Colonel Forster is a sensible man, and will keep her out of any real mischief; and she is luckily too poor to be an object of prey to anybody. At Brighton she will be of less importance even as a common flirt than she has been here. The officers will find women better worth their notice. Let us hope, therefore, that her being there may teach her her own insignificance. At any rate, she cannot grow many degrees worse, without authorising us to lock her up for the rest of her life.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 41. When Elizabeth warns Mr. Bennet not to let Lydia go with the militia regiment to Brighton, he justifies his decision to allow her in a passage that is full of ironic foreshadowing. It is a bit hard to swallow that he believe nothing bad will happen by sending his silliest and most immature daughter to the seaside resort of Brighton. Far from staying out of "real mischief" and not falling "prey" to anybody, the 15-year-old flirtateous Lydia ends up running off, unmarried, with the predatory militia officer George Wickham.