第76章[第3页/共5页]

“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 falsehood he had imposed on you;but his success is not perhaps to be wondered at. Ignorant as you previously were of everything concerning either, detection could not be in your power,and suspicion certainly not in your inclination.

“I must now mention a circumstance which I would wish to forget myself, and which no obligation less than the present should induce me 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. Wick