Another evening at Netherfield, and the drawing-room becomes a fencing hall. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 10 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which Mr. Darcy tries to write one letter to his sister and finds the room will not let him.

Caroline Bingley supplies a running commentary on the letter: his even handwriting, his charmingly long sentences, her raptures for dear Georgiana. From there the talk widens into a debate that is really about character, with Bingley’s carelessness and quickness to yield on one side, Darcy’s distrust of easy persuasion on the other, and Elizabeth delighting in the difference.

• Caroline’s flattery bounces off Darcy sentence by sentence, down to her offer to mend his pen; he thanks her and says he always mends his own.
• Bingley calls his own writing careless and his ideas too fast for his pen; Elizabeth spots the humility that is really an indirect boast, and Darcy prosecutes the point at length.
• When Caroline strikes up a lively Scotch air, Darcy asks Elizabeth whether she feels a great inclination to seize the chance of dancing a reel. She answers that she had made up her mind to say no, so that he cannot despise her taste, and he has never been so bewitched by any woman in his life.
• On a walk next day, Caroline entertains Darcy with visions of his future mother-in-law; when the path has room for only three, Elizabeth laughingly runs off, and the picture she makes does his resolve no good at all.