This board is the greatest and the GR is a fabulous opportunity to learn. Things I have NEVER understood about this story will finally be revealed to me from wiser heads than I, I am sure of it. Please, please, explain and accept my aplogy to be so late to ask these questions...

First, I have never understood why at Netherfield Mr. Darcy asks Lizzy to dance a reel. Although Caroline was playing, no one was dancing. Did he really expect her to get up and dance, just the two of them at a family evening at home?

I don't understand Lizzy's response. Despise me if you dare?

Second, I don't understand the exchange between the two of them after Lizzy and Caro take a refreshing turn about the room at Netherfield. Lizzy tells Darcy that "Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody." Seems an ungenerous speech on Lizzy's part when she had been jauntily sparring with him just moments before. What's that all about? (Although the novel does not state this, both actresses in 1 & 2 have portrayed Lizzy as a bit hot under the collar by this point.) At the end of the chapter, Darcy smiles at Lizzy and realizes he is in danger from Lizzy.