"Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends -- whether he may be equally capable of retaining them, is less certain."

I have noticed a lot more during this GR how comments earlier in the novel are repeated (though usually by a different character and not in exact words, of course). In the recap of Mr. Gardiner's letter, we are told ... "It was not known that Wickham had a single relation with whom he kept up any connection, and it was certain that he had no near one living. His former acquaintance had been numerous; but since he had been in the militia, it did not appear that he was on terms of particular friendship with any of them. There was no one therefore who could be pointed out as likely to give any news of him.

Whether he may retain those friends, indeed!