Elizabeth was distressed. She felt that she had no business at Pemberley,and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it.She must own that she was tired of seeing great houses;after going over so many,she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains.
After the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence,health, good humour,and cheerfulness began to reappear at Longbourn. Everything wore a happier aspect.The families who had been in town for the winter came back again,and summer finery and summer engagements arose. Mrs. Bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity;and,by the middle of June,Kitty was so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears;an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth hope that by the following Christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable as not to mention an officer above once a day,unless,by some cruel and malicious arrangement at the War Office,another regiment should be quartered in Meryton.
With the mention of Derbyshire there were many ideas connected. It was impossible for her to see the word without thinking of Pemberley and its owner.“But surely,”said she,“I may enter his county without impunity,and rob it of a few petrified spars without his perceiving me.”
It is not the object of this work to give a deion of Derbyshire, nor of any of the remarkable places through which their route thither lay;Oxford,Blenheim,Warwick,Kenilworth,Birmingham, etc. are sufficiently known.A small part of Derbyshire is all the present concern.To the little town of Lambton, the scene of Mrs. Gardiner's former residence, and where she had lately learned some acquaintance still remained,they bent their steps, after having seen all the principal wonders of the country; and within five miles of Lambton, Elizabeth found from her aunt that Pemberley was situated.It was not in their direct road,nor more than a mile or two out of it.In talking over their route the evening before,Mrs.Gardiner expressed an inclination to see the place again.Mr.Gardiner declared his willingness,and Elizabeth was applied to for her approbation.