“But to expose the former faults of any person without knowing what their present feelings were,seemed unjustifiable.We acted with the best intentions.”
“Oh! thoughtless, thoughtless Lydia!”cried Elizabeth when she had finished it.“What a letter is this,to be written at such a moment!But at least it shows that she was serious on the subject of their journey.Whatever he might afterwards persuade her to, it was not on her side a scheme of infamy.My poor father!how he must have felt it!”
“But not before they went to Brighton?”
“Your affectionate friend,
“And did Colonel Forster appear to think ill of Wickham himself?Does he know his real character?”
“LYDIA BENNET.”
“No,I believe not.”
“Your attendance upon her has been too much for you.You do not look well.Oh that I had been with you!You have had every care and anxiety upon yourself alone.”
“I never saw anyone so shocked.He could not speak a word for full ten minutes. My mother was taken ill immediately, and the whole house in such confusion!”
“How was it possible that such an idea should enter our brains? I felt a little uneasy―a little fearful of my sister's happiness with him in marriage,because I knew that his conduct had not been always quite right.My father and mother knew nothing of that;they only felt how imprudent a match it must be. Kitty then owned, with a very natural triumph on knowing more than the rest of us,that in Lydia's last letter she had prepared her for such a step.She had known,it seems,of their being in love with each other,many weeks.”