talk of having Longbourn when your father is dead. They look upon it

quite as their own, I dare say, whenever that happens.”
“It was a subject which they could not mention before me.”
“No; it would have been strange if they had. But I make no doubt they

often talk of it between themselves. Well, if they can be easy with an

estate that is not lawfully their own, so much the better. I should be

ashamed of having one that was only entailed on me.{285}”

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“When Colonel Miller’s regiment went.”


CHAPTER XLI.

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,{286} whose own misery was extreme, and who could not comprehend such

hard-heartedness in any of the family.
“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?”
Their affectionate mother shared all their grief; she remembered what

she had herself endured on a similar occasion five-and-twenty years ago.
“I am sure,” said she, “I cried for two days together when Colonel

Miller’s regiment went away. I thought I should have broke my heart.”
“I am sure I shall break mine,” said Lydia.
“If one could but go to Brighton!” observed Mrs. Bennet.
“Oh yes!—if one could but go to Brighton! But papa is so disagreeable.”
“A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever.”
“And my aunt Philips is sure it would do me a great deal of good,”

added Kitty.
Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually through

Longbourn House. Elizabeth tried to be diverted by them; but all sense