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in your circle? This seems a poor sort of district, I must say.”
    â€œI thought our family had its fill of officers, Kitty. Have you learnt nothing from Lydia’s experience?”
    â€œWhat can you mean, Lizzy? And why do you hush me every time I mention our sister’s name?”
    â€œI will come to your room, where we can speak in private.”
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    In front of the mirror Kitty sat gazing at herself. She picked up a glass, imagining it a wine glass, put it to her lips and looked over the rim, surveying the effect. Hearing a knock at her door, she put it down hastily. Elizabeth came in and pulled up a chair to sit with her.
    â€œKitty, dear,” she began, “I wish you to understand why it is so inappropriate for you to speak of Lydia. The whole matter of her marriage is so … awkward. As for Mr. Wickham, he is persona non grata in this house.”
    â€œPerson who, Lizzy?”
    â€œHis is a name not mentioned at Pemberley.”
    â€œWickham is our brother-in-law!”
    â€œHe has made his own choices in life, Kitty. Mr. Darcy will never receive him at Pemberley and it pains his family to hear that name spoken.”
    â€œWell, I never heard of such pride in all my life.”
    Elizabeth looked earnestly at her sister.
    â€œKitty, do you not understand that when Wickham eloped with Lydia, he never intended to marry her?”
    â€œWhat can it matter now? It was all hushed up. How well you have married in spite of it.”
    Elizabeth paled.
    â€œIt pains me to hear you speak so carelessly, Kitty. It is my belief that I should never have married at all, had not Wickham been bribed and coerced into marrying Lydia. No respectable man, with a marriageable sister of his own, will tarnish his family’s reputation with such a connection.”
    Kitty flounced aside, with the familiar jutting of her little chin and hardening of her mouth. Elizabeth sighed at the work ahead of her to correct the results of her mother’s indulgence of her sister.
    â€œWhen Wickham did not take Lydia to Scotland, she ought to have left him at once and gone to her relations.” She waited a moment but Kitty did not turn back to her. “Kitty, know you not the fate of a woman abandoned by her seducer? She is cut off from all respectable society. If she has no income of her own, she comes to know degradation such as we cannot imagine.”
    Kitty spun around, defiant to the last.
    â€œMama kept saying we were all ruined when they eloped, but Lydia came back to Longbourn in fine form and took precedence over Jane.”
    â€œOh, yes. After their marriage, they returned unrepentant and unashamed. You know that to demand precedence, even if it is your right, is most impolite. In their circumstances, it was outrageous.” Elizabeth took Kitty’s chin and turned her face back to her own.
    â€œLook at me, Kitty!” Kitty raised her big blue eyes to the dark anger of Elizabeth’s. “Wickham had to be bribed to marry her and Lydia is too stupid to feel the insult.”
    The deepest blush spread over Kitty’s face. Elizabeth continued: “While I regard Wickham’s actions with abhorrence, think you: what was there in Lydia’s behaviour to put such a thought in his evilhead? Her loud pursuit of the officers filled me with shame; and you, Kitty, at times, were not much better.”
    Kitty’s eyes swam with tears.
    â€œI would not have run away, Lizzy. I never would!”
    She burst into loud sobs, and buried her head in her sister’s lap.
    â€œKitty, dearest, do you see that I had to do this? If I seem a hard substitute for Mama, I am sorry. I hope you will not hate me for it.”
    â€œIt is you who hates me.”
    â€œHate you? What nonsense is this? Now dry your eyes. Drink this water. I wish you to enjoy your stay here. There are ways of amusing yourself with grace and discretion. I shall be your teacher.”
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    Kitty made a