] Mr. Bennet seems to be treating Elizabeth as an equal

I, too, like this scene a great deal. Mr Bennet is treating Elizabeth as a grown up, and warning her not to make a mistake in marriage -- he is all but telling her not to make the same mistake he made when he married.

The descriptions of Elizabeth's feelings prior to talking to her father were also very moving:

"She did not fear her father's opposition, but he was going to be made unhappy, and that it should be through her means, that she, his favourite child, should be distressing him by her choice, should be filling him with fears and regrets in disposing of her, was a wretched reflection ... ."