“We may as well leave them by themselves you know;”said her mother, as soon as she was in the hall.“Kitty and I are going upstairs to sit in my dressing-room.”

“Oh!hang Kitty!what has she to do with it?Come be quick,be quick!Where is your sash,my dear?”

He came,and in such very good time that the ladies were none of them dressed.In ran Mrs.Bennet to her daughter's room,in her dressing gown,and with her hair half finished,crying out:

“Nothing child,nothing.I did not wink at you.”She then sat still five minutes longer; but unable to waste such a precious occasion,she suddenly got up,and saying to Kitty,“Come here, my love,I want to speak to you,”took her out of the room.Jane instantly gave a look at Elizabeth which spoke her distress at such premeditation,and her entreaty that she would not give in to it. In a few minutes,Mrs.Bennet half-opened the door and called out:

The same anxiety to get them by themselves was visible again in the evening.After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his custom,and Mary went up stairs to her instrument.Two obstacles of the five being thus removed,Mrs.Bennet sat looking and winking at Elizabeth and Catherine for a considerable time, without making any impression on them. Elizabeth would not observe her;and when at last Kitty did,she very innocently said,“What is the matter mamma?What do you keep winking at me for?What am I to do?”