] Meaness to Georgiana hadn't occured to me. If anything, I can see Caroline and Mrs Hurst fussing and spoiling Georgiana excessively. Caroline would seek to ingratiate herself with Georgiana to try and get Darcy's favour.

I agree.

] Yet under Caroline's influence what principles would she learn and what sort of woman would she become ? That is precisely what I was thinking would concern Darcy; the alteration of her charecter into a shallow, brittle woman similiar to Caroline. I know the Bingley sisters make themselves pleasing when they choose to yet they remain superficial.

Thank you (and Chandra) for clarifying your meaning. I see now what you are getting at. However, I think you overestimate Caroline's influence. She certainly never had that degree of influence over her own brother, and she has known him all her life. In addition, I doubt that Darcy is contemplating an immediate marriage, and by the time Georgiana is of a proper age to marry -- 20 or 21 or even a little older -- she will be less likely to be influenced by attitudes that go against her character, especially with Bingley's balancing influence.

In some ways, also, Darcy's attitudes are probably more like Caroline's at this point in the story than some of us who come to admire him like to admit.

] If Darcy did not 'intensely dislike' Caroline, he couldn't like her either.

This was part of my point. He didn't seem to particuarly like her, and he does seem to find her maneuvering sometimes annoying, but I don't see any evidence of intense dislike, either. And if he did intensely dislike Caroline, I think Darcy would either find ways of socializing with Bingley out of her presence or socialize with Bingley less or, if his dislike was extreme, cross Bingley off his list of friends. I can't see Darcy putting up with a woman he intensely dislikes if he doesn't have to, and I certainly can't see him agreeing to be her houseguest, or entertaining her for long periods at Pemberley, if he did.