Chapter 46 258
intention . I must conclude , for I cannot be long from my poor mother . I am afraid you will not be able to make it out , but I hardly know what I have written ."
Without allowing herself time for consideration , and scarcely knowing what she felt , Elizabeth on finishing this letter instantly seized the other , and opening it with the utmost impatience , read as follows : it had been written a day later than the conclusion of the first .
" By this time , my dearest sister , you have received my hurried letter ; I wish this may be more intelligible , but though not confined for time , my head is so bewildered that I cannot answer for being coherent . Dearest Lizzy , I hardly know what I would write , but I have bad news for you , and it cannot be delayed . Imprudent as the marriage between Mr . Wickham and our poor Lydia would be , we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place , for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland . Colonel Forster came yesterday , having left Brighton the day before , not many hours after the express . Though Lydia ' s short letter to Mrs . F . gave them to understand that they were going to Gretna Green , something was dropped by Denny expressing his belief that W . never intended to go there , or to marry Lydia at all , which was repeated to Colonel F ., who , instantly taking the alarm , set off from B . intending to trace their route . He did trace them easily to Clapham , but no further ; for on entering that place , they removed into a hackney coach , and dismissed the chaise that brought them from Epsom . All that is known after this is , that they were seen to continue the London road . I know not what to think . After making every possible inquiry on that side London , Colonel F . came on into Hertfordshire , anxiously renewing them at all the turnpikes , and at the inns in Barnet and Hatfield , but without any success--no such people had been seen to pass through . With the kindest concern he came on to Longbourn , and broke his apprehensions to us in a manner most creditable to his heart . I am sincerely grieved for him and Mrs . F ., but no one can throw any blame on them . Our distress , my dear Lizzy , is very great . My father and mother believe the worst , but I cannot think so ill of him . Many circumstances might make it more eligible for them to be married privately in town than to pursue their first plan ; and even if he could form such a design against a young woman