to unfold to any human being. Having said thus much, I feel no doubt of

your secrecy. My sister, who is more than ten years my junior, was left

to the guardianship of my mother’s nephew, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and

myself. About a year ago, she was taken from school, and an

establishment formed for her in London; and last summer she went with

the lady who presided over it to Ramsgate; and thither also went Mr.

Wickham, undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have been a prior

acquaintance between him and Mrs. Younge, in whose character we were

most unhappily deceived; and by her connivance and aid he so far

recommended himself to Georgiana, whose affectionate heart retained a

strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was

persuaded to believe herself in love and to consent to an elopement. She

was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse; and after stating her

imprudence, I am happy to add, that I owed the knowledge of it to

herself. I joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended

elopement; and then Georgiana, unable to support the idea of grieving

and offending a brother whom she almost looked up to as a father,

acknowledged the whole to me. You may imagine what{252} I felt and how I

acted. Regard for my sister’s credit and feelings prevented any public

exposure; but I wrote to Mr. Wickham, who left the place immediately,

and Mrs. Younge was of course removed from her charge. Mr. Wickham’s

chief object was unquestionably my sister’s fortune, which is thirty

thousand pounds; but I cannot help supposing that the hope of revenging

himself on me was a strong inducement. His revenge would have been

complete indeed. This, madam, is a faithful narrative of every event in

which we have been concerned together; and if you do not absolutely

reject it as false, you will, I hope, acquit me henceforth of cruelty

towards Mr. Wickham. I know not in what manner, under what form of