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 very young woman, and very lately married.A resemblance in good humour and good spirits had recommended her and Lydia to each other,and out of their three months' acquaintance they had been intimate two.
Such were the kind of lamentations resounding perpetually through Longbourn House. Elizabeth tried to be 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 been so much disposed to pardon his interference in the views of his friend.
Their affectionate mother shared all their grief;she remembered what she had herself endured on a similar occasion, five-and-twenty years ago.
“Indeed you are mistaken. I have no such injuries to resent. It is not of particular, but of general evils, which I am now complaining. Our importance, our respectability in the world must be affected by 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 or her family ridiculous;a flirt,too,in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and 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 also is comprehended. She will follow wherever Lydia leads.Vain,ignorant,idle,and absolutely uncontrolled!Oh!my dear father,can you suppose it possible that they will not be censured and despised wherever they are known, and that their sisters will not be often involved in the disgrace?”