Pagina 409 de 817

"Two offences of a very different nature, and by no means of

equal magnitude, you last night laid to my charge. The first

mentioned was, that, regardless of the sentiments of either, I

had detached Mr. Bingley from your sister,--and the other, that I

had, in defiance of various claims, in defiance of honour and

humanity, ruined the immediate prosperity and blasted the

prospects of Mr. Wickham. Wilfully and wantonly to have thrown

off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged favourite of my

father, a young man who had scarcely any other dependence than on

our patronage, and who had been brought up to expect its

exertion, would be a depravity, to which the separation of two

young persons whose affection could be the growth of only a few

weeks, could bear no comparison.