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Within a short walk of Longbourn lived a family with whom the

Bennets were particularly intimate. Sir William Lucas had been

formerly in trade in Meryton, where he had made a tolerable

fortune, and risen to the honour of knighthood by an address to

the king during his mayoralty. The distinction had, perhaps, been

felt too strongly. It had given him a disgust to his business and

to his residence in a small market town; and, quitting them both,

he had removed with his family to a house about a mile from

Meryton, denominated from that period Lucas Lodge; where he could

think with pleasure of his own importance, and, unshackled by

business, occupy himself solely in being civil to all the world.

For, though elated by his rank, it did not render him

supercilious; on the contrary, he was all attention to everybody.

By nature inoffensive, friendly, and obliging, his presentation

at St. James's had made him courteous.