Print at 100% scale on letter paper, with no added margins.
Pride and Prejudice
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
Darcy gives his own pride and silence as the reason he rescued Lydia. Do you believe that was his real reason?
The tension "Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her. But it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations": the whisper against her own sense that no man could overcome "abhorrence against relationship with Wickham."
Notice how Mrs. Gardiner's letter, with its teasing guesses, changes the whole picture of the search, and how Elizabeth meets Wickham afterward.
Mrs. Gardiner’s answer comes quickly, and its length tells Elizabeth it is not a refusal, so she takes it to a bench in the little copse to read alone. Her aunt is surprised Elizabeth had to ask, and then tells all. On the day Mrs. Gardiner came home from Longbourn, Darcy called on Mr. Gardiner. He had left Derbyshire the day after them, meaning to find Wickham and Lydia, and he explained that he blamed his own pride and reserve for letting Wickham’s character go unknown. He found them through Mrs. Younge, Miss Darcy’s former governess, who knew where Wickham was. He tried first to persuade Lydia to leave Wickham and go home, but she would not. Wickham admitted he had never meant to marry her, blamed her alone, and still hoped to marry money elsewhere; after several meetings he was brought to terms. Darcy waited until Mr. Bennet had left London before seeing Mr. Gardiner, and then insisted on doing everything himself: Wickham’s debts of over a thousand pounds paid, another thousand settled on Lydia, and his commission bought. The uncle had to yield and take the credit, which he hated. Mrs. Gardiner hints that she and her husband believe Darcy had another interest, reports that Lydia did not listen to her lectures, says how much she likes Darcy, and teases Elizabeth about a drive round Pemberley. Elizabeth is thrown into a flutter of pleasure and pain. Her heart whispers that he did it for her, but she checks the hope: she has refused him, and she cannot believe his feeling for her could overcome so natural a horror of being Wickham’s brother-in-law. She settles on his own reason, perhaps helped by some remaining fondness for her. She is pained to owe so much to someone who can never be repaid, grieves over her past rudeness, and is humbled for herself but proud of him. Wickham overtakes her on the path. He fishes about Pemberley, Mrs. Reynolds, Darcy in town and Kympton; Elizabeth answers coolly and shows him she knows the truth about the living. At the door, for Lydia’s sake, she offers her hand and asks that they not quarrel about the past. He kisses it, hardly knowing how to look, and they go in.
Begin on the bench. Read aloud the chapter’s first paragraph and ask why the length of a letter could tell Elizabeth it holds no refusal. Then read the letter in two voices: one student reads the facts of the search, another the aunt’s asides (“I fancy, Lizzy”, “very sly”, the ponies). Stop at the signature and ask what the aunt believes that she never quite says. Leave whether Darcy’s stated reason was his real one alone, because the last written question asks it.
Retell The student retells the chapter in order: the letter carried to the copse; Darcy’s call on Mr. Gardiner and the reason he gave; the search through Mrs. Younge; Lydia’s refusal to leave Wickham and the bargain with Wickham; the battle with the uncle over who would pay; the aunt’s hints and teasing; Elizabeth’s mixed pleasure and pain, the whisper she checks, and her pride in him; and the walk with Wickham, ending with her hand held out at the door. Then the student picks the sentence that matters most and says why the chapter needs it.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes one long sentence on the model of the second passage: a person doing something hard for someone else. Open with two clauses side by side, as in “He had followed them purposely to town, he had taken on himself”. After a semicolon, give a list of verbs that climb step by step to the hardest one, repeating one verb as Austen repeats “meet”, and end on a clause about the person they most wished to avoid, without naming them. Close with one short sentence that begins as Austen’s does, “He had done all this”, changing the pronoun if the scene needs it.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that Darcy’s stated reason was his real one, and gathers his confession of “mistaken pride”, his refusal to let the uncle pay, his first plan to bring Lydia home, and Elizabeth’s judgment that the reason asked “no extraordinary stretch of belief”. The other side argues that it was not the whole reason, and gathers Mrs. Gardiner’s “fine talking”, her doubt that “_anybody’s_ reserve” could answer for the event, and the cost of bribing the man he most wished to avoid. Each side must answer the other’s strongest line. No side may say that Darcy did it for Elizabeth as a fact, that he still means to propose, or any sum the letter does not list.
