Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 518 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 518

JANE AUSTEN

might not; and we overtook William Goulding in his

curricle, so I was determined he should know it, and

so I let down the side-glass next to him, and took off

my glove, and let my hand just rest upon the window

frame, so that he might see the ring, and then I bowed

and smiled like anything.”

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, “Ah! Jane, I take

your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a

married woman.”

It was not to be supposed that time would give

Lydia that embarrassment from which she had been

so wholly free at first. Her ease and good spirits

increased. She longed to see Mrs. Phillips, the Lucases,

and all their other neighbours, and to hear herself called

“Mrs. Wickham” by each of them; and in the mean time,

she went after dinner to show her ring, and boast of

being married, to Mrs. Hill and the two housemaids.

“Well, mamma,” said she, when they were all

returned to the breakfast-room, “and what do you think

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