Sense and Sensibility
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Miss Dashwood, at this point, turning her eyes on him
with the most angry contempt, stopped him, by saying,
‘It is hardly worth while, Mr. Willoughby, for you to
relate, or for me to listen any longer. Such a beginning as
this cannot be followed by any thing.— Do not let me be
pained by hearing any thing more on the subject.’
‘I insist on you hearing the whole of it,’ he replied,
‘My fortune was never large, and I had always been
expensive, always in the habit of associating with people of
better income than myself. Every year since my coming of
age, or even before, I believe, had added to my debts; and
though the death of my old cousin, Mrs. Smith, was to set
me free; yet that event being uncertain, and possibly far
distant, it had been for some time my intention to re-
establish my circumstances by marrying a woman of
fortune. To attach myself to your sister, therefore, was not
a thing to be thought of;—and with a meanness,
selfishness, cruelty— which no indignant, no
contemptuous look, even of yours, Miss Dashwood, can
ever reprobate too much—I was acting in this manner,
trying to engage her regard, without a thought of
returning it.—But one thing may be said for me: even in
that horrid state of selfish vanity, I did not know the
extent of the injury I meditated, because I did not THEN