Chapter XXXVI — Pride and Prejudice

Hostile first reading can defend a story long after the evidence has turned. Elizabeth did not expect a renewal of Darcy's offers, but reads his letter with eager prejudice. His Netherfield account enrages her: she resolves his belief in Jane's indifference is false, finds his tone haughty rather than penitent, and dismisses it as pride and insolence. When Wickham's history follows, horror drives her to cry the letter must be the grossest falsehood; she finishes scarcely comprehending the last pages and vows never to look again.

Within half a minute she unfolds it on the lane. She weighs the will against three thousand pounds, finds Fitzwilliam corroborates the Georgiana story, and cannot salvage Wickham from memory: Philips's evening, the avoided Netherfield ball, gossip after the Bingleys left. She grows ashamed, cries that vanity not love was her folly, and names how she courted prepossession from the first.

She re-reads the Jane and Bingley pages with stunned justice, accepts mortifying family reproach tied to the Netherfield ball, and walks two hours before returning home. Darcy called briefly to take leave; Fitzwilliam waited an hour hoping she would return. She feigns regret but rejoices: Colonel Fitzwilliam is forgotten; she can think only of her letter.