Nodiver d.o.o. · Pride & Prejudice · page 342 of 640

Pride & Prejudice – page 342

JANE AUSTEN

insensibility she instantly resolved to be false; and his

account of the real, the worst objections to the match,

made her too angry to have any wish of doing him

justice. He expressed no regret for what he had done

which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but

haughty. It was all pride and insolence.

But when this subject was succeeded by his account

of Mr. Wickham when she read with somewhat

clearer attention a relation of events which, if true,

must overthrow every cherished opinion of his worth,

and which bore so alarming an affinity to his own

history of himselfher feelings were yet more acutely

painful and more difficult of definition. Astonishment,

apprehension, and even horror, oppressed her. She

wished to discredit it entirely, repeatedly exclaiming,

“This must be false! This cannot be! This must be the

grossest falsehood!”and when she had gone through

the whole letter, though scarcely knowing anything of

the last page or two, put it hastily away, protesting that

she would not regard it, that she would never look in

it again.

In this perturbed state of mind, with thoughts that

could rest on nothing, she walked on; but it would not

do; in half a minute the letter was unfolded again, and

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