第84章[第2页/共4页]

“This will not do,”said Elizabeth;“you never will be able to make both of them good for anything.Take your choice,but you must be satisfied with only one.There is but such a quantity of merit between them;just enough to make one good sort of man;and of late it has been shifting about pretty much.For my part, I am inclined to believe it all Mr.Darcy's;but you shall do as you choose.”

“Poor Wickham!there is such an expression of goodness in his countenance!such an openness and gentleness in his manner!”

“Certainly.But the misfortune of speaking with bitterness is a most natural consequence of the prejudices I had been encouraging. There is one point on which I want your advice.I want to be told whether I ought, or ought not, to make our acquaintances in general understand Wickham's character.”

“There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men.One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”

“And yet I meant to be uncommonly clever in taking so decided a dislike to him, without any reason. It is such a spur to one's genius, such an opening for wit, to have a dislike of that kind. One may be continually abusive without saying anything just;but one cannot always be laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.”