In the second week of May, Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria Lucas left London for Hertfordshire. As their carriage approached the inn where their father’s carriage was waiting for them, they saw Kitty and Lydia looking out of an upstairs window.
The two younger sisters had been at the inn for an hour. They had spent their time looking at hats in a shop across the street and preparing a cold lunch for their sisters.
"Isn't this a great surprise?" Lydia cried when they entered. "We are going to buy lunch for everyone! But you must lend us the money first, because we spent all ours at the shop."
Lydia showed them a new hat she had bought. "I don’t think it is very pretty," she admitted, "but I bought it anyway. I’m going to take it apart when I get home and see if I can make it look better."
When Elizabeth said the hat was ugly, Lydia didn't care. "It doesn't matter what we wear this summer," she said, "because the regiment of soldiers is leaving Meryton in two weeks."
"Are they really leaving?" Elizabeth asked. She felt very relieved.
"Yes," Lydia said sadly. "They are going to a camp near Brighton. I really want Papa to take us all there for the summer! It would be so much fun, and it wouldn't cost much. Imagine how boring our summer will be without the soldiers!"
Elizabeth thought to herself that a summer in Brighton with a camp full of soldiers was the worst idea in the world. Her sisters were already silly enough around the soldiers in Meryton.
"I have some news for you," Lydia said as they sat down to eat. "It's about Mr. Wickham! Mary King has gone to stay with her uncle in Liverpool. There is no danger of Wickham marrying her now!"
"And Mary King is safe from an unhappy marriage," Elizabeth added quietly.
"She was a fool to leave him if she liked him," Lydia said.
"I hope they weren't too sad to say goodbye," Jane said kindly.
"Oh, he didn't care about her at all!" Lydia laughed. "He wouldn't marry a girl with such a freckled face."
Elizabeth was shocked. She remembered that she had once felt the same way about Wickham and Mary King, but now she realized how rude and shallow it sounded.
After lunch, they all crowded into the carriage to go home. Lydia talked loudly the whole way, telling stories about the parties they had been to. She told them about a "funny" joke where they dressed up a young soldier in women's clothes to trick the other officers. Elizabeth tried not to listen. She hated hearing Wickham’s name mentioned so often.
When they arrived at Longbourn, their parents welcomed them warmly. Mrs. Bennet was happy to see Jane looking so beautiful, and Mr. Bennet told Elizabeth several times that he was glad she was back.
That afternoon, Lydia wanted everyone to walk to Meryton to see the officers, but Elizabeth said no. She didn't want people to think the Bennet girls were always chasing the soldiers. More importantly, she wanted to avoid seeing Wickham for as long as possible.
Elizabeth soon found out that her mother was trying to persuade her father to take the family to Brighton for the summer. Her father didn't say "yes," but he didn't say a firm "no" either. This gave Mrs. Bennet hope that she might eventually get her way.