Pride and Prejudice

How ironic that Lydia in Pride and Prejudice declares: “Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare.  She is almost three and twenty!  Lord, how ashamed I should be of not being married before three and twenty!”  If Harris Bigg-Wither ever read her novels, he would have been quite struck by these words.  Miss Austen had never written so honestly!  Or ironically…