I had not been long in Hertfordshire, before I saw, in common with others, that Bingley preferred your eldest sister to any other young woman in the country. -- But it was not till the evening of the dance at Netherfield that I had any apprehension of his feeling a serious attachment. -- I had often seen him in love before. -- At that ball, while I had the honour of dancing with you, I was first made acquainted, by Sir William Lucas's accidental information, that Bingley's attentions to your sister had given rise to a general expectation of their marriage. He spoke of it as a certain event, of which the time alone could be undecided. From that moment I observed my friend's behaviour attentively; and I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him. Your sister I also watched. -- Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard, and I remained convinced from the evening's scrutiny, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment. -- If you have not been mistaken here, I must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable. -- If it be so, if I have been misled by such error, to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not been unreasonable. But I shall not scruple to assert that the serenity of your sister's countenance and air was such as might have given the most acute observer a conviction that, however amiable her temper, her heart was not likely to be easily touched. -- That I was desirous of believing her indifferent is certain, -- but I will venture to say that my investigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears. -- I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it;
我到哈福德郡不久，就和别人一样，看出了彬格莱先生在当地所有的少女中偏偏看中了令姐。但是一直等到在尼日斐花园开跳舞会的那个晚上，我才顾虑到他当真对 令姐有了爱恋之意。说到他的恋爱方面，我以前也看得很多。在那次跳舞会上，当我很荣幸地跟你跳舞时，我才听到威廉·卢卡斯偶然说起彬格莱先生对令姐的殷勤 已经弄得满城风雨，大家都以为他们就要谈到嫁娶问题。听他说起来，好象事情已经千稳万妥，只是迟早问题罢了。从那时起，我就密切注意着我朋友的行为，于是 我看出了他对班纳特小姐的钟情，果然和他往常的恋爱情形大不相同。我也注意着令姐。她的神色和风度依旧象平常那样落落大方，和蔼可亲，并没有钟情于任何人 的迹象。根据我那一晚上仔细观察的情形看来，我确实认为她虽然乐意接受他的殷勤，可是她并没有用深情密意来报答他。要是这件事你没有弄错，那么错处一定在 我；你对于令姐既有透辟的了解，那么当然可能是我错了。倘若事实果真如此，倘若果真是我弄错了，造成令姐的痛苦，那当然难怪你气愤。可是我可以毫不犹豫地 说，令姐当初的风度极其洒脱，即使观察力最敏锐的人，也难免以为她尽管性情柔和，可是她的心不容易打动。我当初确实希望她无动于中，可是我敢说，我虽然主观上有我的希望，有我的顾虑，可是我的观察和我的推断并不会受到主观上的影响。我认为，令姐决不会因为我希望她无动于中，她就当真无动于中；

-- I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason. -- My objections to the marriage were not merely those which I last night acknowledged to have required the utmost force of passion to put aside in my own case; the want of connection could not be so great an evil to my friend as to me. -- But there were other causes of repugnance; -- causes which, though still existing, and existing to an equal degree in both instances, I had myself endeavoured to forget, because they were not immediately before me. -- These causes must be stated, though briefly. -- The situation of your mother's family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly, betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father. -- Pardon me. -- It pains me to offend you. But amidst your concern for the defects of your nearest relations, and your displeasure at this representation of them, let it give you consolation to consider that to have conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of the like censure is praise no less generally bestowed on you and your eldest sister, than it is honourable to the sense and disposition of both. -- I will only say farther that, from what passed that evening, my opinion of all parties was confirmed, and every inducement heightened, which could have led me before to preserve my friend from what I esteemed a most unhappy connection. -- He left Netherfield for London, on the day following, as you, I am certain, remember, with the design of soon returning. --
我的看法大公无私，我的愿望也合情合理。我昨天晚上说，遇到这样门户不相称的婚姻，轮到我自己身上的时候，我必须用极大的感情上的力量圆心压制，至于说到他们俩这一门婚姻，我所以要反对，还不光光是为了这些理由，因为关于门户高低的问题，我朋友并不象我那么重视。我所以反对这门婚姻，还有别的一些叫人嫌忌的原因───这些原因虽然到现在还存在，而且在两桩事里面同样存在着，可是我早就尽力把它忘了，因为好在眼不见为净。这里必须把这些原因说一说，即使简单地说一说也好。你母亲娘家亲族虽然叫人不太满意，可是比起你们自己家里人那种完全没有体统的情形来，便简直显得无足轻重。你三个妹妹都是始终一贯地做出许多没有体统的事情来，有时候甚至连你父亲也难免。请原谅我这样直言无讳，其实得罪了你，也使我自己感到难受。你的骨肉至亲有了这些缺点，当然会使你感到难受，我这样一说，当然会叫你更不高兴，可是你只要想一想，你自己和你姐姐举止优雅，人家非得没有责难到你们俩头上，而且对你们褒奖备至，还赏识你们俩的见识和个性，这对于你究竟还不失为一种安慰吧。我还想跟你说一说；我那天晚上看了那种情形，不禁越发确定了我对各个人的看法，越发加深了我的偏见，觉得一定要阻止我的朋友，不让他缔结这门最不幸的婚姻。他第二天就离开尼日斐花园到伦敦去了，我相信你一定记得，他本来打算去一下便立刻回来。

