“I thank you for my share of the favour,”said Elizabeth;“but I do not particularly like your way of getting husbands.”
They came.The family were assembled in the breakfast room to receive them. Smiles decked the face of Mrs. Bennet as the carriage drove up to the door;her husband looked impenetrably grave;her daughters,alarmed,anxious,uneasy.
“Oh! mamma, do the people hereabouts know I am married to-day? I was afraid they might not; and we overtook William Goulding in his curricle, so I was determined he should know it,and so I let down the side-glass next to him,and took off my glove,and let my hand just rest upon the window frame,so that he might see the ring,and then I bowed and smiled like anything.”
Their reception from Mr. Bennet, to whom they then turned,was not quite so cordial. His countenance rather gained in austerity;and he scarcely opened his lips.The easy assurance of the young couple,indeed,was enough to provoke him.
Elizabeth was disgusted, and even Miss Bennet was shocked. Lydia was Lydia still;untamed,unabashed,wild,noisy,and fearless. She turned from sister to sister,demanding their congratulations;and when at length they all sat down,looked eagerly round the room, took notice of some little alteration in it, and observed, with a laugh,that it was a great while since she had been there.