Page 98 of Hard Home

And Elizabeth went back into the parlor and stood at the window and watched the chaise go up the street, and thought about a small painted face in a good frame still hanging in a gallery in Derbyshire, and about her father at eleven in the morning with a magnifying glass, and about a hundred and ninety acres of Hertfordshire lying perfectly still since the second of May.

She wrote to Mary that night, and to Charlotte, and went to bed at two.

In the morning there were two letters from Jane.

Here ends the Second Volume.

Chapter Forty-Two

There were three.

Two were from Jane, and one of them had been mis-directed to a wrong street, the direction being remarkably ill written; and the third was in a small exact hand that had never in its life been ill written about anything, and had been sent by a different post, and had got there first, and Elizabeth put it aside and opened her sister's.

The first that had been written was the one she read first.

Since writing the above, dearest Lizzy, something has occurred of a most unexpected and serious nature; but I am afraid of alarming you — be assured that we are all well. What I have to say relates to poor Lydia. An express came at twelve last night, just as we were all gone to bed, from Colonel Forster, to inform us that she was gone off to Scotland with one of his officers; to own the truth, with Wickham!

Imagine our surprise. To Kitty, however, it does not seem so wholly unexpected. I am very, very sorry. So imprudent a match on both sides!

And then the second, written a day later.

By this time, my dearest sister, you have received my hurried letter; I wish this may be more intelligible, but though not confined for time, my head is so bewildered that I cannot answer for being coherent.

Dearest Lizzy, I hardly know what I would write, but I have bad news for you, and it cannot be delayed. Imprudent as a marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place, for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland.

Colonel Forster came yesterday, having left Brighton the day before, not many hours after the express. Though Lydia's short letter to Mrs. F. gave them to understand that they were going to Gretna Green, something was dropped by Denny expressing his belief that W. never intended to go there, or to marry Lydia at all, which was repeated to Colonel F., who, instantly taking the alarm, set off from B. intending to trace their route. He did trace them easily to Clapham, but no farther; for on entering that place they removed into a hackney-coach and dismissed the chaise that brought them from Epsom. All that is known after this is, that they were seen to continue the London road.

I know not what to think. After making every possible inquiry on that side London, Colonel F. came on into Hertfordshire, anxiously renewing them at all the turnpikes, and at the inns in Barnet and Hatfield, but without any success, — no such people had been seen to pass through. With the kindest concern he came on to Longbourn, and broke his apprehensions to us in a manner most creditable to his heart.

My father and mother believe the worst, but I cannot think so ill of him. Many circumstances might make it more eligible for them to be married privately in town than to pursue their first plan; and even if he could form such a design against a young woman of Lydia's connections, which is not likely, can I suppose her so lost to every thing? Impossible.

My father is going to London with Colonel Forster instantly, to try to discover her. What he means to do, I am sure I know not; but his excessive distress will not allow him to pursue any measure in the best and safest way, and Colonel Forster is obliged to be at Brighton again to-morrow evening. In such an exigence my uncle's advice and assistance would be every thing in the world; he will immediately comprehend what I must feel, and I rely upon his goodness.

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Elizabeth was on her feet and had rung the bell before she was aware of having done either.

"I must find Mr. Gardiner this moment — where is he — this moment—"

The servant went. She stood in the middle of the room with the two sheets in her hand and found that she could not think at all, and then that she could think perfectly, and that the thing she was thinking was Mary's third column.

She sat down and broke the seal of the third letter.

My dear Lizzy,

You will have Jane's by now or you will have it to-morrow. I am to write what happened and not what I think about it, and I shall keep to that as long as I can and I shall tell you when I stop.

Lydia left Colonel Forster's house at Brighton in the night between Saturday the eleventh and Sunday the twelfth of August, at some hour before three in the morning. Mrs. F. found her note at eight. Colonel F. reached Longbourn at four on the afternoon of Monday the thirteenth. My father left with him for London at seven this morning, Tuesday the fourteenth, with two shirts and no plan.

Now the rest.

On the morning of Sunday the twelfth I went out to the ground as usual, at half past six, in the same boots, from the church corner as I always go.

It has moved.

It went eleven weeks and four days without moving one pace. Between my measurement on Friday the tenth and my measurement on Sunday the twelfth it has gone forty-two yards, north and west, up the rise toward the town. Forty-two, Lizzy. It never did above eleven in a week in the whole of the spring and it has done forty-two in two nights.

It has not moved again since. I have been out at half past six every morning and it stands where it stood on Sunday.