Pride and Prejudice

At dinner, Mr. Collins flatters Mrs. Philips by stating her house reminds him of a small room at Rosings; once she learns what Rosings is, Mrs. Philips eagerly receives the compliment.

When Wickham walks in, Elizabeth is reminded how attractive he is. Though he is the object of every woman’s stare, he sits next to Elizabeth. She is curious about how he knows Darcy and is surprised when he says their families have been connected for years. Wickham alludes to their tense meeting the previous day and asks if she knows him well. She responds she knows him “[a]s well as I ever wish to” (75); Wickham says he can’t offer an opinion but that most people are “blinded by his fortune […] or frightened by his high and imposing manners” (76). Elizabeth assures him that everybody in Hertfordshire is “disgusted with his pride” (76). She hopes his plans are not altered by Darcy’s being close by.

Wickham says he has no reason to avoid Darcy other than “a sense of very great ill usage” (76). Darcy’s father bequeathed him a career with the church, but Darcy prevented him from obtaining it, leaving him destitute. Elizabeth, shocked, says Darcy “deserves to be publicly disgraced” (78).