Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 488 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 488

JANE AUSTEN

his family, and leave it to him to do whatever occasion

might suggest to be advisable for continuing their

pursuit. When Mrs. Bennet was told of this, she did not

express so much satisfaction as her children expected,

considering what her anxiety for his life had been

before.

“What, is he coming home, and without poor

Lydia?” she cried. “Sure he will not leave London before

he has found them. Who is to fight Wickham, and make

him marry her, if he comes away?”

As Mrs. Gardiner began to wish to be at home, it was

settled that she and the children should go to London, at

the same time that Mr. Bennet came from it. The coach,

therefore, took them the first stage of their journey, and

brought its master back to Longbourn. Mrs. Gardiner

went away in all the perplexity about Elizabeth and

her Derbyshire friend that had attended her from that

part of the world. His name had never been voluntarily

mentioned before them by her niece; and the kind of

half-expectation which Mrs. Gardiner had formed, of

their being followed by a letter from him, had ended in

nothing. Elizabeth had received none since her return

that could come from Pemberley.

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