{"id":"01KJRRE0PXY329YZ05W4FA1FD7","cid":"bafkreia3l7mqivci2acjowpayzx7uszp6yrvqix2zj2zix2dd73qumfgvu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":413103,"char_start":405104,"chunk_index":57,"chunk_total":108,"estimated_tokens":2000,"label":"give, which a just sense of shame would not concea","source_file_key":"pride-and-prejudice","text":"give, which a just sense of shame would not conceal. With a strong\r\nprejudice against everything he might say, she began his account of\r\nwhat had happened at Netherfield. She read with an eagerness which\r\nhardly left her power of comprehension; and from impatience of knowing\r\nwhat the next sentence might bring, was incapable of attending to the\r\nsense of the one before her eyes. His belief of her sister’s\r\ninsensibility she instantly resolved to be false; and his account of the\r\nreal, the worst objections to the match, made her too angry to have any\r\nwish of doing him justice. He expressed no regret for what he had done\r\nwhich satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all\r\npride and insolence.\r\n\r\nBut when this subject was succeeded by his account of Mr. Wickham--when\r\nshe read, with somewhat clearer attention, a relation of events which,\r\nif true, must overthrow every cherished opinion of his worth, and which\r\nbore so alarming an affinity to his own history of himself--her feelings\r\nwere yet more acutely painful and more difficult of definition.\r\nAstonishment, apprehension, and even horror, oppressed her. She wished\r\nto discredit it entirely, repeatedly exclaiming, “This must be false!\r\nThis cannot be! This must be the grossest falsehood!”--and when she had\r\ngone through the whole letter, though scarcely knowing anything of the\r\nlast page or two, put it hastily away, protesting that she would not\r\nregard it, that she would never look in it again.\r\n\r\nIn this perturbed state of mind, with thoughts that could rest on\r\nnothing, she walked on; but it would not do: in half a minute the letter\r\nwas unfolded again; and collecting herself as well as she could, she\r\nagain began the mortifying perusal of all that related to Wickham, and\r\ncommanded herself so far as to examine the meaning of every sentence.\r\nThe account of his connection with the Pemberley family was exactly\r\nwhat he had related himself; and the kindness of the late Mr. Darcy,\r\nthough she had not before known its extent, agreed equally well with his\r\nown words. So far each recital confirmed the other; but when she came to\r\nthe will, the difference was great. What Wickham had said of the living\r\nwas fresh in her memory; and as she recalled his very words, it was\r\nimpossible not to feel that there was gross duplicity on one side or the\r\nother, and, for a few moments, she flattered herself that her wishes did\r\nnot err. But when she read and re-read, with the closest attention, the\r\nparticulars immediately following of Wickham’s resigning all pretensions\r\nto the living, of his receiving in lieu so considerable a sum as three\r\nthousand pounds, again was she forced to hesitate. She put down the\r\nletter, weighed every circumstance with what she meant to be\r\nimpartiality--deliberated on the probability of each statement--but with\r\nlittle success. On both sides it was only assertion. Again she read on.\r\nBut every line proved more clearly that the affair, which she had\r\nbelieved it impossible that any contrivance could so represent as to\r\nrender Mr. Darcy’s conduct in it less than infamous, was capable of a\r\nturn which must make him entirely blameless throughout the whole.\r\n\r\nThe extravagance and general profligacy which he scrupled not to lay to\r\nMr. Wickham’s charge exceedingly shocked her; the more so, as she could\r\nbring no proof of its injustice. She had never heard of him before his\r\nentrance into the ----shire militia, in which he had engaged at the\r\npersuasion of the young man, who, on meeting him accidentally in town,\r\nhad there renewed a slight acquaintance. Of his former way of life,\r\nnothing had been known in Hertfordshire but what he told\r\n\r\n[Illustration:\r\n\r\n     “Meeting accidentally in Town”\r\n\r\n[_Copyright 1894 by George Allen._]]\r\n\r\nhimself. As to his real character, had information been in her power,\r\nshe had never felt a wish of inquiring. His countenance, voice, and\r\nmanner, had established him at once in the possession of every virtue.\r\nShe tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished\r\ntrait of integrity or benevolence, that might rescue him from the\r\nattacks of Mr. Darcy; or at least, by the predominance of virtue, atone\r\nfor those casual errors, under which she would endeavour to class what\r\nMr. Darcy had described as the idleness and vice of many years’\r\ncontinuance. But no such recollection befriended her. She could see him\r\ninstantly before her, in every charm of air and address, but she could\r\nremember no more substantial good than the general approbation of the\r\nneighbourhood, and the regard which his social powers had gained him in\r\nthe mess. After pausing on this point a considerable while, she once\r\nmore continued to read. But, alas! the story which followed, of his\r\ndesigns on Miss Darcy, received some confirmation from what had passed\r\nbetween Colonel Fitzwilliam and herself only the morning before; and at\r\nlast she was referred for the truth of every particular to Colonel\r\nFitzwilliam himself--from whom she had previously received the\r\ninformation of his near concern in all his cousin’s affairs and whose\r\ncharacter she had no reason to question. At one time she had almost\r\nresolved on applying to him, but the idea was checked by the awkwardness\r\nof the application, and at length wholly banished by the conviction that\r\nMr. Darcy would never have hazarded such a proposal, if he had not been\r\nwell assured of his cousin’s corroboration.