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Mrs. Gardiner abused her stupidity.“If it were merely a fine house richly furnished,”said she,“I should not care about it myself; but the grounds are delightful.They have some of the finest woods in the country.”

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.