The part which I acted is now to be explained. -- His sisters' uneasiness had been equally excited with my own; our coincidence of feeling was soon discovered; and, alike sensible that no time was to be lost in detaching their brother, we shortly resolved on joining him directly in London. -- We accordingly went -- and there I readily engaged in the office of pointing out to my friend, the certain evils of such a choice. -- I described, and enforced them earnestly. -- But, however this remonstrance might have staggered or delayed his determination, I do not suppose that it would ultimately have prevented the marriage, had it not been seconded by the assurance, which I hesitated not in giving, of your sister's indifference. He had before believed her to return his affection with sincere, if not with equal, regard. -- But Bingley has great natural modesty, with a stronger dependence on my judgment than on his own. -- To convince him, therefore, that he had deceived himself, was no very difficult point. To persuade him against returning into Hertfordshire, when that conviction had been given, was scarcely the work of a moment. -- I cannot blame myself for having done thus much. There is but one part of my conduct in the whole affair, on which I do not reflect with satisfaction; it is that I condescended to adopt the measures of art so far as to conceal from him your sister's being in town. I knew it myself, as it was known to Miss Bingley, but her brother is even yet ignorant of it. -- That they might have met without ill consequence is, perhaps, probable; -- but his regard did not appear to me enough extinguished for him to see her without some danger. -- Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me. -- It is done, however, and it was done for the best. -- On this subject I have nothing more to say, no other apology to offer. 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. --
我得在这里把我当初参与这件事的经过说明一下。原来他的姐妹们当时跟我一样，深为这件事感到不安。我们立刻发觉了彼此有同感，都觉得应该赶快到伦敦去把她们这位兄弟隔离起来，于是决定立刻动身。我们就这样走了。到了那里，便由我负责向我朋友指出，他如果攀上了这门亲事，必定有多少多少坏处。我苦口婆心，再三劝说。我这一番规劝虽然动摇了他的心愿，使他迟疑不决，可是，我当时要不是那么十拿九稳地说，你姐姐对他并没有什么倾心，那么这番规劝也许不会发生这样大的效力，这门婚姻到头来也许终于阻挡不了。在我没有进行这番劝说以前，他总以为令姐即使没有以同样的钟情报答他，至少也是在竟诚期待着他。但是彬格莱先生天性谦和，遇到任何事情，只要我一出主意，他总是相信我胜过相信他自己。我轻而易举地说服了他，使他相信这事情是他自己一时糊涂。他既然有了这个信念，我们便进一步说服他不要回到哈福德郡去，这当然不费吹灰之力。我这样做，自己并没觉得有什么不对。今天回想起来，我觉得只有一件事做得不能叫自己安心，那就是说，令姐来到城里的时候，我竟不择手段，把这个消息瞒住了他。这件事不但我知道，彬格莱小姐也知道，然而她哥哥一直到现在还蒙在鼓里。要是让他们俩见了面，可能也不会有坏的后果，可是我当时认为他并没有完全死心，见到她未必能免于危险。我这样隐瞒，这样欺蒙，也许失掉了我自己的身份。然而事情已经做了，而且完全是出于一片好意。关于这件事，我没有什么可以再说的了，也无用再道歉，如果我伤了令姐的心，也是出于无意；你自然会以为我当初这样做，理由不够充足，可是我到现在还没有觉得有什么不对。

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.
现在再谈另一件更重的罪名：毁损了韦翰先生的前途。关于这件事，我唯一的驳斥办法，只有把他和我家的关系全部说给你听，请你评判一下其中的是非曲直。我不 知道他特别指责我的是哪一点；但是我要在这里陈述的事实真相，可以找出不少信誉卓著的人出来做见证。韦翰先生是个值得尊敬的人的儿子。他父亲在彭伯里管了 好几年产业，极其尽职，这自然使得先父愿意帮他的忙；因此先父对他这个教子乔治·韦翰恩宠有加。先父供给他上学，后来还供给他进剑桥大学──这是对他最重 要的一项帮助，因为他自己的父亲被他母亲吃光用穷，无力供给他受高等教育。先父不仅因为这位年轻人风采翩翩而喜欢和他来往，而且非常器重他，希望他从事教 会职业，并且一心要替他安插一个位置。至于说到我自己所以对他印象转坏，那已经是好多好多年的事了。