herself; but that after their removal, it had been everywhere discussed;

that he had then no reserves, no scruples in sinking Mr. Darc{258}y’s

character, though he had assured her that respect for the father would

always prevent his exposing the son.
How differently did everything now appear in which he was concerned! His

attentions to Miss King were now the consequence of views solely and

hatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of her fortune proved no longer

the moderation of his wishes, but his eagerness to grasp at anything.

His behaviour to herself could now have had no tolerable motive: he had

either been deceived with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying

his vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most

incautiously shown. Every lingering struggle in his favour grew fainter

and fainter; and in further justification of Mr. Darcy, she could not

but allow that Mr. Bingley, when questioned by Jane, had long ago

asserted his blamelessness in the affair;—that, proud and repulsive as

were his manners, she had never, in the whole course of their

acquaintance—an acquaintance which had latterly brought them much

together, and given her a sort of intimacy with his ways—seen anything

that betrayed him to be unprincipled or unjust—anything that spoke him

of irreligious or immoral habits;—that among his own connections he was

esteemed and valued;—that even Wickham had allowed him merit as a

brother, and that she had often heard him speak so affectionately of his

sister as to prove him capable of some amiable feeling;—that had his

actions been what Wickham represented them, so gross a violation of

everything right could hardly have been concealed from the world; and

that friendship between a person capable of it and such an amiable man

as Mr. Bingley was incomprehensible.
She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. Of neither{259} Darcy nor Wickham