Страница 306 из 817

She wrote cheerfully, seemed surrounded with comforts, and

mentioned nothing which she could not praise. The house,

furniture, neighbourhood, and roads, were all to her taste, and

Lady Catherine's behaviour was most friendly and obliging. It was

Mr. Collins's picture of Hunsford and Rosings rationally

softened; and Elizabeth perceived that she must wait for her own

visit there, to know the rest.

Jane had already written a few lines to her sister, to announce

their safe arrival in London; and when she wrote again, Elizabeth

hoped it would be in her power to say something of the Bingleys.

Her impatience for this second letter was as well rewarded as

impatience generally is. Jane had been a week in town, without

either seeing or hearing from Caroline. She accounted for it,

however, by supposing that her last letter to her friend from

Longbourn had by some accident been lost.