第76章[第4页/共5页]

“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. Wickham,undoubtedly by design; for there proved to have been a prior acquaintance between him and Mrs.Younge,in whose character we were most unhappily deceived;and by her connivance and aid, he so far recommended himself to Georgiana,whose affectionate heart retained a strong impression of his kindness to her as a child, that she was persuaded to believe herself in love, and to consent to an elopement.She was then but fifteen,which must be her excuse;and after stating her imprudence,I am happy to add, that I owed the knowledge of it to herself. I joined them unexpectedly a day or two before the intended elopement, and then Georgiana, unable to support the idea of grieving and