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?”
“But I hope there is no strong attachment on either side,”said Jane.
“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!”
“Now I have got some news for you,”said Lydia, as they sat down at table.“What do you think?It is excellent news―capital news―and about a certain person we all like!”
It was the second week in May,in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch Street for the town of―,in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr.Bennet's carriage was to meet them,they quickly perceived, in token of the coachman's punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out of a dining-room upstairs.These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner,watching the sentinel on guard,and dressing a salad and cucumber.