Chapter Chapter 21-40 of Pride and Prejudice - Study Guide by Jane Austen

Chapter 32: Darcy comes to call at the parsonage; he finds Elizabeth alone and they have an awkward conversation. After this Darcy and Fitzwilliam are regular visitors; Elizabeth guesses that Fitzwilliam admires her, but cannot work out why Darcy should visit her so often.

Chapter 33: Elizabeth meets Fitzwilliam while she is out walking; he hints that he cannot afford to marry as he likes and then tells her that Darcy has just interfered in a friend's love life by separating him from the girl he loved. Elizabeth assumes that this relates to Jane and Bingley and is furious.

Chapter 34: Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, saying that he does so against his better judgement. She refuses him, angrily accusing him of having insulted her, ruined Jane's happiness and mistreated Wickham.

Chapter 35: Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter in which he answers her accusations. He felt that Bingley's marrying Jane would be a mistake on the grounds of her lack of money or connections; he felt convinced that Jane was not really interested in Bingley anyway and so felt justified in separating them. As for Wickham, he had decided not to go into the church and accepted some money instead of the parish which Darcy's father had offered him. He then began to lead a "life of idleness and dissipation" which culminated in his persuading Darcy's sister Georgiana, then only fifteen, to elope with him. Darcy concludes by urging Elizabeth to ask Colonel Fitzwilliam to confirm the truth of his story if she doesn't believe him.

Chapter 36: As she reads and re-reads Darcy's letter, Elizabeth moves from disdain and disbelief to the conclusion that Darcy must be telling the truth and that she has been entirely wrong in her judgement of both him and Wickham.

Chapter 37: Darcy and Fitzwilliam leave Rosings the next morning. The last week of Elizabeth's stay is full of invitations to Rosings, but she continues to think about Darcy's letter. She has to conclude that although it was not tactful of him to be so honest about her family's defects, she cannot deny that he was right and that, ironically, Jane has lost Bingley through the vulgar behaviour of her mother and younger sisters and through her father's refusal to discipline Kitty and Lydia.

Chapter 38: Elizabeth leaves the Collins's and arrives in London, where she delays telling Jane about Darcy's proposal because she is unsure how to reveal the truth about why she and Bingley were separated.

Chapter 39: Jane and Elizabeth return to Hertfordshire; Kitty and Lydia meet them and they have lunch together, during which Lydia reveals that Miss King, who everyone thought would marry Wickham, has left the county. The officers who have been encamped at Meryton are moving to Brighton for the summer, and Lydia is dying to go with them, but her father is adamant in not allowing it. The girls return to Longbourn.

Chapter 40: Elizabeth tells Jane about Darcy's proposal and relates what she now knows about Wickham; Jane, finding it impossible to think well of all the people concerned, is shocked. They decide not to make the story public.

Elizabeth, now able to observe her sister properly, sees that she is not happy and that she is pining for Bingley. Despite this, Elizabeth decides not to tell her what Darcy said about Bingley's love for her.