. If I have wounded your sister's
        feelings, it was unknowingly done; and though the motives which governed
        me may to you very naturally appear insufficient, I have not yet learnt
        to condemn them. - With respect to that other, more weighty accusation,
        of having injured Mr. Wickham, I can only refute it by laying before you
        the whole of his connection with my family. Of what he has particularly
        accused me I am ignorant; but of the truth of what I shall relate, I can
        summon more than one witness of undoubted veracity. Mr. Wickham is the
        son of a very respectable man, who had for many years the management of
        all the Pemberley estates; and whose good conduct in the discharge of
        his trust, naturally inclined my father to be of service to him, and on
        George Wickham, who was his god-son, his kindness was therefore
        liberally bestowed. My father supported him at school, and afterwards at
        Cambridge; - most important assistance, as his own father, always poor
        from the extravagance of his wife, would have been unable to give him a
        gentleman's education. My father was not only fond of this young man's
        society, whose manners were always engaging; he had also the highest
        opinion of him, and hoping the church would be his profession, intended
        to provide for him in it. As for myself, it is many, many years since I
        first began to think of him in a very different manner. The vicious
        propensities - the want of principle which he was careful to guard from
        the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a
        young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who had opportunities
        of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have. Here
        again I shall give you pain - to what degree you only can tell. But
        whatever may be the sentiments which Mr. Wickham has created, a
        suspicion of their nature shall not prevent me from unfolding his real
        character. It adds even another motive. My excellent father died about
        five years ago; and his attachment to Mr. Wickham was to the last so
        steady, that in his will he particularly recommended it to me, to
        promote his advancement in the best manner that his profession might
        allow, and if he took orders, desired that a valuable family living
        might be his as soon as it became vacant. There was also a legacy of one
        thousand pounds. His own father did not long survive mine, and within
        half a year from these events, Mr. Wickham wrote to inform
