“Lydia will never be easy until she has exposed herself in some public place or other,and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances.”
“Good Heaven!what is to become of us?What are we to do?”would they often exclaim in the bitterness of woe.“How can you be smiling so,Lizzy?”
“A little sea-bathing would set me up forever.”
The rapture of Lydia on this occasion, her adoration of Mrs. Forster, the delight of Mrs. Bennet, and the mortification of Kitty, are scarcely to be described.Wholly inattentive to her sister's feelings, Lydia flew about the house in restless ecstasy, calling for everyone's congratulations, and laughing and talking with more violence than ever;whilst the luckless Kitty continued in the parlour repined at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was peevish.
The first week of their return was soon gone.The second began. It was the last of the regiment's stay in Meryton,and all the young ladies in the neighbourhood were drooping apace.The dejection was almost universal.The elder Miss Bennets alone were still able to eat,drink,and sleep,and pursue the usual course of their employments.Very frequently were they reproached for this insensibility by Kitty and Lydia,whose own misery was extreme, and who could not comprehend such hard-heartedness in any of the family.