Chapter 21: Mr.
Collins finds consolation talking to Charlotte. Wickham joins Elizabeth
back from Meryton and reports that he didn't attend the Netherfield ball
so as to avoid Darcy. A letter arrives for Jane from Miss Bingley: they
are all going to London and do not intend to return to Netherfield.
Elizabeth thinks that Miss Bingley has parted Jane and Bingley because the
Bennets are not rich. She wants her brother to marry Miss Darcy because
she hopes that Darcy will more likely propose to her.
Chapter 22: Mr. Collins proposes to Charlotte,
she accepts. She wants to be comfortably settled, its no love match! Mr.
Collins leaves and when Charlotte announces her engagement to Elizabeth
she does her best to hide her shock.
Chapter 23: Charlotte's father announces his
daughter's engagement to the whole Bennet family. Elizabeth's
worries that Bingley's sisters will keep their brother in London.
Chapter 24: A letter arrives from Miss Bingley.
Jane resigns herself to losing Bingley. Elizabeth is cynical, convinced
that Bingley's sisters and Darcy are at the bottom of it. Elizabeth's
acquaintance with Wickham grows as his relationship with Darcy becomes
common knowledge.
Chapter 25: Mr. Collins leaves. Mrs. Bennet's
other sister, Mrs. Gardiner, arrives with her husband. They are welcome
guests to Jane and Elizabeth and, after hearing the whole sorry tale of
Jane and Bingley, Mrs. Gardiner invites Jane to return with them to
London.
Chapter 26: Mrs. Gardiner warns Elizabeth about
falling in love with Wickham as he is broke. Elizabeth takes her aunt's
advice but does not promise to follow it. Charlotte and Mr. Collins are
married. Jane writes that Miss Bingley has been cold towards her and she
considers the acquaintance entirely at an end. Wickham transfers his
attentions from Elizabeth to a Miss King, who is rich. Elizabeth excuses
him and feels little regret for herself, concluding that she cannot have
been in love with him.
Chapter 27: Elizabeth leaves for Kent, going via
London, where her aunt asks her about Wickham's new attachment. Mrs.
Gardiner then invites her niece to visit Derbyshire and the Lakes with her
and her husband in the summer.
Chapter 28: Elizabeth and the Lucas's arrive the
Collins's home. They are invited to dine at Rosings the next day.
Chapter 29: The dinner-party at Rosings takes
place; Elizabeth finds Lady Catherine domineering. Lady Catherine, for her
part, thinks Elizabeth is impertinent and too forward in offering her
opinion.
Chapter 30: Elizabeth's visit continues,
dominated by engagements at Rosings; Lady Catherine does not improve on
acquaintance. Mr. Collins's continues to amuse and irritate Elizabeth.
Darcy arrives in Kent to visit his aunt, bringing with him his cousin,
Colonel Fitzwilliam. Both men visit the parsonage; Darcy is as awkward as
ever, but Fitzwilliam is friendly and likeable.
Chapter 31: The parsonage party dine again at
Rosings; while Elizabeth is playing the piano, Darcy watches her, and she
and Fitzwilliam tease him about his awkward manners.
Chapter 32:
Darcy comes to call and finding Elizabeth alone and they have an awkward
conversation. After this Darcy and Fitzwilliam are regular visitors;
Elizabeth guesses that Fitzwilliam admires her, but cannot work out why
Darcy should visit her so often.
Chapter 33: Elizabeth meets Fitzwilliam while
she is out walking; he hints that he cannot afford to marry as he likes
and then tells her that Darcy has just interfered in a friend's love life
by separating him from the girl he loved. Elizabeth assumes that this
relates to Jane and Bingley and is furious.
Chapter 34: Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, saying
that he does so against his better judgement. She refuses him, angrily
accusing him of having insulted her, ruined Jane's happiness and
mistreated Wickham.
Chapter 35: Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter in
which he answers her accusations. He felt that Bingley's marrying Jane
would be a mistake on the grounds of her lack of money or connections; he
felt convinced that Jane was not really interested in Bingley anyway and
so felt justified in separating them. As for Wickham, he had decided not
to go into the church and accepted some money instead of the parish which
Darcy's father had offered him. He then began to lead a "life of idleness
and dissipation" which culminated in his persuading Darcy's sister
Georgiana, then only fifteen, to elope with him. Darcy concludes by urging
Elizabeth to ask Colonel Fitzwilliam to confirm the truth of his story if
she doesn't believe him.
Chapter 36: As she reads and re-reads Darcy's
letter, Elizabeth moves from disdain and disbelief to the conclusion that
Darcy must be telling the truth and that she has been entirely wrong in
her judgement of both him and Wickham.
Chapter 37: Darcy and Fitzwilliam leave Rosings.
