watchfulness has been effectual; and though I should certainly be a more

interesting object to all my acquaintance, were I distractedly in love

with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative insignificance.

Importance may sometimes be purchased too dearly. Kitty and Lydia take

his defection much more to heart than I do. They are young in the ways

of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that

handsome young men must have something to live on as well as the

plain.{189}”

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“On the Stairs.”


CHAPTERXXVII.

WITH no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise

diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and

sometimes cold, did January and February pass away. March was to take

Elizabeth to Hunsford. She had not at first thought very seriously of

going thither; but Charlotte, she soon found, was depending on the

plan,{190} and she gradually learned to consider it herself with greater

pleasure as well as greater certainty. Absence had increased her desire

of seeing Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins.

There was novelty in the scheme; and as, with such a mother and such

uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little change

was not unwelcome for its own sake. The journey would, moreover, give

her a peep at Jane; and, in short, as the time drew near, she would have

been very sorry for any delay. Everything, however, went on smoothly,

and was finally settled according to Charlotte’s first sketch. She was

to accompany Sir William and his second daughter. The improvement of

spending a night in London was added in time, and the plan became as

perfect as plan could be.
The only pain was in leaving her father, who would certainly miss her,

and who, when it came to the point, so little liked her going, that he

told her to write to him, and almost promised to answer her letter.