Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 338 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 338

JANE AUSTEN

“I must now mention a circumstance which I would

wish to forget myself, and which no obligation less

than the present should induce me to unfold to any

human being. Having said thus much, I feel no doubt

of your secrecy. My sister, who is more than ten years

my junior, was left to the guardianship of my mother’s

nephew, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and myself. About a year

ago, she was taken from school, and an establishment

formed for her in London; and last summer she went

with the lady who presided over it, to Ramsgate; and

thither also went Mr. Wickham, undoubtedly by design;

for there proved to have been a prior acquaintance

between him and Mrs. Younge, in whose character we

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; and after stating her imprudence, I

am happy to add, that I owed the knowledge of it

to herself. I joined them unexpectedly a day or two

before the intended elopement, and then Georgiana,

unable to support the idea of grieving and offending

a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father,

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