 and though I should
certainly be a more interesting object to all my acquaintance, were I
distractedly in love with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative
insignificance. Importance may sometimes be purchased too dearly. Kitty and
Lydia take his defection much more to heart than I do. They are young in the
ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome
young men must have something to live on, as well as the plain.«
 

                                   Chapter IV

With no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise
diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and sometimes
cold, did January and February pass away. March was to take Elizabeth to
Hunsford. She had not at first thought very seriously of going thither; but
Charlotte, she soon found, was depending on the plan, and she gradually learned
to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as greater certainty.
Absence had increased her desire of seeing Charlotte again, and weakened her
disgust of Mr. Collins. There was novelty in the scheme, and as, with such a
mother and such uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little
change was not unwelcome for its own sake. The journey would moreover give her a
peep at Jane; and, in short, as the time drew near, she would have been very
sorry for any delay. Every thing, however, went on smoothly, and was finally
settled according to Charlotte's first sketch. She was to accompany Sir William
and his second daughter. The improvement of spending a night in London was added
in time, and the plan became perfect as plan could be.
    The only pain was in leaving her father, who would certainly miss her, and
who, when it came to the point, so little liked her going, that he told her to
write to him, and almost promised to answer her letter.
    The farewell between herself and Mr. Wickham was perfectly friendly; on his
side even more. His present pursuit could not make him forget that Elizabeth had
been the first to excite and to deserve his attention, the first to listen and
to pity, the first to be admired; and in his manner of bidding her adieu,
wishing her every enjoyment, reminding her of what she was to expect in Lady
Catherine de Bourgh, and trusting their opinion of her - their opinion of every
body - would always coincide, there was a solicitude, an interest which she felt
must ever attach her to him with a most sincere regard; and she parted from him
convinced, that whether married or
