Meeting in the park between Lizzy and the Colonel takes place in CH. 33 and the flirting conversations mostly take place in CH. 31! Mixing up the Colonel, indeed!

Here they are talking about Darcy:

"Do you certainly leave Kent on Saturday?" said she.

"Yes -- ***if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases***."

(Col is admitting he is at Darcy's disposal here, at the mercy of his arrangements. Does "the business" refer to something in particular? If the Colonel says he tours the park every year, would this be considered part of "the business" of visiting Rosings? Does this mean Darcy sets an agenda and the Col. just follows it? Or is "the business" everything, where they socialise and when, where they stay and how long, etc.?)

"And if not able to please himself in the arrangement, ***he has at least great pleasure in the power of choice***. I do not know anybody who ***seems more to enjoy the power*** of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy."

(It's kind of clear Lizzy thinks Darcy's power is a bit luxurious. Is this a reference from Lizzy in regard to Wickham, and Darcy's treatment of him, hoping perhaps to get some support from the Colonel? I get the feeling Lizzy means he uses his consequence to his own advantage, but she gets no support from the Col., as he is accepting of Darcy's superior position.)

"He likes to have his own way very well," replied Colonel Fitzwilliam. "But so we all do. ***It is only that he has better means of having it than many others***, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, ***must be inured to self-denial and dependence***."

(The Colonel admits here, that he is accepting of his situation, though he doesn't sound joyous about it. In my Oxford English Dictionary it says "inured" means "accustomed to something, particularly something unpleasant" -- would this have had the same meaning in Georgian times? Seems society is fixed and he almost appears to be a victim of it, in a strange way, powerless in comparison to Darcy.)

Does anyone know what he would mean by the phrase: "I speak feelingly"? -- does this mean from personal experience, or in realistic terms, or that he suffers from that limited reality or something else?

Any thoughts on these random things? Every time I come across the subject of the Colonel, it frustrates me that I can never be sure what he really stands for in the novel, and I can't believe he is there for no reason!;-D