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Elizabeth was distressed. She felt that she had no business at Pemberley,and was obliged to assume a disinclination for seeing it.She must own that she was tired of seeing great houses;after going over so many,she really had no pleasure in fine carpets or satin curtains.

After the first fortnight or three weeks of her absence,health, good humour,and cheerfulness began to reappear at Longbourn. Everything wore a happier aspect.The families who had been in town for the winter came back again,and summer finery and summer engagements arose. Mrs. Bennet was restored to her usual querulous serenity;and,by the middle of June,Kitty was so much recovered as to be able to enter Meryton without tears;an event of such happy promise as to make Elizabeth hope that by the following Christmas she might be so tolerably reasonable as not to mention an officer above once a day,unless,by some cruel and malicious arrangement at the War Office,another regiment should be quartered in Meryton.