第76章

    “My excellent father died about five years ago; and his attat to Mr.Wickham was to thest so steady, that in his will he particrly rme to me, to promote his adva in the best mahat his profession might allow—and if he took orders,desired that a valuable family living might be his as soon as it became vat.There was also a legacy of ohousand pounds.His own father did not long survive mine, and within half a year from these events,Mr.Wickham wrote to inform me that,having finally resolved against taking orders,he hoped I should not think it unreasonable for him to expeore immediate peiary advantage,in lieu of the preferment, by which he could not be beed.He had some iion,he added,of studying thew,and I must be aware that the i of ohousand pounds would be a very insuffit support therein.I rather wished,than believed him to be si,at any rate, erfectly ready to ede to his proposal. I khat Mr.Wickham ought not to be a clergyman; the business was therefore sooled—he resigned all im to assistan the church,were it possible that he could ever be in a situation to receive it,aed iurn three thousand pounds.All e between us seemed now dissolved.I thought too ill of him to invite him to Pemberley,or admit his society in town. In town I believe he chiefly lived,but his studying thew was a mere pretend being now free from all restraint,his life was a life of idleness and dissipation. For about three years I heard little of him;but on the decease of the incumbent of the living which had been designed for him,he applied to me again by letter for the presentation. His circumstances, he assured me, and I had no difficulty in believing it, were exceedingly bad. He had found thew a most unprofitable study,and was now absolutely resolved on being ordained,if I would present him to the living iion—of which he trusted there could be little doubt,as he was well assured that I had no other person to provide for,and I could not have otten my revered father's iions.You will hardly me me for refusing toply with this ey,or for resisting every repetition to it.His rese was in proportion to the distress of his circumstances—and he was doubtless as violent in his abuse of me to others as in his reproaches to myself. After this period every appearance of acquaintance was dropped. How he lived I know not. Butst summer he was again most painfully obtruded on my notice.

    “I must now mention a circumstance which I would wish to et myself, and whio obligatiohan 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, el Fitzwilliam, and myself.About a year ago, she was taken from school, and aablishment formed for her in London; andst summer she went with thedy who presided over it, tate; and thither also went Mr. Wickham,undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have been a prior acquaintaween him and Mrs.Younge,in whose character we were most unhappily deceived;and by her ivand aid, he so far rmended himself to Giana,whose affeate heart retained a strong impression of his kio her as a child, that she ersuaded to believe herself in love, and to sent 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 joihem uedly a day or two before the intended elopement, and then Giana, uo support the idea of grieving and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father, aowledged the whole to me.You may imagine what I felt and how I acted.Regard for my sister's credit and feelings prevented any public exposure;but I wrote to Mr.Wickham,who left the ce immediately,and Mrs.Younge was of course removed from her charge. Mr.Wickham's chief object was uionably my sister's fortune, which is thirty thousand pounds; but I ot help supposing that the hope of revenging himself on me was a strong i. His revenge would have beee indeed.

    “This, madam, is a faithful narrative of every event in which we have been ed together; and if you do not absolutely reject it as false,you will,I hope,acquit me heh of cruelty towards Mr.Wickham.I know not in what manner,under what form of falsehood he had imposed on you;but his sess is not perhaps to be wo. Ignorant as you previously were of everything iher, dete could not be in your power,and suspi certainly not in your ination.

    “You may possibly wonder why all this was not told youst night; but I was not then master enough of myself to know what could ht to be revealed.For the truth of everything here rted,I  appeal more particrly to the testimony of el Fitzwilliam,who,from our near rtionship and stant intimacy, and, still more, as one of the executors of my father's will, has been unavoidably acquainted with every particr of these transas. If your abhorrene should make my assertions valueless,you ot be prevented by the same cause from fiding in my cousin;and that there may be the possibility of sulting him,I shall endeavour to find some opportunity of putting this letter in your hands in the course of the m.I will only add,God bless you.快眼看书小说阅读_www.bookcu.com