第103章[第2页/共3页]

Darcy made no answer.He seemed scarcely to hear her,and was walking up and down the room in earnest meditation,his brow contracted,his air gloomy.Elizabeth soon observed,and instantly understood it.Her power was sinking;everything must sink under such a proof of family weakness,such an assurance of the deepest disgrace.She could neither wonder nor condemn,but the belief of his self-conquest brought nothing consolatory to her bosom, afforded no palliation of her distress. It was, on the contrary, exactly calculated to make her understand her own wishes; and never had she so honestly felt that she could have loved him,as now,when all love must be vain.

“When I consider,”she added in a yet more agitated voice,“that I might have prevented it!I,who knew what he was.Had I but explained some part of it only―some part of what I learnt,to my own family!Had his character been known,this could not have happened.But it is all―all too late now.”

“Oh, yes!They left Brighton together on Sunday night, and were traced almost to London,but not beyond;they are certainly not gone to Scotland.”