第136章[第3页/共4页]

“The letter shall certainly be burnt,if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard;but,though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable, they are not, I hope,quite so easily changed as that implies.”

Darcy mentioned his letter.“Did it,”said he,“did it soon make you think better of me?Did you,on reading it,give any credit to its contents?”

“Indeed I had.What will you think of my vanity?I believed you to be wishing,expecting my addresses.”

“Oh! do not repeat what I then said.These recollections will not do at all. I assure you that I have long been most heartily ashamed of it.”

“I knew,”said he,“that what I wrote must give you pain, but it was necessary. I hope you have destroyed the letter.There was one part especially,the opening of it,which I should dread your having the power of reading again. I can remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me.”

“Hate you! I was angry perhaps at first, but my anger soon began to take a proper direction.”

“I was certainly very far from expecting them to make so strong an impression.I had not the smallest idea of their being ever felt in such a way.”