Purpose Close on how the chapter is built. Its first half is a letter in someone else’s voice; its second half is Elizabeth alone with her thoughts and then Elizabeth with Wickham. Ask why Austen lets the facts reach Elizabeth through her aunt’s letter, with its jokes and guesses, instead of through the narrator or Darcy, and how the chapter would change if Elizabeth had heard it from him.
Easier Read aloud the middle of the letter, from “The motive professed” to “at length was reduced to be reasonable”, and Elizabeth’s reckoning from “The contents of this letter” to “get the better of himself”. Talk about what “imputed”, “abominate”, “abhorrence” and “liberality” mean in those lines. Talk through the questions on Darcy’s first plan for Lydia and on the return Darcy could never receive, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions in order, then write all three written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.
Harder Ask for one argued essay on silence in this chapter: Darcy’s reserve as he describes it, the secret Mrs. Gardiner asks Elizabeth to keep, the facts Elizabeth hides from Wickham on the walk, and the peace she makes at the door. The essay should judge whether Austen treats silence as a fault, a protection, or both, meet the strongest objection, and must not judge by anything that happens later in the book.
1. Mrs. Gardiner ends her letter wishing to drive round Pemberley in a “low phaeton with a nice little pair of ponies”. What is that joke for?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to hear Mrs. Gardiner’s own voice in a letter most readers take as a list of facts. She opens surprised that Elizabeth had to ask at all: “I did not expect it from _you_”, and “If you do not choose to understand me, forgive my impertinence.” She tells what she believes plainly enough in the middle, that the uncle “would never have yielded, if we had not given him credit for _another interest_ in the affair.” But at the end she turns to jokes. Darcy “wants nothing but a little more liveliness, and _that_, if he marry _prudently_, his wife may teach him.” She found him “very sly”: he “hardly ever mentioned” Elizabeth’s name. She asks not to be shut out “from P.” and pictures herself going “all round the park” behind “a nice little pair of ponies”. Then she breaks off: “But I must write no more.” The card does not say that Darcy acted for Elizabeth; the letter offers only the aunt’s guess.
To leave her niece room. Mrs. Gardiner believes Elizabeth is keeping something back, and a direct question would force her either to confess or to deny. A joke asks without pressing: Elizabeth can laugh it off and still know what her aunt thinks. The aunt even asks pardon in advance, “if I have been very presuming”. On this reading the teasing is a kindness, a way of being close to a niece who has not chosen to confide.
If you do not choose to understand me, forgive my impertinence.
Pray forgive me, if I have been very presuming
To say she is sure. She and her husband have already acted on their guess, “credit for _another interest_”, and her jokes about Darcy’s future wife and the drive round Pemberley speak as if the marriage were a fact waiting to be announced. On this reading she is not asking at all. The teasing is how a fond aunt says so, and it shows how far her picture runs ahead of what Elizabeth believes.
if we had not given him credit for another interest in the affair
if he marry prudently, his wife may teach him
A strong answer A strong response decides what the teasing is doing and grounds it in the letter’s last paragraph. One reader hears tact: the aunt suspects Elizabeth is hiding something, and a joke she can laugh off asks without forcing a confession, with an apology ready “if I have been very presuming”. Another hears certainty: the Gardiners have already acted on “credit for _another interest_”, and the jokes about Darcy’s wife and the drive round the park treat the match as settled. The best answers notice how differently the aunt and Elizabeth read the same facts.
2. Darcy’s first aim was to get Lydia to leave Wickham and go home, and he turned to a wedding only when she refused. Which ending would have been better for Lydia?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh a detail that summaries leave out: the wedding was Darcy’s second plan. “His first object with her, he acknowledged, had been to persuade her to quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends as soon as they could be prevailed on to receive her, offering his assistance as far as it would go. But he found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham. She was sure they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify when. Since such were her feelings, it only remained, he thought, to secure and expedite a marriage”. A marriage, Darcy learnt, “had never been _his_ design”: Wickham blamed the flight “on her own folly alone”, still hoped to make “his fortune by marriage, in some other country”, and had to be bought. Elizabeth later thinks the family owed Darcy “the restoration of Lydia, her character, everything”. The student judges which ending was better for Lydia herself.
