vanity in useless or blameless
distrust.'

'Blameless' makes little or no sense, and we should surely follow the
third edition, which gives 'blameable.'

4. Chapter XXXVIII, when Elizabeth Bennet and Maria Lucas are leaving
Hunsford Parsonage, Mr. Brimley Johnson in his edition of 1892,
following the first and second editions, arranges the sentences as
follows:--

'Good gracious!' cried Maria, after a few minutes'
silence, 'it seems but a day or two since we first
came!--and yet how many things have happened!'

'A great many indeed,' said her companion with a
sigh. 'We have dined nine times at Rosings,
besides drinking tea there twice! How much I shall
have to tell!'

Elizabeth privately added, 'And how much I shall
have to conceal!'

The effect of this is to give the extremely banal remark about dining
and drinking tea at Rosings to Elizabeth instead of to Maria. The third
edition, followed by all the others, gives the correct arrangement:--

'A great many indeed,' said her companion with a
sigh.

'We have dined nine times at Rosings, besides
drinking tea there twice! How much I shall have to
tell!'

5. In Chapter L, where Mrs. Bennet is discussing the various houses in
the neighbourhood which might suit Wickham and Lydia, Mr. Bennet is made
in Bentley's and all subsequent editions to remark:--

'Mrs. Bennet, before you take any or all of these
houses for your son and daughter, let us come to a
right understanding. Into _one_ house in this
neighbourhood they shall never have admittance. I
will not encourage the imprudence of either, by
receiving them at Longbourn.'

Now 'imprudence' seems distinctly below Mr. Bennet's usual form, and we
should obviously follow the first and second editions and read
'impudence.' Compare the sentence in Chapter LVII, where Mr. Bennet,
talking of Mr. Collins's correspondence, says:--

'When I read a letter of his, I cannot help giving
him the preference even over Wickham, much as I
value the impudence and hypocrisy of my
son-in-law.'

It is the third edition that has here gone astray and misled all the
others.

6. Chapter LIV, when Bingley and Darcy have been dining at Longbourn, we
read in Mr. Johnson's edition, as well