As Mrs.Gardiner began to wish to be at home,it was settled that she and the children should go to London,at the same time that Mr.Bennet came from it.The coach,therefore,took them the first stage of their journey, and brought its master back to Longbourn.
The present unhappy state of the family rendered any other excuse for the lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing, therefore,could be fairly conjectured from that,though Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy,she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better.It would have spared her,she thought,one sleepless night out of two.
Kitty,who took all these threats in a serious light,began to cry.
They were interrupted by Miss Bennet,who came to fetch her mother's tea.
“Lizzy,I bear you no ill-will for being justified in your advice to me last May,which,considering the event,shows some greatness of mind.”
“I am not going to run away, papa,”said Kitty fretfully.“If I should ever go to Brighton,I would behave better than Lydia.”
Then after a short silence he continued:
Mrs.Gardiner went away in all the perplexity about Elizabeth and her Derbyshire friend that had attended her from that part of the world.His name had never been voluntarily mentioned before them by her niece;and the kind of half-expectation which Mrs. Gardiner had formed, of their being followed by a letter from him,had ended in nothing.Elizabeth had received none since her return that could come from Pemberley.