Elizabeth could bear it no longer.She got up,and ran out of the room;and returned no more,till she heard them passing through the hall to the dining parlour.She then joined them soon enough to see Lydia,with anxious parade,walk up to her mother's right hand,and hear her say to her eldest sister,
“Well, mamma,”said she, when they were all returned to the breakfast room,“and what do you think of my husband? Is not he a charming man? I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I only hope they may have half my good luck.They must all go to Brighton.That is the place to get husbands.What a pity it is, mamma,we did not all go.”
There was no want of discourse.The bride and her mother could neither of them talk fast enough; and Wickham, who happened to sit near Elizabeth, began inquiring after his acquaintance in that neighbourhood, with a good humoured ease which she felt very unable to equal in her replies.They seemed each of them to have the happiest memories in the world. Nothing of the past was recollected with pain; and Lydia led voluntarily to subjects which her sisters would not have alluded to for the world.