girls had been on the point of marriage, and after all there was nothing

in it.
“I do not blame Jane,” she continued, “for Jane would have got Mr.

Bingley if she could. But, Lizzy! Oh, sister! it is very hard to think

that she might have been Mr. Collins’s wife by this time, had not it

been for her own perverseness. He made her an offer in this very room,

and she refused him. The consequence of it is, that Lady Lucas will have

a daughter married before I have, and that Longbourn estate is just as

much entailed as ever. The Lucases are very artful people, indeed,

sister. They are all for what they can get. I am sorry to say it of

them, but so it is. It makes me very nervous and poorly, to be thwarted

so in my own family, and to have neighbours who think of themselves

before anybody else. However, your coming just at this time is the

greatest of comforts, and I am very glad to hear what you tell us of

long sleeves.”
Mrs. Gardiner, to whom the chief of this news had been given before, in

the course of Jane and Elizabeth’s correspondence with her, made her

sister a slight answer, and, in compassion to her nieces, turned the

conversation.
When alone with Elizabeth afterwards, she spoke more{177} on the subject.

“It seems likely to have been a desirable match for Jane,” said she. “I

am sorry it went off. But these things happen so often! A young man,

such as you describe Mr. Bingley, so easily falls in love with a pretty

girl for a few weeks, and, when accident separates them, so easily

forgets her, that these sort of inconstancies are very frequent.”

[Image unavailable.]

“Offended two or three young ladies”
[Copyright 1894 by George Allen.]

“An excellent consolation in its way,” said Elizabeth; “but it will not

do for us. We do not suffer by accident.{178} It does not often happen

that the interference of friends will persuade a young man of

independent fortune to think no more of a girl whom he was violently in