Upon this information,they instantly passed through the hall once more, and ran across the lawn after their father, who was deliberately pursuing his way towards a small wood on one side of the paddock.
“Oh, papa, what news―what news? Have you heard from my uncle?”
Two days after Mr.Bennet's return,as Jane and Elizabeth were walking together in the shrubbery behind the house,they saw the housekeeper coming towards them, and, concluding that she came to call them to their mother, went forward to meet her; but, instead of the expected summons, when they approached her, she said to Miss Bennet,“I beg your pardon,madam,for interrupting you, but I was in hopes you might have got some good news from town,so I took the liberty of coming to ask.”
Away ran the girls,too eager to get in to have time for speech. They ran through the vestibule into the breakfast-room; from thence to the library;their father was in neither;and they were on the point of seeking him upstairs with their mother,when they were met by the butler,who said:
“Oh!my dear father,”she cried,“come back and write immediately. Consider how important every moment is in such a case.”
“Ten thousand pounds!Heaven forbid!How is half such a sum to be repaid?”
“Yes,yes,they must marry.There is nothing else to be done.But there are two things that I want very much to know;one is,how much money your uncle has laid down to bring it about;and the other,how am I ever to pay him.”