Jane Austen
instance of Wickham's extravagance or irregularity, she seldom went away without leaving
them more dispirited than she found them.
All Meryton seemed striving to blacken the man who, but three months before, had been
almost an angel of light. He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and
his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every
tradesman's family. Everybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world;
and everybody began to find out that they had always distrusted the appearance of his
goodness. Elizabeth, though she did not credit above half of what was said, believed enough
to make her former assurance of her sister's ruin more certain; and even Jane, who believed
still less of it, became almost hopeless, more especially as the time was now come when, if
they had gone to Scotland, which she had never before entirely despaired of, they must in
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