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Mr. Collins is offended, and abandons the reading, choosing to play backgammon with Mr. Bennet instead.
Their guest is in search of a wife, and when Mrs. Bennet hints that Jane may soon be engaged, he fixes his attention on Elizabeth. The day after his arrival, he accompanies the sisters to the town of Meryton, where they encounter one of Lydia's officer friends, a Mr. Denny. Denny introduces his friend, Mr. Wickham, who has just joined the militia, and the young women find Wickham charming. While they are conversing, Darcy and Bingley happen by, and Elizabeth notices that Wickham and Darcy are extremely cold to one another.
Darcy and Bingley depart, and the company pays a visit to Mrs. Phillips, who invites the Bennets and Mr. Collins to dinner the following night. The girls convince her to have her husband invite Wickham as well. They return home, and Mr. Collins spends the evening telling Mrs. Bennet how impressed he
was with her sister's good breeding.
At the Phillips' dinner party, Wickham is the center of attention, and Mr. Collins fades into the background. Eventually, Wickham and Elizabeth find themselves in conversation, and she hears his story. He intended to enter the ministry, rather than the militia, but was unable to do so because he lacked money. Darcy's father, Wickham says, intended to provide for him, but Darcy used a loophole in the will to keep the money for himself.
Elizabeth, who instinctively likes and trusts Wickham, accepts his story at face value. Later in the evening, while she is watching Mr. Collins, Wickham tells her that Darcy is Lady Catherine de Bourgh's nephew, and describes Lady Catherine as tyrannical and overbearing. Elizabeth leaves the party thinking of nothing but Mr. Wickham, and what he had told her, all the way home, and decides that Darcy deserves nothing but her contempt.
She expresses these feelings to Jane the next day, and Jane defends Darcy, saying that there is probably a misunderstanding between the two men. Elizabeth refuses to believe this and when Bingley invites the neighborhood to a ball the following Tuesday, she looks forward to seeing Wickham. Unfortunately, she is forced to promise the first two dances to Mr. Collins.
Unfortunately for Elizabeth, Wickham does not attend the ball. Mr. Denny tells her that the presence of Darcy kept Wickham away from Netherfield. Elizabeth's unhappiness increases during two clumsy dances with Mr. Collins, and reaches its peak when she finds herself dancing with Darcy.
Their conversation is awkward, especially when she mentions Wickham, a subject Darcy clearly wishes to avoid. At the end of the dance, she encounters Miss Bingley, who warns her not to trust Wickham. Elizabeth assumes that Bingley's sister is only being spiteful, however, and chooses to ignore the warning. Jane then tells her sister that she has asked Bingley for information about Wickham, but all that Bingley knows about the officer comes from Darcy and is therefore prejudiced according to Elizabeth.
Mr. Collins, meanwhile, realizes that Darcy is related to his patroness, Lady Catherine, and in spite of Elizabeth's best attempts to dissuade him, introduces himself. Darcy treats him with contempt, but Mr. Collins is so dull-witted that he does not notice.
At supper, Mrs. Bennet discusses the hoped-for marriage of Bingley and Jane so loudly that Elizabeth criticizes her, noting that Darcy is listening. Her mother, however, ignores her daughter and continues talking loudly about the impending matrimony. At the end of the meal, Mary sings terribly for the
company, and then Mr. Collins delivers an absurdly pompous speech. All told, Elizabeth decides, her family has completely embarrassed itself.
The next day, Mr. Collins proposes marriage to Elizabeth in such a manner that he already assumes her answer to be in the affirmative. She turns him down as gently as possible, but he insists that she will change her mind shortly, and goes to her mother. Mrs. Bennet, who regards a match between her daughter and Mr. Collins as advantageous, asks Mr. Bennet to order Elizabeth to marry the clergyman. Her husband refuses, and actually informs his daughter that if she did marry Mr. Collins, he would refuse to see her again.
A few days after the refused proposal, Elizabeth encounters Wickham in Meryton. He apologizes for his absence from the ball, walks her home, and is introduced to her parents. That same day, a letter arrives for Jane from Miss Bingley, informing her that Bingley and his party are returning to the city indefinitely, and implying that Bingley plans to marry Darcy's sister, Georgiana.
Elizabeth comforts Jane, telling her that this is all Miss Bingley's doing, not her brother's, and that Bingley will return to Netherfield. Meanwhile, Mr. Collins has proposed
to Charlotte Lucas, and Elizabeth's friend has accepted. Elizabeth is shocked, despite Charlotte's insistence that the match is the best she could hope for. Mrs. Bennet, of course, is furious with her daughter for allowing a husband to escape her, and as the days go by with no word from Bingley, Jane's marriage prospects, too, begin, to appear limited.
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of Pride and Prejudice |
