{"id":"01KJRRE0S5TCQBGHX36KRJ9EKK","cid":"bafkreigh6hxmcoqgow2oi2enjwqditcxzcul6nrn5yek3ioscrlyjn6644","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":570437,"char_start":562756,"chunk_index":79,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1921,"label":"him, so think it no harm to be off. You need","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"     him, so think it no harm to be off. You need not send them word at\r\n     Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the\r\n     surprise the greater when I write to them, and sign my name Lydia\r\n     Wickham. What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for\r\n     laughing. Pray make my excuses to Pratt for not keeping my\r\n     engagement, and dancing with him to-night. Tell him I hope he will\r\n     excuse me when he knows all, and tell him I will dance with him at\r\n     the next ball we meet with great pleasure. I shall send for my\r\n     clothes when I get to Longbourn; but I wish you would tell Sally to\r\n     mend a great slit in my worked muslin gown before they are packed\r\n     up. Good-bye. Give my love to Colonel Forster. I hope you will\r\n     drink to our good journey.\r\n\r\n“Your affectionate friend,\r\n\r\n“LYDIA BENNET.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“Oh, thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia!” cried Elizabeth when she had\r\nfinished it. “What a letter is this, to be written at such a moment! But\r\nat least it shows that _she_ was serious in the object of her journey.\r\nWhatever he might afterwards persuade her to, it was not on her side a\r\n_scheme_ of infamy. My poor father! how he must have felt it!”\r\n\r\n“I never saw anyone so shocked. He could not speak a word for full ten\r\nminutes. My mother was taken ill immediately, and the whole house in\r\nsuch confusion!”\r\n\r\n“Oh, Jane,” cried Elizabeth, “was there a servant belonging to it who\r\ndid not know the whole story before the end of the day?”\r\n\r\n“I do not know: I hope there was. But to be guarded at such a time is\r\nvery difficult. My mother was in hysterics; and though I endeavoured to\r\ngive her every assistance in my power, I am afraid I did not do so much\r\nas I might have done. But the horror of what might possibly happen\r\nalmost took from me my faculties.”\r\n\r\n“Your attendance upon her has been too much for you. You do not look\r\nwell. Oh that I had been with you! you have had every care and anxiety\r\nupon yourself alone.”\r\n\r\n“Mary and Kitty have been very kind, and would have shared in every\r\nfatigue, I am sure, but I did not think it right for either of them.\r\nKitty is slight and delicate, and Mary studies so much that her hours of\r\nrepose should not be broken in on. My aunt Philips came to Longbourn on\r\nTuesday, after my father went away; and was so good as to stay till\r\nThursday with me. She was of great use and comfort to us all, and Lady\r\nLucas has been very kind: she walked here on Wednesday morning to\r\ncondole with us, and offered her services, or any of her daughters, if\r\nthey could be of use to us.”\r\n\r\n“She had better have stayed at home,” cried Elizabeth: “perhaps she\r\n_meant_ well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too\r\nlittle of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence,\r\ninsufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”\r\n\r\nShe then proceeded to inquire into the measures which her father had\r\nintended to pursue, while in town, for the recovery of his daughter.\r\n\r\n“He meant, I believe,” replied Jane, “to go to Epsom, the place where\r\nthey last changed horses, see the postilions, and try if anything could\r\nbe made out from them. His principal object must be to discover the\r\nnumber of the hackney coach which took them from Clapham. It had come\r\nwith a fare from London; and as he thought the circumstance of a\r\ngentleman and lady’s removing from one carriage into another might be\r\nremarked, he meant to make inquiries at Clapham. If he could anyhow\r\ndiscover at what house the coachman had before set down his fare, he\r\ndetermined to make inquiries there, and hoped it might not be impossible\r\nto find out the stand and number of the coach. I do not know of any\r\nother designs that he had formed; but he was in such a hurry to be gone,\r\nand his spirits so greatly discomposed, that I had difficulty in finding\r\nout even so much as this.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     The Post\r\n]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XLVIII.\r\n\r\n\r\n[Illustration]\r\n\r\nThe whole party were in hopes of a letter from Mr. Bennet the next\r\nmorning, but the post came in without bringing a single line from him.\r\nHis family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most negligent and\r\ndilatory correspondent; but at such a time they had hoped for exertion.\r\nThey were forced to conclude, that he had no pleasing intelligence to\r\nsend; but even of _that_ they would have been glad to be certain. Mr.\r\nGardiner had waited only for the letters before he set off.\r\n\r\nWhen he was gone, they were certain at least of receiving constant\r\ninformation of what was going on; and their uncle promised, at parting,\r\nto prevail on Mr. Bennet to return to Longbourn as soon as he could, to\r\nthe great consolation of his sister, who considered it as the only\r\nsecurity for her husband’s not being killed in a duel.