Pride and Prejudice

CHAPTER XXXV.

Elizabeth awoke the next morning to the same thoughts. Resolved to take air, she turned up the lane farther from the turnpike road instead of entering the park; but tempted by the pleasantness of the morning, she stopped at the gates and looked in. Catching a glimpse of a gentleman within the grove, fearful of its being Darcy, she was retreating, but he advanced, pronounced her name, and, holding out a letter which she instinctively took, said with haughty composure: “I have been walking in the grove some time, in the hope of meeting you. Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?” and with a slight bow turned again into the plantation.

With no expectation of pleasure but the strongest curiosity, Elizabeth opened the letter and perceived an envelope containing two sheets of letter paper, written quite through, in a very close hand. It was dated from Rosings, at eight o’clock in the morning, and began by assuring her there would be no repetition of last night’s offers or sentiments, so disgusting to her, and demanding her attention as an act of justice.

“Two offences of a very different nature, and by no means of equal magnitude, you last night laid to my charge. The first mentioned was, that, regardless of the sentiments of either, I had detached Mr. Bingley from your sister,—and the other, that I had, in defiance of various claims, in defiance of honour and humanity, ruined the immediate prosperity and blasted the prospects of Mr. Wickham.” He explained that wilfully and wantonly to have thrown off the companion of his youth would be a depravity to which the separation of two young persons whose affection could be the growth of only a few weeks could bear no comparison.

With respect to Jane, he recounted how at the Netherfield ball he had observed that Bingley preferred her, and from Sir William’s accidental information had perceived the expectation of their marriage. He watched his friend and could perceive his partiality; he watched Jane too, but without any symptom of peculiar regard. He remained convinced from the evening’s scrutiny that, though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment. “If you have not been mistaken here,” he wrote, “I must have been in error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable.” Her resentment had not been unreasonable. He believed her indifferent on impartial conviction, not because he wished it.

His objections to the marriage were not merely those he had acknowledged in his own case; the want of connection could not be so great an evil to his friend. But there were other causes of repugnance—“the situation of your mother’s family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father.” He described how, Bingley having left Netherfield for London, he had joined him there with Miss Bingley and pointed out the certain evils of such a choice. However this remonstrance might have staggered or delayed Bingley’s determination, it had been seconded by the assurance of Jane’s indifference. Bingley had great natural modesty and a stronger dependence on Darcy’s judgment than on his own. One part of his conduct he did not reflect on with satisfaction: he had condescended to conceal from Bingley Jane’s being in town; that they might have met without ill consequence was perhaps probable, but his regard did not appear enough extinguished for him to see her without some danger.

With respect to Wickham, he could only refute the charge by laying before her his connection with the family. Wickham was the son of a very respectable man who had managed all the Pemberley estates, whose good conduct inclined Darcy’s father to be of service to him; on George Wickham, his godson, his kindness was liberally bestowed, supporting him at school and Cambridge—the most important assistance, as Wickham’s own father, always poor from the extravagance of his wife, would have been unable to give him a gentleman’s education. He hoped the church would be Wickham’s profession.

His own father had died about five years before, and in his will particularly recommended Wickham to Darcy’s promotion, and if he took orders, desired that a valuable family living might be his as soon as it became vacant, with also a legacy of one thousand pounds. His father did not long survive; within half a year Wickham wrote to inform him that, having finally resolved against taking orders, he hoped Darcy would not think it unreasonable to expect some more immediate pecuniary advantage, the interest of one thousand pounds being a very insufficient support in studying the law. Darcy knew Wickham ought not to be a clergyman. Wickham resigned all claim to assistance in the church and accepted three thousand pounds.

All connection seemed now dissolved. Darcy thought too ill of him to invite him to Pemberley. In town Wickham chiefly lived, but his studying the law was a mere pretence, and being now free from all restraint, his life was a life of idleness and dissipation. About three years later, on the decease of the incumbent of the living, Wickham applied again by letter for the presentation; his circumstances were exceedingly bad, and he was now absolutely resolved on being ordained. Darcy would not comply. After this, every appearance of acquaintance was dropped.

Then Darcy mentioned a circumstance he would wish to forget himself. His sister, more than ten years his junior, was left to the guardianship of Colonel Fitzwilliam and himself. About a year ago she was taken from school and an establishment formed for her in London; last summer she went with the lady who presided over it to Ramsgate, and thither also went Wickham undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have been a prior acquaintance between him and Mrs. Younge, in whose character they were most unhappily deceived; and by her connivance and aid he so far recommended himself to Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to believe herself in love and to consent to an elopement. She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse. Darcy had joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended elopement, and Georgiana, unable to support the idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father, acknowledged the whole to him. He wrote to Wickham, who left the place immediately, and Mrs. Younge was removed. Wickham’s chief object was unquestionably his sister’s fortune, which was thirty thousand pounds, but Darcy could not help supposing the hope of revenging himself was a strong inducement.