The good news spread quickly through the house, and with proportionate speed through the neighbourhood. It was borne in the latter with decent philosophy. To be sure, it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had Miss Lydia Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative,been secluded from the world, in some distant farmhouse.But there was much to be talked of in marrying her; and the good-natured wishes for her well-doing which had proceeded before from all the spiteful old ladies in Meryton lost but a little of their spirit in this change of circumstances,because with such an husband her misery was considered certain.
It was a fortnight since Mrs.Bennet had been downstairs;but on this happy day she again took her seat at the head of her table, and in spirits oppressively high. No sentiment of shame gave a damp to her triumph.The marriage of a daughter,which had been the first object of her wishes since Jane was sixteen,was now on the point of accomplishment, and her thoughts and her words ran wholly on those attendants of elegant nuptials,fine muslins, new carriages, and servants. She was busily searching through the neighbourhood for a proper situation for her daughter,and, without knowing or considering what their income might be, rejected many as deficient in size and importance.
“Haye Park might do,”said she,“if the Gouldings could quit it—or the great house at Stoke,if the drawing-room were larger;but Ashworth is too far off!I could not bear to have her ten miles from me;and as for Pulvis Lodge,the attics are dreadful.”
Her husband allowed her to talk on without interruption while the servants remained. But when they had withdrawn, he said to her:“Mrs.Bennet,before you take any or all of these houses for your son and daughter,let us come to a right understanding. Into one house in this neighbourhood they shall never have admittance. I will not encourage the impudence of either, by receiving them at Longbourn.”
A long dispute followed this declaration; but Mr. Bennet was firm. It soon led to another; and Mrs. Bennet found, with amazement and horror, that her husband would not advance a guinea to buy clothes for his daughter. He protested that she should receive from him no mark of affection whatever on the occasion.Mrs.Bennet could hardly comprehend it.That his anger could be carried to such a point of inconceivable resentment as to refuse his daughter a privilege without which her marriage would scarcely seem valid,exceeded all she could believe possible.She was more alive to the disgrace which her want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter's nuptials, than to any sense of shame at her eloping and living with Wickham a fortnight before they took place.
