 Haggerston has our directions, and
        all will be completed in a week. They will then join his regiment,
        unless they are first invited to Longbourn; and I understand from Mrs.
        Gardiner, that my niece is very desirous of seeing you all, before she
        leaves the South. She is well, and begs to be dutifully remembered to
        you and her mother. - Your's, etc.
                                                                   E. GARDINER.«
 
Mr. Bennet and his daughters saw all the advantages of Wickham's removal from
the --shire, as clearly as Mr. Gardiner could do. But Mrs. Bennet, was not so
well pleased with it. Lydia's being settled in the North, just when she had
expected most pleasure and pride in her company, for she had by no means given
up her plan of their residing in Hertfordshire, was a severe disappointment; and
besides, it was such a pity that Lydia should be taken from a regiment where she
was acquainted with every body, and had so many favourites.
    »She is so fond of Mrs. Forster,« said she, »it will be quite shocking to
send her away! And there are several of the young men, too, that she likes very
much. The officers may not be so pleasant in General --'s regiment.«
    His daughter's request, for such it might be considered, of being admitted
into her family again, before she set off for the North, received at first an
absolute negative. But Jane and Elizabeth, who agreed in wishing, for the sake
of their sister's feelings and consequence, that she should be noticed on her
marriage by her parents, urged him so earnestly, yet so rationally and so
mildly, to receive her and her husband at Longbourn, as soon as they were
married, that he was prevailed on to think as they thought, and act as they
wished. And their mother had the satisfaction of knowing, that she should be
able to shew her married daughter in the neighbourhood, before she was banished
to the North. When Mr. Bennet wrote again to his brother, therefore, he sent his
permission for them to come; and it was settled, that as soon as the ceremony
was over, they should proceed to Longbourn. Elizabeth was surprised, however,
that Wickham should consent to such a scheme, and, had she consulted only her
own inclination, any meeting with him would have been the last object of her
wishes.
 

                                   Chapter IX

Their sister's wedding day arrived; and Jane and Elizabeth felt for her probably
