You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater, when I write to them, and sign my name "Lydia Wickham." What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for laughing.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 47. Lydia writes this in the letter she leaves behind when she elopes with Wickham. In the note, sent to Colonel Forster’s wife, Lydia refers to Wickham as the "one man in the world I love, and he is an angel." To Lydia, running off with a man is a huge joke. But in her foolishness she doesn’t stop to think about the repercussions of her actions for her and her sisters.