“EDW.GARDINER.”
“Is it possible?”cried Elizabeth,when she had finished.“Can it be possible that he will marry her?”
“Wickham is not so undeserving,then,as we thought him,”said her sister.“My dear father,I congratulate you.”
“And have you answered the letter?”cried Elizabeth.
“No;but it must be done soon.”
Most earnestly did she then entreaty him to lose no more time before he wrote.
“Oh!my dear father,”she cried,“come back and write immediately. Consider how important every moment is in such a case.”
“Let me write for you,”said Jane,“if you dislike the trouble yourself.”
“I dislike it very much,”he replied;“but it must be done.”
And so saying,he turned back with them,and walked towards the house.
“And may I ask—”said Elizabeth;“but the terms, I suppose, must be complied with.”
“Complied with!I am only ashamed of his asking so little.”
“And they must marry!Yet he is such a man!”
“Yes,yes,they must marry.There is nothing else to be done.But there are two things that I want very much to know;one is,how much money your uncle has laid down to bring it about;and the other,how am I ever to pay him.”
“Money!My uncle!”cried Jane,“what do you mean,sir?”
“I mean,that no man in his proper senses would marry Lydia on so slight a temptation as one hundred a year during my life,and fifty after I am gone.”
“That is very true,”said Elizabeth;“though it had not occurred to me before.His debts to be discharged,and something still to remain!Oh!it must be my uncle's doings!Generous,good man,I am afraid he has distressed himself.A small sum could not do all this.”
“No,”said her father;“Wickham's a fool if he takes her with a farthing less than ten thousand pounds.I should be sorry to think so ill of him,in the very beginning of our relationship.”
“Ten thousand pounds!Heaven forbid!How is half such a sum to be repaid?”