Chapter XLII — Pride and Prejudice

You can name a parent's failure clearly and still love them, then find the geography of your life pointing toward someone you hoped to avoid. Elizabeth has never been blind to her father's impropriety as a husband: Mr. Bennet married for beauty and amusement, lost all respect for Mrs. Bennet, and withdrew into books while exposing his wife to his daughters' contempt. After Kent she feels more sharply than ever how his wasted talents, rightly directed, might have preserved the girls' respectability instead of leaving them to grow wild.

Wickham's departure brings little relief at Longbourn. Lydia's bragging Brighton letters and Kitty's repining cast a gloom that summer engagements only partly lift. Elizabeth's consolation is the Lakes tour until Mrs. Gardiner's letter delays and shortens the plan: business confines Mr. Gardiner to July, so they must abandon the Lakes for Derbyshire only. Elizabeth submits with her usual good temper, yet Derbyshire instantly conjures Pemberley; she jokes she may collect petrified spars there without Darcy noticing.

The Gardiners arrive, leave their children with Jane, and set out with Elizabeth as ideal companions. Near Lambton Mrs. Gardiner proposes Pemberley; Elizabeth feigns weariness of great houses but secretly dreads meeting Darcy on his ground. At the inn she questions the chambermaid about the proprietor and learns with relief that the family are not down for summer. Curiosity returns; next morning she assents with proper indifference. To Pemberley, therefore, they are to go.