“Perhaps it would have been better,”replied her sister.
“Your attendance upon her has been too much for you.You do not look well.Oh that I had been with you!You have had every care and anxiety upon yourself alone.”
“Oh,Jane,had we been less secret,had we told what we knew of him,this could not have happened!”
“Oh! thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia!”cried Elizabeth when she had finished it.“What a letter is this,to be written at such a moment!But at least it shows that she was serious on the subject of their journey.Whatever he might afterwards persuade her to, it was not on her side a scheme of infamy.My poor father!how he must have felt it!”
“But to expose the former faults of any person without knowing what their present feelings were,seemed unjustifiable.We acted with the best intentions.”
“And did Colonel Forster appear to think ill of Wickham himself?Does he know his real character?”
“Mary and Kitty have been very kind,and would have shared in every fatigue,I am sure;but I did not think it right for either of them.Kitty is slight and delicate;and Mary studies so much,that her hours of repose should not be broken in on.My aunt Phillips came to Longbourn on Tuesday,after my father went away;and was so good as to stay till Thursday with me.She was of great use and comfort to us all.And Lady Lucas has been very kind;she walked here on Wednesday morning to condole with us,and offered her services,or any of her daughters',if they should be of use to us.”