Chapter 58: No Ado for Kitty
The next time Mr. Bingley swings around the Bennet place, he has Mr. Darcy with him again. Bingley, Darcy, Jane, Elizabeth, and Kitty all go on a walk together; but Bingley and Jane separate from the group to go make out, and Kitty gets lost in the woods or something, leaving Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy alone together.
After some awkward silence, Elizabeth says to him, hey, so like, I know I'm not supposed to know what you did for Lydia, so I haven't told my family, but I know they would be incredibly thankful to you if they knew.
Mr. Darcy says, that's great and all, but I didn't do it for them. I did it for you.
And as she tries to figure out how to respond to that, Darcy continues on to say, let's save ourselves the trouble of beating around the bush here. Lady Catherine stopped to see me in London after her conversation with you and told me everything you said. Now, you've literally insulted me to my face in the past, so I'm pretty confident that you wouldn't have any qualms about bad-mouthing me in front of my aunt if you still hated me. Which makes me think you might not actually hate me. In which case, we could, you know. Get married.
This time, Elizabeth says yes, expressing how much her opinion of him had changed over the past few months. They pretty much spend the rest of the chapter talking about the letter he wrote after his first ill-fated proposal, and how he eventually did a 180 and told Bingley to go after Jane again; but mostly they talk about how much they both sucked before, owning up to their flaws like reasonable goddamn adults.