“Oh!but their removing from the chaise into a hackney coach is such a presumption!And,besides,no traces of them were to be found on the Barnet road.”
“Not,perhaps,of neglecting his own interest;but of every other neglect I can believe him capable.If,indeed,it should be so!But I dare not hope it.Why should they not go on to Scotland if that had been the case?”
“And do you really know all this?”cried Mrs.Gardiner,whose curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive.
“Upon my word,”said Mrs. Gardiner,“I begin to be of your uncle's opinion. It is really too great a violation of decency, honour,and interest,for him to be guilty of it.I cannot think so very ill of Wickham.Can you yourself,Lizzy,so wholly give him up,as to believe him capable of it?”
“I have been thinking it over again,Elizabeth,”said her uncle,as they drove from the town;“and really,upon serious consideration, I am much more inclined than I was to judge as your eldest sister does on the matter. It appears to me so very unlikely that any young man should form such a design against a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless,and who was actually staying in his colonel's family,that I am strongly inclined to hope the best. Could he expect that her friends would not step forward?Could he expect to be noticed again by the regiment,after such an affront to Colonel Forster?His temptation is not adequate to the risk!”