Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 59: As Good as a Lord

"My dear Lizzy, where can you have been walking to?" This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 59 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which the hardest part of getting engaged to Mr. Darcy turns out to be convincing anyone it could possibly be true.

Jane hears it first, in the old room at night, and flatly refuses to believe it: engaged to Mr. Darcy, whom Elizabeth dislikes beyond any man alive? It takes the whole history, Kent and Derbyshire and Lydia together, to bring her round to perfect, wondering joy. The next evening Darcy applies to Mr. Bennet, and Elizabeth follows him into the library for the interview she dreads most.

• Her father's consent comes easily; his blessing needs more, and his appeal is the tenderest thing he says in the novel: let him not have the grief of seeing her unable to respect her partner in life.
• Elizabeth's earnest account of the man Darcy really is, sealed with the secret of what he did for Lydia, converts Mr. Bennet completely, and he recovers his balance at once: it saves him a world of trouble and economy, since he would have had to pay his brother Gardiner back.
• Mrs. Bennet takes the news in stupefied silence, an event without precedent, then erupts: ten thousand a year, a house in town, jewels, carriages, and 'tis as good as a Lord!
• By morning her awe of the son-in-law is so great she dares not speak to him, and Mr. Bennet completes the family verdict: of his three sons-in-law, Wickham, perhaps, is still his favourite.