\r\n\r\nMrs. Gardiner and the children were to remain in Hertfordshire a few\r\ndays longer, as the former thought her presence might be serviceable to\r\nher nieces. She shared in their attendance on Mrs. Bennet, and was a\r\ngreat comfort to them in their hours of freedom. Their other aunt also\r\nvisited them frequently, and always, as she said, with the design of\r\ncheering and heartening them up--though, as she never came without\r\nreporting some fresh instance of Wickham’s extravagance or irregularity,\r\nshe seldom went away without leaving them more dispirited than she found\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nAll Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months\r\nbefore, had been almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt\r\nto every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with\r\nthe title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.\r\nEverybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world; and\r\neverybody began to find out that they had always distrusted the\r\nappearance of his goodness. Elizabeth, though she did not credit above\r\nhalf of what was said, believed enough to make her former assurance of\r\nher sister’s ruin still more certain; and even Jane, who believed still\r\nless of it, became almost hopeless, more especially as the time was now\r\ncome, when, if they had gone to Scotland, which she had never before\r\nentirely despaired of, they must in all probability have gained some\r\nnews of them.\r\n\r\nMr. Gardiner left Longbourn on Sunday; on Tuesday, his wife received a\r\nletter from him: it told them, that on his arrival he had immediately\r\nfound out his brother, and persuaded him to come to Gracechurch Street.\r\nThat Mr. Bennet had been to Epsom and Clapham, before his arrival, but\r\nwithout gaining any satisfactory information; and that he was now\r\ndetermined to inquire at all the principal hotels in town, as Mr. Bennet\r\nthought it possible they might have gone to one of them, on their first\r\ncoming to London, before they procured lodgings. Mr. Gardiner himself\r\ndid not expect any success from this measure; but as his brother was\r\neager in it, he meant to assist him in pursuing it. He added, that Mr.\r\nBennet seemed wholly disinclined at present to leave London, and\r\npromised to write again very soon. There was also a postscript to this\r\neffect:--\r\n\r\n“I have written to Colonel Forster to desire him to find out, if\r\npossible, from some of the young man’s intimates in the regiment,\r\nwhether Wickham has any relations or connections who would be likely to\r\nknow in what part of the town he has now concealed himself. If there\r\nwere anyone that one could apply to, with a probability of gaining such\r\na clue as that, it might be of essential consequence. At present we have\r\nnothing to guide us. Colonel Forster will, I dare say, do everything in\r\nhis power to satisfy us on this head."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRRF7V69NB58H106CVY82PE","peer_label":"colonel forster","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0VGMTTKPRSDMPY969CW","peer_label":"longbourn","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW2V9QH9GNRQRJT67GK","peer_label":"mr bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYS51T78NJZ45CYXSXS9","peer_label":"george wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY6RHWPTVXJ7SHB3NE6F","peer_label":"lydia bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYT564P5405ZE4Q76ZF5","peer_label":"mrs bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY63WYEJRTN7FS2QXC2P","peer_label":"mary bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY4KCKYKYTFBWSNR6EZ0","peer_label":"kitty bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSX336MNFYYQ2MPNB60","peer_label":"lady lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYZ36C2F9Z4KP5F6ANMZ","peer_label":"london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSZYA9P29KKXYZVTJ15","peer_label":"mr gardiner","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYSAZT646RSHT9C5XPKR","peer_label":"mrs gardiner","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0QZTC5KJ63MKYZHD3F9","peer_label":"meryton","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"town","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA40KB2X9VYTN7AYFV3S","peer_label":"gracechurch street","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"street","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFA51T2ZS3X1TF8MCRMZA","peer_label":"scotland","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"country","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFZ8Y48PSCRP7QXG9B9BF","peer_label":"epsom","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFZ6QKP29BSPBMC12VGNN","peer_label":"aunt philips","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFZAYV74G3FXYE1N1G899","peer_label":"clapham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFZCA72C1GF0QB7K2Z3EZ","peer_label":"the post","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFZBSAVZ25WK2WGHP8JRN","peer_label":"chapter xlviii","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"chapter","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.163Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.349Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:30:07.912Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}