Going home. The man she would not leave never meant to marry her, laid all the blame on “her own folly alone”, and still hoped for a richer wife abroad. He married her only because he was paid, and the letter says he “wanted more than he could get”. Home would have meant disgrace, and friends who had first to be “prevailed on to receive her”, but not a life tied to a man who had to be bought. On this reading Darcy’s first plan was the kinder one, and Lydia’s refusal cost her more than she knew.
scrupled not to lay all the ill consequences of Lydia’s flight on her own folly alone
Wickham still cherished the hope of more effectually making his fortune by marriage, in some other country
The wedding. Lydia “would not hear of leaving Wickham”, and the first plan offered her a family that might not even take her in. The marriage gives her what she wanted and, as Elizabeth sees it, gives back “her character”. On this reading Darcy’s turn to a wedding takes Lydia at her word and saves the one thing her world will judge her by. A girl sent home unmarried would have had neither the man nor her good name.
she would not hear of leaving Wickham
They owed the restoration of Lydia, her character, everything to him.
A strong answer A strong response chooses one ending and judges it by what it gives Lydia. One reader prefers going home: Wickham never meant to marry her, blamed “her own folly alone”, and had to be bought, so the wedding binds her to a man who wanted a richer wife. Another prefers the wedding: Lydia “would not hear of leaving Wickham”, her family would have had to be “prevailed on to receive her”, and Elizabeth thinks they owe Darcy the restoration of “her character”. The best answers notice that the choice was finally Lydia’s, and that Darcy followed it.
3. Darcy and Mr. Gardiner “battled it together for a long time” over who should pay, and Darcy won. What did Mr. Gardiner lose?Character
What it asks It asks the student to weigh what Darcy’s insistence took from the uncle. “Nothing was to be done that he did not do himself; though I am sure (and I do not speak it to be thanked, therefore say nothing about it) your uncle would most readily have settled the whole. They battled it together for a long time”. At last the uncle “was forced to yield, and instead of being allowed to be of use to his niece, was forced to put up with only having the probable credit of it, which went sorely against the grain”. Mrs. Gardiner believes Elizabeth’s letter “gave him great pleasure, because it required an explanation that would rob him of his borrowed feathers”. She calls the trait “obstinacy”, “the real defect of his character, after all.” The reason given for paying alone is that the fault was his: “It was owing to him, to his reserve and want of proper consideration”. And the uncle “would never have yielded, if we had not given him credit for _another interest_ in the affair.”
Something real. Mr. Gardiner wanted to help his own niece, and the chance was taken from him and replaced with praise he had not earned. An honest man had to accept thanks he knew were false, and it “went sorely against the grain”. On this reading the aunt’s joke has a point: Darcy’s will overrode another man’s right to do his duty to his family, and obstinacy really is a fault here.
instead of being allowed to be of use to his niece, was forced to put up with only having the probable credit of it, which went sorely against the grain
obstinacy is the real defect of his character
Very little. By Darcy’s account the harm was “brought on by himself”, so the cost was his to pay, not the uncle’s. The uncle yielded only when he and his wife saw a reason they could accept, and his wife believes he was glad to give the credit back. On this reading the borrowed feathers are a small price, and the obstinacy is a proud man paying what he thinks he owes.
an evil which had been brought on by himself
your uncle would never have yielded, if we had not given him credit for another interest in the affair
A strong answer A strong response decides what Mr. Gardiner lost and grounds it in the aunt’s account. One reader finds something real: he wanted “to be of use to his niece”, lost the chance, and had to wear praise that went “sorely against the grain”. Another finds very little: by Darcy’s account the fault was his own, the uncle yielded only for a reason he could accept, and his wife believes he was glad when the credit could go back. The best answers notice that Mrs. Gardiner names obstinacy as a defect while plainly admiring it.
4. Elizabeth feels the pain of owing “a person who could never receive a return.” What return does she have in mind?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to read one phrase in Elizabeth’s reckoning closely. “It was painful, exceedingly painful, to know that they were under obligations to a person who could never receive a return. They owed the restoration of Lydia, her character, everything to him.” Before the letter came she had held her suspicions back, both “as an exertion of goodness too great to be probable” and because she “dreaded” them “to be just, from the pain of obligation”. The aunt asks that the story go no further than Elizabeth, “or Jane at most.” Elizabeth also judges that “even her vanity was insufficient” to believe his affection for “a woman who had already refused him” could overcome the tie to Wickham. The card does not say that Darcy did it for Elizabeth or that he still means to propose.
