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With this answer Elizabeth was forced to be content; but her own

opinion continued the same, and she left him disappointed and

sorry. It was not in her nature, however, to increase her

vexations by dwelling on them. She was confident of having

performed her duty; and to fret over unavoidable evils, or

augment them by anxiety, was no part of her disposition.

Had Lydia and her mother known the substance of her conference

with her father, their indignation would hardly have found

expression in their united volubility. In Lydia's imagination, a

visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly

happiness. She saw, with the creative eye of fancy, the streets

of that gay bathing-place covered with officers. She saw herself

the object of attention to tens and to scores of them at present

unknown. She saw all the glories of the camp: its tents stretched

forth in beauteous uniformity of lines, crowded with the young

and the gay, and dazzling with scarlet; and, to complete the

view, she saw herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly flirting

with at least six officers at once.