is also 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?{289}”
Mr. Bennet saw that her whole heart was in the subject; and,

affectionately taking her hand, said, in reply,—
“Do not make yourself uneasy, my love. Wherever you and Jane are known,

you must be respected and valued; and you will not appear to less

advantage for having a couple of—or I may say, three—very silly

sisters. We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to

Brighton. Let her go, then. Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and will

keep her out of any real mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an

object of prey to anybody. At Brighton she will be of less importance

even as a common flirt than she has been here. The officers will find

women better worth their notice. Let us hope, therefore, that her being

there may teach her her own insignificance. At any rate, she cannot grow

many degrees worse, without authorizing us to lock her up for the rest

of her life.”
With this answer Elizabeth was forced to be content; but her own opinion

continued the same, and she left him disappointed and sorry. It was not

in her nature, however, to increase her vexations by dwelling on them.

She was confident of having performed her duty; and to fret over

unavoidable evils, or augment them by anxiety, was no part of her

disposition.
Had Lydia and her mother known the substance of her conference with her

father, their indignation would hardly have found expression in their

united volubility. In Lydia’s imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised

every possibility of earthly happiness. She saw, with the creative eye

of fancy, the streets of that gay bathing-place covered with officers.