“Well,well,”said he,“do not make yourself unhappy.If you are a good girl for the next ten years,I will take you to a review at the end of them.”
“She is happy then,”said her father drily;“and her residence there will probably be of some duration.”
“You go to Brighton. I would not trust you so near it as Eastbourne for fifty pounds!No,Kitty,I have at last learnt to be cautious,and you will feel the effects of it.No officer is ever to enter into my house again,nor even to pass through the village. Balls will be absolutely prohibited,unless you stand up with one of your sisters.And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.”
Mrs.Gardiner went away in all the perplexity about Elizabeth and her Derbyshire friend that had attended her from that part of the world.His name had never been voluntarily mentioned before them by her niece;and the kind of half-expectation which Mrs. Gardiner had formed, of their being followed by a letter from him,had ended in nothing.Elizabeth had received none since her return that could come from Pemberley.
They were interrupted by Miss Bennet,who came to fetch her mother's tea.
It was not till the afternoon,when he joined them at tea,that Elizabeth ventured to introduce the subject; and then, on her briefly expressing her sorrow for what he must have endured,he replied,“Say nothing of that.Who should suffer but myself? It has been my own doing,and I ought to feel it.”