Payment and thanks. The sums are large for a father “not imagined to be very rich”: Wickham’s debts of “considerably more than a thousand pounds”, another thousand for Lydia, and a commission. Worse, the help is secret, so the family cannot even thank him; it must go no further than Elizabeth, “or Jane at most.” On this reading the pain is plain helplessness. A family that cannot pay or even speak its thanks has nothing to give back to a man who has “the means” to do all this.
His debts are to be paid, amounting, I believe, to considerably more than a thousand pounds
this must go no further than yourself, or Jane at most
Herself. The one return a man might want from her is her regard, and she believes the way to it is closed: she has “already refused him”, and every kind of pride must revolt from becoming Wickham’s brother. On this reading “never” is about her, not about money. She grieves over “every saucy speech” because the only thing she could have given back is the thing she threw away.
for a woman who had already refused him
every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him
A strong answer A strong response names the return Elizabeth means and grounds it in her reckoning. One reader finds payment and thanks: the sums are large for the family, and the aunt’s secret means they cannot even speak their gratitude. Another finds Elizabeth herself: she has “already refused him”, and her grief over “every saucy speech” suggests the only return she could imagine is the one she believes she has lost. The best answers notice that the pain of obligation was something she dreaded before she knew the facts.
5. When Wickham wonders what Darcy was doing in town, Elizabeth suggests he was “preparing for his marriage with Miss de Bourgh”. Why does she give that answer when she knows the truth?Character
What it asks It asks the student to watch Elizabeth answer a man who knows exactly what Darcy did in town. Wickham has just been checked over Mrs. Reynolds (“Certainly,” he replied, biting his lips) when he tries again: “I was surprised to see Darcy in town last month. We passed each other several times. I wonder what he can be doing there.” Elizabeth replies, “Perhaps preparing for his marriage with Miss de Bourgh,” and adds, “It must be something particular to take him there at this time of year.” He answers “Undoubtedly” and moves on to Lambton. Her aunt has just written, “this must go no further than yourself, or Jane at most.” Before Wickham joined her, Elizabeth was reading “her aunt’s commendation of him again and again.” The card does not say that Wickham is shamed or changed by her hints.
To guard what she knows. The aunt has asked for secrecy, and Wickham is fishing to learn how much Elizabeth has heard. A calm, ordinary guess tells him nothing, and it hides her own feelings about Darcy just as well. On this reading the answer is a closed door, and she shuts it so smoothly that he has nowhere to go but on to Lambton.
this must go no further than yourself, or Jane at most
Undoubtedly. Did you see him while you were at Lambton?
To needle him. She has just made him bite his lips over Mrs. Reynolds, and now she plays the same game. Darcy was taken to town by “something particular”, and the particular thing is Wickham himself. On this reading the answer is a private joke at Wickham’s expense: she lets him hear that she could say more, and enjoys not saying it.
“Certainly,” he replied, biting his lips.
It must be something particular to take him there at this time of year.
A strong answer A strong response explains what the answer does and grounds it in the walk. One reader finds a guard: the aunt asked for secrecy, Wickham is fishing, and a plain guess about Miss de Bourgh gives him nothing, while hiding Elizabeth’s own feelings too. Another finds a jab: she has just made him bite his lips, and “something particular” points at the one subject he cannot raise. The best answers notice that both speakers know what Darcy was doing in town, and that her answer leaves Wickham no way to ask more.
1. As she thinks over the letter, Elizabeth is “humbled” for herself but “proud of him”. Has her pride changed, or has it only moved from herself to him?
What it asks It asks the student to judge what happens to Elizabeth’s pride, the novel’s own subject, as she takes in the letter. “Oh, how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged, every saucy speech she had ever directed towards him! For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him,--proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself.” Earlier, “even her vanity was insufficient” to believe that his feeling for her could outweigh the tie to Wickham, and “She was ashamed to think how much” he had done. Then: “She read over her aunt’s commendation of him again and again. It was hardly enough; but it pleased her. She was even sensible of some pleasure, though mixed with regret, on finding how steadfastly both she and her uncle had been persuaded that affection and confidence subsisted between Mr. Darcy and herself.” The student decides whether this is a change in her or the same pride turned toward a new object.
It has changed. She grieves “heartily” over her own speeches, admits that even her vanity will not let her believe she was the cause, and is “ashamed to think how much” she owes. Pride in herself gives way to admiration of someone else, and what she admires is his conquest of his own pride. On this reading “proud of him” is not pride in the old sense at all. It is the humility the paragraph has been building, turned outward into praise.
