Chapter 39 210
Chapter 39
It was the second week in May, in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch Street for the town of----, in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr. Bennet ' s carriage was to meet them, they quickly perceived, in token of the coachman ' s punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out of a dining-room upstairs. These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing a salad and cucumber.
After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming, " Is not this nice? Is not this an agreeable surprise?"
" And we mean to treat you all," added Lydia, " but you must lend us the money, for we have just spent ours at the shop out there." Then, showing her purchases-- " Look here, I have bought this bonnet. I do not think it is very pretty; but I thought I might as well buy it as not. I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better."
And when her sisters abused it as ugly, she added, with perfect unconcern, " Oh! but there were two or three much uglier in the shop; and when I have bought some prettier-coloured satin to trim it with fresh, I think it will be very tolerable. Besides, it will not much signify what one wears this summer, after the----shire have left Meryton, and they are going in a fortnight."
" Are they indeed!" cried Elizabeth, with the greatest satisfaction.
" They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa to take us all there for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme; and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all. Mamma would like to go too of all things! Only think what a miserable summer else we shall have!"