together from Gracechurch Street for the town of ——, in Hertfordshire;

and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr. Bennet’s carriage was

to meet them, they quickly perceived, in token of the coachman’s

punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out of a dining-room upstairs.

These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed

in{273} visiting an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and

dressing a salad and cucumber.
After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set

out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming,

“Is not this nice? is not this an agreeable surprise?”
“And we mean to treat you all,” added Lydia; “but you must lend us the

money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.” Then showing

her purchases,—“Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it

is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not. I shall

pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any

better.”
And when her sisters abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect

unconcern, “Oh, but there were two or three much uglier in the shop; and

when I have bought some prettier-coloured satin to trim it with fresh, I

think it will be very tolerable. Besides, it will not much signify what

one wears this summer, after the ——shire have left Meryton, and they

are going in a fortnight.”
“Are they, indeed?” cried Elizabeth, with the greatest satisfaction.
“They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa to

take us all there for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme,

and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all. Mamma would like to

go, too, of all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we shall

have!”
“Yes,” thought Elizabeth; “that would be a delightful scheme, indeed,

and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton and a whole

campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor