Music Welcome to Snewscast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us on Snewscast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by Thoughtless, Thoughtless Lydia. Tonight we shall read the next part to Pride and Pregidus written by Jane Austen. In the last episode, Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle hurry home after hearing the terrible news about Lydia running off with Wickham.

There is plenty of time as they travel to consider the situation from all angles and try to reassure each other from too much worry.

They arrive at Longborn and reconnect with the rest of the family. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now, take a few deep breaths. In the afternoon, the two elder Miss Benets were able to be for half an hour by themselves, and Elizabeth instantly availed herself of the opportunity of making many inquiries, which Jane was equally eager to satisfy. Did Colonel Forster appear to think well of Wickham himself? Does he know his real character? I must confess that he did not speak so well of Wickham as he formerly did. He believed him to be imprudent and extravagant. And since this sad affair has taken place, it is said that he left Mariton greatly in debt, but I hope this may be false. Oh Jane, had we been less secret, had we told what we knew of him, this could not have happened. Perhaps it would have been better," replied her sister. But, to expose the former faults of any person without knowing what their present feelings were seemed unjustifiable, we acted with the best intentions. Could Colonel Forster repeat the particulars of Lydia's note to his wife? He brought it with him for us to see. Jane then took it from her pocketbook and gave it to Elizabeth. These were the contents. My dear Harriet, you will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot help laughing myself at your surprise tomorrow morning, as soon as I am missed. I am going to threaten a green, and if you cannot guess with who, I shall thank you a simple ten. For there is but one man in the world I love, and he is an angel. I should never be happy without him. So think it no harm to be off. You need not send them word at longborn of my going if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater when I write to them and sign my name, Lydia Wickham, what a good joke it will be. I can hardly write for laughing. Pray make my excuses to Pratt for not keeping my engagement and dancing with him tonight. Tell him I hope he will excuse me when he knows all. And tell him I will dance with him at the next ball we meet with great pleasure. I shall send for my clothes when I get to Longborn, but I wish you would tell Sally to mend a great slit in my worked Muslim gown before they are packed up. Goodbye. Give my love to Colonel Forster. I hope you will drink to our good journey. Your affectionate friend, Lydia Bennett. Oh, thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia. Cryt Elizabeth when she had finished it. What a letter is this to be written at such a moment. But at least it shows that she was serious on the subject of their journey. Whatever he might afterwards persuade her to do, it was not on her side a scheme of infamy. My poor father, how he must have felt it. I never saw anyone so shocked. He could not speak a word for full ten minutes. My mother was taken ill immediately, and the whole house in such confusion. Oh Jane, Cradleizabeth, was there a servant belonging to it who did not know the whole story before the end of the day? I do not know. I hope there was, but to be guarded at such a time is very difficult. My mother was in hysterics, and though I endeavored to give her every assistance in my power, I am afraid I did not do so much as I might have done, but the horror of what might possibly happen almost took from me my faculties. Your attendance upon her has been too much for you, you do not look well. Oh, that I had been with you. You have had every care and anxiety upon yourself alone. Mary and Kitty have been very kind and would have shared in every fatigue, I'm sure, but I did not think it right for either of them. Kitty is slight and delicate, and Mary studies so much that her hours of repose should not be broken in on. My aunt Phillips came to Longborn on Tuesday after my father went away and was so good as to stay till Thursday with me. She was of great use and comfort to us all, and Lady Lucas has been very kind. She walked here on Wednesday morning to condole with us and offered her services, or any of her daughters, if they should be of use to us. She had better of stayed home, Cradle Elizabeth. Perhaps she meant well, but under such a misfortune as this one cannot see too little of one's neighbors. This is impossible. condolence and sufferable. Let them triumph over

us at a distance and be satisfied." She then proceeded to inquire into the measures which her father had intended to pursue while in town for the recovery of his daughter.

He meant, I believe, replied Jane, to go to Epson, the place where they last changed horses, and try if anything could be made out from them. His principal object must be to discover the number of the Hackney Coach, which took them from Clapham. It had come with a fair from London, and as he thought that the circumstance of a gentleman and ladies removing from one carriage into another might be remarked, meant to make enquiries at Clapham. If he could anyhow discover at what house the coachman had before set down his fair, he determined to make enquiries there, and hoped it might not be impossible to find out the stand and number of the coach. I do not know of any other designs that he had formed, but he was in such a hurry to be gone and his spirit so greatly discomposed that I had difficulty in finding out ever so much as this. Chapter 48 The whole party were in hopes of a letter from Mr. Bennett the next morning, but the post came in without bringing a single line from him. His family knew him to be on all common occasions, a most negligent correspondent, but at such a time they had hoped for exertion. They were forced to conclude that he had no pleasing intelligence to send, but even of that they would have been glad to be certain. Mr. Gardiner had waited only for the letters before he set off. When he was gone, they were certain of at least receiving constant information of what was going on, and their uncle promised, at parting, to prevail on Mr. Bennett to return to Longborn as soon as he could, to the great consolation of his sister, who considered it as the only security for her husband's not being killed in a duel. Mrs. Gardiner and the children were to remain in heart forshire for a few days longer, as the former thought her presence might be serviceable to her nieces. She shared in their attendance on Mrs. Bennett and was a great comfort to them in their hours of freedom. Their other aunt also visited them frequently and, always, as she said, with the design of cheering and heartening them up, though as she never came without reporting some fresh instance of Wickham's extravagance or irregularity, she seldom went away without leaving them more dispirited than when she found them. All Mary 10 seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honored with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman's family. Everybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world, and everyone began to find out that they had always distrusted the appearance of his goodness. Elizabeth, though she did not credit above half of what was said, believed enough to make her former assurance of her sister's ruin still more certain. and even Jane, who believed still less of it, became almost hopeless, more especially as the time was now come when, if they had gone to Scotland, which she had never before entirely despaired of, they must in all probability have gained some news of them. Mr. Gardiner left Longborn on Sunday. On Tuesday, his wife received a letter from him. It told them that on his arrival he had immediately found out his brother and persuaded him to come to Grace Church Street.

That Mr. Bennett had been to Epsom and Clapham before his arrival, but without gaining any satisfactory information, and that he was now determined to inquire at all the principal hotels in town, as Mr. Bennett thought it possible that they might have gone to one of them, on their first coming to London, before they procured lodgings. Mr. Gardiner himself did not expect any success from this measure, but as his brother was eager in it, he meant to assist him in pursuing it. He added that Mr. Bennett seemed wholly disinclined at present to leave London, and promised to write again very soon. There was also a post script to this effect. I have written to Colonel Forster to desire him to find out, if possible, from some of the young man's intimits in the regiment, whether Wickham has any relations or connections who would be likely to know in what part of the town he has now concealed himself. If there were anyone that one could apply to, with a probability of gaining such a clue as that, it might be of essential consequence. At present we have nothing to guide us. Colonel Forster Will, I dare say, do everything in his power to satisfy us on this head. But on second thoughts, perhaps Lizzie could tell us what relations he has now living better than any other person. Elizabeth was at no loss to understand from whence this deference for her authority proceeded, but it was not in her power to give any information of so satisfactory in nature as the compliment deserved. She had never heard of his having any relations except a father and mother, both of whom had been dead many years. It was possible, however, that some of his companions might be able to give more information, and though she was not very sanguine and expecting it, the application was of something to look forward to. Every day at Longborn was now a day of anxiety, but the most anxious part of each was when the post was expected. The arrival of letters was the first grand object of every morning's impatience. Through letters, whatever of good or bad was to be told would be communicated, and every succeeding day was expected to bring some news of importance. But before they heard again from Mr. Gardiner, a letter arrived for their father, from a different quarter, from Mr. Collins, which, as Jane had received directions to open all that came for him in his absence, she accordingly read, and Elizabeth, who knew what curiosity his letters always were, looked over her and read it likewise. It was as follows. my dear sir. I feel myself called upon by our relationship and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertfordshire. be assured, my dear sir, that Mrs. Collins and myself sincerely sympathize with you and all your respectable family in your present distress, which must be of the bitterest kind, because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove. No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune, or that may comfort you under a circumstance that must be of all others most afflicting to a parent's mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this, and it is the more to be lamented because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me that this licentiousness of behavior in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence, though at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennett, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she We could not be guilty of such an enormity at so early an age. How so ever that may be, you are grievously to be pitied, in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others. For who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family, and this consideration leads me moreover to reflect. With augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November, for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace. Let me advise you, then, my dear sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection forever, and leave her to root the fruits of her own heinous offence. Mr. Gardiner did not write again till he had received an answer from Colonel Forster, and then he had nothing of a pleasant nature to send. It was not known that Wickham had a single relation with whom he kept up any connection, and it was certain that he had no near one living. His former acquaintance had been numerous, but since he had been in the militia, it did not appear that he was on terms of particular friendship with any of them. There was no one, therefore, who could be pointed out as likely to give any news of him. And in the wretched state of his own finances, there was a very powerful motive for secrecy. in addition to his fear of discovery by Lydia's relations, for it had just transpired that he had left gaming debts behind him to a very considerable amount. Colonel Forster believed that more than a thousand pounds would be necessary to clear his expenses at Brighton. He owed a good deal in the town, but his debts of honor were still more formidable. Mr. Gardiner did not attempt to conceal these particulars from the long-born family. Jane heard them with horror.

