collecting an account of
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  Speaker 1: the present fashions from Jane, who sat some way below her,
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  Speaker 1: and on the other, retailing them all to the younger
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  Speaker 1: Miss Lucases. And Lydia, in a voice rather louder than
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  Speaker 1: any other person's, was enumerating the various pleasures of the
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  Speaker 1: morning to anybody who would hear her. Oh, Mary, said she,
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  Speaker 1: I wish you had gone with us. for we had
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  Speaker 1: such fun. As we went along, Kitty and me drew
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  Speaker 1: up all the blinds and pretended there was nobody in
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  Speaker 1: the coach, and I should have gone so all the way,
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  Speaker 1: if Kitty had not been sick. And when we got
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  Speaker 1: to the George, I do think we behaved very handsomely,
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  Speaker 1: for we treated the other three with the nicest cold
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  Speaker 1: luncheon in the world, and if you would have gone,
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  Speaker 1: we would have treated you too. And then when we
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  Speaker 1: came away, it was such fun. I thought we never
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  Speaker 1: should have got into the coach. I was ready to
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  Speaker 1: die of laughter. And then we were so merry all
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  Speaker 1: the way home. We talked and laughed so loud that
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  Speaker 1: anybody might have heard us ten miles off. To this,
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  Speaker 1: Mary very gravely replied, Far be it from me, my
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  Speaker 1: dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be
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  Speaker 1: congenial with the generality of female minds, but I confess
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  Speaker 1: they would have no charms for me. I should infinitely
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  Speaker 1: prefer a book. But of this answer Lydia heard not
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  Speaker 1: a word. She seldom listened to anybody for more than
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  Speaker 1: half a minute, and never attended to Mary at all.
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  Speaker 1: In the afternoon she Lydia was urgent with the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the girls to walk to Meryton and see how
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  Speaker 1: everybody went on, but Elizabeth steadily opposed the scheme. It
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  Speaker 1: should not be said that the Miss Bennets could not
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  Speaker 1: be at home half a day before they were in
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  Speaker 1: pursuit of the officers. There was another reason, too, for
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  Speaker 1: her opposition. She dreaded seeing Wickham again. and was resolved
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  Speaker 1: to avoid it as long as possible. The comfort to
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  Speaker 1: her of the regiment's approaching removal was indeed beyond expression.
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  Speaker 1: In a fortnight they were to go, and once gone,
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  Speaker 1: she hoped there could be nothing more to plague her
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  Speaker 1: on his account. She had not been many hours at
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  Speaker 1: home before she found that the Brighton scheme had of
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  Speaker 1: which Lydia had given them a hint at the inn,
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  Speaker 1: was under frequent discussion between her parents. Elizabeth saw directly
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  Speaker 1: that her father had not the smallest intention of yielding,
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  Speaker 1: but his answers were at the same time so vague
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  Speaker 1: and equivocal that her mother, though often disheartened, had never
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  Speaker 1: yet despaired of succeeding at last.