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Гордость и предубеждение
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Pride and Prejudice
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Elizabeth could not but look surprised.
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“You may well be surprised,
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Miss Bennet,
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at such an assertion,
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after seeing,
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as you probably might,
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the very cold manner of our meeting yesterday.
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Are you much acquainted with Mr. Darcy?”
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“As much as I ever wish to be,”
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cried Elizabeth very warmly.
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“I have spent four days in the same house with him,
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and I think him very disagreeable.”
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“I have no right to give my opinion,”
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said Wickham,
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“as to his being agreeable or otherwise.
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I am not qualified to form one.
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I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge.
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It is impossible for me to be impartial.
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But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish—and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else.
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Here you are in your own family.”
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“Upon my word,
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I say no more here than I might say in any house in the neighbourhood,
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except Netherfield.
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He is not at all liked in Hertfordshire.
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Everybody is disgusted with his pride.
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You will not find him more favourably spoken of by anyone.”
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“I cannot pretend to be sorry,”
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said Wickham,
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after a short interruption,
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“that he or that any man should not be estimated beyond their deserts;
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but with him I believe it does not often happen.
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The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence,
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or frightened by his high and imposing manners,
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and sees him only as he chooses to be seen.”
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“I should take him,
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even on my slight acquaintance,
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to be an ill-tempered man.”
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Wickham only shook his head.
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“I wonder,”
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said he,
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at the next opportunity of speaking,
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“whether he is likely to be in this country much longer.”
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“I do not at all know;
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but I heard nothing of his going away when I was at Netherfield.
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I hope your plans in favour of the ——shire will not be affected by his being in the neighbourhood.”
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“Oh!
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no—it is not for me to be driven away by Mr. Darcy.
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If he wishes to avoid seeing me,
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he must go.
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We are not on friendly terms,
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and it always gives me pain to meet him,
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but I have no reason for avoiding him but what I might proclaim before all the world,
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a sense of very great ill-usage,
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and most painful regrets at his being what he is.
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His father,
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Miss Bennet,
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the late Mr. Darcy,
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was one of the best men that ever breathed,
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and the truest friend I ever had;
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and I can never be in company with this Mr. Darcy without being grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections.
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His behaviour to myself has been scandalous;
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but I verily believe I could forgive him anything and everything,
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rather than his disappointing the hopes and disgracing the memory of his father.”
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Elizabeth found the interest of the subject increase,
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and listened with all her heart;
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but the delicacy of it prevented further inquiry.
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Mr. Wickham began to speak on more general topics,
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Meryton,
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the neighbourhood,
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the society,
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appearing highly pleased with all that he had yet seen,
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and speaking of the latter with gentle but very intelligible gallantry.
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“It was the prospect of constant society,
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and good society,”
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he added,
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“which was my chief inducement to enter the ——shire.
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I knew it to be a most respectable,
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agreeable corps,
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and my friend Denny tempted me further by his account of their present quarters,
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and the very great attentions and excellent acquaintances Meryton had procured them.
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Society,
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I own,
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is necessary to me.
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I have been a disappointed man,
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and my spirits will not bear solitude.
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I must have employment and society.
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A military life is not what I was intended for,
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but circumstances have now made it eligible.
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The church ought to have been my profession—I was brought up for the church,
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and I should at this time have been in possession of a most valuable living,
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had it pleased the gentleman we were speaking of just now.”
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“Indeed!”
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“Yes—the late Mr. Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift.
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He was my godfather,
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and excessively attached to me.
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I cannot do justice to his kindness.
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He meant to provide for me amply,
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and thought he had done it;
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but when the living fell,
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it was given elsewhere.”
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“Good heavens!”
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cried Elizabeth;
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“but how could that be?
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How could his will be disregarded?
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Why did you not seek legal redress?”
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“There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest as to give me no hope from law.
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A man of honour could not have doubted the intention,
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but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it—or to treat it as a merely conditional recommendation,
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and to assert that I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance,
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imprudence—in short anything or nothing.
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Certain it is,
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that the living became vacant two years ago,
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exactly as I was of an age to hold it,
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and that it was given to another man;
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and no less certain is it,
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that I cannot accuse myself of having really done anything to deserve to lose it.
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I have a warm,
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unguarded temper,
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and I may have spoken my opinion of him,
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and to him,
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too freely.
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I can recall nothing worse.
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But the fact is,
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that we are very different sort of men,
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and that he hates me.”
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“This is quite shocking!
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He deserves to be publicly disgraced.”
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