Chapter XVI — Pride and Prejudice

When someone offers the story behind a stare, it can feel like insight before it is proof. The Bennet sisters and Mr. Collins arrive at Mrs. Philips's to find Wickham already there. Collins compares the drawing-room to Rosings until an eight-hundred-pound chimney-piece wins Mrs. Philips over; the girls endure his Lady Catherine monologue until the gentlemen join them.

Wickham outshines the officers and sits beside Elizabeth at lottery. He raises Darcy himself, citing their cold meeting yesterday. Elizabeth says she finds Darcy very disagreeable after four days at Netherfield. Wickham claims he cannot judge impartially, then tells how the late Mr. Darcy was his godfather, how he was raised for the church, and how the present Mr. Darcy denied him a valuable living out of jealousy. Elizabeth remembers Darcy boasting of implacable resentments at Netherfield and condemns him; Wickham looks handsomer than ever.

They discuss Bingley, Darcy's double manner with the rich, and Miss Darcy. Collins's mention of Lady Catherine leads Wickham to reveal she is Darcy's aunt and that a cousin marriage with Miss de Bourgh may unite two estates. Elizabeth smiles at Caroline Bingley's hopes. Supper ends the talk; she rides home unable to think of anything but Wickham's story while Lydia and Collins talk without pause.