第129章[第3页/共4页]

The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world,though only a few weeks before,when Lydia had first run away,they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune.

Bingley,from this time,was of course a daily visitor at Longbourn;coming frequently before breakfast,and always remaining till after supper;unless when some barbarous neighbour,who could not be enough detested,had given him an invitation to dinner which he thought himself obliged to accept.

The situation of affairs in the Longbourn family could not be long a secret. Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it to Mrs. Phillips, and she ventured, without any permission, to do the same by all her neighbours in Meryton.

“If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you.Till I have your disposition,your goodness,I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps,if I have very good luck,I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time.”

Mary petitioned for the use of the library at Netherfield;and Kitty begged very hard for a few balls there every winter.

“I suspected as much,”replied Elizabeth.“But how did he account for it?”