“Money!My uncle!”cried Jane,“what do you mean,sir?”
Jane,who was not so light nor so much in the habit of running as Elizabeth, soon lagged behind, while her sister, panting for breath,came up with him,and eagerly cried out:
Most earnestly did she then entreaty him to lose no more time before he wrote.
“What do you mean,Hill?We have heard nothing from town.”
“And may I ask―”said Elizabeth;“but the terms, I suppose, must be complied with.”
“Is it possible?”cried Elizabeth,when she had finished.“Can it be possible that he will marry her?”
“And have you answered the letter?”cried Elizabeth.
“Oh!my dear father,”she cried,“come back and write immediately. Consider how important every moment is in such a case.”
Elizabeth read on:
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.”
“I dislike it very much,”he replied;“but it must be done.”
“I mean,that no man in his proper senses would marry Lydia on so slight a temptation as one hundred a year during my life,and fifty after I am gone.”