Pride and Prejudice: Darcy's Letter

Elizabeth woke the next morning to the same thoughts that had filled her mind until she fell asleep, and after breakfast she went out for some fresh air.Afraid of meeting Mr. Darcy on her favourite path in the park, she turned instead into a lane that ran along its edge.

She paused at a gate to admire the fresh spring leaves, and when she saw a gentleman among the trees she turned to go, but he called her name.It was Mr. Darcy, who said he had been walking there for some time, hoping to meet her, and he held out a letter, which she took without thinking.“Will you do me the honour of reading this letter?” he asked with cold politeness, and after a slight bow he walked back into the trees.

Full of curiosity, though expecting no pleasure, she opened two closely written pages; Darcy began by assuring her that he was not repeating his offer, and wrote only because his honour required her to know the truth.He admitted that he had parted Mr. Bingley from Jane, explaining that at the Netherfield ball, when Sir William Lucas spoke of their marriage as certain, he first saw how serious his friend’s feelings were.

He had watched Jane closely and found her cheerful and kind to everyone, with no sign of special feeling, so he had honestly believed she was indifferent — though he admitted he might have been wrong.He also wrote plainly that he had objected to the match because of the poor manners of her mother, her three younger sisters, and sometimes even her father, while praising Elizabeth and Jane for behaving well.In London he had persuaded Bingley that Jane did not love him, and he confessed that he had even hidden from his friend the fact that she was in town, though he still believed he had acted for the best.

About Mr. Wickham, Darcy wrote that he was the son of the steward who had managed the Pemberley estate, and that Darcy’s father, his godfather, had paid for his schooling and his years at Cambridge.When old Mr. Darcy died, he had left Wickham a valuable church position and a thousand pounds, but Wickham said he no longer wished to be a clergyman and asked for money instead, and Darcy gave him three thousand pounds.Three years later, poor and idle, Wickham demanded the church position after all, and when Darcy refused, he answered with bitter anger.

The worst came last summer at Ramsgate, where Wickham, with the help of Georgiana’s companion, Mrs. Younge, persuaded Darcy’s fifteen-year-old sister that she loved him and should run away with him.Darcy arrived unexpectedly a day or two before the planned elopement, and Georgiana, unable to bear hurting the brother she looked up to almost as a father, told him everything.He believed Wickham wanted her thirty-thousand-pound fortune and a chance for revenge, and Wickham left the town at once when Darcy wrote to him.To prove that every word was true, Darcy named his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, as a witness, and he ended the letter with a short blessing and his full name.