\r\n\r\nShe perfectly remembered everything that had passed in conversation\r\nbetween Wickham and herself in their first evening at Mr. Philips’s.\r\nMany of his expressions were still fresh in her memory. She was _now_\r\nstruck with the impropriety of such communications to a stranger, and\r\nwondered it had escaped her before. She saw the indelicacy of putting\r\nhimself forward as he had done, and the inconsistency of his professions\r\nwith his conduct. She remembered that he had boasted of having no fear\r\nof seeing Mr. Darcy--that Mr. Darcy might leave the country, but that\r\n_he_ should stand his ground; yet he had avoided the Netherfield ball\r\nthe very next week. She remembered, also, that till the Netherfield\r\nfamily had quitted the country, he had told his story to no one but\r\nherself; but that after their removal, it had been everywhere discussed;\r\nthat he had then no reserves, no scruples in sinking Mr. Darcy’s\r\ncharacter, though he had assured her that respect for the father would\r\nalways prevent his exposing the son.\r\n\r\nHow differently did everything now appear in which he was concerned! His\r\nattentions to Miss King were now the consequence of views solely and\r\nhatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of her fortune proved no longer\r\nthe moderation of his wishes, but his eagerness to grasp at anything.\r\nHis behaviour to herself could now have had no tolerable motive: he had\r\neither been deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying\r\nhis vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most\r\nincautiously shown. Every lingering struggle in his favour grew fainter\r\nand fainter; and in further justification of Mr. Darcy, she could not\r\nbut allow that Mr. Bingley, when questioned by Jane, had long ago\r\nasserted his blamelessness in the affair;--that, proud and repulsive as\r\nwere his manners, she had never, in the whole course of their\r\nacquaintance--an acquaintance which had latterly brought them much\r\ntogether, and given her a sort of intimacy with his ways--seen anything\r\nthat betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust--anything that spoke him\r\nof irreligious or immoral habits;--that among his own connections he was\r\nesteemed and valued;--that even Wickham had allowed him merit as a\r\nbrother, and that she had often heard him speak so affectionately of his\r\nsister as to prove him capable of some amiable feeling;--that had his\r\nactions been what Wickham represented them, so gross a violation of\r\neverything right could hardly have been concealed from the world; and\r\nthat friendship "},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJRRD3TNE5A6AKAVXSRFT9RC","peer_label":"pride-and-prejudice","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJRRC2C7K6XERRJES8143XGV","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJRREZJBEM6MWHW485H9DS9F","peer_label":"mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF19AD63KEEZZWPG3X2KQ","peer_label":"mr wickham","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZKG263C7SQSDV3TZ5MX","peer_label":"elizabeth bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGM87R12EADFF6YZZG3","peer_label":"jane bennet","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREZGXA5G45WS8FVH5R7BE","peer_label":"netherfield","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"estate","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF1GQXGH5SGWQFV36Z7N3","peer_label":"late mr darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF080QQFQRJXDVEZJMPV0","peer_label":"miss darcy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF7YPKAMRSS5AR5RC8DQN","peer_label":"colonel fitzwilliam","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRF1AJ6WME8KFADRPK0GW0","peer_label":"mr philipss house","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"residence","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFBWNEDRCEJ8R6A0322BH","peer_label":"miss king","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREY5SSJCQ67QYG0XTG9A8","peer_label":"mr bingley","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRREYW19YDDGRB70B483ZRV","peer_label":"hertfordshire","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"county","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFE8X1JK3EESNDFPJZHXZ","peer_label":"mr darcys letter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFE8N74ZKQHKYW9G0MATS","peer_label":"pemberley family","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"family","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFECMP54YQGENY36M7BPY","peer_label":"ecclesiastical living","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ecclesiastical_position","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}},{"peer":"01KJRRFECP0R42R0SVK0XTJ4EY","peer_label":"three thousand pounds","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"financial_sum","extracted_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:50.868Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T02:29:01.277Z","ts":"2026-03-03T02:29:51.783Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}