“Oh,yes!―if one could but go to Brighton!But papa is so disagreeable.”
“I cannot see why Mrs. Forster should not ask me as well as Lydia,”said she,“Though I am not her particular friend.I have just as much right to be asked as she has,and more too,for I am two years older.”
“Indeed you are mistaken. I have no such injuries to resent. It is not of particular, but of general evils, which I am now complaining. Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility,the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia's character. Excuse me, for I must speak plainly. If you, my dear father, will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits, and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment.Her character will be fixed,and she will,at sixteen,be the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous;a flirt,too,in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and, from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind,wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite. In this danger Kitty also is comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads.Vain,ignorant,idle,and absolutely uncontrolled!Oh!my dear father,can you suppose it possible that they will not be censured and despised wherever they are known, and that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?”