“How was it possible that such an idea should enter our brains? I felt a little uneasy―a little fearful of my sister's happiness with him in marriage,because I knew that his conduct had not been always quite right.My father and mother knew nothing of that;they only felt how imprudent a match it must be. Kitty then owned, with a very natural triumph on knowing more than the rest of us,that in Lydia's last letter she had prepared her for such a step.She had known,it seems,of their being in love with each other,many weeks.”
“He brought it with him for us to see.”
“Oh!Jane,”cried Elizabeth,“was there a servant belonging to it who did not know the whole story before the end of the day?”
“I never saw anyone so shocked.He could not speak a word for full ten minutes. My mother was taken ill immediately, and the whole house in such confusion!”
“Could Colonel Forster repeat the particulars of Lydia's note to his wife?”
“No,I believe not.”
“But to expose the former faults of any person without knowing what their present feelings were,seemed unjustifiable.We acted with the best intentions.”
“But not before they went to Brighton?”
“He meant I believe,”replied Jane,“to go to Epsom,the place where they last changed horses, see the postilions and try if anything could be made out from them.His principal object must be to discover the number of the hackney coach which took them from Clapham.It had come with a fare from London;and as he thought that the circumstance of a gentleman and lady's removing from one carriage into another might be remarked he meant to make inquiries at Clapham.If he could anyhow discover at what house the coachman had before set down his fare,he determined to make inquiries there,and hoped it might not be impossible to find out the stand and number of the coach.I do not know of any other designs that he had formed;but he was in such a hurry to be gone,and his spirits so greatly discomposed,that I had difficulty in finding out even so much as this.”