Oh, how heartily did she grieve over every ungracious sensation she had ever encouraged
proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself
It has moved. To be proud of him is to feel his goodness as partly hers, and the paragraph’s end shows her enjoying it: she reads the praise of him “again and again”, finds it “hardly enough”, and takes “some pleasure” in being thought close to him. On this reading her pride has not gone; it has found a new home in the man she rejected, and it is pleased to be seen there by her aunt and uncle.
She read over her aunt’s commendation of him again and again. It was hardly enough; but it pleased her.
She was even sensible of some pleasure, though mixed with regret
A strong answer A strong response might argue that her pride has changed: she grieves “heartily” over “every saucy speech”, admits that even her vanity will not let her believe she was the cause, and what she now admires is his getting “the better of himself”. Key evidence to consider includes the doubled “proud” after the semicolon, which turns the word from herself to him. The strongest objection is that the paragraph’s end shows pride still at work: she reads the praise “again and again”, finds it “hardly enough”, and takes “some pleasure” in being thought close to him. A revised thesis might hold that her pride changes its object before it changes its nature, and that the regret mixed into her pleasure is the first sign it is changing too.
2. Elizabeth knows the truth about Wickham, yet at the door she tells him, “Do not let us quarrel about the past.” How far is she making the mistake Darcy blamed himself for?
What it asks It asks the student to set Elizabeth’s choice on the walk beside the reason Darcy gave. In the letter, it was “owing to him, to his reserve and want of proper consideration, that Wickham’s character had been so misunderstood, and consequently that he had been received and noticed as he was.” On the walk, Elizabeth first lets Wickham speak of Kympton, “the living which I ought to have had”, and then tells him what she has heard: that it was left “conditionally only”, and that he had “actually declared” his “resolution of never taking orders”. He answers, “You did! and it was not wholly without foundation.” Then “she had walked fast to get rid of him; and unwilling, for her sister’s sake, to provoke him,” she offers her hand: “Come, Mr. Wickham, we are brother and sister, you know. Do not let us quarrel about the past. In future, I hope we shall be always of one mind.” He kisses it, “though he hardly knew how to look”. The card does not say Wickham is shamed or changed.
Partly. Darcy’s reserve let a charming man be “received and noticed” on his own account. Elizabeth now lets the same man walk into her father’s house after kissing her hand “with affectionate gallantry”, and nobody else hears what she knows. On this reading her peace is Darcy’s old silence again: polite, private, and convenient for Wickham, who goes on being received as before.
that Wickham’s character had been so misunderstood, and consequently that he had been received and noticed as he was
he kissed it with affectionate gallantry
Hardly at all. Darcy’s silence left Wickham’s listeners deceived; Elizabeth’s comes only after she has shown Wickham, to his face, that she knows the truth, and it leaves no one deceived who could be hurt. Lydia is already married to him, a quarrel could not undo it, and the peace is made “for her sister’s sake”. On this reading Elizabeth has learned the difference between hiding a man’s character from strangers and refusing to fight about it with a family member.
I did hear, too, that there was a time when sermon-making was not so palatable to you as it seems to be at present
unwilling, for her sister’s sake, to provoke him
A strong answer A strong response might argue that Elizabeth partly repeats Darcy’s mistake: his reserve let Wickham be “received and noticed as he was”, and her peace lets him walk into the house as her brother while no one else learns what she knows. Key evidence to consider includes how much she says first: “conditionally only” and “never taking orders” show Wickham that she knows. The strongest objection is that her silence deceives no one who could be harmed, because Lydia is already married and the peace is made “for her sister’s sake”. A revised thesis might hold that the two silences differ in whom they protect: Darcy’s, by his own account, came from thinking it “beneath him” to speak; Elizabeth’s protects her sister.
3. Darcy gives his own pride and silence as the reason he rescued Lydia. Do you believe that was his real reason?
What it asks It asks the whole question of the chapter. The reason comes through Mrs. Gardiner: “The motive professed was his conviction of its being owing to himself that Wickham’s worthlessness had not been so well known as to make it impossible for any young woman of character to love or confide in him. He generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride”. She adds, “If he _had another_ motive, I am sure it would never disgrace him”, and later doubts “whether _his_ reserve, or _anybody’s_ reserve can be answerable for the event”, saying the uncle would never have yielded “if we had not given him credit for _another interest_ in the affair.” Elizabeth weighs it too. “Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her. But it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations”, chiefly that no man could overcome “abhorrence against relationship with Wickham.” She settles on the reason he gave, “which asked no extraordinary stretch of belief”, and allows only that “remaining partiality for her might assist his endeavours”. The card does not say that Darcy did it for Elizabeth, that he still means to propose, or what he will do next.
