“Do you really think so?”cried Elizabeth,brightening up for a moment.
“But can you think that Lydia is so lost to everything but love of him as to consent to live with him on any terms other than marriage?”
“But you see that Jane,”said her aunt,“does not think so very ill of Wickham as to believe him capable of the attempt.”
“Well, then―supposing them to be in London. They may be there, though for the purpose of concealment, for no more exceptional purpose. It is not likely that money should be very abundant on either side;and it might strike them that they could be more economically, though less expeditiously, married in London than in Scotland.”
“Not,perhaps,of neglecting his own interest;but of every other neglect I can believe him capable.If,indeed,it should be so!But I dare not hope it.Why should they not go on to Scotland if that had been the case?”
“And do you really know all this?”cried Mrs.Gardiner,whose curiosity as to the mode of her intelligence was all alive.
“But does Lydia know nothing of this?can she be ignorant of what you and Jane seem so well to understand?”
“Of whom does Jane ever think ill?And who is there,whatever might be their former conduct, that she would think capable of such an attempt, till it were proved against them? But Jane knows, as well as I do, what Wickham really is.We both know that he has been profligate in every sense of the word;that he has neither integrity nor honour;that he is as false and deceitful as he is insinuating.”