Pagina 157 di 817

"There was just such an informality in the terms of the bequest

as to give me no hope from law. A man of honour could not have

doubted the intention, but Mr. Darcy chose to doubt it--or to

treat it as a merely conditional recommendation, and to assert

that I had forfeited all claim to it by extravagance, imprudence,

in short, anything or nothing. Certain it is that the living

became vacant two years ago, exactly as I was of an age to hold

it, and that it was given to another man; and no less certain is

it, that I cannot accuse myself of having really done anything to

deserve to lose it. I have a warm unguarded temper, and I may

perhaps have sometimes spoken my opinion of him, and to him, too

freely. I can recall nothing worse. But the fact is, that we are

very different sort of men, and that he hates me."

"This is quite shocking! He deserves to be publicly disgraced."

"Some time or other he will be--but it shall not be by me. Till I

can forget his father, I can never defy or expose him."