Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 385 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 385

Pride and Prejudice

“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?”

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