{"id":"01KJRRE0PXFEMB7E3A502R6DTZ","cid":"bafkreie4nwylv57qy4ncgyvx3e6v3n3lprk5pwgyqtjmzro3wu2eysfyxi","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":398799,"char_start":391001,"chunk_index":55,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":1950,"label":"bear no comparison. But from the severity of that","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"bear no comparison. But from the severity of that blame which was last\r\nnight so liberally bestowed, respecting each circumstance, I shall hope\r\nto be in future secured, when the following account of my actions and\r\ntheir motives has been read. If, in the explanation of them which is due\r\nto myself, I am under the necessity of relating feelings which may be\r\noffensive to yours, I can only say that I am sorry. The necessity must\r\nbe obeyed, and further apology would be absurd. I had not been long in\r\nHertfordshire before I saw, in common with others, that Bingley\r\npreferred your elder sister to any other young woman in the country. But\r\nit was not till the evening of the dance at Netherfield that I had any\r\napprehension of his feeling a serious attachment. I had often seen him\r\nin love before. At that ball, while I had the honour of dancing with\r\nyou, I was first made acquainted, by Sir William Lucas’s accidental\r\ninformation, that Bingley’s attentions to your sister had given rise to\r\na general expectation of their marriage. He spoke of it as a certain\r\nevent, of which the time alone could be undecided. From that moment I\r\nobserved my friend’s behaviour attentively; and I could then perceive\r\nthat his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed\r\nin him. Your sister I also watched. Her look and manners were open,\r\ncheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar\r\nregard; and I remained convinced, from the evening’s scrutiny, that\r\nthough she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite\r\nthem by any participation of sentiment. If _you_ have not been mistaken\r\nhere, _I_ must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your\r\nsister must make the latter probable. If it be so, if I have been misled\r\nby such error to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not been\r\nunreasonable. But I shall not scruple to assert, that the serenity of\r\nyour sister’s countenance and air was such as might have given the most\r\nacute observer a conviction that, however amiable her temper, her heart\r\nwas not likely to be easily touched. That I was desirous of believing\r\nher indifferent is certain; but I will venture to say that my\r\ninvestigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or\r\nfears. I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it; I\r\nbelieved it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.\r\nMy objections to the marriage were not merely those which I last night\r\nacknowledged to have required the utmost force of passion to put aside\r\nin my own case; the want of connection could not be so great an evil to\r\nmy friend as to me. But there were other causes of repugnance; causes\r\nwhich, though still existing, and existing to an equal degree in both\r\ninstances, I had myself endeavoured to forget, because they were not\r\nimmediately before me. These causes must be stated, though briefly. The\r\nsituation of your mother’s family, though objectionable, was nothing in\r\ncomparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost\r\nuniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and\r\noccasionally even by your father:--pardon me,--it pains me to offend\r\nyou. But amidst your concern for the defects of your nearest relations,\r\nand your displeasure at this representation of them, let it give you\r\nconsolation to consider that to have conducted yourselves so as to avoid\r\nany share of the like censure is praise no less generally bestowed on\r\nyou and your eldest sister than it is honourable to the sense and\r\ndisposition of both. I will only say, farther, that from what passed\r\nthat evening my opinion of all parties was confirmed, and every\r\ninducement heightened, which could have led me before to preserve my\r\nfriend from what I esteemed a most unhappy connection. He left\r\nNetherfield for London on the day following, as you, I am certain,\r\nremember, with the design of soon returning. The part which I acted is\r\nnow to be explained. His sisters’ uneasiness had been equally excited\r\nwith my own: our coincidence of feeling was soon discovered; and, alike\r\nsensible that no time was to be lost in detaching their brother, we\r\nshortly resolved on joining him directly in London. We accordingly\r\nwent--and there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my\r\nfriend the certain evils of such a choice. I described and enforced them\r\nearnestly. But however this remonstrance might have staggered or delayed\r\nhis determination, I do not suppose that it would ultimately have\r\nprevented the marriage, had it not been seconded by the assurance, which\r\nI hesitated not in giving, of your sister’s indifference. He had before\r\nbelieved her to return his affection with sincere, if not with equal,\r\nregard. But Bingley