and Mrs. Gardiner, with their four children, appeared at Longbourn. They were to stay there only one night, and set off the next morning. The children, two girls of six and eight years old, and two younger boys, were to be left under the care of their cousins; although Jane was the general favourite, whose steady sense and sweetness of temper exactly adapted her for attending to them in every way, her impending nuptials forbade her from being in primary care of them. If her thoughts were more at netherfield than Longbourn, it did not affect elizabeth’s ability to enjoy playing with her young cousins. It gave her pleasure to see their delight in the country air as they ran about, urging her to join in their games. she relearned the skill of her younger days at graces at least sufficiently to provide a challenge to the eldest girl, then turned the sticks over to the younger of them, watching them play until the elder Master Gardiner, already autocratic at the advanced age of four, demanded a game of hide and seek in the shrubbery behind the house.
