Five days of Netherfield hospitality is enough for everyone, for entirely opposite reasons. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 12 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which the Bennet sisters try to go home and their mother does everything in her power to stop them.

Jane writes to ask for the carriage; Mrs. Bennet, who had counted on a full week at least, replies that the horses cannot possibly be spared. Unwilling to trespass any longer, Elizabeth pushes to borrow Bingley’s carriage instead, and the sisters are gone by Sunday morning, to the relief of nearly the whole house.

• Mrs. Bennet’s stalling tactics meet their match in Elizabeth’s determination not to linger where half the party wants them gone.
• Caroline Bingley’s civility to Elizabeth increases very rapidly the moment the departure is settled, along with her affection for Jane.
• Darcy, alarmed at his own interest, decides Elizabeth must be given no sign that could elevate her hopes, and holds himself to it: scarcely ten words to her all Saturday, and steady attention to his book when they are left alone.
• Home at Longbourn, the sisters find their father genuinely glad to have them back, their mother certain they have ruined everything by leaving, and Mary deep in her extracts.