While she spoke, Wickham looked as if scarcely knowing whether to rejoice over her words, or to distrust their meaning. There was a something in her countenance which made him listen with an apprehensive and anxious attention, while she added:
"When I said that he improved on acquaintance, I did not mean that his mind or his manners were in a state of improvement, but that, from knowing him better, his disposition was better understood. "
Wickham's alarm now appeared in a heightened complexion and agitated look; for a few minuted he was silent, till, shaking off his embarrassment, he turned to her again, and said in the gentlest of accents:
"You, who so well know my feeling towards Mr. Darcy, will readily comprehend how sincerely I must rejoice that he is wise enough to assume even the APPEARANCE of what is right. His pride, in that direction, may be of service, if not to himself, to many others, for it must only deter him from such foul misconduct as I have suffered by. I only fear that the sort of cautiousness to which you, I imagine, have been alluding, is merely adopted on his visits to his aunt, of whose good opinion and judgement he stands much in awe. His fear of her has always operated, I know, when they were together; and a good deal is to be imputed to his wish of forwarding the match with Miss de Bourgh, which I am certain he has very much at heart. "
1.as if 好像 I felt as if my heart would burst with joy. 我觉得自己高兴得心花怒放。
2.shake off 摆脱, 甩掉 The boy tried to shake off the wasps that were hanging to his coat sleeves. 那男孩子设法要抖去攀在他衣袖上的黄蜂。
3.a good deal 许多, 大量 I'm afraid he is guilty of a good deal of invention. 我看他撒了很多谎。
4.at heart 实质上;在内心 He's a real softie at heart. 他真是个好心人。