第105章[第2页/共5页]

“I have been thinking it over again,Elizabeth,”said her uncle,as they drove from the town;“and really,upon serious consideration, I am much more inclined than I was to judge as your eldest sister does on the matter. It appears to me so very unlikely that any young man should form such a design against a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless,and who was actually staying in his colonel's family,that I am strongly inclined to hope the best. Could he expect that her friends would not step forward?Could he expect to be noticed again by the regiment,after such an affront to Colonel Forster?His temptation is not adequate to the risk!”

“But can you think that Lydia is so lost to everything but love of him as to consent to live with him on any terms other than marriage?”

“And do you really know all this?”cried Mrs.Gardiner,whose curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive.