I particularly like this quote from Mr Bennet as I think it shows him at his sarcastic best. I also think there’s a strong element of self pity running through this paragraph. I won’t cover the reasons why Mr Bennet accepts Wickham and Lydia into his home as these have already been covered by Robbin.

Mr Bennet firstly picks over Wickham’s personality—I sum up the references to simpering, smirking and making love to us all as references to Wickham conning others, that he is two-faced. And Mr Bennet is at his sarcastic best when he claims to be “prodigiously” proud of Wickham for this—a slap at the effort and quality of Wickham’s efforts and self pity?