41 Pride And Prejudice Chapter - Stephanie Poppins
Pride and Prejudice is a classic tale of love and uncertainty by English Author Jane Austen. In these gently read stories, we escape into a time long past. In this episode, Lydia makes plans for Brighton, and the regiment residing there. Read and Performed by English author Stephanie Poppins.
Transcript
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Read by S.
D.
Hudson Chapter 41 The first week of their return was soon gone.
The second began.
It was the last of the regiment's stay in Meryton,
And all the young ladies in the neighbourhood were drooping apace.
The dejection was almost universal.
The elder Miss Bennets alone was still able to eat,
Drink and sleep and pursue the usual course of their employments.
Very frequently were they reproached for this insensibility by Kitty and Lydia,
Whose own misery was extreme,
And who could not comprehend such hard-heartedness in any of the family.
Good heaven!
What is to become of us?
What are we to do?
They would often exclaim at the bitter,
How can you be so smiling,
Lizzie?
Their affectionate mother shared all their grief.
She remembered what she had herself endured on a similar occasion five and twenty years ago.
I am sure,
Said she,
I cried for two days together when Colonel Miller's regiment went away.
I thought I should have broke my heart.
I'm sure I shall break mine,
Said Lydia.
If one could but go to Brighton,
Observed Mrs.
Bennet.
Oh yes,
If one could but go to Brighton.
But Papa is so disagreeable.
A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever.
And my Aunt Phillips is sure it would do me a great deal of good,
Added Kitty.
Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually through Longbourn House.
Elizabeth tried to be told.
She was overtly diverted by them,
But all sense of pleasure was lost in shame.
She felt anew the justice of Mr.
Darcy's objections,
And never had she before been so much disposed to pardon his interference in the views of his friend.
But the gloom of Lydia's prospect was shortly cleared away,
For she received an invitation from Mrs.
Forster,
The wife of the Colonel of the Regiment,
To accompany her to Brighton.
This invaluable friend was a friend of hers,
And she was a friend of hers.
This invaluable friend was a friend of hers,
And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
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And she was a friend of hers.
This invaluable friend was a friend of hers,
And she was a friend of hers.
This invaluable friend was a friend of hers,
And she was a friend of hers.
This invaluable friend was a friend of hers,
And she was a friend of hers.
If you were aware,
Said Elizabeth,
Of the very great disadvantage to us all which must arise from the public notice of Lydia's unguarded and imprudent manner,
Nay,
Which has already arisen from it,
I am sure you would judge differently in the affair.
Already risen?
Repeated Mr.
Bennet.
What,
Has she frightened away some of your lovers?
Poor little Lizzy!
But do not be cast down.
Such squeamish youths!
As cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity.
Not worth a regret.
Come,
Let me see the list of pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by Lydia's folly.
Indeed you are mistaken.
I have no such injuries to resent.
It is not of peculiar,
But general evils which I am now complaining.
Our importance,
Our respectability in the world,
Must be affected by the wildness.
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 and her family.
Ridiculous.
A flirt,
Too,
In the worst and meanest degree of flirtation,
Without any attraction beyond youth in 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 is also comprehended.
She will follow where Lydia leads.
Vain,
Ignorant,
Idle.
And absolutely uncontrolled.
Oh,
My dear father,
Can you suppose it possible they will not be censured and despised wherever they're known,
And that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?
Mr.
Bennet saw her whole heart was in the subject,
And affectionately taking her hand,
Said in reply,
Do not make yourself uneasy,
My love.
Wherever you and Jane are known,
You must be respected and valued,
And you will not appear to less advantage for having a couple of,
Or may I say three,
Very silly sisters.
We shall have no peace at Longbourn if Lydia does not go to Brighton.
Let her go,
Then.
Colonel Forster's a sensible man,
And will keep her out of any real mischief.
And she's luckily too poor to be of an object to pray to anybody.
At Brighton she will be of less importance.
Even as a common flirt,
Than she has been here,
The officers will find women better worth their notice.
Let us hope,
Therefore,
Her being there may teach her her own insignificance.
At any rate,
She cannot grow many degrees worse without authorising us to lock her up for the rest of her life.
With this answer,
Elizabeth was forced to be content.
But her own opinion continued the same,
And she left him disappointed and sorry.
It was then that she was able to say,
It was not in her nature,
However,
To increase her vexations by dwelling on them.
She was confident of having performed her duty,
And to fret over unavoidable evils,
Or augment them by anxiety,
Was no part of her disposition.
Had Lydia and her mother known the substance of her conference with her father,
Their indignation would hardly have found expression in their united volubility.
In Lydia's imagination,
A visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness.
She saw with a creative eye of fancy the streets of that gay,
Bathing place covered with offices.
She saw herself the object of attention to tens and scores of them at present unknown.
She saw all the glories of the camp,
Its tents stretched forth in bounteous uniformity of lines,
Crowded with the young and the gay,
And dazzling with scarlet.