The last week of Elizabeth's stay is full of invitations to Rosings, but
she continues to think about Darcy's letter. She has to conclude that
although it was not tactful of him to be so honest about her family's
defects, she cannot deny that he was right and that, ironically, Jane has
lost Bingley through the vulgar behaviour of her mother and younger
sisters and through her father's refusal to discipline Kitty and Lydia.
Chapter 38: Elizabeth leaves the Collins's and
arrives in London, where she delays telling Jane about Darcy's proposal
because she is unsure how to reveal the truth about why she and Bingley
were separated.
Chapter 39: Elizabeth returns to Hertfordshire;
Kitty and Lydia meet them and they have lunch together, during which Lydia
reveals that Miss King, who everyone thought would marry Wickham, has left
the county. The officers who have been encamped at Meryton are moving to
Brighton for the summer, and Lydia is dying to go with them, but her
father is adamant in not allowing it. The girls return to Longbourn.
Chapter 40: Elizabeth tells Jane about Darcy's
proposal and relates what she now knows about Wickham; Jane, finding it
impossible to think well of all the people concerned, is shocked. They
decide not to make the story public.
Chapter 41: Mrs. Forster, Lydia's friend,
invites Lydia to Brighton. Mrs. Bennet is delighted, Kitty is jealous and
Elizabeth is worried. The officers have dinner at Longbourn before they
go; Elizabeth hints to Wickham that she knows the truth of his
relationship with Darcy. They part amicably but with relief. Lydia leaves
Longbourn.
Chapter 42:
Elizabeth sets off for Derbyshire with Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. They decide
to go to Pemberley, Darcy's house, which is famous for its beauty.
Chapter 43: The
housekeeper at Pemberly, who shows the Gardiners and Elizabeth around,
gives a glowing account of Darcy's behaviour as a master, a son and a
brother. While walking in the grounds they meet Darcy himself, who has
returned home a day before he was expected. Elizabeth keeps up an awkward
conversation; she is amazed, however, to see him being polite to her uncle
and aunt and to herself, asking if he may introduce his sister to her.
Chapter 44:
Darcy, his sister and Bingley (who is staying at Pemberly) visit
Elizabeth. Georgiana is shy but not proud; Bingley is as pleasant as ever
and hints that he is still thinking of Jane; Darcy goes out of his way to
be polite, asking Elizabeth and the Gardiners to dinner. Elizabeth
concludes that he must still be in love with her and begins to wonder
whether she could make him propose again. This marks the beginning of her
total change of heart towards him.
Chapter 45:
While Darcy, Bingley and Mr. Gardiner are fishing, Elizabeth and Mrs.
Gardiner call on Georgiana and Bingley's sisters. Miss Bingley is barely
civil to Elizabeth; she is jealous of Darcy's affection.
Chapter 46: A
letter arrives from Jane; Lydia has eloped with Wickham. At first it was
thought that they had gone to Scotland to get married, but it now appears
that they are in London and no-one knows whether they have any intention
of marrying or not. Mr. Bennet has gone to London to try and find Lydia
and wants Mr. Gardiner to join him. As Elizabeth is reading this, Darcy
comes in and hears the news. His reaction is to leave quickly, which
Elizabeth interprets as a desire to disassociate himself from the scandal.
The Gardiners return from their walk, are informed of what has happened,
and the whole party is very soon on the road home.
Chapter 47:
Elizabeth tells her aunt about Wickham's history: his eloping with Lydia
is characteristic behaviour. They arrive home to find Mrs. Bennet
hysterical. Jane shows Elizabeth the letter that Lydia left for Mrs.
Forster. It is flippant and thoughtless, but reveals that she loved
Wickham and hoped that they would be married.
Chapter 48:
There is no news from London; the hunt for Lydia and Wickham is
unsuccessful, but it has come out that Wickham was quite seriously in
debt. Elizabeth worries the scandal in her family and the effect it will
have on her relationship with Darcy. Mr. Bennet arrives home, leaving Mr.
Gardiner in London to continue the search.
Chapter 49: Mr.
Gardiner writes to say that he has found Lydia and Wickham and that they
are not married, but that if Mr. Bennet will send money to settle on
Wickham they soon will be. From the small sum asked of him Mr. Bennet
concludes that Mr. Gardiner must have put a lot of his own money into
making the couple marry and hence saving the family from further disgrace.
Mrs. Bennet is delighted by the way everything has turned out: it is
enough to her to have a daughter married, however it came about.
Chapter 50: The
news spreads through the neighbourhood; Elizabeth wishes that she had not
told Darcy what was happening in Derbyshire, and is afraid that she has
lost him. Mr. Bennet, having said that he would not receive the couple in
his house, is persuaded by Jane and Elizabeth to let them pay a farewell
visit.