"When I consider," she added in a yet more agitated voice, "that I might have prevented it! I, who knew what he was."
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 46. Elizabeth feels guilty over her lack of action in preventing George Wickham’s seduction of her sister Lydia. She acknowledges that she knew of his previous attempt to seduce Georgiana, and could have warned her family about him. The villainous Wickham’s seduction of Lydia is driven by the desire for sex rather than for marriage.