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“How nicely we are all crammed in,”cried Lydia.“I am glad I bought my bonnet, if it is only for the fun of having another bandbox!Well, now let us be quite comfortable and snug, and talk and laugh all the way home.And in the first place,let us hear what has happened to you all since you went away.Have you seen any pleasant men?Have you had any flirting?I was in great hopes that one of you would have got a husband before you came back. Jane will be quite an old maid soon,I declare.She is almost three-and-twenty!Lord,how ashamed I should be of not being married before three-and-twenty! My aunt Phillips wants you so to get husbands,you can't think.She says Lizzy had better have taken Mr.Collins;but I do not think there would have been any fun in it.Lord!how I should like to be married before any of you;and then I would chaperon you about to all the balls.Dear me!we had such a good piece of fun the other day at Colonel Forster's.Kitty and me were to spend the day there,and Mrs.Forster promised to have a little dance in the evening; (by the bye, Mrs. Forster and me are such friends!)and so she asked the two Harringtons to come, but Harriet was ill, and so Pen was forced to come by herself; and then, what do you think we did?We dressed up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes on purpose to pass for a lady, only think what fun!Not a soul knew of it,but Colonel and Mrs. Forster,and Kitty and me,except my aunt,for we were forced to borrow one of her gowns; and you cannot imagine how well he looked!When Denny,and Wickham,and Pratt,and two or three more of the men came in, they did not know him in the least. Lord!how I laughed!and so did Mrs.Forster.I thought I should have died.And that made the men suspect something,and then they soon found out what was the matter.”

With such kinds of histories of their parties and good jokes,did Lydia,assisted by Kitty's hints and additions,endeavour to amuse her companions all the way to Longbourn. Elizabeth listened as little as she could, but there was no escaping the frequent mention of Wickham's name.

Their reception at home was most kind.Mrs.Bennet rejoiced to see Jane in undiminished beauty;and more than once during dinner did Mr.Bennet say voluntarily to Elizabeth:

“I am glad you are come back,Lizzy.”

Their party in the dining-room was large, for almost all the Lucases came to meet Maria and hear the news; and various were the subjects that occupied them:Lady Lucas was inquiring of Maria, across the table, after the welfare and poultry of her eldest daughter;Mrs.Bennet was doubly engaged,on one hand collecting an account of the present fashions from Jane,who sat some way below her,and,on the other,retailing them all to the younger Miss Lucases; and Lydia, in a voice rather louder than any other person's,was enumerating the various pleasures of the morning to anybody who would hear her.