第82章[第3页/共3页]

“Are they indeed!”cried Elizabeth,with the greatest satisfaction.

“And Mary King is safe!”added Elizabeth;“safe from a connection imprudent as to fortune.”

“But I hope there is no strong attachment on either side,”said Jane.

“I am sure there is not on his. I will answer for it, he never cared three straws about her―who could about such a nasty little freckled thing?”

Jane and Elizabeth looked at each other,and the waiter was told he need not stay.Lydia laughed,and said:

After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming,“Is not this nice?Is not this an agreeable surprise?”

“Yes,”thought Elizabeth,“that would be a delightful scheme indeed,and completely do for us at once.Good Heaven!Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia,and the monthly balls of Meryton!”