And to complete the view,
She saw herself beneath the tent,
Tenderly flirting with at least six officers at once.
Had she known her sister sought to tear her from such prospects and realities as these,
What would have been her sensations?
They could have been understood only by her mother,
Who might have felt nearly the same.
Lydia's going to Brighton was all that consoled her for the melancholy conviction of her husband's never-intending,
To go there himself.
But they were entirely ignorant of what had passed,
And their raptures continued with little intermission to the very day of Lydia's leaving home.
Elizabeth was now to see Mr Wickham for the last time.
Having been frequently in company with him since her return,
Agitation was pretty well over.
The agitations of former partiality entirely so.
She had even,
Learned to detect in the very gentleness which had delighted her,
An affectation and sameness to disgust and weary.
In his present behaviour to herself,
Moreover,
She had a fresh source of displeasure,
For the inclination he soon testified of renewing those attentions which had marked the early part of their acquaintance could only serve,
After what had since passed,
To provoke her.
She lost all concern for him in finding herself thus selected as the object of such idle and frivolous gallantry.
And while she steadily repressed it,
Could not but feel the reproof contained in his believing that however long,
And for whatever cause,
His attentions had been withdrawn,
Her vanity would be gratified and her preference secured at any time by their renewal.
On the very last day of the regiment's remaining in Meryton,
He died,
With others of the officers at Longbourn.
And so little was Elizabeth disposed apart from him in good humour,
That on his making some inquiry as to the manner in which her time had passed at Hunsford,
She mentioned Colonel Fitzwilliams and Mr Darcy's,
Having both spent three weeks at Rosings,
And asked him if he were acquainted with the former.
He looked surprised,
Displeased,
Alarmed,
But with a moment,
Recollection and a returning smile,
Replied he had formerly seen them often.
And after observing he was a very gentleman-like man,
Asked her how she had liked him.
Her answer was warmly in his favour,
With an air of indifference he soon afterwards added,
How long did you say he was at Rosings?
Nearly three weeks.
And you saw him frequently?
Yes,
Almost every day.
His manners are very different from his cousin's.
Yes,
Very different.
But I think Mr Darcy improves on acquaintance.
Indeed,
Cried Wickham with a look which did not escape her.
And pray may I ask?
But checking himself,
He added in a gayer tone,
Is it in a dress that he improves?
How has he deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style?
For I dare not hope,
He continued in a lower and more serious tone,
That he is improved in essentials.
Oh no,
Said Elizabeth,
In essentials I believe he is very much what he ever was.
While she spoke,
Wickham looked as if scarcely knowing whether to rejoice over her words or distrust their meaning.
There was a something in her countenance which made him listen with an apprehensive and anxious attention,
While she was speaking.
When I said he improved on acquaintance,
I did not mean either his mind and manners were in a state of improvement,
But that from knowing him better,
His disposition was better understood.
Wickham's alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and agitated look.
For a few minutes he was silent,
Till,
Shaking off his embarrassment,
He turned to her again and said,
In the gentlest of accents,
You,
Who know so well my feelings towards Mr.
Darcy,
Will readily comprehend how sincerely I must enjoy this.
I must rejoice that he is wise enough to assume even the appearance of what is right.
His pride in that direction may be of service,
If not to himself,
To many others,
For it must deter him from such foul misconduct as I have suffered by.
I only fear the sort of cautiousness to which you,
I imagine,
Have been alluding,
Is merely adopted on his visits to his aunt,
Of whose good opinion and judgment he stands much in awe.
His fear of her has always operated,
I know,
When they were together,
And a good deal is to be imputed as to his wish of forwarding the match with Mr.
Burr,
Which I am certain he has very much at heart.
Elizabeth could not repress a smile at this,
But she answered only by a slight inclination,
Of the head.
She saw he wanted to engage her on the old subject of his grievances,
And she was in no humour to indulge him.
The rest of the evening passed with the appearance,
On his side,
Of usual cheerfulness,
But with no further attempt to distinguish Elizabeth.
And they parted at last with mutual civility,
And possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.
When the party broke up,
Lydia returned with Mr.
Burr,
And Mrs.
Forster to Meryton,
From whence they were to set out early the next morning.
The separation between her and her family was rather noisy and pathetic.
Kitty was the only one who shed tears,
But she did weep from vexation and envy.
Mrs.
Bennet was diffuse in her good wishes for the felicity of her daughter,
And impressive in her injunctions that she would not miss the opportunity of enjoying herself as much as possible.
Advice,
Which there was every reason to believe would be attended to,
And in the clamorous happiness of Lydia herself in bidding farewell,
The more gentle adieu of her sisters were uttered without being heard.
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4.9 (49)
Recent Reviews
Robyn
April 15, 2024
😁 I was falling asleep towards the end. 🎵🙏🙇♀️, and enjoying the story.