Pagina 583 di 817

If gratitude and esteem are good foundations of affection,

Elizabeth's change of sentiment will be neither improbable nor

faulty. But if otherwise, if the regard springing from such

sources is unreasonable or unnatural, in comparison of what is so

often described as arising on a first interview with its object,

and even before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be

said in her defence, except that she had given somewhat of a

trial to the latter method, in her partiality for Wickham, and

that its ill success might, perhaps, authorize her to seek the

other less interesting mode of attachment. Be that as it may, she

saw him go with regret; and in this early example of what Lydia's

infamy must produce, found additional anguish as she reflected on

that wretched business. Never since reading Jane's second letter

had she entertained a hope of Wickham's meaning to marry her. No

one but Jane, she thought, could flatter herself with such an

expectation.