第106章[第1頁/共6頁]

Mrs.Bennet,to whose apartment they all repaired,after a few minutes' conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham,and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing.

“Oh, yes!―that, that is the worst of all.Till I was in Kent, and saw so much both of Mr. Darcy and his relation Colonel Fitzwilliam, I was ignorant of the truth myself. And when I returned home, the―shire was to leave Meryton in a week or fortnight's time.As that was the case, neither Jane, to whom I related the whole, nor I, thought it necessary to make our knowledge public;for of what use could it apparently be to any one,that the good opinion which all the neighbourhood had of him should then be overthrown?And even when it was settled that Lydia should go with Mrs.Forster,the necessity of opening her eyes to his character never occurred to me.That she could be in any danger from the deception never entered my head.That such a consequence as this could ensue, you may easily believe, was far enough from my thoughts.”