She laughs—that bright, free laugh—and looks up at him. “Well, then,” she says. “Your hands are cold.”
The story begins not with a whisper, but with a clatter. The clip-clop of hooves on the muddy lane to Netherfield Park announces to all of Meryton that the neighborhood has a new, wealthy tenant: Mr. Bingley. For Mrs. Bennet, it is the sound of destiny. For her second-eldest daughter, Elizabeth, it is merely the prelude to an evening of tolerable nonsense. -s Pride and Prejudice -1995- All 6 Episodes
Then, the second dance: of fate. Darcy, overwhelmed by a love he cannot suppress, proposes in the Hunsford parsonage. It is the most unromantic proposal ever uttered. “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” But then he ruins it: he catalogues her low connections, her family’s vulgarity, the inferiority of her situation. Elizabeth’s fury is cold and absolute. “From the very beginning, your manners impressed me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others.” She accuses him of ruining Wickham and destroying Jane’s happiness. Darcy walks out, stunned. She laughs—that bright, free laugh—and looks up at him
Elizabeth laughs it off, telling her friend Charlotte Lucas she will “dance a reel with Mr. Darcy” only when the devil is sick. But that night, as she sits by her window, the slight stings. It is a seed of resentment that will grow like a weed. The clip-clop of hooves on the muddy lane