has great natural modesty, with a stronger\r\ndependence on my judgment than on his own. To convince him, therefore,\r\nthat he had deceived himself was no very difficult point. To persuade\r\nhim against returning into Hertfordshire, when that conviction had been\r\ngiven, was scarcely the work of a moment. I cannot blame myself for\r\nhaving done thus much. There is but one part of my conduct, in the whole\r\naffair, on which I do not reflect with satisfaction; it is that I\r\ncondescended to adopt the measures of art so far as to conceal from him\r\nyour sister’s being in town. I knew it myself, as it was known to Miss\r\nBingley; but her brother is even yet ignorant of it. That they might\r\nhave met without ill consequence is, perhaps, probable; but his regard\r\ndid not appear to me enough extinguished for him to see her without some\r\ndanger. Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me. It is\r\ndone, however, and it was done for the best. On this subject I have\r\nnothing more to say, no other apology to offer. If I have wounded your\r\nsister’s feelings, it was unknowingly done; and though the motives which\r\ngoverned me may to you very naturally appear insufficient, I have not\r\nyet learnt to condemn them.--With respect to that other, more weighty\r\naccusation, of having injured Mr. Wickham, I can only refute it by\r\nlaying before you the whole of his connection with my family. Of what he\r\nhas _particularly_ accused me I am ignorant; but of the truth of what I\r\nshall relate I can summon more than one witness of undoubted veracity.\r\nMr. Wickham is the son of a very respectable man, who had for many years\r\nthe management of all the Pemberley estates, and whose good conduct in\r\nthe discharge of his trust naturally inclined my father to be of service\r\nto him; and on George Wickham, who was his godson, his kindness was\r\ntherefore liberally bestowed. My father supported him at school, and\r\nafterwards at Cambridge; most important assistance, as his own father,\r\nalways poor from the extravagance of his wife, would have been unable to\r\ngive him a gentleman’s education. My father was not only fond of this\r\nyoung man’s society, whose manners were always engaging, he had also the\r\nhighest opinion of him, and hoping the church would be his profession,\r\nintended to provide for him in it. As for myself, it is many, many years\r\nsince I first began to think of him in a very different manner. The\r\nvicious propensities, the want of principle, which he was careful to\r\nguard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the\r\nobservation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who\r\nhad opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy\r\ncould not have. Here again I shall give you pain--to what degree you\r\nonly can tell. But whatever may be the sentiments which Mr. Wickham has\r\ncreated, a suspicion of their nature shall not prevent me from unfolding\r\nhis real character. It adds even another motive. My excellent father\r\ndied about five years ago; and his attachment to Mr."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZJBEM6MWHW485H9DS9F","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF0886HKAEXJPHPK5R594","peer_label":"charles bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGXA5G45WS8FVH5R7BE","peer_label":"netherfield","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYTMYM5H9026MPV0AJMX","peer_label":"sir william lucas","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFJXRHANNK33HARNXJTB7","peer_label":"dance at netherfield","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"event","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYZ36C2F9Z4KP5F6ANMZ","peer_label":"london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"city","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF19AD63KEEZZWPG3X2KQ","peer_label":"mr wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF06V9ABE1JZWJHE56BCY","peer_label":"miss bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG0ZYRM56YF0JN0XW7VK6","peer_label":"mr darcys father","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG1FA7YCSFG4ANTHH4PZ3","peer_label":"general expectation of marriage between bingley and jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"social_perception","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG1GTJ75QR111QQA9GQA1","peer_label":"bingleys sisters","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG1FFJY4G8KVGABYCXGBP","peer_label":"jane bennets presence in london","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"circumstance","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG1KFSN233AV79Q99C3MA","peer_label":"mr wickhams father","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG1M0Y1WSKG5W8E816W45","peer_label":"cambridge","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"university","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRG2043VZS4DFVDZ2CJV3Y","peer_label":"pemberley estates","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:30:09.620Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.277Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:30:10.518Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}