“He has made me so happy,”said she,one evening,“by telling me that he was totally ignorant of my being in town last spring!I had not believed it possible.”

“I suspected as much,”replied Elizabeth.“But how did he account for it?”

“I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!”cried Jane.“Oh!Lizzy,why am I thus singled from my family,and blessed above them all!If I could but see you as happy!If there were but such another man for you!”

Wickham,Lydia,were all forgotten.Jane was beyond competition her favourite child.At that moment,she cared for no other.Her younger sisters soon began to make interest with her for objects of happiness which she might in future be able to dispense.

The Bennets were speedily pronounced to be the luckiest family in the world,though only a few weeks before,when Lydia had first run away,they had been generally proved to be marked out for misfortune.