Yes. The reason fits the man the chapter shows. He blamed himself, paid alone, left no name when he called, and let the uncle take the credit. His first aim was to bring Lydia home, which is what a man repairing his own fault would try first. Elizabeth herself finds that the reason asks “no extraordinary stretch of belief”: “he had liberality, and he had the means of exercising it”. On this reading the confession of “mistaken pride” is itself the proof, because a proud man does not invent a fault for himself.
But he had given a reason for his interference, which asked no extraordinary stretch of belief.
It was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong; he had liberality, and he had the means of exercising it
Not the whole of it. Mrs. Gardiner, who met him in London, calls the reason “fine talking” and doubts that anyone’s reserve could be “answerable for the event”. The cost, as Elizabeth pictures it, looks too high for guilt alone: begging a woman “he must abominate and despise”, and meeting and bribing “the man whom he always most wished to avoid”. On this reading the stated reason is true but not enough, and Elizabeth’s own heart and her aunt’s guess point at what it leaves out, though neither can prove it.
I doubt whether his reserve, or anybody’s reserve can be answerable for the event
in spite of all this fine talking
A strong answer A strong response might argue that the stated reason was his real one: it fits a man who paid alone, let the uncle take the credit, first tried to bring Lydia home, and whose confession of “mistaken pride” costs him something to make. Key evidence to consider includes Elizabeth’s own judgment that it asked “no extraordinary stretch of belief”. The strongest objection comes from Mrs. Gardiner, who calls it “fine talking” and doubts that “_anybody’s_ reserve” could answer for the event, and from the sheer cost of meeting and bribing the man he most wished to avoid. A revised thesis might hold that the reason is real but may not be the only one, which is exactly where Elizabeth leaves it: she will not make herself “his principal inducement”, though she allows that his “remaining partiality” for her “might assist”.
He generously imputed the whole to his mistaken pride, and confessed that he had before thought it beneath him to lay his private actions open to the world.Laid the blame or credit for something at someone’s door; said that it came from them (from Latin imputare, to enter in an account: in-, in, and putare, to reckon). Darcy “imputed the whole to his mistaken pride”: he charged the whole affair to his own account, as a debt written against his name. Mrs. Gardiner adds “generously”, because a man rarely imputes a fault to himself.
He had followed them purposely to town, he had taken on himself all the trouble and mortification attendant on such a research; in which supplication had been necessary to a woman whom he must abominate and despise, and where he was reduced to meet, frequently meet, reason with, persuade, and finally bribe the man whom he always most wished to avoid, and whose very name it was punishment to him to pronounce.To hate something deeply, as disgusting or wicked (from Latin abominari, to shrink from as a bad omen: ab-, away, and omen). It is stronger than dislike; it is the feeling of turning away. Elizabeth pairs it with “despise”: Darcy must “abominate and despise” Mrs. Younge, and yet, as Elizabeth pictures it, he had to plead with her. The word measures how far down he had to go.
But it was a hope shortly checked by other considerations; and she soon felt that even her vanity was insufficient, when required to depend on his affection for her, for a woman who had already refused him, as able to overcome a sentiment so natural as abhorrence against relationship with Wickham.A shuddering hatred; the wish to draw back from something (from Latin abhorrere, to shrink back in horror: ab-, away, and horrere, to bristle or shudder). Elizabeth calls it “a sentiment so natural”: she assumes that shrinking from Wickham is so natural that even Darcy’s feeling for her could not overcome it, and that is what checks her hope.
It was reasonable that he should feel he had been wrong; he had liberality, and he had the means of exercising it; and though she would not place herself as his principal inducement, she could perhaps believe, that remaining partiality for her might assist his endeavours in a cause where her peace of mind must be materially concerned.Generosity, especially a readiness to give freely (from Latin liberalis, fit for a free person). Today “liberal” often names a politics; in Austen it means open-handed. Elizabeth separates the will from the money: Darcy “had liberality, and he had the means of exercising it”. The generosity is a quality of character; the fortune only lets him act on it.