“I am sure,”said she,“I cried for two days together when Colonel Miller's regiment went away. I thought I should have broken my heart.”
“Already arisen?”repeated Mr. Bennet.“What, has she frightened away some of your lovers? Poor little Lizzy! But do not be cast down. Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.Come, let me see the list of pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by Lydia's folly.”
“Good Heaven!what is to become of us?What are we to do?”would they often exclaim in the bitterness of woe.“How can you be smiling so,Lizzy?”
Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually through Longbourn House. Elizabeth tried to be diverted by them;but all sense of pleasure was lost in shame.She felt anew the justice of Mr. Darcy's objections; and never had she been so much disposed to pardon his interference in the views of his friend.
“Indeed you are mistaken. I have no such injuries to resent. It is not of particular, but of general evils, which I am now complaining. Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility,the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia's character. Excuse me, for I must speak plainly. If you, my dear father, will not take the trouble of checking her exuberant spirits, and of teaching her that her present pursuits are not to be the business of her life, she will soon be beyond the reach of amendment.Her character will be fixed,and she will,at sixteen,be the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous;a flirt,too,in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and, from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind,wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite. In this danger Kitty also is comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads.Vain,ignorant,idle,and absolutely uncontrolled!Oh!my dear father,can you suppose it possible that they will not be censured and despised wherever they are known, and that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?”