A Game-Stir, she cried. This is wholly unexpected. I had not an idea of it. Mr. Gardiner added in his letter that they might expect to see their father at home on the following day which was Saturday. Rendered spiritless by the ill success of all their endeavors, he had yielded to his brother and laws and treaty that he would return to his family and leave it to him to do whatever occasion might suggest to be advisable for continuing their pursuit. When Mrs. Bennett was told of this, she did not express so much satisfaction as her children expected, considering what her anxiety for his life had been before. "'What is he coming home and without poor Lydia?' she cried. "'Sure he will not leave London before he has found them. Who is to fight Wickham and make him marry her if he comes away. As Mrs. Gardiner began to wish to be at home, it was settled that she and her children should go to London at the same time that Mr. Bennett came from it. The coach, therefore, took them the first stage of their journey and brought its master back to Longborn.

Mrs. Gardiner went away in all the perplexity about Elizabeth and her Derbyshire friend that had attended her from that part of the world. His name had never been voluntarily mentioned before them by her niece, and the kind of half-expectation which Mrs. Gardiner had formed of their being followed by a letter from him had ended in nothing. Elizabeth had received none since her return that could calm from Pemberley. The present unhappy state of the family rendered any other excuse for the loneliness of her spirits unnecessary. Nothing therefore could be fairly conjectured from that, though Elizabeth, who was by this This timeably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two. When Mr. Bennett arrived, he had all the appearance of his usual philosophic composure. He said as little as he had ever been in the habit of saying, make no mention of the business that had taken him away, and it was some time before his daughters had courage to speak of it. It was not till the afternoon when he joined them at tea that Elizabeth ventured to introduce the subject, and then on her briefly expressing her sorrow for what he must have endured, he replied, say nothing of that, who should suffer but myself. It has been my own doing, and I ought to fill it. You must not be too severe upon yourself," replied Elizabeth. You may well warn me against such an evil. Human nature is so prone to fall into it. No Lizzy, let me once in my life feel how much I have to be at blame. I am not afraid of being overpowered by the impression. It will pass away soon enough. Do you suppose them to be in London? Yes. Or else can they be so well concealed? And Lydia used to want to go to London, and it kiddie. She is happy then, said her father, dryly, and her residents there will probably be of some duration. Then after a short silence he continued, Lizzy, I bear you no ill will for being justified in your advice to me last May, which, considering the event, shows some greatness of mind. They were interrupted by Miss Bennett, who came to fetch her mother's tea. This is a parade, cried he, which does one good. It gives such an elegance to Miss Fortune. Another day I will do the same. I will sit in my library, in my nightcap and powdering gown, and give as much trouble as I can, or perhaps I may defer it till Kitty runs away. I am not going to run away, Papa,' said Kitty, fretfully. If I should ever go to Brighton, I would behave better than Lydia. You go to Brighton. I would not trust you so near it is as Eastbourne for fifty pounds. No Kitty, I have at least learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it. No officer is ever to enter my house again, nor even to pass through the village. Balls will be absolutely prohibited unless you stand up with one of your sisters. And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent 10 minutes of every day in a rational manner. Kitty, who took all these threats in a serious light, began to cry. Well, well said he, do not make yourself unhappy. If you're a good girl for the next 10 years, I will take you to a review at the end of them. Two days after Mr. Bennett's return, as Jane and Elizabeth were walking together in the shrubbery behind the house, they saw the housekeeper coming towards them, and concluding that she came to call them to their mother went forward to meet her. But instead of the expected summons, when they approached her, she said to Miss Bennett, I beg your pardon, Madam, for interrupting you, but I was in hopes you might have got some good news from town, so I took the liberty of coming to ask. What do you mean, Hill? We have heard nothing from town. Dear Madam, Christ Mrs. Hill, in great astonishment, Don't you know there is an express come for Master from Mr. Gardiner? He has been here this half hour, and Master has had a letter. Away ran the girls, too eager to get in to have time for speech. They ran through the vestibule into the breakfast room, from thence to the library.

Their father was in neither, and they were on the point of seeking him upstairs with their mother

when they were met by the butler. you you you you you