Chapter 58 351 way ."
" I can easily believe it . You thought me then devoid of every proper feeling , I am sure you did . The turn of your countenance I shall never forget , as you said that I could not have addressed you in any possible way that would induce you to accept me ."
" Oh ! do not repeat what I then said . These recollections will not do at all . I assure you that I have long been most heartily ashamed of it ."
Darcy mentioned his letter . " Did it ," said he , " did it soon make you think better of me ? Did you , on reading it , give any credit to its contents ?"
She explained what its effect on her had been , and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed .
" I knew ," said he , " that what I wrote must give you pain , but it was necessary . I hope you have destroyed the letter . There was one part especially , the opening of it , which I should dread your having the power of reading again . I can remember some expressions which might justly make you hate me ."
" The letter shall certainly be burnt , if you believe it essential to the preservation of my regard ; but , though we have both reason to think my opinions not entirely unalterable , they are not , I hope , quite so easily changed as that implies ."
" When I wrote that letter ," replied Darcy , " I believed myself perfectly calm and cool , but I am since convinced that it was written in a dreadful bitterness of spirit ."
" The letter , perhaps , began in bitterness , but it did not end so . The adieu is charity itself . But think no more of the letter . The feelings of the person who wrote , and the person who received it , are now so widely different from what they were then , that every unpleasant circumstance attending it ought to be forgotten . You must learn some of my philosophy . Think only