While the whole neighborhood watches Jane and Bingley, nobody at all is watching Mr. Darcy, which is exactly how he gets into trouble. This episode is the complete audiobook of Chapter 6 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which the man who found nothing tolerable at the assembly starts listening for one particular voice.

At a party at Lucas Lodge, Charlotte gives Elizabeth her cool theory of courtship: Jane should show more affection than she feels, since happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. Elizabeth laughs it off as advice Charlotte would never act on herself. Meanwhile Darcy, having decided Elizabeth’s face had hardly a good feature, keeps studying it anyway.

• Charlotte warns that Bingley may never learn how much Jane likes him, because Jane’s composure hides everything; Elizabeth trusts to time and the lady’s own heart.
• Darcy catches himself admiring the beautiful expression of Elizabeth’s dark eyes, then her figure, then her easy playfulness, and begins to wish to know more of her.
• Sir William attempts some matchmaking, presenting Elizabeth to Darcy as a very desirable partner; she refuses to dance with such spirited firmness that she rises in his opinion for it.
• Caroline Bingley, guessing at Darcy’s reverie, invites him to share it; his answer about the fine eyes of Miss Elizabeth Bennet leaves her all astonishment, and she consoles herself by teasing him about his future mother-in-law.